Israel on August 6 accused Hamas of being responsible for the rocket attacks on Eilat and Aqaba on August 2, saying the commander of its military wing ordered them. Hamas, however, has denied the accusations, saying its organization only operates inside Palestine. On August 5, Hamas' military wing, the Ezzedin Al Qassam Brigades released a statement saying it was not involved on any level in the rocket attacks, which killed one Jordanian citizen.
"Military acts from the resistance are carried out inside of Palestine," spokesman for the brigades Abu Obeida said. Jordanian and Israeli sources speculated that the rockets were fired from within Egyptian territory, from the Sinai. However, Egyptian government source have also denied this.
On August 3, clashes on the Lebanese-Israeli border broke out near the village of Adasiyyeh when Israeli soldiers there apparently crossed the Blue Line border in disregard to warnings by both UNIFIL and the Lebanese army. The clashes left three Lebanese soldiers and one journalist killed along with one Israeli colonel. Israel has since tried to cast blame for the clashes with Lebanon, reportedly calling for the discharge of the Lebanese company commander.
The situation inside of Palestine was no quieter. Jewish settlers in the West Bank continued their attacks on Palestinians and foreign peace activists throughout the week. On August 6, settlers in Hebron attacked two international peace activists in the Buwaira neighborhood east of the city, where the foreigners had come to protect Palestinians and their olive trees from being cut down and attacked by Israelis.
According to eyewitnesses and the activists, three masked settlers attacked and beat the two internationals, taking their passports and cameras before fleeing the scene. Canadian national Peter Cunliffe, 26 and Koba Soernesen, 23 from Denmark were both seriously beaten. Cunliffe was later treated for a broken nose.
On August 5, settlers from Itimar, an infamous Jewish settlement in the Nablus-area known for their frequent and brutal attacks on Palestinians, set fire to hundreds of dunams of land in the village of Beit Fourik. The fires damaged dozens of fig and almond trees along with several grape vines.
In the Gaza Strip on August 1, rockets were fired into the Israeli town of Sderot, causing no injuries. While a Salafi group claimed responsibility for the rocket fire, Israel continued to put blame on Hamas, saying Israel would retaliate to protect its citizens.
True to its word, Israel shelled the Gaza Strip on August 2, injuring 42 people when it targeted the home of a Hamas military leader. On August 3, in continued shelling, 22-year-old Shareef Al Deir was killed east of Khan Younis while two others were injured.
In Sheikh Jarrah on August 6, approximately 1,000 people made their way to the Palestinian east Jerusalem neighborhood where Jewish settlers have taken over several homes. This week's demonstration marked one year since Israeli authorities began evicting Palestinians from their homes on claims of Jewish ownership. A similar demonstration took place in Tel Aviv calling for a removal of the settlers from the Palestinian homes.
On a happier note, an Israeli court ruled on August 1 to allow the Qirresh family to return to their home from which they were expelled by Jewish settlers last week. The Qirresh family, who lives in the Old City, slept the night in the street when settlers threw them out.
Still, the settlement enterprise is alive and well, despite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's so-called 10-month freeze on construction. According to the Israeli Peace Now movement on August 1, there have been 492 violations of the freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank since its inception eight months ago. A report issued by the movement said the government had built 603 housing units in settlements overall since the declaration to freeze settlement activities.
Furthermore, on August 2, the West Jerusalem municipality approved the building of 40 new housing units in a settlement quarter in east Jerusalem.
What's more, on August 4, Israeli municipal authorities in Jerusalem razed Muslim tombstones, which they claimed were built there "illegally" in the Ma'man Allah (Mamilla) cemetery in what is now west Jerusalem. The cemetery dates back to the 12th century and is said to be the final resting place of prominent Muslim leaders and their descendents. According to the Aqsa Foundation for Waqf and Heritage, 15 tombstones and structures were torn down.
This latest step comes after the disinterment of over 1,500 graves in 2009 to make way for the "Museum of Tolerance." The cemetery was an active burial ground up until 1948 when Israel was established. The move has caused controversy and Muslim and Arab anger over the desecration. Rashid Khalidi, a Palestinian academic and professor at the Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University told the Palestinian press that, "As far as the Israeli authorities are concerned, some graves merit respect, and some do not. Those of our ancestors in this cemetery, going back in some cases for many hundreds of years, obviously do not."
On a final but positive note, the northern West Bank city of Jenin celebrated the reopening of its cinema on August 5 with a three-day film festival. The cinema, which was closed during the first Intifada in the late eighties, was remodeled over the past two years. A café, a children's park and a library are all part of the cinema complex.
Bianca Jagger, human rights activist and former wife of American rocker Mick Jagger attended the opening ceremony. "It is for me a pleasure to see that there's now reason for hope, for a future for Palestinians here," Jagger said. In 2002, the activist first came to Jenin after Israel's invasion into the city and refugee camp and said she was "shocked" by the destruction.
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.
