This week, while reconciliation efforts moved forward in Cairo, with President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas de facto leader in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh meeting for the first time in four years, everything seems to have been pushed back a bit because of “complications.”
On February 23, Hamas officials downplayed reports that the movement was putting obstacles in front of the reconciliation deal.
"We don’t have any demands which would block the reconciliation," Fawzi Barhoum Hamas spokesperson said in response to reports that Hamas was setting new terms for implementing the deal, including demands for certain ministries. "Any amendment to be added by Fatah or Hamas is to protect the process of reconciliation," he said.
But while Barhoum denied any real Hamas demands, DFLP leader Issam Abu Dakka said the movement had made certain demands during the talks, including demanding a parliament vote on the prime minister’s post and how to divide up the ministries.
"Hamas has requirements on appointing ministers and that might postpone the formation of a new government, which was supposed to be discussed on Thursday in Cairo," Abu Dakka said.
"Hamas wants to have 51 percent of ministers and wants to control three ministries: finance, interior and justice," he said. "It also demands that a deputy for the prime minister be named."
Still, the talks, which included meetings of the PLO committee and factions were said to have been “positive”, in which the parties discussed the formation of the national unity government and the upcoming elections. And while PLO officials said Hamas agreed to work with the Central Elections Committee as soon as possible to update voter registers in Gaza, they also said it looked as if the elections would not be held on schedule in May. Hamas has also requested that the government formation be postponed, which President Abbas has agreed to.
Hamas underwent even more changes when on February 24, Hamas leaders publicly turned on Syria’s President Bashar Assad and endorsed the revolt. During Friday prayers in Cairo’s, Al Azhar mosque, Haniyeh said, "I salute all the nations of the Arab Spring and I salute the heroic people of Syria who are striving for freedom, democracy and reform." This is the first major statement from a Hamas leader clearly against the Syrian regime, which it has long been allied to.
February 24 was also a huge day in Palestine. Talat Ramia, 25, died after being shot in the chest by Israeli soldiers at the Qalandia checkpoint and five others were injured during clashes that began in the Aqsa Mosque Compound that morning. Ramia, who was rushed to hospital, died on the operating table.
The youths gathered at the checkpoint after news reached that Israeli troops and settlers were raiding the Aqsa. Israeli forces fired tear gas and both live and rubber bullets at the protesters. At the Aqsa following Friday prayers, Israeli police and special forces raided the compound and clashed with worshippers who threw rocks.
Red Crescent medics in the city said 30 people were injured, and an Israeli police spokesman said 11 police officers were lightly hurt. Four Palestinians were detained at the site.
Tensions at the Aqsa have been on high for the past week after calls from Likud leader Moshe Feiglin to go the mosque and rid, “Israel’s enemies” of the site.
On February 21, three Palestinians were arrested at the compound when clashes broke out after two groups of Israelis toured the site. Two days earlier, police detained 21 Palestinians in other confrontations. Several Israeli right wing groups have been making calls to settlers and Israelis to force their way into the compound and lay the cornerstone for the so-called Temple, which has also led to increased Israeli police and military presence in the city and restricted access to the mosque for Palestinians.
In Hebron, thousands of Palestinians rallied in the city in commemoration of the anniversary of the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre where 29 Muslim worshippers were killed by extremist settler Baruch Goldstein. The protesters marched from the Wasaya Rasul Allah mosque in southern Hebron and demanded that the city's main thoroughfare, the Shuhada Street, be reopened after Israeli forces shut it off shortly after the massacre. Israeli troops detained six Palestinians from the march and fired tear gas, sound grenades and foul-smelling chemicals at the demonstrators.
Approximately 70 people, including a paramedic, suffered suffocation from the chemicals, hospital sources said.
A day earlier, Israel made a highly contentious announcement about Jerusalem, which has sent Palestinians into a fury. The west Jerusalem municipality said it had approved an Israel Airport Authority’s petition to register the plot of land upon which the Qalandiya airport is built, as official state land. The land had never been designated as either state or municipal property, according to the Israel Land Administration.
According to Palestinians, the airport had been previously promised to the Palestinian Authority as the site of its future international airport, but was now slated to become an Israeli industrial complex.
Apparently, during secret negotiations in 2008, then-Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni made a pledge to her Palestinian counterparts to give the airport to the PA.
“The airport is located in occupied land according to international law and therefore Israel has no right to make any changes to the status quo,” said government spokesperson Ghassan Khatib. He also said the area was in the PA’s development plans for the future.
On February 21, hunger striker Khader Adnan ended his hunger strike after Israel agreed not to renew his administrative detention sentence and release him on April 17. A High Court of Justice session was originally scheduled for the 21st, pushed up from the 23rd after fears that Adnan would die became pressing, but it was canceled when the agreement was announced by his lawyers. On February 23, a Physicians for Human Rights doctor confirmed that while Adnan was on the mend, his condition remained unstable. “He will be facing a long, continuous recovery process,” the doctor said, adding that even if he seems to be recovering, each day holds major risks due to the potential failure of his heart. PHR and Aldameer also raised concerns that Adnan may be moved out of the Ziv hospital where he is being treated as part of the deal and back to prison too soon.
Adnan’s struggle and victory has apparently injected momentum into the prisoner cause. On February 22, the Palestinian prisoner society said administrative detainees are set to boycott Israeli military courts in protest against the practice of detention without charge, which the detainees said would be effective as of March 1.
Detainees said Khader Adnan's struggle “had created an opportunity” for them to fight against the practice of administrative detention.
The fuel crisis in Gaza is hopefully over with the International Committee of the Red Cross supplying 150,000 liters of fuel to the health ministry to the Gaza Strip on February 23.
"The lack of fuel restricts the functioning of vital public services, especially hospitals," Irfan Sulejmani, the head of the ICRC sub-delegation in Gaza, said in a statement.
The supplies will ostensibly help ensure that Gaza’s 13 hospitals can maintain essential services for the next 10 days.
Also on February 23, Egyptian authorities and Palestinian officials are said to have reached an agreement to end the crisis in the Strip. Hamas spokesman Taher Al Nunu said a deal had been reached after "intensive negotiations" between Ismail Haniyeh, Egyptian officials, and the Islamic Development Bank. Energy authority head Omar Kittaneh also said the PA has been working with Egyptian officials to end the crisis.
According to agreement, the deal includes three stages. The first stipulates that Egyptian companies pump fuel directly to Gaza under the terms of contracts signed with firms.
The second agreement entails the Islamic Development Bank financing a project to increase the capacity of Gaza's sole power-plant by 40 megawatts.
The third part of the agreement will see the Gazan electricity grid connected to Egypt's, as well as converting the coastal enclave's sole power plant from diesel to gas, a statement said.
In the West Bank, Israeli authorities approved on the 22nd the construction of 505 new housing units in the West Bank settlement of Shilo and legalized 190 units previously built there. “We don’t believe [settlement activity is] in any way constructive to getting both sides back to the negotiating table,” US State Department Mark Toner said in a statement. Palestinians said the move only further proved that Israel chose settlements over peace. While Israeli government officials say the expansion is just a “neighborhood of Shilo” Peace Now begs to differ.
The group said authorization of “Shvut Rachel” neighborhood would be tantamount to the creation of a new settlement, breaking a pledge by Israel to the international community.
UN Resolution 1325
Date posted: February 03, 2021
By MIFTAH
Kerry talks peace while Israel bars UNESCO mission [May 19 - May 25]
Date posted: May 25, 2013
By MIFTAH
President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu both met with US Secretary of State John Kerry this week in the latter’s fourth visit to the region since he assumed office.
After meeting with the two to ostensibly find ways to restart stalled negotiations between the two sides, Kerry urged on May 24 both Israeli and Palestinian leaders to take "hard decisions" to revive the peace process.
"We're getting toward a time now when hard decisions need to be made," he said at the end of his visit.
Kerry admitted a day before after meeting with the two leaders that there was skepticism and cynicism about his efforts to revive talks.
"I know this region well enough to know there is skepticism, in some quarters there is cynicism, and there are reasons for it. There have been bitter years of disappointment," he said. Still, he maintained: "It is our hope that by being methodical, careful, patient, but detailed and tenacious, that we can lay on a path ahead that can conceivably surprise people and certainly exhaust the possibilities for peace."
British foreign secretary William Hague was also in the region visiting with leaders on both sides and even visited the Bedouin community of Khan Al Ahmar between Jerusalem and Jericho, whose residents are under the threat of displacement.
On May 23, Hague was poignantly clear on where his country stands on Israeli settlements in the West Bank. "Israel has lost some of its support in Britain and in other European countries over time - this is something I've often pointed out to Israeli leaders -because of settlement activity, which we condemn,” he said.
"We strongly disagree with settlements on occupied land. Israel is a country we work with in many ways but we do disapprove of settlements,” he maintained, adding that: "We want to see both Israelis and Palestinians really commit themselves to the peace process while there is still a chance of a two-state solution."
In Khan al Ahmar, Hague listened to the residents’ grievances from Israeli efforts to push them out to make way for more settlement expansion. "We (in Britain) strongly condemn the building of settlements and recognise they are a severe threat to a two-state solution,” he told the people there.
On March 21, Israeli forces demolished two residential buildings in the Jabal al-Mukabbir in East Jerusalem. Earlier, they demolished two Palestinian homes in al-Tur, all under the pretext of unlicensed construction. Dozens of people have been left homeless from the demolitions.
A UNESCO fact-finding mission was supposed to arrive this week to look into Israeli measures in the Old City of Jerusalem and their impact on the archeological, cultural and heritage significance of the place, but was denied entry by Israel on May 20. Israel justified its decision by saying Palestinians were trying to politicize the visit.
"The Palestinians were not respecting the understandings,” an Israeli foreign ministry official said. “The visit was supposed to be professional, (but) they were taking measures that showed they were politicizing the event and not letting the delegation focus on professional sides of it," the official said.
UNESCO maintained that the mission was not cancelled, but postponed, the agency’s spokeswoman Sue Williams said.
The Palestinians said they expected Israel to pull something like this. “We weren't surprised by this decision because we believed that Israel's agreement to (allow the mission) was not convincing," minister of foreign affairs Riyad Al Malki said.
The Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt was reopened on May 22 after a five day closure. Egyptian soldiers and policemen closed the crossing following the kidnapping of seven Egyptian soldiers in Sinai, only reopening it after the soldiers were freed. Over 2,400 Palestinians had been stranded on both sides of the crossing during the days of the closure.
Extremist Israelis extended their attacks this week all the way to the Negev desert. On May 19, residents of the Retamim Kibbutz attacked the nearby Bedouin village of Bir Hadaj and set fire to a tent, according to head of the local village council, Salman Ibin Hamid
"The setters of Retamim are acting like they are in the West Bank," Ibn Hamid said. "These people have the mentality of the occupying settler to attack every Arab."
Finally, on May 23, the US appointed Gen. John Allen as special envoy on security issues in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. According to a US official, Allen will deal with the U.S. position on Israeli security needs and the security arrangements that would accompany the establishment of a future Palestinian state.
Al Nakba commemorated amid increasing settler attacks [May 12 - May 18]
Date posted: May 18, 2013
By MIFTAH
This week Palestinians commemorated the 65th anniversary of the Nakba, the catastrophe of 1948 on May 15, with a variety of activities, demonstrations and events throughout the Palestinian territories and outside of its borders. Festivals were held in Ramallah and Nablus in addition to several protests and confrontations with Israeli occupation forces. In Jerusalem, clashes broke out between protesters and Israeli police and border guards when Palestinians commemorating Al Nakba, raising Palestinian flags and facing off with Jewish settlers and soldiers. Thirty people were wounded or arrested during the clashes in addition to six Israelis.
The Jerusalem clashes come at a time when settler break-ins to Al Aqsa have been on the rise amid increasing calls by extremist Jewish groups to make a presence at the compound. The break-ins have become a near daily event. Muslim worshippers and Palestinian youths have kept constant vigil at the mosque to stave off the break-ins which included settler groups who used children as a cover to enter the compound on the occasion of Shavuot.
Settlers in the West Bank have wreaked havoc this week as well. On May 17, three Palestinians were injured in clashes in Urif south of Nablus when dozens of settlers set fire to lands in three area-villages: Urif, Einabus, and Asira al-Qibliya. The settlers also attacked citizens and threw burning tires at people’s homes.
Jewish extremists attacked inside the Green Line as well. On May 14, extremists set fire to three cars and sprayed racist graffiti on a mosque south of Haifa, according to Israeli media reports.
"Price-tag" and "Eviatar," which is thought to refer to the name of a settler stabbed to death last week, were found on the mosque’s walls in addition to the Star of David. In Safed, even farther north, racist graffiti with the words "Arabs out" was found on walls in the city.
On May 13, Israeli settlers exhumed a number of graves and sprayed racist graffiti in the Sawiya village in Nablus. Ghassan Daghlas, head of the PA settlement activity file, said settlers from the Alia settlement were responsible for the damage.
On the same day settlers from Tel Hatimar begin building a religious school for children on Al Khader lands in the Bethlehem area.
The Israeli army meanwhile, uprooted over 1,200 olive tree saplings on May 16 and razed land Palestinian farmer in the northern West Bank, according to Daghlas. He said the army dug up over 40 dunums of farm land and demolished a water tank and stone walls in Ras Karker, near Nablus.
On May 17, three Palestinian laborers were wounded in Beit Ula northwest of Hebron after Israeli forces fired rubber-coated steel bullets and unleashed police dogs at them according to Issa al-Amla, coordinator for the popular struggle committee. He said Omar Al-Amla, 31, and Abdulkadir Al-Amla, 28, suffered multiple dog bites to the neck and hands. A third laborer, Jihad Saleem, was shot in the leg.
In Jerusalem on May 17, Israeli forces raided the home of Iyad al-Awar and insisted on taking his two children 6-year-old Qassam and 5-year-old Nasrallah for “interrogation”. While their father prevented the forces from arresting his boys, Israeli soldiers handed him a warrant ordering him to bring his children to the Russian Compound for questioning.
"We arrived to the Russian Compound and the troops wanted to take my kids for investigation; I refused and they beat me in the ear and the leg. My kids started crying and were so scared from the troops. They took my kids by force," al-Awar said.
Israeli Intelligence officers apparently questioned the children about their detained cousin Shadad, and asked if they had seen him throwing stones or Molotov cocktails at Israeli forces, Al Awar said.
On the same day however, Palestinians scored a tiny victory in the Jerusalem suburb of Abu Dis when they were able to tear a hole through part of the separation wall. Protesters marking the Nakba anniversary ripped a 4-meter hole in it, eyewitnesses said. Clashes ensued between the protesters and Israeli soldiers who fired tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets. Several injuries were reported.
Peace Now reported on May 16 that the Israeli government planned to grant retroactive approval to four West Bank settlement outposts it had previously pledged to at least partially demolish.
The Israeli state attorney's office said that settlers had purchased the private Palestinian land on which they built, thus paving the way for the government to give its blessing.
"In the response, the government declares its intention to legalize four outposts, in isolated areas," Peace Now said in a statement, adding that the strategy was an affront to US Secretary of State John Kerry's efforts to revive dormant Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. "The intention to legalize outposts as new settlements is no less than a slap in the face of Secretary Kerry's new peace process," Peace Now said.
On May 14, Hamas and Fatah agreed in Cairo to form a national unity government within three months during which they would finalize and approve the Palestine National Council elections law. The two sides, represented by Fatah leader Azzam Al Ahmad and Hamas politburo member Mousa Abu Marzouq, came to the agreement under Egyptian sponsorship and said President Abbas would immediately begin talks on the new government formation. Once the government is formed, general elections can be held.
