The unfortunate turn of events in the Gaza Strip on the evening of July 25 may re-spark the tense relations between Hamas and Fateh, which have been on a relative hiatus for the last few months. A mysterious car bomb on a Gaza beach killed six people, one of them a six-year old child. Twenty others were injured. The other five were members of Hamas' Izzedin Al Qassam Brigades. Earlier in the day two other blasts took place in Gaza City but with no casualties.
Although Hamas is not directly accusing Fateh for the blasts, it has vowed to "hunt down the perpetrators" and has reportedly stormed a number of Fateh offices and arrested several Fateh activists for questioning.
A communiqué released today by Hamas read, "Everyone should understand that political freedom is guaranteed in the Gaza Strip, but that criminal action is prohibited. These crimes cannot pass. We will deter the criminals with strong punishment, to makes others think a thousand times ... before they think of committing such crimes."
In response, a Fateh statement read, "The Fatah movement has no link whatsoever with these internal disputes within Hamas".
A statement released by President Mahmoud Abbas' office corroborated Fateh's stance in Gaza. "The claim that Fatah carried out these explosions aims to cover up the fact that there are disputes within Hamas," it read.
In other news, on Sunday, July 20, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in the presidential compound in Bethlehem.
Abbas welcomed Brown to the birthplace of Jesus, "the messenger of love and peace."
During the meeting Abbas stated his worries over the lack of Israeli commitment to the Annapolis conference held in the US in November 2007. President Abbas also referred to the Arab peace initiative launched in 2002 at the Beirut Summit of the Arab League. He said that the plan would see a Palestinian state established with Jerusalem as its capital, and Israeli forces withdraw from the region in order to give Palestinians autonomy of the area within the 1967 borders. In the meantime, said the President, the Palestinian Authority is committed to the Roadmap's security reform and to maintaining law and order in the areas under PA control. Gordon Brown expressed his support for a new Palestinian-British business council and a conference in London later this year to support the Palestinian economy.
"You are making history," Brown told the assembled businessmen and women, praising both the proposed council and conference.
Whilst the Prime Minister sat in luxurious surroundings, his wife Sarah Brown, visited Aida refugee camp nearby in order to learn about the situation of Palestinian refugees.
Also on Sunday, down in the shadows of Gaza, Israeli warships opened fire at Gazan fishermen for three hours. Security sources reported that Israeli warships fired a number of anti-tank missiles at fishermen's boats and opened fire heavily at them while fishing in the Sudaniyya area north of Gaza City and Al-Shati camp, west of Gaza City. Sources explained that the missiles horrified fishermen and damaged several boats. No injuries were reported.
The afternoon of July 22 saw the use of a bulldozer by a Palestinian man ploughing through several cars and buses in west Jerusalem, in a similar style to an attack earlier in July. The driver, identified as 22-year old Ghassan Abu Teir was shot and killed.
In groundbreaking fashion, a lawsuit has been filed in the National Court of Spain on July 23 with the aim of issuing warrants for the arrest of high-ranking Israeli security officials for war crimes. This is the first time survivors of an Israeli military attack have filed a lawsuit against members of the Israeli military in Spain.
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) filed the suit against those involved in the sanctioning of the 2002 bombing of a building in the Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City in which 15 civilians were killed. The warrants include former Israeli Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, his former military advisor, Michael Herzog, former Israeli Army Chief of Staff, Moshe Ya’alon and Dan Halutz, former Commander of the Israeli Air Force. If the case is successful those charged would be arrested upon entering Spanish territory, stripping them of the diplomatic immunity some of them currently enjoy.
On Wednesday July 23, a British delegation headed by Teresa Johns, head of political relations in the British Ministry of Defense visited the HQ of the Palestinian National Security Forces (PNSF) in Ramallah to meet with the National Forces' commander Thiab Al-Ali. The visit was part of a fact-finding mission to discover what the security forces need in terms of aid from the British, who have committed to increasing support to the PNSF, in order for them to be better able to carry out their role.
Also on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was said to be considering the release of former Fatah leader and member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), Marwan Barghouthi.
The possible move is said to be politically motivated, with the intention of strengthening President Abbas' hand in the run up to the presidential elections next January to the detriment of any Hamas candidate. The report claims that the majority of the Israeli cabinet is in favor of such a move.
Wednesday saw the streets of Ramallah crowded and lined with security forces alongside peace activists, when Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met Senator and Presidential Democratic Party candidate Barak Obama. Obama's message to Palestinians was that if elected as US president he would work hard to continue the peace process. Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said Abbas spoke to Senator Obama at length about the internal Palestinian situation as well as the current negotiations with Israel.
However, things took a downturn when Obama said later that day during a press conference in Sderot, a city in the south of Israel, that he does not support the idea of east Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state. Obama made it clear that Jerusalem would remain the capital of Israel and that he would not see the city divided. He added that this position needed to be fixed through negotiations with the Palestinians. He previously stated that the issue of Jerusalem should be on the table of any peace negotiation, but after criticism of his 'naïve' stance, Obama dropped this position.
Meanwhile, on July 25 the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon called on Israel to immediately freeze settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem. His spokesman said that Ban Ki-Moon was very concerned about the new projects regarding the new Israeli settlements especially in the West Bank, following the decision a day before by the Israeli government to build 20 homes in the northern Jordan Valley in the West Bank. Only one year ago Israel scrapped a plan to build 180 new houses at the same settlement due to demands made by the US administration. In recent visits to Israel both French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Premier Gordon Brown, have called for an immediate freezing of all settlement expansion in the West Bank.
Also on July 25, The National Conciliation Committee released a report about its continued efforts toward ending the division among Palestinians. The committee hosted meetings with the Prime Minister of the de facto government in the Gaza Strip Ismail Hanieyah, and representatives from several other Palestinian leftist parties, civil organizations and national figures. The meetings focused on ways emerging from the current crisis into a situation where national dialogue is possible. The committee has been acting silently since January 15, 2008 under the leadership of individuals representing Palestinian civil organizations, academics and clergymen. The very formation of the committee is seen as a milestone, in that its diverse membership agreed on its goals and structure.
Shocking footage was beamed around the world after Israeli human rights group B’Tselem released on Sunday, July 20 a video showing an Israeli soldier firing a rubber-coated steel bullet at close range at a bound and blindfolded Palestinian detainee. The shooting took place in the presence of a lieutenant colonel, who held the prisoner’s arm as the shot was fired. The incident took place on July 7, in the West Bank village of Nil’in, which is now famous for its weekly nonviolent demonstrations against Israel’s separation wall. The Palestinian demonstrator, 27-year-old Ashraf Abu Rahma, was detained by soldiers, who handcuffed and blindfolded him for about 30 minutes.
Afterwards, a group of soldiers and border police officers led him to an army jeep. The video clip shows a soldier aim his weapon at the demonstrator’s legs, from about 1.5 meters away, and fire a rubber coated steel bullet at him. Abu-Rahma said that the bullet hit his left toe, after which he received treatment from an army medic and was released by the soldiers.
A 14-year-old Palestinian girl from Nil’in filmed the incident from her house in the village, and B'Tselem received it on Sunday morning. The Israeli army has arrested the father of the girl who filmed the incident. The arrest took place on July 24 near Ni'lin, north of Ramallah, where villagers were peacefully protesting the construction of the separation wall. The soldier involved in the incident is now back on active duty after an hours-long "arrest".
Meanwhile, a Palestinian man was seriously injured on July 20 when an Israeli military jeep chased him down and ran him over while he was riding a horse between Qalqilia and the nearby town of Habla in the northern West Bank. Eyewitnesses identified the young man as 21-year-old Khalid Dughmush. They said he was seriously injured and an Israeli ambulance evacuated him to unknown destination.
Israeli settlers launched a homemade projectile towards the Palestinian villages of 'Awarta and Odala, south of Nablus, on July 21. The projectile landed in agricultural land between the villages. No injuries were reported. Israeli authorities have acknowledged that a group of settlers belonging to a religious school in the settlement of Yitzhar have been producing homemade rockets to launch at nearby Palestinian villages. Yitzhar is a settlement to the south of Nablus known for its ideological settler population. Also on July 21, Israeli settlers sprayed chemicals on a group of Palestinian farmers in the Qalqilia area of the northern West Bank, human rights fieldworkers reported. According to a report compiled by the International Women's Peace Service (IWPS), five settlers, two of them riding horses, from an outpost called Havat Gilad, approached two farmers while they were working on their land in the village of Immatin. As the settlers started surrounding the two Palestinian farmers, they phoned their family for help. In the meantime, an additional 15 Palestinians from Far'ata who had been working in their land nearby rushed to the aid of the other farmers.
Police and medical sources told the Ma'an News Agency that an Israeli military vehicle ran over 6-year-old Hamza Nabil Fawzi Aj-Julani in the area of Farsh Al-Hawa west of Hebron. Public relations in the Al-Ahli hospital said the child is in serious condition and that he had been transferred to Hadassa Ein Karem hospital in Jerusalem for treatment.
UN Resolution 1325
Date posted: February 03, 2021
By MIFTAH
Kerry talks peace while Israel bars UNESCO mission [May 19 - May 25]
Date posted: May 25, 2013
By MIFTAH
President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu both met with US Secretary of State John Kerry this week in the latter’s fourth visit to the region since he assumed office.
After meeting with the two to ostensibly find ways to restart stalled negotiations between the two sides, Kerry urged on May 24 both Israeli and Palestinian leaders to take "hard decisions" to revive the peace process.
"We're getting toward a time now when hard decisions need to be made," he said at the end of his visit.
Kerry admitted a day before after meeting with the two leaders that there was skepticism and cynicism about his efforts to revive talks.
"I know this region well enough to know there is skepticism, in some quarters there is cynicism, and there are reasons for it. There have been bitter years of disappointment," he said. Still, he maintained: "It is our hope that by being methodical, careful, patient, but detailed and tenacious, that we can lay on a path ahead that can conceivably surprise people and certainly exhaust the possibilities for peace."
British foreign secretary William Hague was also in the region visiting with leaders on both sides and even visited the Bedouin community of Khan Al Ahmar between Jerusalem and Jericho, whose residents are under the threat of displacement.
On May 23, Hague was poignantly clear on where his country stands on Israeli settlements in the West Bank. "Israel has lost some of its support in Britain and in other European countries over time - this is something I've often pointed out to Israeli leaders -because of settlement activity, which we condemn,” he said.
"We strongly disagree with settlements on occupied land. Israel is a country we work with in many ways but we do disapprove of settlements,” he maintained, adding that: "We want to see both Israelis and Palestinians really commit themselves to the peace process while there is still a chance of a two-state solution."
In Khan al Ahmar, Hague listened to the residents’ grievances from Israeli efforts to push them out to make way for more settlement expansion. "We (in Britain) strongly condemn the building of settlements and recognise they are a severe threat to a two-state solution,” he told the people there.
On March 21, Israeli forces demolished two residential buildings in the Jabal al-Mukabbir in East Jerusalem. Earlier, they demolished two Palestinian homes in al-Tur, all under the pretext of unlicensed construction. Dozens of people have been left homeless from the demolitions.
A UNESCO fact-finding mission was supposed to arrive this week to look into Israeli measures in the Old City of Jerusalem and their impact on the archeological, cultural and heritage significance of the place, but was denied entry by Israel on May 20. Israel justified its decision by saying Palestinians were trying to politicize the visit.
"The Palestinians were not respecting the understandings,” an Israeli foreign ministry official said. “The visit was supposed to be professional, (but) they were taking measures that showed they were politicizing the event and not letting the delegation focus on professional sides of it," the official said.
UNESCO maintained that the mission was not cancelled, but postponed, the agency’s spokeswoman Sue Williams said.
The Palestinians said they expected Israel to pull something like this. “We weren't surprised by this decision because we believed that Israel's agreement to (allow the mission) was not convincing," minister of foreign affairs Riyad Al Malki said.
The Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt was reopened on May 22 after a five day closure. Egyptian soldiers and policemen closed the crossing following the kidnapping of seven Egyptian soldiers in Sinai, only reopening it after the soldiers were freed. Over 2,400 Palestinians had been stranded on both sides of the crossing during the days of the closure.
Extremist Israelis extended their attacks this week all the way to the Negev desert. On May 19, residents of the Retamim Kibbutz attacked the nearby Bedouin village of Bir Hadaj and set fire to a tent, according to head of the local village council, Salman Ibin Hamid
"The setters of Retamim are acting like they are in the West Bank," Ibn Hamid said. "These people have the mentality of the occupying settler to attack every Arab."
Finally, on May 23, the US appointed Gen. John Allen as special envoy on security issues in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. According to a US official, Allen will deal with the U.S. position on Israeli security needs and the security arrangements that would accompany the establishment of a future Palestinian state.
Al Nakba commemorated amid increasing settler attacks [May 12 - May 18]
Date posted: May 18, 2013
By MIFTAH
This week Palestinians commemorated the 65th anniversary of the Nakba, the catastrophe of 1948 on May 15, with a variety of activities, demonstrations and events throughout the Palestinian territories and outside of its borders. Festivals were held in Ramallah and Nablus in addition to several protests and confrontations with Israeli occupation forces. In Jerusalem, clashes broke out between protesters and Israeli police and border guards when Palestinians commemorating Al Nakba, raising Palestinian flags and facing off with Jewish settlers and soldiers. Thirty people were wounded or arrested during the clashes in addition to six Israelis.
The Jerusalem clashes come at a time when settler break-ins to Al Aqsa have been on the rise amid increasing calls by extremist Jewish groups to make a presence at the compound. The break-ins have become a near daily event. Muslim worshippers and Palestinian youths have kept constant vigil at the mosque to stave off the break-ins which included settler groups who used children as a cover to enter the compound on the occasion of Shavuot.
Settlers in the West Bank have wreaked havoc this week as well. On May 17, three Palestinians were injured in clashes in Urif south of Nablus when dozens of settlers set fire to lands in three area-villages: Urif, Einabus, and Asira al-Qibliya. The settlers also attacked citizens and threw burning tires at people’s homes.
Jewish extremists attacked inside the Green Line as well. On May 14, extremists set fire to three cars and sprayed racist graffiti on a mosque south of Haifa, according to Israeli media reports.
"Price-tag" and "Eviatar," which is thought to refer to the name of a settler stabbed to death last week, were found on the mosque’s walls in addition to the Star of David. In Safed, even farther north, racist graffiti with the words "Arabs out" was found on walls in the city.
On May 13, Israeli settlers exhumed a number of graves and sprayed racist graffiti in the Sawiya village in Nablus. Ghassan Daghlas, head of the PA settlement activity file, said settlers from the Alia settlement were responsible for the damage.
On the same day settlers from Tel Hatimar begin building a religious school for children on Al Khader lands in the Bethlehem area.
The Israeli army meanwhile, uprooted over 1,200 olive tree saplings on May 16 and razed land Palestinian farmer in the northern West Bank, according to Daghlas. He said the army dug up over 40 dunums of farm land and demolished a water tank and stone walls in Ras Karker, near Nablus.
On May 17, three Palestinian laborers were wounded in Beit Ula northwest of Hebron after Israeli forces fired rubber-coated steel bullets and unleashed police dogs at them according to Issa al-Amla, coordinator for the popular struggle committee. He said Omar Al-Amla, 31, and Abdulkadir Al-Amla, 28, suffered multiple dog bites to the neck and hands. A third laborer, Jihad Saleem, was shot in the leg.
In Jerusalem on May 17, Israeli forces raided the home of Iyad al-Awar and insisted on taking his two children 6-year-old Qassam and 5-year-old Nasrallah for “interrogation”. While their father prevented the forces from arresting his boys, Israeli soldiers handed him a warrant ordering him to bring his children to the Russian Compound for questioning.
"We arrived to the Russian Compound and the troops wanted to take my kids for investigation; I refused and they beat me in the ear and the leg. My kids started crying and were so scared from the troops. They took my kids by force," al-Awar said.
Israeli Intelligence officers apparently questioned the children about their detained cousin Shadad, and asked if they had seen him throwing stones or Molotov cocktails at Israeli forces, Al Awar said.
On the same day however, Palestinians scored a tiny victory in the Jerusalem suburb of Abu Dis when they were able to tear a hole through part of the separation wall. Protesters marking the Nakba anniversary ripped a 4-meter hole in it, eyewitnesses said. Clashes ensued between the protesters and Israeli soldiers who fired tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets. Several injuries were reported.
Peace Now reported on May 16 that the Israeli government planned to grant retroactive approval to four West Bank settlement outposts it had previously pledged to at least partially demolish.
The Israeli state attorney's office said that settlers had purchased the private Palestinian land on which they built, thus paving the way for the government to give its blessing.
"In the response, the government declares its intention to legalize four outposts, in isolated areas," Peace Now said in a statement, adding that the strategy was an affront to US Secretary of State John Kerry's efforts to revive dormant Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. "The intention to legalize outposts as new settlements is no less than a slap in the face of Secretary Kerry's new peace process," Peace Now said.
On May 14, Hamas and Fatah agreed in Cairo to form a national unity government within three months during which they would finalize and approve the Palestine National Council elections law. The two sides, represented by Fatah leader Azzam Al Ahmad and Hamas politburo member Mousa Abu Marzouq, came to the agreement under Egyptian sponsorship and said President Abbas would immediately begin talks on the new government formation. Once the government is formed, general elections can be held.
