Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu and three quarters of the Likud's candidates declined to sign a loyalty oath ruling out a Palestinian state that was distributed to all the parties on the Right. The oath, distributed by the Matot Arim organization, included a vow not to lend a hand to the formation of a Palestinian state. The National Union, Habayit Hayehudi, Israel Beiteinu and Shas signed the document. Shas chairman Eli Yishai signed the document on behalf of his party. Meir Porush was the only United Torah Judaism MK who made the pledge. The only candidates in the Likud's top 28 who signed the pledge or were tied to previous such pledges were Moshe Ya'alon, Yuval Steinitz, Ze'ev Elkin, Ayoub Kara, Tzipi Hotovely, Yariv Levin and Danny Danon. A similar document was distributed when former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government was formed. While there were MKs who signed it but later supported the Gaza Strip disengagement, and MKs who refused to sign it but later opposed the move, Matot Arim spokeswoman Susie Dym said there had been a direct correlation between who signed and how they voted. Ironically, Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit attacked the Likud for opposing a Palestinian state at a Kadima press conference on Monday. He called on reporters to do exactly what Matot Arim did and ask the parties whether they support a Palestinian state. Netanyahu addressed the matter in a meeting with religious-Zionist Likud supporters in Jerusalem on Monday. At the meeting, he ruled out future unilateral withdrawals. He warned about the creation of a Palestinian state but declined to rule it out. "Any Palestinian state that would be formed under the current conditions would become an Iranian state as we saw happen in Gaza," Netanyahu said. "[But] we all must work to advance peace while considering reality." Netanyahu's associates said he did not want to govern a single Palestinian, but under certain circumstances, he would agree to a state with limited sovereignty and powers. Regarding building in West Bank settlements, they said his views were no different than they were when he was prime minister, when he declined to build new settlements but allowed natural growth in those already existing. "I have no intention of building new settlements in the West Bank," Netanyahu said in a meeting with the Quartet's Middle East envoy Tony Blair on Sunday. "But like all the governments there have been until now, I will have to meet the needs of natural growth in the population. I will not be able to choke the settlements," he said.
Read More...
By: Amira Hass
Date: 27/05/2013
×
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
×
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
×
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: 02/12/2009
×
W. Bank Mayors Plan their Own Freeze to Protest Moratorium
The mayors of several Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria have found a creative way to protest Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's decision to freeze West Bank construction for 10 months. They will freeze their membership in the Likud and its central committee for that same time period. The Likud received more votes than any other party in Judea and Samaria in February's election. Many mayors of settlements are Likud central committee members, including Gush Etzion's Shaul Goldstein, Ariel's Ron Nahman, Ma'aleh Adumim's Benny Kashriel and Kiryat Arba's Malachi Levinger. Goldstein, who initiated the idea, said he regretted campaigning for Netanyahu and the Likud. "We voted Likud based on ideology, but for us, the country and our values are more important than our party affiliation," Goldstein said. "Netanyahu and most of his ministers are doing the opposite of what they promised during the campaign, so we will freeze our membership for 10 months and then reevaluate the party." Goldstein and the other mayors are waiting until after they meet with Netanyahu to announce their decision. They were supposed to meet with him on Tuesday, but the meeting was delayed due to the prime minister's illness. "We are waiting to hear reasons from Netanyahu not to leave the party," Goldstein said. Barring a change of heart due to the Netanyahu meeting, the mayors will freeze their membership and encourage the thousands of Likud members and hundreds of central committee members in Judea and Samaria to follow suit. Shevah Stern, who heads the Likud's Judea and Samaria branch, said Goldstein's idea was counterproductive to the cause of preventing the settlement freeze. "I think it's a terrible idea that will only harm the political struggle," Stern said. "I think more mayors should join Likud instead of leaving it. This is not the time for protest but for activity inside the Likud party and its central committee." Moshe Feiglin, who registered thousands of Likud members in Judea and Samaria, also slammed the idea. "I can't think of a stupider idea," Feiglin said. "This would only make Netanyahu happy. It's the best prize he could get for the freeze. Netanyahu's main problem with passing his plan to destroy Judea, Samaria, and the Golan is his own party. The only way to stop it is inside the Likud, so that front absolutely cannot be abandoned."
Date: 29/08/2009
×
PM Faces Uprising Over 'Settlement Halt'
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will return from his European trip to find that two Likud rallies have been organized to express opposition to the settlement freeze he reportedly negotiated with US envoy George Mitchell in London. The first, scheduled for Tuesday at Tel Aviv's Azrieli Tower, was organized by Minister-without-Portfolio Yossi Peled. It is not officially an anti-Netanyahu rally but rather a "pro-Jerusalem event," and yet MKs who attend are expected to bash the deal the prime minister is negotiating with the Americans. The second, set for September 9 at the Likud's Tel Aviv headquarters, openly opposes any freeze on construction in Judea and Samaria and will launch a "National Forum" in the Likud that will actively oppose concessions to the US. Three ministers have told organizers they will attend the event: Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan, Communications Minister Moshe Kahlon, and Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein. Organizers still hope to attract Vice Premier Moshe Ya'alon and Minister-without-Portfolio Bennie Begin to the rally. "We aren't pressuring ministers to come," said organizer Shevah Stern, a Likud activist from Shilo in the Binyamin Region. "We want to allow Likud activists to express their support for building in Judea and Samaria to the MKs. When judgment day comes, we will only support MKs who are with us on that." In a related matter, Pinchas Wallerstein, the director-general of the settlers' council, said on Thursday: "When Netanyahu talks of a Palestinian state, I hate it, but am not worried, because there will be no peace deal. When Netanyahu speaks about a settlement freeze, it's a death sentence for the settlement enterprise." Speaking on the 30th anniversary of the Binyamin regional council of which he was head, Wallerstein added: "There will be no construction freeze in Binyamin." National Forum member Yitzhak Klein of Ma'aleh Adumim said it was founded "to support traditional Likud policies, such as the development of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, strengthening Israel's character as a Jewish state, and reducing the power of unelected elites who wish to dilute that character." Likud MK Tzipi Hotovely, who will attend both events, said she did not believe either was a rebellion against the prime minister. "The government was formed on the basis of Judea and Samaria being legitimate and no different than Jerusalem," she said. "We must keep our campaign promises against freezing growth. We aren't trying to topple Netanyahu but to pressure him to stay loyal to what he believes in, despite international pressure." But Likud MK Danny Danon had no problem with criticizing Netanyahu personally. He condemned the prospect of restarted peace talks with the Palestinians. "The Middle East is not a Hollywood movie," Danon said. "The Americans are trying to create an imaginary partner for negotiations that is neither interested, nor able, to reach peace with Israel. "Netanyahu's surrender to American pressure on freezing construction will only lead to more demands and concessions, without receiving anything in return from the Palestinian side," he said. The prime minister could also have problems with Habayit Hayehudi, the most right-wing party in his coalition. Party chairman Daniel Herschkowitz toured Gush Etzion settlements and outposts on Thursday and expressed opposition to freezing construction there. "It is forbidden to compromise on natural growth in the settlement blocs," he said. "The right of every family to grow is natural and fundamental in a democratic society. The government should settle the legality of Jewish communities that are known as unauthorized outposts even though they were built with the government's encouragement and funding." The National Union, which is not part of the coalition, warned that Netanyahu would cave in to the United States and endanger Israelis. "The blueprints of the Auschwitz camp that Netanyahu received in Germany should remind the frightened prime minister of what [former foreign minister] Abba Eban said - that the '67 borders were Auschwitz borders. The surrendering Likud is bringing us back there," National Union MK Michael Ben-Ari said.
Date: 18/06/2009
×
PM Faces Rebellion From Likud Activists
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu received the backing of his ministers and most of the Likud faction regarding his plans for a demilitarized Palestinian state, but will have a harder time obtaining the support of the Likud central committee, party activists said on Tuesday. Top Likud central committee members have begun an effort to obtain the 1,000 signatures necessary to force an emergency meeting without the approval of Netanyahu and committee head Communications Minister Moshe Kahlon. "Netanyahu does not have a mandate to create a Palestinian state, or a demilitarized state, or whatever he wants to call it," said veteran Likud central committee member Uri Faraj, who heads the Likud's Petah Tikva branch, which is the party's largest. Faraj was one of the leaders of efforts in the central committee to prevent former prime minister and Likud leader Ariel Sharon from withdrawing from the Gaza Strip. He also helped Netanyahu pass a resolution in the Likud central committee in 2002 against the formation of a Palestinian state. He said he would have the signatures within a week, and would then present them to Netanyahu and Kahlon. If they refuse to convene the committee, as expected, he would go to internal Likud courts to force them to do so. Sources close to Netanyahu said there was a small chance he would agree to convene the committee, to get support for his plan while he still had the momentum from Sunday's speech. Likud activist Moshe Feiglin said it was tactically wrong to convene the committee until the public realized how wrong Netanyahu was. He said this would only happen after US President Barack Obama intensified pressure on Israel and showed that Netanyahu was incorrect to think that his speech could alleviate American pressure. "Netanyahu set the principle that there is room for another state, and the world will take it from there," Feiglin said. Likud MKs Danny Danon and Yariv Levin, who oppose the creation of a Palestinian state, said they opposed convening the committee, because they were afraid that Netanyahu could succeed in overturning the 2002 decision opposing such a state because of support for his speech. Two new polls published Tuesday showed that the public overwhelmingly approved of Netanyahu's speech and his conditions that a Palestinian state be demilitarized and that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state. A New Wave poll published in Israel Hayom found that 61 percent supported the plan, 23% opposed it and 16% did not have an opinion. A Dialog poll published in Haaretz found that 71% agreed with the content of the speech. In the Dialog poll, Netanyahu's approval rating jumped to 44%, up from 28% a month ago. The poll found that 67% did not think the speech would move peace closer. In the New Wave poll, 20% of respondents said their support for Netanyahu increased due to the speech, 10% said it decreased, 54% said it did not change and 16% did not know. On the settlement issue, 58% said they opposed Obama's call for a settlement freeze, including natural growth. Thirty percent supported it and 12% did not know. Asked whether they believed it was possible to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians, 64% of respondents said they did not, 29% said said they did, and 8% said they did not know.
Date: 13/06/2009
×
PM Feels he can Go Left, Keep Coalition
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu does not believe that any of the parties in his coalition would leave at this stage if his diplomatic policies shifted leftward in Sunday's address at Bar-Ilan University's Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, sources close to Netanyahu said Thursday. A look at the pressures Netanyahu is facing ahead of his policy speech on Sunday The sources said the Right learned lessons from toppling right-wing governments in the past, including Netanyahu's first administration, which led to left-wing governments that expedited diplomatic negotiations with the Palestinians and Syria. They said that from his meetings with coalition partners, Netanyahu got the impression that they understood the pressure he was under from US President Barack Obama's administration and the need to maintain close ties with America ahead of key decisions that would have to be made regarding Iran. Netanyahu will meet with on Friday with the three MKs of Habayit Hayehudi, who consider themselves the most right-wing faction in the coalition. Regardless of what happens with the Right, Netanyahu is expected to publicly call for Kadima to join the coalition in the days after Sunday's speech. Sources close to Netanyahu admitted that the prime minister did not believe that Kadima leader Tzipi Livni would be willing to bring her party into the coalition no matter what he would say in his speech. They said a call to Kadima to join would only be intended to cause tension inside Kadima that they hope could lead to an eventual split in the party. Within the next two week, the Likud will formally propose the so-called "Mofaz bill," which would make it easier for the former Likud minister to break off from Kadima and return to his former party. The current law requires the support of a third of a faction to split it. In Kadima's case, that would mean 10 MKs. The "Mofaz bill" would require only seven MKs. A Kadima MK said that even if Netanyahu shifted sharply leftward, Livni would use any excuse not to join the coalition, because she believes that if she remained opposition leader, the Prime Minister's Office would eventually fall into her hands. Several Kadima MKs have said in private conversations that they were still hoping to join the coalition, but only Shaul Mofaz and Ronit Tirosh have said so publicly. Army Radio reported on Thursday that Netanyahu and Mofaz intended to meet secretly but canceled it after their report was broadcast. Mofaz denied the report. "If in the speech, Netanyahu says he would act according to the road map and he recognized the need for two states for two peoples, then he would be accepting Kadima's views and there would be no reason to remain outside the coalition," Tirosh said. "I don't know why others in the faction are afraid to say so publicly." A leftward shift by Netanyahu could also reunite the Labor Party, where five rebel MKs have protested entering the government. Labor sources said the rebels, whose battle against Labor chairman Ehud Barak was personal, would not come on board but more ideological rebels could come in line. "If the prime minister accepts the Annapolis process and starts a true path to peace, we would certainly support it," a spokesman for one of the rebel MKs said. "We couldn't go against the government or the party if that's what happens. We have to put the country first." A leftward shift would have the opposite affect inside Netanyahu's Likud faction, where 20 MKs have come out against a Palestinian state. The only Likud MKs who would back him if he backed a Palestinian state are Dan Meridor, Michael Eitan, Silvan Shalom, Yossi Peled, Haim Katz and Carmel Shama. Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein, who is one of the Likud's leading opponents of a Palestinian state, said he did not believe that Netanyahu would call for the formation of such a state at Bar-Ilan. Edelstein said the current situation was different than what happened with former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, because leftist Likud MKs left to Kadima, Netanyahu's background was different than Sharon's and because of the bad experiences of the Gaza Strip withdrawal. "He has to somehow find a formula that would keep the diplomatic process going without saying two-state solution," Edelstein said. "He's a bright man. Even with the pressure he is under, I doubt he would say something like that."
Contact us
Rimawi Bldg, 3rd floor
14 Emil Touma Street, Al Massayef, Ramallah Postalcode P6058131
Mailing address:
P.O.Box 69647 Jerusalem
Palestine
972-2-298 9490/1 972-2-298 9492 info@miftah.org
All Rights Reserved © Copyright,MIFTAH 2023
Subscribe to MIFTAH's mailing list
|