The news of the hour was the resignation of Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad around noon March 7. According to the resignation letter submitted to President Mahmoud Abbas, Fayyad said he and his caretaker government were stepping aside to allow the creation of a unity government with the other Palestinian factions.
The resignation, while sudden, was not unexpected, given that Hamas and Fateh along with the other 14 Palestinian factions decided last month in Cairo to form a new transitional government. Last week, the members of the five committees set up for this purpose were announced and according to the parties involved their work will begin on March 10. Egypt, which is acting in the role of facilitator to these talks, says it wants the committees to come to a final agreement before the Arab Summit in Doha at the end of this month. The committees will tackle five critical issues, which have been points of contention between Hamas and Fateh for nearly two years: the formation of the transitional government, security, the PLO, elections and Palestinian reconciliation.
Fayyad's announcement comes days after the conclusion of the Sharm Al Sheikh Summit on Gaza's reconstruction. The summit, which was held on March 2, hosted representatives of 70 countries and focused on ways to rebuild Gaza following Israel's 22-day invasion. While donor countries pledged a total of $5.2 billion, they also stressed on the importance of Palestinian reconciliation and finding a political solution to the conflict.
A day earlier in the Egyptian resort town, President Abbas stressed just this. He said the reconstruction and renovation efforts would be severely lacking without a political solution. Abbas also announced that legislative and presidential elections would be held at the beginning of next year.
Prime Minister Fayyad also said on the same day that for the Palestinians' crisis to end, so must Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attended the Sharm Al Sheikh Conference and pledged a $900 million package to the Palestinian Authority and the reconstruction of Gaza. Afterwards, Clinton traveled to Israel where she met with her counterpart Tzipi Livni and Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu on March 3. During her meetings with Israel's leaders, Clinton reiterated the United States' strong support of Israel and also stressed its right to defend itself against Hamas' rockets from the Gaza Strip.
The next day, the Secretary of State held meetings with the Palestinian President and later traveled to Amideast to meet with Palestinian students and reiterate the United States' interest in Palestinian education.
Following their meeting, President Abbas stressed that any new Israeli government must respect the two-state solution, previously signed agreements and the roadmap. Halting settlement construction was also a principle demand Abbas said, to restart negotiations. Otherwise, he added, Israel could not be considered a partner for peace. On her part, Clinton said the US administration was "determined" to move forward in peace efforts, calling the recent demolition orders in Jerusalem "unhelpful" and in contravention of roadmap commitments. In terms of the Palestinians, Clinton said the move towards the two-state solution was "inescapable."
Still, Clinton did not steer too far away from US foreign policy in the Middle East, reiterating her country's refusal to deal with Hamas if the latter does not abide by the Quartet's conditions, which are the recognition of Israel and the renunciation of "terror". Clinton said the US would not deal with any newly formed unity government that includes Hamas unless it abided by the aforementioned conditions.
Apparently, the US is less concerned with Israel's violations of peace agreements and international law for that matter. According to the British magazine the Guardian, an EU report dated December 18, 2008 says Israel is "actively pursuing the illegal annexation" of East Jerusalem. The Guardian, which published parts of the report on March 6, said the EU document accuses Israel of using settlement expansion, the security barrier in the West Bank, Palestinian house demolitions and discriminatory housing policies to gain control over East Jerusalem.
In this last week, there was much Israeli activity to corroborate this assumption. On March 6, Israeli authorities ordered the demolition of more than 20 homes in the West Bank villages of Burin and Aqqaba. Residents there received the notices on March 2. Last month, Israeli authorities ordered the demolition of 88 homes in east Jerusalem's Silwan quarter housing 1,500 people along with 12 residential and farming buildings in Al-Baqa’a in the Hebron area.
Furthermore, on March 3, 55 demolition orders were handed to residents of Ras Khamis near the Shufat Refugee Camp in east Jerusalem and on March 5, 36 families were handed demolition orders in Al Abbasiyeh quarter of Silwan. The residents were given 10 days to evict. On March 2, two homes were demolished in Sur Baher and Silwan.
Hundreds of Muslims held Friday prayers on March 6 in the Bustan quarter of Silwan and Ras Khamis in solidarity with the families there being threatened with home demolitions. In the Friday sermon at Al Aqsa Mosque Sheikh Ikrama Sabri called on the people not to accept any compensation for their homes from Israel and to remain steadfast on their land.
On March 2, the Israeli left wing organization Peace Now issued a report revealing an Israeli plan to double the number of settlers in the West Bank. According to the report, Israel plans to build 73,000 new housing units in already existing settlements.
Oddly, outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert seems to have stumbled upon a fact that he failed to see during his stint as Israel's leader. On March 6, Olmert said to a crowd of Israelis in a kibbutz that no peace agreement would ever be reached unless Jerusalem was divided. Such statements will surely meet strong opposition by any future right-wing Israeli government.
Olmert is having his say, no doubt, before leaving office. On March 1 he vowed that Israel would deliver Hamas a harsh response if they continued to fire rockets into Israel, citing 11 rocket attacks in the course of a week. No causalities or damages were reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Livni voiced similar sentiments on March 3, saying, "If Hamas did not get the message the first time we will strike it again."
It is not as if Israel has halted its attacks on the Gaza Strip anyway. On March 7, Islamic Jihad activist Mahmoud Fattouh 25, was killed in an Israeli air strike near Beit Lahiya. Two others were injured.
On March 5, three Palestinians were killed east of Al Maghazi refugee camp in a series of Israeli air strikes. Waseem Mansour 36, Mahmoud Abu Saleh 23 and Ibrahim Bamya 22 all died in the attack.
In yet another series of air strikes on March 2, five Palestinians were injured on March 2. Several houses in the Rafah area were also damaged when Israel targeted underground tunnels there. At least two men are still missing.
On March 5, a 25-year old resident of Jerusalem's Beit Hanina quarter drove a bulldozer into an Israeli police car in the western sector of the city. Two Israeli police officers were injured in the incident along with three bystanders and a taxi driver. Miri Radaida was shot several times by an Israeli policeman and was pronounced dead on the scene. His family says their son's actions were not politically motivated, calling it an accident, while Israeli media and officials were quick to brand it a "terrorist attack."
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.
