Abir Dandis, the mother of the two girls who were murdered in the Negev town of Al-Fura’a last week, couldn't find a police officer to listen to her warnings, neither in Arad nor in Ma’ale Adumim. Both police stations operate in areas where Israel wants to gather the Bedouin into permanent communities, against their will, in order to clear more land for Jewish communities. The dismissive treatment Dandis received shows how the Bedouin are considered simply to be lawbreakers by their very nature. But as a resident of the West Bank asking for help for her daughters, whose father was Israeli, Dandis faced the legal-bureaucratic maze created by the Oslo Accords.

The Palestinian police is not allowed to arrest Israeli civilians. It must hand suspects over to the Israel Police. The Palestinian police complain that in cases of Israelis suspected of committing crimes against Palestinian residents, the Israel Police tend not to investigate or prosecute them.

In addition, the town of Al-Azaria, where Dandis lives, is in Area B, under Palestinian civilian authority and Israeli security authority. According to the testimony of Palestinian residents, neither the IDF nor the Israel Police has any interest in internal Palestinian crime even though they have both the authority and the obligation to act in Area B.

The Palestinian police are limited in what it can do in Area B. Bringing in reinforcements or carrying weapons in emergency situations requires coordination with, and obtaining permission from, the IDF. If Dandis fears that the man who murdered her daughters is going to attack her as well, she has plenty of reason to fear that she will not receive appropriate, immediate police protection from either the Israelis or the Palestinians.

Dandis told Jack Khoury of Haaretz that the Ma’ale Adumim police referred her to the Palestinian Civil Affairs Coordination and Liaison Committee. Theoretically, this committee (which is subordinate to the Civil Affairs Ministry) is the logical place to go for such matters. Its parallel agency in Israel is the Civilian Liaison Committee (which is part of the Coordination and Liaison Administration - a part of the Civil Administration under the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories).

In their meetings, they are supposed to discuss matters such as settlers’ complaints about the high volume of the loudspeakers at mosques or Palestinians’ complaints about attacks by settlers. But the Palestinians see the Liaison Committee as a place to submit requests for permission to travel to Israel, and get the impression that its clerks do not have much power when faced with their Israeli counterparts. In any case, the coordination process is cumbersome and long.

The Palestinian police has a family welfare unit, and activists in Palestinian women’s organizations say that in recent years, its performance has improved. But, as stated, it has no authority over Israeli civilians and residents. Several non-governmental women’s groups also operate in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem, and women in similar situations approach them for help. The manager of one such organization told Haaretz that Dandis also fell victim to this confusing duplication of procedures and laws. Had Dandis approached her, she said, she would have referred her to Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, which has expertise in navigating Israel’s laws and authorities.

John Kerry revealed his long-awaited plan for peace in the Middle East on Sunday, hinging on a $4bn (£2.6bn) investment in the Palestinian private sector.

The US secretary of state, speaking at the World Economic Forum on the Jordanian shores of the Dead Sea, told an audience including Israeli president Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas that an independent Palestinian economy is essential to achieving a sustainable peace.

Speaking under the conference banner "Breaking the Impasse", Kerry announced a plan that he promised would be "bigger, bolder and more ambitious" than anything since the Oslo accords, more than 20 years ago.

Tony Blair is to lead a group of private sector leaders in devising a plan to release the Palestinian economy from its dependence on international donors. The initial findings of Blair's taskforce, Kerry boasted, were "stunning", predicting a 50% increase in Palestinian GDP over three years, a cut of two-thirds in unemployment rates and almost double the Palestinian median wage. Currently, 40% of the Palestinian economy is supplied by donor aid.

Kerry assured Abbas that the economic plan was not a substitute for a political solution, which remains the US's "top priority".

Peres, who had taken the stage just minutes before, also issued a personal plea to his Palestinian counterpart to return to the negotiations.

"Let me say to my dear friend President Abbas," Peres said, "Should we really dance around the table? Lets sit together. You'll be surprised how much can be achieved in open, direct and organised meetings."

Thick locks hug the front gates of shuttered shops, now covered in graffiti and dust from lack of use. Only a handful of customers pass along the dimly lit road, sometimes stopping to check the ripeness of fruits and vegetables, or ordering meat in near-empty butcher shops.

“All the shops are closed. I’m the only one open. This used to be the best place,” said 64-year-old Mustafa Sunocret, selling vegetables out of a small storefront in the marketplace near his family’s home in the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City.

Amidst the brightly coloured scarves, clothes and carpets, ceramic pottery and religious souvenirs filling the shops of Jerusalem’s historic Old City, Palestinian merchants are struggling to keep their businesses alive.

Faced with worsening health problems, Sunocret told IPS that he cannot work outside of the Old City, even as the cost of maintaining his shop, with high electricity, water and municipal tax bills to pay, weighs on him.

“I only have this shop,” he said. “There is no other work. I’m tired.”

Abed Ajloni, the owner of an antiques shop in the Old City, owes the Jerusalem municipality 250,000 Israeli shekels (68,300 U.S. dollars) in taxes. He told IPS that almost every day, the city’s tax collectors come into the Old City, accompanied by Israeli police and soldiers, to pressure people there to pay.

“It feels like they’re coming again to occupy the city, with the soldiers and police,” Ajloni, who has owned the same shop for 35 years, told IPS. “But where can I go? What can I do? All my life I was in this place.”

He added, “Does Jerusalem belong to us, or to someone else? Who’s responsible for Jerusalem? Who?”

Illegal annexation

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, including the Old City, in 1967. In July 1980, it passed a law stating that “Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel”. But Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem and subsequent application of Israeli laws over the entire city remain unrecognised by the international community.

Under international law, East Jerusalem is considered occupied territory – along with the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Syrian Golan Heights – and Palestinian residents of the city are protected under the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Jerusalem has historically been the economic, political and cultural centre of life for the entire Palestinian population. But after decades languishing under destructive Israeli policies meant to isolate the city from the rest of the Occupied Territories and a lack of municipal services and investment, East Jerusalem has slipped into a state of poverty and neglect.

“After some 45 years of occupation, Arab Jerusalemites suffer from political and cultural schizophrenia, simultaneously connected with and isolated from their two hinterlands: Ramallah and the West Bank to their east, West Jerusalem and Israel to the west,” the International Crisis Group recently wrote.

Israeli restrictions on planning and building, home demolitions, lack of investment in education and jobs, construction of an eight-foot-high separation barrier between and around Palestinian neighbourhoods and the creation of a permit system to enter Jerusalem have all contributed to the city’s isolation.

Formal Palestinian political groups have also been banned from the city, and between 2001-2009, Israel closed an estimated 26 organisations, including the former Palestinian Liberation Organisation headquarters in Jerusalem, the Orient House and the Jerusalem Chamber of Commerce.

Extreme poverty

Israel’s policies have also led to higher prices for basic goods and services and forced many Palestinian business owners to close shop and move to Ramallah or other Palestinian neighbourhoods on the other side of the wall. Many Palestinian Jerusalemites also prefer to do their shopping in the West Bank, or in West Jerusalem, where prices are lower.

While Palestinians constitute 39 percent of the city’s population today, almost 80 percent of East Jerusalem residents, including 85 percent of children, live below the poverty line.

“How could you develop [an] economy if you don’t control your resources? How could you develop [an] economy if you don’t have any control of your borders?” said Zakaria Odeh, director of the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem, of “this kind of fragmentation, checkpoints, closure”.

“Without freedom of movement of goods and human beings, how could you develop an economy?” he asked.

“You can’t talk about independent economy in Jerusalem or the West Bank or in all of Palestine without a political solution. We don’t have a Palestinian economy; we have economic activities. That’s all we have,” Odeh told IPS.

Israel’s separation barrier alone, according to a new report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTD), has caused a direct loss of over one billion dollars to Palestinians in Jerusalem, and continues to incur 200 million dollars per year in lost opportunities.

Israel’s severing and control over the Jerusalem-Jericho road – the historical trade route that connected Jerusalem to the rest of the West Bank and Middle East – has also contributed to the city’s economic downturn.

Separation of Jerusalem from West Bank

Before the First Intifada (Arabic for “uprising”) began in the late 1980s, East Jerusalem contributed approximately 14 to 15 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the Occupied Palestinian territories (OPT). By 2000, that number had dropped to less than eight percent; in 2010, the East Jerusalem economy, compared to the rest of the OPT, was estimated at only seven percent.

“Economic separation resulted in the contraction in the relative size of the East Jerusalem economy, its detachment from the remaining OPT and the gradual redirection of East Jerusalem employment towards the Israeli labour market,” the U.N. report found.

Decades ago, Israel adopted a policy to maintain a so-called “demographic balance” in Jerusalem and attempt to limit Palestinian residents of the city to 26.5 percent or less of the total population.

To maintain this composition, Israel built numerous Jewish-Israeli settlements inside and in a ring around Jerusalem and changed the municipal boundaries to encompass Jewish neighbourhoods while excluding Palestinian ones.

It is now estimated that 90,000 Palestinians holding Jerusalem residency rights live on the other side of the separation barrier and must cross through Israeli checkpoints in order to reach Jerusalem for school, medical treatment, work, and other services.

“Israel is using all kinds of tools to push the Palestinians to leave; sometimes they are visible, and sometimes invisible tools,” explained Ziad al-Hammouri, director of the Jerusalem Centre for Social and Economic Rights (JCSER).

Al-Hammouri told IPS that at least 25 percent of the 1,000 Palestinian shops in the Old City were closed in recent years as a result of high municipal taxes and a lack of customers. “Taxation is an invisible tool…as dangerous as revoking ID cards and demolishing houses,” he said. “Israel will use this as pressure and as a tool in the future to confiscate these shops and properties.”

A visibly nervous Palestinian Authority (PA) has been clamping down on dissent following the cancellation earlier this week of a planned visit to Ramallah by Israel's deputy prime minister, Shaul Mofaz.

Mofaz is widely viewed here as a war criminal for his role in the killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians, including hundreds of children, especially in the Gaza Strip, while serving as chief of staff of the Israeli army.

The cancellation of Mofaz's visit to Ramallah came after dozens of Palestinian activists took to the street, shouting "Mofaz assassin" and "Don't let the child-killer enter Ramallah."

Mofaz had intended to meet with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, ostensibly to explore ways and means to resume stalled peace talks between Israel and the PA.

During his recent visit to the United States, Mofaz told American leaders he anticipated the resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians in a few weeks.

Israeli sources, however, argued that Mofaz wanted to meet with Abbas only for publicity and in order to appear as capable of stirring the stagnant waters of the Palestinian-Israeli scene.

"This visit by this war criminal and child killer is totally unjustified. The so-called peace process is dead thanks to unending settlement expansion. So why would Abbas meet Mofaz? It is an insult to the Palestinian people, especially to the hundreds of families whose children were murdered at the hands of this criminal," said one protester, Jamil, who gave only his first name.

He added: "Israel and most Jews view every Palestinian taking part in the resistance, even non-violent resistance against the evil occupation, a terrorist.

"So, don't we have the right to call these virulent murderers terrorists?"

The PA Interior Ministry deployed crack security personnel to suppress and forcefully disperse demonstrators. Eyewitnesses reported that at least six protesters sustained non-lethal injuries.

The scuffles and beatings generated a lot of anger and indignation, which culminated in Abbas's decision to cancel the visit.

A group of activists said they had prepared a lawsuit demanding Mofaz's arrest for war crimes upon his arrival in Ramallah.

One Fatah official was quoted as saying that Abbas decided to "delay" the meeting with Mofaz in consideration of popular opposition to it.

The Palestinian leadership, meanwhile, denied that Abbas and Mofaz were going to discuss the resumption of stalled peace talks. However, such denials seem to carry little weight in the eyes of most Palestinians. Indeed, most observers in occupied Palestine agree that the PA is eager to resume peace negotiations with Israel and is only seeking a face-saving formula to do so.

The PA leadership said repeatedly it would not resume stalled peace talks with Israel until Tel Aviv halted settlement expansion in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. But last month Abbas hinted that he would return to the negotiations table if the Israeli government agreed to release an undisclosed number of Palestinian prisoners, presumably in order to make the resumption of talks more palatable to the Palestinian public.

As no positive response came from the Israeli government, Abbas declared the peace process "clinically dead", blaming Israel for its collapse.

Meanwhile, the PA is reverting to repressive measures that characterised its behaviour prior to the Arab Spring. For example, the PA security agencies have outlawed Al-Aqsa TV operations in the West Bank, accusing the pro-Hamas Gaza-based satellite station of incitement against Ramallah.

The press-fettering measure, coupled with the reported arrest of some pro-Hamas operatives in the West Bank, is already hindering efforts to promote reconciliation with Hamas.

Hamas has suspended the functioning of the election committee, arguing that it would be futile to hold elections at a time when the PA security agencies continued to launch a witch-hunt campaign against its supporters in the West Bank.

Another factor contributing to PA nervousness is the ascendancy to power in Cairo of Mohamed Mursi, an Islamist that is generally viewed as more sympathetic to Hamas than to Fatah.

In his keynote speech at Cairo University earlier this week, Mursi said Egypt would continue to support the Palestinian cause and pursue efforts to bring about reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas.

Nonetheless, the bulk of the Fatah leadership seems to be resigned to the fact that a new reality is taking shape in Egypt and that Fatah has no choice but to deal with the new Egyptian leadership.

During the Mubarak era, the United States and Israel repeatedly pressured the regime in Cairo to bully the PA leadership into accepting Israeli dictates. Now with an Islamist president in power in Cairo, it is unlikely that the new regime will agree to play the role of "facilitator" or "enforcer" of American policy in the region.

Finally, reports revealing that the PA had asked Israel to apply for a $1 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have caused a lot of embarrassment to the PA leadership. PA officials denied any knowledge of the matter.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported last week that PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad asked the governor of the Bank of Israel, Stanley Fischer, to request the loan on behalf of the PA.

The IMF refused the request, arguing that it doesn't want to set a precedent of a state taking loans for a non-state body.

The PA is facing a crushing financial crisis that has been described as the worst since its establishment 18 years ago.

Some observers view the PA decision to ask Israel to obtain an IMF loan as an expression of desperation as many donors have failed to make good on their aid pledges to the PA.

In a brief visit to Israel-occupied Palestine this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to reassert Russian influence in the region, especially in Israel where more than a million Russian immigrants live.

Putin received a warm welcome from his Israeli hosts who sought to influence the Russian leader's thinking with regard to the Iranian nuclear programme.

Israeli President Shimon Peres drew analogy between Russia's fierce resistance to Nazism during World War II and current efforts to stop Iran from enriching uranium and possibly possessing nuclear weapons.

"I am confident that under your leadership Russia will fulfil a key role in restoring security and peace," he said.

However, it seems the excessive commendations Putin received in Israel failed to change his mind on the basic issues.

He told Israeli leaders that he wouldn't advise them to carry out a hasty or rash strike on Iran since this would create more problems and complicate an already complicated situation.

Israel, which possesses a huge nuclear arsenal that includes 250-300 nuclear weapons, views Russia and China as "weak links" in the international front against Iran.

In his few and terse public remarks, the Russian president spoke in general terms about "changes in the region" and "the need to make peace".

"Once again, we see that friendship and warm relations between our people is more than words," Putin told Peres.

However, according to one Israeli newspaper, the warm handshakes and pleasantries that marked the visit hid a sharp division between the two countries on significant foreign policy issues, such as Iran and Syria.

Putin, who many observers argue has on his hands the innocent blood of many Syrians, thanks to his unwavering support for the Bashar Al-Assad regime, told an equally tainted Israeli president that Russia opposed the extermination of any people, including the Israeli people. (In 1996, Peres in his capacity as prime minister following the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin ordered the Israeli army to commit a massacre in the village of Qana in southern Lebanon, murdering more than 100 women and children. He never apologised for the horrific carnage.)

Putin added that he was looking to make peace in the world and the region. "The region and the world are rapidly changing. We need to find ways to work together that will enable every one to live in peace," he said.

The Russian leader again spoke in general terms following a lengthy meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, saying it was important to resolve ancient conflicts, especially the Palestinian issue.

"We call on all sides to resume negotiations. It is the only way to solve this problem."

Russia is part of the International Quartet on Middle East Peace, which also includes the US, EU, and the United Nations.

On Monday, Putin was taken directly to Netanya where he participated in the dedication ceremony for a large memorial commemorating the Red Army's victory over Nazi Germany.

For his part, Netanyahu asked Putin to make every possible effort to make sure that in the event of the collapse of the Syrian regime, Syria's purported chemical arsenal won't find its way into the wrong hands.

As to peace with the Palestinians, the Israeli premier said he was willing and ready to meet with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas at any time and in any place.

The latest phrase, often uttered by Israeli leaders, is widely thought to be a public relations ruse meant to divert attention from phenomenal Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank, which many observers believe has effectively killed any remaining chances for pursuing a meaningful peace process based on the two-state solution formula.

In characteristic prevarication and verbal juggling, Netanyahu told Putin: "The key to peace is complex, but in the end it is very simple. Either President Abbas must come here or I must go to him, and I am willing for either of these possibilities to occur. However, we must begin to talk. I hope you will convey this message when you meet Abbas tomorrow."

The truth, however, is that Palestinian and Israeli leaders met numerous times over the years, but without making any real progress towards ending the Israeli occupation, which began in 1967. The main reason for this failure stems from Israel's recalcitrant refusal to give up the spoils of the 1967 war.

Abbas and other Palestinian leaders on Tuesday received Putin in the city of Bethlehem where a gigantic wall erected by Israel is throttling the town, giving it the air of a detention camp.

Putin told his Palestinian hosts that Russia was still supporting endeavours to establish a viable state, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

"Russia has no problem recognising a Palestinian state," Putin told Abbas.

The Russian leader also praised Abbas for his "responsible" position in negotiations with Israel, an allusion to the Palestinian leader's refusal to resume stalled peace talks with Israel until the latter halts settlement expansion activities.

Abbas surprised Putin by announcing that the city of Bethlehem intended to name one of the town's streets after him. He was also awarded the Palestinian Authority (PA) Medal of Honour. The PA also refused to allow any demonstration against Putin, particularly protest against Russia's support and backing of the Assad regime. A solid majority of Palestinians are believed to identify with the Syrian revolution against the minority-Alawite regime in power.

Given Russia's clear complicity in the Syrian bloodbath, many Palestinians believe Putin stands to be condemned, not commended, for his alliance with the Assad regime.

However, for the Palestinian leadership, whatever happens in Syria must not interfere with the need to put Palestinian interests first.

It is unlikely that Putin's visit to occupied Bethlehem and occupied Jerusalem will have a far-reaching impact on the basic elements of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, where the United States has a virtual monopoly on the so-called peace process.

The Israeli occupation army and paramilitary Jewish settlers killed more than 10 Palestinians this week, including a two-year-old toddler who died after her Gaza home was hit by a missile fired from an Israeli military drone.

Israeli sources claimed some of the victims were involved in attempts to attack Israeli targets or trying to lay landmines along the Israel-Gaza borders, which is disputed by Palestinians who argue that Israel is killing Palestinians for the sake of it.

On Monday, 18 June, Israeli aircraft killed four Palestinians in two separate attacks in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun. Five other Palestinians were also injured.

The killing in northern Gaza came after suspected resistance fighters killed a Jewish settler along Israel's border with Egypt. Two of the fighters were subsequently killed by Israeli troops.

In addition to the toddler, Hadil Al-Hadad, the Israeli army targeted two people riding a motorcycle in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza as well as two other people affiliated with the military wing of Hamas. The Israeli air force also targeted metal workshops and foundries Israel claimed were involved in manufacturing rockets. The Israeli army has targeted dozens of these workshops, exacerbating the already shocking state of poverty in the Strip.

Earlier in the week, fanatical Jewish settlers chased and killed two unarmed Palestinians near the town of Yatta in the southern West Bank. Palestinian eyewitnesses described the killing as amounting to an execution.

Israeli sources, quoting settlers involved in the killings, claimed the Palestinians were trying to steal money from a Jewish settler.

Settlers implicated in murdering Palestinians are routinely "advised" by their religious leaders to concoct narratives that would exonerate them in case they are arrested or prosecuted by the authorities.

Hamas and other Palestinian groups retaliated by firing homemade missiles on nearby Israeli settlements, injuring four Israeli soldiers.

Israeli sources said as many as 30 rockets were fired from Gaza onto Israel in less than 24 hours. Most of the rockets landed in open fields.

Hamas possesses a small arsenal of mostly primitive and ineffective rockets it hopes can create a semblance of deterrence vis-³-vis Israel. On the other hand, Israel uses the "rockets of Hamas" as a propaganda tool to justify murdering Palestinians on a nearly daily basis.

Hamas and other Palestinian military factions have fired thousands of homemade rockets on Israeli targets, mostly as a response to deadly Israeli aggressions, creating fear and panic in nearby settlements and towns, but very few casualties.

On the other hand, Israel has killed thousands of mostly civilian Palestinians and destroyed hundreds of homes, using state-of-the-art of US technology, including F-16 jet fighters and armed drones.

It is unclear why Israel is escalating its terror and violence against the Palestinians, especially in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli and Palestinian commentators believe the stepped-up attacks on Palestinians are intended to further exhaust the Hamas-run Gaza Strip and keep it in a perpetual state of imbalance. Israel may also be trying to appease settler circles following a recent government decision to evacuate a few settlers from a settlement outpost near Ramallah.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) blamed Israel for the "recent escalation". It reiterated accusations that Israel was effectively eliminating any prospective chances for the resumption of the stalled peace process.

Hamas, for its part, accused the PA of adopting "a cowardly stance vis-³-vis Israeli aggression". Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, said that while Israel was murdering Palestinians non-stop, the PA was still pandering to the murderers' government, in the hope of resuming a peace process that everyone knows leads will nowhere.

Barhoum said recent contacts between occupied Ramallah and Israeli authorities aimed at resuming negotiations between the two sides were a brazen betrayal of Palestinian blood.

Earlier, it was reported that PA negotiator Saeb Ereikat might meet with Shaul Mofaz, leader of the Kadima faction that recently joined the Binyamin Netanyahu government.

SETTLERS ATTACK MOSQUE: Meanwhile, Jewish settlers attacked an desecrated a mosque in the Palestinian village of Jabaa near Ramallah, torching the entrance of the mosque and scrawling anti-Palestinian slogans on its walls.

The slogans scribbled read: "The war has begun" and "You will pay the price."

The torching of the mosque is the sixth of its kind in the West Bank in the past two years. Israeli sources suspect the terrorist act was carried out by settlers protesting Israeli government plans to evacuate dozens of settlers living in apartments built on private Palestinian land near Ramallah.

Despite the shocking frequency of such incidents, the Israeli army has failed to apprehend the perpetrators, who are believed to act on instructions or religious edicts issued by their rabbis.

Settler and pro-settler groups have long infiltrated the Israeli army and justice system to the point that the Israeli army is hesitant to confront settlers head-on, even when they are caught red-handed murdering, harassing, beating or aggressing Palestinians.

Hamas and Fatah are slowly edging towards a national reconciliation pact that would end more than five years of rift and division between the two largest political camps in occupied Palestine.

Thanks to strong public pressure, the two groups began consultations to form a mutually accepted government, comprising "independent" ministers. A "reservoir of names" has been suggested to fill various portfolios.

However, it seems the task of forming a government is not going as smoothly as one might hope. Observers in the occupied territories suggest it is difficult to find truly independent and capable figures that would be accepted by both Fatah and Hamas, especially when Palestinians are highly polarised and politicised.

Second, it is uncertain if the Israeli occupation authorities, that have the de facto final say with regard to the formation of any Palestinian Authority (PA) government, will consent to any new political arrangements in the West Bank involving Hamas.

Israel, which views Hamas as a terrorist organisation due to the Islamist liberation movement's refusal to recognise the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian homeland, has been hounding supporters of Hamas ever since the resistance group won general elections held under international observation in 2006.

Moreover, Israeli leaders have vowed to prevent Hamas from taking part in any new elections.

The Israeli threat should be taken seriously as Israel completely controls the West Bank, including areas run by the PA and nominally controlled by the PA security agencies.

Israel also continues to detain dozens of elected Hamas political leaders in open-ended captivity, including many since 2006.

Detainees include Parliament Speaker Aziz Deweik (an American educated professor of urban planning) and some 26 other MPs representing the West Bank. Israeli leaders argue that Hamas has no legitimacy as long as it refuses to recognise Israel. Hamas says Israel has no legitimacy as long as it refuses to recognise a viable Palestinian state.

The PA promised Hamas's leadership it would ask influential world powers to pressure Israel to allow free and unfettered Palestinian elections to take place in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

However, it is unlikely that the PA would succeed given the extremist nature of the current Israeli government.

Hamas and Fatah are aware of the Israeli veto over the issue of elections. The two sides reportedly agreed to seek "an alternative mechanism" in case the organisation of elections proved impossible thanks to Israeli objections.

Apart from the elections issue, Hamas and Fatah are still divided over the political process. Fatah, through Palestine Liberation Organisation/PA President Mahmoud Abbas, seems willing to utilise every conceivable opportunity to resume what most observers view as a bankrupt peace process under whose rubric Israel has been expanding its settlement enterprise at a phenomenal rate.

Last week, Abbas implored Israel to release Palestinian prisoners in order to enable the resumption of the peace process.

Abbas's remarks drew negative and angry reactions among most Palestinians, who interpreted them as a de facto abandonment of the erstwhile central Palestinian condition for the resumption of the stalled peace process: namely, a halt to all settlement expansion in the occupied territories.

Abbas said putting an end to settlement expansion was not merely a Palestinian demand. "It is rather an Israeli commitment; we are only asking Israel to honour its own commitment," said Abbas.

Israel denies it has ever made such commitments, insisting it has every right to build in the "fatherland".

Far from halting settlement expansion, the Israel government this week announced plans to build more than 2500 settler units in the West Bank as "compensation" to settlers for a tentative decision by the Israeli High Court to remove five apartment buildings built on private Palestinian land near Ramallah.

Eager to appease settlers, who enjoy strong clout within the government and military establishment, the government said it would transfer the settlers living in the five building to live in mobile homes or fixed structures to be built on nearby Palestinian property. The settlers declined the offer, made by none other than Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, saying they won't accept anything less than 3000 additional settler apartments.

For its part, Hamas views the current peace process as "utterly futile" and that has no chance of succeeding, especially in light of the right-wing extremist trends prevailing in Israel and also the unwillingness -- if not inability -- of the United States and major Western powers to force Israel to end its 45-year-long occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.

The reconciliation process between Fatah and Hamas is taking place in less than an idealistic atmosphere. Hamas accuses PA security agencies of continuing to round up members and supporters of Hamas in the West Bank, under the rubric of security coordination with Israel.

This week, the Obama administration announced the appointment of Admiral Paul Bushong as the new security coordinator between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. He is set to replace Air Force Lieutenant General Michael Mueller in that post.

Like his predecessor, Bushong, previously a commander in Guam, will be responsible for beefing up the PA's security infrastructure, overseeing the training of the PA's security forces and security coordination between Israel and PA security.

Hamas strongly denounced the step, calling it "a new measure to suppress the Palestinians" in the West Bank.

Hamas official Fawzi Barhoum said the appointment of Bushong didn't augur well for the cause of Fatah-Hamas reconciliation. "The PA can't claim to be sincere about national reconciliation at a time when it keeps coordinating with Israel against Hamas."

The PA has sought to downplay the Bushong appointment, saying it won't have any practical impact on the Palestinian reconciliation process. One Fatah leader in the West Bank, Ziyad Abu Ein, described Hamas's fears as "highly exaggerated".

Meanwhile, both Hamas and Fatah are awaiting the run-off round of Egypt's presidential elections on 16 June.

Hamas openly supports Mohamed Mursi, the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate, while Fatah at least tacitly supports Mursi's opponent, ex-President Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister, Ahmed Shafik.

A possible win by Mursi would lend Hamas an important psychological victory, as it would consolidate the ascendancy of the Islamic current throughout the Arab region.

On the other hand, a victory by Shafik could embolden Fatah, especially vis-³-vis Hamas, and might even complicate the cause of Palestinian reconciliation.

Both Hamas and Fatah say they don't intervene in the internal affairs of Egypt and that they will work with whomever the Egyptian people elect as their next president.