The alarming violence instigated by Israeli settlers throughout the West Bank has been on everybody’s minds this week. In November, Israel’s High Court of Justice ordered settlers to leave the Palestinian-owned Ar-Rajabi house in Hebron, also known now as the ‘house of contention’, which has been occupied since 2007. After the decision was given, settler groups descended upon Hebron in anger, ready to retaliate. On December 1, five Palestinians were injured after being attacked by settlers in northeast Hebron. That same day, the settlers set dogs upon Palestinian residents, injuring a further four near the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron. The next day, several more Palestinians were beaten with clubs when settlers attacked Palestinian houses in the evening. An Israeli captain who tried to intervene in the attack was also badly injured. Three children were taken to a local hospital as a result.
On December 2, settlers rampaged through five Palestinian villages in the West Bank - including Yatma, Qabalan and As-Sawiya - where they slashed tires, vandalized mosques, attacked farms, and harassed residents. On December 3, in a last-minute meeting, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak held talks with the settlers occupying the Ar-Rajabi house in hopes of ending two weeks of violence in the city. The talks did not prevent settlers from going on the rampage again that day, as they set fire to a Palestinian house in Hebron. Palestinians were also attacked in the Ar-Ras, Wadi Al-Hussain and Al-Ja’bari neighborhoods, leaving dozens injured. Witnesses reported that the settler mob numbered in the hundreds.
Barak’s meeting with the settlers was unsuccessful, and on December 4, Israeli forces forcibly removed 250 right-wing settlers from the Ar-Rajabi house. Violence ensued, as the evacuation prompted more settler attacks across the West Bank. Settlers painted racist slogans about Islam and the Muslim Prophet Mohammed on buildings in the West Bank villages of Azzun, An-Nabi Elyas, Kafr Laqif, Jinsafut, Immatin and Al-Funduq. In Hebron, witnesses said that Palestinian families were besieged in their homes which were then set on fire by Israeli settlers, while the Israeli army prevented Palestinian medics from reaching the homes. Ten Palestinians were injured during the fires.
On December 4, Israeli human rights group B’tselem released footage taken of an Israeli settler shooting two Palestinians at close range. The footage showed a middle-aged Israeli from one of the illegal settlements inside the Palestinian city of Hebron firing at 40 year old Husni Matariyah. The bullet hit the left side of Matariah’s chest. The settler then shot Matariah’s 65 year old father Abed Al-Hai in the hand. The settler implicated in the video has not been arrested.
On December 5, six protesters were injured in the Palestinian villages of Bil’in and Al-Ma’sara during demonstrations against aggressive Israeli policies and settler violence. During that day, settlers destroyed eighty young olive trees planted by a Palestinian farmer near Tulkarem. A major water pipe was also damaged by the settlers, preventing municipal water from reaching villages nearby. The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting on December 5 regarding settler violence, and later issued a statement in which they said, “The Security Council members condemn violence against Palestinian civilians and appeal to both sides to restore security and rule of law without discrimination or exceptions.” Despite the UN’s condemnation, this and the Jewish Sabbath did not stop a mob of Israeli settlers from setting fire to a Palestinian home in the old city of Hebron on December 6.
As settler violence grew worse, the Israeli imposed blockade against Gaza continued, and, as of December 6, entered its 31st day. On December 4, Israel allowed a shipment of 50,000 liters of industrial diesel in, as well as 40 truckloads of food and medical supplies. However, it was still not enough to reverse the humanitarian crisis still ongoing in the Strip. Shipments of cooking gas for Gaza were blocked, meaning that most Gazans will not be able to cook traditional meals for the upcoming Muslim holiday, Eid Al-Adha.
In an UNRWA conference held on December 3, the UNRWA Director of Operations said, “The world should be embarrassed,” when it sees the deteriorating humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza. On December 1, a Libyan aid ship destined for Gaza was turned away by Israel’s navy and docked instead in an Egyptian port. The boat carried 3,000 tons of aid, which organizers hope can be transferred to Gaza via the Rafah crossing instead. On December 2, it was announced that a series of ships sailing from Qatar, Israel, Yemen, Cyprus and Jordan would attempt to break the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip over the next two months.
Hamas met with political factions in Gaza on December 2 and throughout the week to discuss renewing the ‘truce’ with Israel, which is due to expire on December 19. On December 5, one faction, Islamic Jihad, declared that they would not be renewing the truce in light of the continuing blockade and settler violence in the West Bank.
Exchanges of rocket attacks and shelling continued during the week between Israel and Palestinian fighters. On December 2, the An-Nasser Brigades shelled an Israeli military post near the north of the Gaza Strip, but no injuries were reported. However, an Israeli helicopter strike that same day left two Palestinian teenagers dead, along with four more injured. One of the injured remains in hospital in critical condition. Another mortar shell was fired from Gaza on December 4, though the shell landed in an empty field. On December 5, several Palestinian armed groups claimed responsibility for launching about 6 projectiles in response to "continuous Israeli aggression against Palestinians," particularly in Hebron. On the evening, about 7 more projectiles were fired.
Israeli troops have continued with raids and arrests this week, despite the settler violence. On December 3, Israeli forces seized 14 Palestinian during overnight raids across the West Bank. The day before, Israeli troops killed a Palestinian man in Nablus during clashes. The man had previously been pardoned by Israel as a part of an amnesty agreement with the Palestinian Authority (PA).
Demolitions and land grabbing also continued as usual. On December 3, Israel demolished dozens of houses, including an entire Bedouin village which has been destroyed more than 20 times. Sources at the Regional Council of Unrecognized Villages (RCUV) said the Bedouin village of Twail Abu Jawal, home to about 100 people living in 10 houses, was razed by Israeli construction vehicles. An additional 21 structures were demolished in another ‘unrecognized’ village, Al-Makimen. The villages are just 2 of 45 unrecognized Bedouin villages in Israel, home to a total of 84,000 people. The Israeli government refuses to provide service,s including water, electricity, health care, and schools.
On December 2, an Israeli court also approved another re-routing of the Israeli separation wall. According to the new plans, the wall will now isolate the neighborhoods of Shu’fat, the Salam neighborhood, Anata and Ras Khamis from the rest of east Jerusalem. This re-routing will deprive more than 20,000 Jerusalem citizens of their rights and could eventually lead to the withdrawal of their Israeli ID cards as part of Israel’s policy to limit the number of Palestinians in Jerusalem. The ruling was labeled an “arbitrary political decision” by Daniel Zeidman, the Israeli lawyer representing Palestinian residents and local councils in the areas to be affected.
Finally, banks in Gaza announced this week that they did not have the money to pay PA employees their salaries, as Israel has imposed a ban on cash transfers to Gaza banks. Despite the ban, the EU announced on December 3 that it would donate 42 million Euros to the PA to help pay salaries. The lack of pay will have a terrible impact on spirits when the normally very festive Eid Al-Adha begins next week.
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.
