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.”

Media Line: I am speaking with Dr. Ziad Asali who is the founder and currently heads the organization called the American Task Force on Palestine. Dr. Asali, let’s start with the very beginning the [American] Task force on Palestine appears to say what it does in its name, are you geared towards educating the American public, the American Congress, everybody, what exactly is your role?

Ziad Asali: [Our role is] all of the above, but, our main mission is to state that it is in the national interest [of the United States] to have a state of Palestine alongside Israel and to advocate this policy with the establishment, the policy-making and decision-making establishment, on the one hand, the opinion-making establishment on the other hand and the general public at large whenever we have access to it.

Now you are based in Washington…

Yes

And of course you do interact with the governmental bodies quite a bit…

Yes

But as you were beginning the organization and starting up, what was your greatest challenge?

To see if this message actually will receive a fair hearing. Because, we meant what we said. It is in our national interests. Saying it at that time was not exactly in the mainstream of policy. At the time, the name of Palestine was not exactly attractive and anything that was associated with it was likely to get a harsh hearing. So, we insisted on two things, in the very title, as you mentioned, American and Palestine, American Task Force on Palestine, to state that we do think that these two things are compatible indeed. That it is in the national interest to have a state of Palestine. It is good for Palestinians. It is good for Israelis. But above everything else what matters for us, here, is that it is good for America.

We thought that this would be sufficiently different, that we may not get a fair hearing, but I have to say that we are so gratified now that it is national policy; everyone says it is United States policy and it has been for several years, 2002 first, then 2004, then the Road Map and all these other instruments that state the United States is for a state of Palestine. So it has become mainstream, American policy, it has become much easier to advocate and frankly we are now pushing on open doors.

You are frequently seen in Washington, on The Hill, what do you find to be the issue that you find the most resonance with on Capitol Hill, what is the issue that you have the least difficulty in selling?

The need to create a state of Palestine. I think there is an emerging consensus, especially on The Hill, which was the last citadel that had, in practical terms, been very reluctant to support anything Palestinian, especially in the form of funding, as you well know. Now it is much easier for a congressman to support the concept of a state of Palestine and then to start funding the Palestinian Authority. You know, last year the direct funding voted for by the Congress was about 300 million dollars. This is exact, the actual funding, so it speaks, with a certain truth, to the commitment of the Congress of today to supporting the state of Palestine more than any other time in the past. That’s the easiest part.

The second thing that I’d like to comment on, we do not say that we represent the Palestinians. We do not make that claim. As you know the Palestinians are of divided opinion, [of] all shades of analyses. We advocate exactly for what I just said, creating a state for Palestine that is viable on the ’67 border, negotiated and democratic. So, we have a vision for the state. But, there are people who agree with us and people who don’t. But this is exactly what we stand for.

You bring up a terrific point, as a local address for congressmen and senators to turn to when they are looking for input on what is happening on the ground in the Middle East, you’re there, you’re accessible, you’re known, so how do you deal with the questions of disunity among the Palestinians and the different opinions of the different factions?

Well we support this vision of the state that I told you. [This] is basically an open, free, democratic Palestine that we hope will take place and above all has to be viable, un-fragmented and in the ’67 border and [along with] the usual requirements that the Palestinians have accepted in ’88.

What we’d like to see, now that there has been such tremendous movement and political achievements for the Palestinians globally, is a recognition of a state of Palestine, pretty much similar to the Balfour Declaration that the Jewish people got in 1917. We have now the commitment of the International community, the United States, Europe, UNRWA, the United Nations, and Russia, and that is the whole world, all of them are committed to a state of Palestine. This is the Palestinian Balfour Declaration as a document, as a policy.

Now, people might remember that it took the Jewish people 31 years from 1917 to ’48 to get to their state and we advise and council for everybody to understand that it will take time and effort, especially on the part of the Palestinians, to work for their own state. Nobody is going to give them the state. So, it has to be very clear to people that want to work on the political process that they have to abide by the rules of the political process. You cannot fight the global system as you ask it to acknowledge your participation as a legitimate partner. That is why calling for a Palestinian state, a Palestinian state on the borders that I just outlined, is very crucial to get any support from the International community and this is where we stand on this issue of unity. On the issue, the mundane issue, of the government: now, if the Palestinians are able to put together a unity government, or unity accord government, that is acceptable to the international community, then we certainly would be very happy because that would decrease the tension and would make the Palestinian story here, in Washington, where we are, it would make it a less contentious, a less headache producing issue for the legislators and the government. We think it is a good thing, if it is done on this basis, that it will be an acceptable entity to the international community.

Dr. Ziad Asali, I thank you so much for taking the time to be with us and help us understand the work of the American Task Force on Palestine, Thank You.

Thank You.

In a rare expression of direct criticism, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud ‘Abbas slammed Iran, accusing Tehran of negatively interfering with internal Palestinian issues.

Iran aims to deepen the rift among Palestinians, and this serves neither national interests nor Arab interests, ‘Abbas said on Wednesday.

“Iran should address its own issues, take care of its matters, and avoid interfering with Palestinian matters,” ‘Abbas said at a news conference with United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Ramallah.

Naji Shurab, a political science professor at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, said ‘Abass’ comments were likely in response to a remark made by an Iranian official, who said the government in Ramallah was corrupt.

‘Abbas’ comments could be construed as an effort to show the U.S. that the Palestinians, and especially those who answer to Fatah and the Palestinian Authority, are distancing themselves from Iran.

“[Mahmoud ‘Abbas] is weak, and one of the reasons for his weakness is the failure of negotiation options and strategies,” Shurab told The Media Line.

In order to answer back to the Islamists in the Palestinian territories, ‘Abbas needs the help and support of the U.S. and he wishes to prove that he belongs to the block of the so-called moderates, Shurab said.

Iran is a key sponsor of Hamas, Fatah’s arch rival, which is in control of the Gaza Strip.

Iran stood by the side of the ousted Hamas government throughout Israel’s military operation in January, even though Hamas is a Sunni organization inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood, and Iran is non-Arab and Shi’ite.

Analysts say Hamas gets the vast majority of its support from Iran, including ammunition, weapons, funding, training and political backing.

This has been corroborated by testimonies of Palestinian terrorists who were seized by Israel and reportedly admitted to receiving training and other assistance from Iran; and by ammunition fired by Palestinian bearing insignia tracing back to Iran.

Analysts suggest Iran has an interest in keeping Hamas on its side as a proxy to fight Israel and resist the West.

Iranian and Hamas officials exchanged messages of support and solidarity during a Tehran conference in aid of the war-torn Gaza this week - a further indication of the warm relations between the two.

The conference coincided with Clinton’s first visit to Jerusalem and Ramallah since the new U.S. administration took office in January.

Observers suggest it was also timed to counter the conference in Egypt earlier this week, in which representatives from 75 countries raised around $5 billion for reconstructing Gaza.

Iran criticized Egypt and other participants in the conference, accusing them of siding with Israel during the military offensive.

Iran’s spiritual leader, Ayatollah ‘Ali Khamanai, said the money raised during the Tehran conference should go to Hamas, which he said is the legitimate Palestinian government.

Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in a violent coup in June 2007. That led to a de facto separation between the strip, which is ruled by an internationally-isolated Hamas government, and the Fatah-backed government in Ramallah, which has international recognition.

There are ongoing talks on reconciling the two movements, which could result in a unity government including both factions.

The Palestinian Authority plans to deploy an additional 700 security personal in the West Bank city Hebron to carry out security operations among the city’s Palestinian population, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.

An exact date for the deployment has yet to be set, according to the newspaper, which also reported that the Israeli army would close the border with the West Bank from midnight October 13 to October 21 due to the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, when thousands of Jews are expected to visit the Cave of the Patriarchs, one of the holiest sites in Judaism, located in the Israeli-controlled part of Hebron.

The PA force, which will be the second deployed in Hebron, has been trained in Jordan under the auspices of U.S. security coordinator in the region, Lt.-Gen. Keith Dayton.

The training of troops in Jordan is part of a U.S.-sponsored overhaul of the PA security forces, which have often been accused of being fractured and insufficiently trained to be handed control of Palestinian cities on the West Bank.

The new American-trained forces have recently had a string of successes. Since the deployment in Jenin four months ago the security situation in the city once called the terror capital of West Bank has improved significantly.

On Saturday the PA police in Hebron discovered a bomb-making factory in the city and arrested 11 suspects.

Hamas has turned down a recent proposal by the secretary general of the Arab League, ‘Amru Mousa, for a unilateral truce stopping rocket firing into Israel, sources in Gaza said.

The proposal, which was presented to Hamas leader, Khalid Mash’al during Mousa’s visit to Damascus last week, also suggests declaring a unilateral cease-fire with Israel.

The plan, according to the League’s sources, was meant to stop the current military operation against Hamas and avoid further escalation and a likely massive Israeli invasion of Gaza.

Mash’al refused the proposal and insisted that any cease-fire with Israel should be part of a mutual truce leading to the lifting of the siege and opening all terminals, including the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border with Gaza.

Hamas is also still refusing an Egyptian plan to reopen the Rafah terminal despite the fact that it gives the Islamic group a key role at the terminal, and wants a new deal excluding both Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Hamas, which has been in de facto control of Gaza since last June, opposes the 2005 agreement that was signed between the P.A. and Israel that ensured Israel's full control over the terminal through European Union observers.

In 2005 the Rafah crossing, between Gaza and Egypt, was handed over by Israeli to be operated by P.A. Chairman Mahmoud ‘Abbas’ security forces, with EU observers monitoring the operation.

In June 2007, following the infighting between Hamas and Fatah which resulted in Hamas taking power from Fatah in the Gaza Strip, the EU observers left the terminal after Israel decided to close the Egyptian-Palestinian terminal.