There has been some good news this week in Palestine. Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were overjoyed to host the two freedom boats on August 24 bringing with them 44 international peace activists intent on breaking the Israeli siege on Gaza. During their days-long stay in the Strip, the internationals, hailing from 17 countries, toured the Strip, met with Palestinian officials including some from the de facto Hamas leadership there and took in the scenes of deprivation resulting from the year-long siege. Deposed Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh even promised to grant all of the activists Palestinian passports in appreciation of their solidarity.
Before most of them sailed out of the Strip on August 29 – nine have stayed behind to continue humanitarian work there – they took with them seven Palestinians who would otherwise have had no means of traveling out of Gaza. On board was Saeed Musleh, a young boy who lost his leg in Israeli shelling and was never allowed to leave the Strip to seek medical treatment. He is now in a Larnaca hospital along with his father. Others, including students and a mother and her children who were reunited with family in Cyprus were also on board. The boats arrived safely in Cyprus early August 30.
According to Paul Larudee, the mission’s organizer, the endeavor was huge success, even more far-reaching than anyone had first imagined. According to the Free Gaza movement, which organized the trip, more similar boat trips are yet to come, even saying the second trip may take place as early as next month.
Israel decided at the last minute to allow the boats to reach Gaza after first announcing its intention to intercept them. According to official government spokespersons, the decision was aimed at denying the activists “a propaganda victory.”
Jeff Halper, an Israeli peace activist who joined the internationals in sailing into Gaza, was arrested by Israeli authorities on August 29 after trying to cross back into Israel via the Erez Crossing. He was released 24 hours later but charged with disobeying orders by the Israeli army.
On August 25, Palestinians throughout the West Bank welcomed home 198 prisoners released as a “goodwill gesture” by Israel. The prisoners received a hero’s welcome in the presidential headquarters in Ramallah by President Mahmoud Abbas and thousands of eager family and friends. “When I mention the 11,000 prisoners in Israeli jails, know that all of their names are engraved in our hearts,” the President said to the crowd. “Today we remember them all, we remember Marwan Barghouti, Ahmad Saadat and because we are a people of unity, we also remember [Hamas] PLC Speaker Aziz Dweik.”
Abbas added that although the people were overjoyed at the release of these prisoners, he insisted that all Palestinian prisoners must be released if there is to be any peace with Israel.
Palestinians were especially heartened by the release of Saeed Ataba and Abu Ali Yata, who served 31 and 28 years respectively in Israel’s prisons for their involvement in Israeli deaths. Also released was Fateh PLC member Hussam Khader who was arrested from his Balata refugee camp home near Nablus five years ago.
Unfortunately, the day did not go without tragedy. Nine-year old Marah Abahreh died and 17 others were injured when the balcony they were standing on collapsed beneath them. The Abahreh family from Yamoun near Jenin was celebrating the homecoming of Mohammed Abahreh, also released that day.
Gazans were also allowed some relief on August 30 when Egypt opened the Rafah Crossing for two days to allow some 400 people to cross either way. Most of those allowed are sick Gazans who need medical attention, students and some who have the proper travel documents. Around 300 Egyptians stranded in Gaza for months were also allowed to return home.
Gaza’s commercial crossings are just as sporadically opened and closed, with Israel announcing their shutdown on August 25 in response to two homemade rockets launched from the Strip into the Negev Desert. The crossings were later opened for a day but remain unpredictable and only allow a fraction of the amount of goods needed for the 1.5 million people living in the Strip.
On August 28, Haniyeh announced his authority in the Gaza Strip would release 153 prisoners before the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in what he called a “gesture of good will.” The prisoners are likely all Fateh-affiliated and arrested during the months of infighting between the two parties. The deposed premier also expressed his optimism over reaching national conciliation, saying inter-factional dialogue is “still possible.” Egypt says it will hold another meeting between Palestinian factions, most probably after Ramadan.
On August 26, the Palestinian Authority announced that it has reached a deal with Israel that would grant 48 activists immunity from Israeli arrest or assassination. The 64 Palestinians, members of the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, were all on Israel’s wanted list and were granted either full or partial immunity on condition that they remain in PA territories.
At the diplomatic level, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a two -day visit to Palestine and Israel to perhaps try and push the peace process forward. On August 26 during a press conference with President Abbas, Rice said she was still optimistic about reaching an agreement although she admitted that Israeli settlements were not conducive to the negotiating atmosphere. She also said they were “unhelpful” to the peace process. While the meeting apparently did not result in any tangible results, presidential advisor Nabil Abu Rudeineh hinted that the coming weeks were “crucial” to the peace process, which he said was “at an important crossroads.”
In a report issued on the same day, the Israeli movement Peace Now was much more critical of Israel’s settlement activities. According to the report, settlement expansion has doubled since last year with 2,600 housing units currently under construction in the West Bank. Peace Now director Yariv Oppenheimer concluded from the organization’s findings that “Israel is erasing the Green Line through intensive construction intended to create territorial continuity between settlement blocs and isolated settlements in the heart of the West Bank, with this construction approaching Palestinian cities such as Bethlehem and Ramallah.”
No doubt, settlements will be one topic of discussion between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President Abbas when they meet on August 31 in Jerusalem. The two leaders are scheduled to discuss the issues dividing them including that of settlements, in a bid to reach a final understanding if not an agreement before the end of the year.
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.
