Israeli forces killed two Palestinians, including an Islamic Jihad commander, in the West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday in the first fatal raid since a ceasefire took hold in the Gaza Strip last week. Islamic Jihad threatened to launch attacks inside Israel to avenge the death of Tarek Juma Abu Ghali, whom the militant group described as one of its most senior commanders in the northern West Bank. A second Palestinian, affiliated with the Islamist militant group Hamas, was also killed in the overnight raid, Palestinian security sources said. The killings, which were confirmed by the Israeli army, could test the fragile ceasefire that took effect last Thursday between Israel and militants in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. "Calm in Gaza does not mean that we will sit in our seats waiting to be slaughtered one by one," Islamic Jihad said in a statement. "This crime will not pass without punishment and the coming days will be a witness to that." Hamas, which claimed responsibility for a shooting attack that injured three Israeli hikers near a West Bank settlement on Friday, also called on Palestinian groups in the West Bank to retaliate for the killings, saying they had a right to do so because the ceasefire deal was limited to the Gaza Strip. Western-backed Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad departed from his prepared remarks at a security conference in Berlin to condemn the Nablus raid. "This is the kind of activity that has to stop, and has to stop promptly, if we are going to be able to succeed," Fayyad said. "Our own political credibility will continue to be at stake as long as those kinds of incursions continue." The Berlin conference is meant to bolster Palestinian police forces so they can assume greater security responsibilities in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Officials on both sides doubt the truce in the Gaza Strip will last. The army on Tuesday confirmed that Palestinians fired a mortar shell into Israel from Gaza overnight in the first reported violation by militants of the ceasefire. No one was hurt by the mortar shell and there was no immediate claim of responsibility. Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said his group was not aware of the incident and remained committed to the truce. An Israeli army spokesman said the Islamic Jihad commander killed in Nablus had directed "terrorist squads" and was involved in making explosive devices. Nablus Governor Jamal Muheisen called the Israeli raid in the city an "unjustified crime" but said he did not believe it would threaten the Gaza truce. Under the ceasefire deal, brokered by Egypt, Hamas agreed to prevent other militant groups in the Gaza Strip, including Islamic Jihad, from launching cross-border attacks. Israel also agreed to halt fighting in the Gaza Strip and to gradually relax its economic blockade on the enclave. Security forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas deployed in Nablus late last year as part of a Western-backed law-and-order campaign. But Palestinian officials say frequent Israeli raids into the city have undermined that effort.
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By: Amira Hass
Date: 27/05/2013
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Slain Bedouin girls' mother, a victim of Israeli-Palestinian bureaucracy
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.
By: Phoebe Greenwood
Date: 27/05/2013
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John Kerry unveils plan to boost Palestinian economy
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."
By: Jillian Kestler-D'Amours
Date: 27/05/2013
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Isolation Devastates East Jerusalem Economy
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.”
By the Same Author
Date: 03/11/2007
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Palestinian Force Enters Nablus in Security Drive
Hundreds of Palestinian security officers arrived in Nablus on Friday in the first stage of a Western-backed drive to crack down on gunmen in the occupied West Bank ahead of a peace conference with Israel. Israel, which is trying to bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas against his Hamas rivals, approved the deployment in the flashpoint West Bank city. Israeli government spokesman David Baker said the move would improve security and could be repeated elsewhere in the West Bank if it worked well. Dressed in green berets and carrying new automatic rifles, 308 officers belonging to the Palestinian National Security Forces -- the equivalent of an army -- arrived in Nablus at dawn from a training centre in Jericho and some set up roadblocks. The officers, who will be officially deployed in the next few days, provide a significant boost to a small police force that struggles to crack down on gunmen and gangs. Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who inspected the officers in a ceremony on Friday, told reporters it was the "starting point" of a broader drive "aimed at restoring the rule of law" in the Palestinian territories. Israel seized control of West Bank cities handed over to the Palestinian Authority under the 1993 interim Oslo peace deal after the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising in 2000, and has since barred security forces from operating in the cities. Although Palestinian police have been allowed to return to work recently, it is the first time that security forces have been allowed to operate in the West Bank since 2002. Israel launches frequent raids against Palestinian militants in Nablus and controls entrance to the city through checkpoints, which it says are needed to stop suicide bombers. Palestinians call Israel's network of West Bank checkpoints collective punishment. Palestinian government officials have expressed concern that continued raids by Israeli troops could jeopardize the experiment. Several Nablus residents welcomed the arrival of the force. "It is very good to have police and security forces to end the chaos in the town," said 22-year-old Tarek Hussein, a United Nations employee. "We hope Israel stops its raids into Nablus." Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert are trying to narrow differences over establishing a Palestinian state ahead of a U.S.-backed Middle East peace conference expected to be held before the end of the year. The United States has started training members of Abbas's Presidential Guard and National Security Forces. Last week the White House asked the U.S. Congress for at least $410 million in additional funds in 2008 to build up Abbas' forces and ease the Palestinian Authority's financial woes. Islamist group Hamas routed Abbas's secular Fatah faction in violent clashes in Gaza in June. Abbas then sacked a Hamas-led government and appointed a Fatah-backed administration in the West Bank. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meets Israeli and Palestinian leaders this weekend to craft a joint document ahead of the conference, to be held near Washington. (Additional reporting by Wafa Amr in Ramallah and Avida Landau in Jerusalem)
Date: 03/12/2005
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Ballot Boxes Set on Fire in Palestinian Election
NABLUS - Voting in a primary election for the ruling Fatah faction was halted in a Palestinian town near the West Bank city of Nablus on Friday after ballot boxes were set on fire, election officials said. Voting was called off in the town of Salfit "because of problems and divisions," said Ahmed al-Deek, a senior Fatah official. Election officials said some ballot boxes had been torched but there was no immediate word on who was behind it. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas suspended voting in the Gaza Strip and at several West Bank voting stations earlier in the week due to widespread fraud and violence. In an attempt to salvage the primary vote which has highlighted widening internal rifts in Fatah, Abbas set up a review board to finalize a list of the party's candidates for a January 25 parliamentary election. Fatah faces a strong challenge in the January poll from the militant Hamas group, which is running for the first time in a parliamentary election and enjoys a corruption-free reputation. In Salfit, residents said gunmen were hovering in the vicinity of ballot stations, which also prompted the decision to suspend voting. The ballot was also called off in the West Bank city of Qalqilya due to disagreements over voter registration. Voting in the West Bank cities of Hebron and Tulkarm was going ahead as planned, he said. Last week, voters in primaries in some parts of the West Bank cast aside veterans in favor of newcomers and militants. Fatah's younger generation is challenging a dominant old guard, many of whose members are widely seen as tainted by corruption. Public support for Fatah is already eroded by complaints of corruption and misrule, and new signs of disarray could boost Hamas after the Islamic movement's strong showing in municipal polls. Palestinian gunmen stormed a government office in the Gaza Strip on Thursday to demand that the Fatah primary election be allowed to proceed after it was suspended due to violence and fraud. Israel and the United States are worried that Hamas, sworn to the destruction of the Jewish state, will do well in the parliamentary contest. (Additional reporting by Wafa Amr in Ramallah)
Date: 17/06/2005
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Warning Bells Are Ringing
On June 4, dozens of attorneys refused to show up to courtrooms in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in what they called a "one-day warning strike". In a statement released by the Palestinian Bar Association, the lawyers said they were protesting assaults on what they described as "the three arms of justice": the judges, public prosecuting attorneys, and defense lawyers. The statement decried legal professionals' "unsafe working environment" blamed on increased vigilantism and the failure of the Palestinian Authority's legislative and executive branches to protect the judicial system. That day in the Nablus courthouse, lawyers halted all legal processes. Heated arguments broke out in the large hall where the protest was taking place as lawyers squabbled amongst each other - some demanded that the protest should be taken to the streets while others called on the police to provide security inside the courtrooms. These problems are not limited to Nablus, and some say they are indicative of a general lawlessness and inefficiencies in the administration of justice in Palestinian society. And the litany of complaints is long. Threatened judiciary In an interview with the Palestine Report, head of the Nablus branch of the Bar Association Fawaz Saymeh outlined the most egregious. "Lawyers are subjected to threats and judges are blackmailed. People cross the line with judges and lawyers, and the police do nothing. Our work environment is no longer safe because of the interference of armed groups who enter the courtrooms in order to influence deliberations. This has become commonplace in more than one Palestinian courtroom. Many people have lost faith in the judicial system and its ability to deal with legal disputes. Instead, they turn to gang members." Recent incidents cited by the Bar Association include one in which police allegedly prevented lawyers from entering the Nablus magistrate court on June 2. When lawyers protested, they were insulted and threatened by the policemen inside the courthouse. The same thing happened to lawyers in the Ramallah courthouse on June 1. In Nablus, on June 4, men armed with knives tried to stab one defendant but injured a policeman instead. Later that day, a number of armed men broke into a courtroom, went into a judge's chambers and opened fire. The Bar Association's statement furthermore reported "repeated break-ins by armed men into courtrooms without any consideration for their sanctity. Such assaults have also affected the prosecution. This is happening in front of the police, which is responsible for maintaining law and order. But they do nothing to stop this." That was an accusation flatly denied by Nablus Police Chief Tariq Zeid. "Our policemen never stand by idly when there is disruption in the courts," he told PR. Zeid also added that the police has never received any complaint from the courts of attorneys or lawyers being assaulted by armed men. Vigilantism hindrance "The repeated assaults on the judiciary results in the obstruction of the workings of the legal system, which should receive complete support and protection," maintains Saymeh. "Unfortunately, this has not happened and it has forced us to protest and ring the warning bells." In April, three people, one armed with a pistol, raided a law office run by Judge Zuheir Bashtawi, a former deputy head of the higher appeals court in the West Bank. The men demanded that the judge and his assistant recuse themselves from the case of a certain Nablus resident. Bashtawi's, however, was not cowed. He and his aide, attorney Fawaz Al Bahsh, threw the three out of the office. "I was shocked and insulted by the demand and by the threat," Bashtawi told PR. "[And] that was when I finally understood how badly the status of the judiciary has deteriorated in our country." The veteran judge has fought hard to maintain his independent reputation and is a respected member of the legal community. Over the 50 year span of his career, he has served in a number of positions, including as Jerusalem's attorney general in 1959. He was a magistrate judge, Jericho's attorney general, and vice president of the appeals court between 1978 and 1980. He served vice president of the High Court of Justice from 1981 to 1982, and subsequently as head of the court of first instance in Nablus. Bashtawi believes that the politicization of the judiciary, the resulting appointments of incompetent people, and the absence of a monitoring mechanism are all factors leading to the deterioration of the judicial system in the Palestinian territories. And in order to rectify the situation, on February 21 Bashtawi sent a letter to President Mahmoud Abbas that included 12 recommendations for the improvement of the judiciary's performance. Among these, he called on the president to reconsider all legislations approved by the Legislative Diwan, which gives final ratification for laws promulgated by the PLC, and urged a restructuring of the general prosecution office to be headed by a supreme court judge. He also called for the appointment of a decision-making body comprised of experienced senior judges who, in Bashtawi's words, "only care for what is right". To date, Bashtawi says he has not received any response from the president's office regarding his letter. Ray of hope? A recent report issued by the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens' Rights (PICCR) on the state of citizen's rights during 2004 pointed to some improvements in the judicial authority, including the constitutional and smooth transfer of power following the death of President Yasser Arafat; the appointment of a head of the Court of First Instance; the establishment of magistrate courts in three cities; the consolidation of the PA's financial sources; and efforts to raise the level of training. There was also the ratification of a package of laws including those to form regular courts, and the Basic Law of 2002, which, in particular, seeks the unification of the judicial systems in the West Bank and Gaza. The report also pointed out that independent legal bodies have demanded the amendment of Articles 16 and 20 regarding the appointment of judges, their job descriptions and required qualifications, so that appointments no longer rest in the hands of the judicial authorities, as is the present practice that creates conflicts of interest. PICCR's report concluded that the reputation of the judiciary has been damaged due to "the growing phenomenon of a parallel judiciary and the interference of the executive authority and armed factions in the work of the judiciary. The lack of implementation of court rulings is also widespread, which has caused tremendous damage to the rights of complainants." A "parallel judiciary" refers to the existence of informal systems of justice, such as the tribal system, that people turn to rather than the official courts. Many citizens prefer to solve their problems through such informal means rather than to go to the civil or Sharia courts, because they believe that the tribal system maintains social ties and is faster and more effective than the civil courts. Slow judicial machine Speed and efficiency are not accusations that can be leveled at the civil courts. With a chronic lack of qualified judges - currently, 41 judges work 17 magistrate courts in the West Bank and Gaza - the speed of the legal system is notoriously slow. The Courts of First Instance suffer from the same problem with less than 50 judges serving 11 courts throughout the territories. In addition, the Israeli-imposed closures on the territories during the Aqsa Intifada has had a huge effect, given that judges are forced to postpone cases because complainants and defendants are not able to reach the courts. With so few judges, according to sources from the Bar Association, the legal process is also slowed by their heavy workload. At present, there are more than 16,000 cases being heard in the Nablus court system alone. In one day, one judge hears and average 40 to 45 cases. The picture is replicated across the West Bank. As of November 24, there were 1,591 cases and complaints pending in the Qalqiliya magistrate court to be heard by one judge. In the Tulkarm magistrate court, 2,034 cases were due to be heard by two judges. And by the end of October 2004, there were 5,413 complaints and 950 cases for two judges to hear in Jenin. Public opinion The problems of the judicial system have caught the attention of a large sector of society and voices are being raised from many quarters for judicial reform. Businessman Ziad Anabtawi from a Nablus businessmen's guild said "internal security, the rule of law and the existence of an independent and dignified judiciary is the key to any economic revival, to encourage investment and for any business to flourish." On June 6, the Justice and Law Union bloc published a notice in Al Quds newspaper that condemned the spread of vigilantism that the judiciary is being subjected to, criticized judicial appointments "tinged by favoritism", and called on President Abbas, the Cabinet, and the judicial authorities to immediately intervene to rectify the situation. In his June 11 Al Ayyam column, meanwhile, Hani Al Masri wrote that societal reform begins with the reformation of the judiciary: "If the Palestinian judiciary is well, independent and protected and allowed to freely carry out its duties, then everything else will be well." But while efforts to address the problems are ongoing they also raise the passions. A June 8 PLC session on judicial reform with Interior Minister Nasser Yousef simply turned into a session of finger-pointing and accusations among PLC members when concerns of security and vigilantism were discussed. It was after this meeting the Bar Association, which counts 1,900 attorneys as members, sent its report and a memo to the Ministry of Justice and the Higher Judicial Council demanding the judiciary be protected from, in the words of one attorney, "slaughter." Date: 22/04/2005
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West Bank Wasteland
At the beginning of April 2002, the Israeli army reoccupied a number of cities in the West Bank as part of a wide-scale military operation dubbed "Defensive Shield". The goal of the operation, as stated by the Israeli government, was to, "eliminate the infrastructure of Palestinian terrorism and to prevent suicide bombers from executing their operations in the heart of Israeli cities inside the Green Line." At the time, no attention was given to an artillery force that snuck up the hills to a quarry - the largest in the West Bank, which is located in the cradle of a huge hill west of Nablus. "We were shocked when we saw that the quarry was being taken over," says the director of the quarry, Ihab Abu Shusheh. "The army ran us out and warned us not to return. They took over all of the equipment and our bulldozer. At the time, I wondered what the connection was between this raid and the declared goals of the army operation." "A few days later, we were told by residents from nearby villages that Israeli truck were bringing in garbage and dumping it in the quarry. This continued for about a month. It stopped after we filed a complaint with the Israeli authorities in Beit El and to the Palestinian Authority. The trucks stopped coming for almost a year but then they started again. We renewed our complaints and the official work of these trucks was halted again. But they would come secretly, carrying tons of waste from the Kedumim settlement and Jewish industrial zones. They would dump them during the night in the quarry." Abu Shusheh, whose family has invested in the quarry for 20 years continues, "We complained to the Israel High Court, demanding that work be halted. We also demanded to be compensated for the damages incurred to the quarry. We even had the legal documents proving our ownership. But the court has not announced its verdict yet." Imposing reality Work in the "dumpsite" continues, regardless of Abu Shusheh's repeated complaints. Israeli machinery has cleared and prepared 10 dunams (4.5 hectares) of land from the quarry, which is about 100 dunams or 40.47 hectares altogether, according to a report issued by a commission of environmental and water experts from Al Najah University. On April 4, the Israeli daily Haaretz then reported on an Israeli plan to turn the largest quarry in the West Bank into a dumpsite. According to the article, the contracting Israeli company already dumps 10,000 tons of garbage each month of waste from central Israel, even though the Israeli government has yet to approve the plan. The Israeli foreign ministry later complained that most of the details in the Haaretz article were partial and misleading. However, a spokesperson for the ministry told Reuters on April 4 that the construction of the dumpsite "does not contradict with international law because it will be used for the benefit of the Palestinians and Israelis." Dr. Atef Abu Jeish from the Center for Water Studies at Al Najah University begs to differ. "The establishment of the dumpsite is a blatant violation of international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, which prohibits the occupying power from utilizing occupied territory in a way that does not benefit the occupied people. International law prohibits the occupying country of carrying out any works in occupied territory that are not a result of military considerations and are not used to the benefit of the local and occupied people." Restless residents The area in which the dumpsite is being built is in an extension of the Ramin Valley, one of the most fertile and beautiful areas in the West Bank between Tulkarm and Nablus. The plans for the dumpsite, says Azzam Halaweh, director of the health department in the Nablus municipality, have naturally spurred much anxiety among people and government and non-government organizations given the negative and dangerous ramifications for both the population and the environment experts have identified. "We have taken samples and inspected materials in the quarry," Halaweh told the Palestine Report. "We found hard (organic) waste, mostly household garbage and some industrial waste, spread out over approximately 1.64 hectares (four dunams). There are also swamps throughout the dumpsite, filled with liquid waste." There are four ground wells in close proximity to the dumpsite. In total, these wells, which are used for agricultural and household purposes, yield 750,000 cubic meters water per year. The wells provide water to thousands of area residents. The most dangerous ramification of the dumpsite, according to the technical committee, is it is located only 230 meters from the Deir Sharaf aquifer, which provides Nablus with more than half its drinking water needs. The dumpsite is located on sedimentary soil, which is easily penetrable and means the possibility of contaminating the aquifer with fluids from waste products is extremely high. Gases and odors emanate from the dumpsite and insects and rodents are everywhere, marring the rural landscape. In addition, residents of seven surrounding villages, with a combined population of over 25,000, fear the dumpsite will limit the available areas for their own construction. To them it all adds up to another crime perpetrated against them by Jewish settlers and to which the Israeli occupation authorities are turning a blind eye. "The army occupied the land by military force," says the head of Deir Sharaf village council, Najib Saha. "And under the protection of the army, the settlers build industrial zones. Then they do away with their waste on our land without the least regard for the risks to our health, our water or our environment. They collect taxes and go about their business like nothing is wrong. They force us to get rid of our garbage in distant areas while they come and throw their garbage at us. Why do they belittle us like this?" Gunpoint investment According to an internal document prepared by the Bar Onn company, which was reported on in Haaretz's April 4 edition, the dumpsite will collect fees at a value of NIS60 per ton and will earn the settlement council of Hashmeron a profit of NIS60,000 a month. The Bar Onn Company, the two settlement councils of Kedumim and Karni Shamron, as well as the regional settlement council, are currently preparing for the establishment of the dumpsite. Since November 2004, another Israeli company in Netanya has been transferring garbage to the quarry without obtaining a permit. A permit was granted only after hundreds of tons had already been dumped in the quarry. According to the Israeli media, Israel is planning to build three central dumpsites in Israel and 14 in the West Bank to get rid of their waste. Stoking local ire even more is that while this is going on, Palestinians in the area have not been allowed a dumpsite of their own. According to Halaweh, the Nablus Municipality is burdened with huge financial expenses to get rid of its waste at a site in the Jordan Valley, some 45 kilometers from the city. "They want to get rid of their garbage at our expense. Even if they were talking about building a perfumery, we would not accept," said one villager in the area angrily. A second wall Saha from Deir Sharaf was also concerned about the closeness of the dumpsite to people's homes. "The closest house in our village is about 330 meters from the dumpsite. The other houses in Naqura, Sabastia, Qousin, Beit Iba and Kufr Qaddum are between 300 and 650 meters from it. There is a water basin that runs under the area of the dumpsite. I feel like the dumpsite is going to be a second wall. I would not be surprised if the separation wall included it, especially since there is a Jewish industrial zone built on the site." Officials from the Israeli water authority know these facts well. According to Haaretz, the official in charge of monitoring pollutants in the water authority wrote a document in June, 2004 entitled, "Water information and an initial viewpoint on throwing dry wastes in quarries," including the Abu Shusha quarry. "There is ground water in the quarry area at a depth of 250 meters. The quality of water is good. The Deir Sharaf wall extracts its water from there and is 620 meters from the location. The Nablus valley is 420 meters from the site. Given the close proximity of the wells to the site, it is deemed unsuitable to have a dumpsite there for fear of contamination of the water sources." Despite this, the settlement lobby has been able to circumvent these warnings from the water authority and create a reality on the ground, and the locals know it. "Daniel Vice, head of the Kedumim settlement and a member of the higher Jewish settlement council has come to the quarry and the area more than once," said Saha. Ongoing battle According to agreements signed between the Palestinians and Israelis, the environment is supposed to be an area excluded from the conflict whether it's a time of war or peace. In the case that either side carries out amendments or projects that will impact the environment, it should obtain the approval of the other side. The fourth clause of the 12th article of Appendix 3 from the transitional agreement between Israel and the Palestinians signed in Washington on September 2, 1995 stipulates that, "each side must act towards the protection of the environment and to avoid any environmental hazards or damages including to all soil, water and airborne pollution." Environmentalists and farmers are not banking on Israel respecting this agreement. They say that to date Jewish settlements built in the heart of the West Bank such as Ariel and Karni Shamron, have not stopped pumping waste water from various industrial zones into the Qana valley, a practice that has been ongoing since 1982. Engineer Sami Daoud from the Palestinian Hydrology Group said during a meeting of local activists that studied the ramifications of the dumpsite at which this reporter was present, that, "waste water has killed medicinal and wild plants in the valley. It has affected the biodiversity and the aesthetics of the area. Most importantly, the land is no longer fit to grow olive trees." Clause 6 of the first appendix of the interim agreement stipulates that, "each side must take the necessary and appropriate measures to prevent the leaking of waste water and liquid contaminants into water sources and networks or into water collection holes, including ground and surface water and rivers." Israel's disregard for Palestinian needs in regards to the dumpsite at the Abu Shusha quarry is raising Palestinian suspicions of Israel's ulterior motives. "I can't see that Israel has any other goal in building this dumpsite on our land than wanting to drive us out," says Najib Saha. Dr. Azzam Halaweh believes that it is "another form of the Judaization of the West Bank." He told PR that "mere talk of the land in question falling under Israeli control has sharply reduced the prices of land in the area and has negatively effected various agricultural, construction, and tourist projects in the area." Local organizations and authorities, in addition to international organizations and NGO's, are planning to organize a campaign to stop the building of the dump. A number of delegations from various unions and professional organizations have visited the quarry site and held sit-in protests calling for the removal of the dump. They say they are in for the long haul. Contact us
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