On October 28, President Mahmoud Abbas announced that the Palestinians have seven options should negotiations with Israel fail. Their first choice would be asking the United Nations to recognize a Palestinian state. Abbas' statements came during a conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit in Ramallah, adding that the move would be taken within the coming few months.
While Abbas warned that the Palestinians would demand that the US take a stance on recognizing the borders of a future Palestine before resorting to the UN, he also said he remained committed to direct talks with Israel as his first option. "Our options are consecutive," he explained. "The first is to return to direct talks in the event Israel stops all settlement building".
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not warmed up to this declaration however. In Tel Aviv, while meeting with US Senator Joe Lieberman, Netanyahu rejected the UN option and called on Abbas to return to direct negotiations as the "only method" to achieve Palestinian statehood.
"As long as the Palestinians think they have a unilateral option to go to the Security Council, they are violating commitments to engage seriously in direct talks," he said. "The international community should make clear to the Palestinians that direct negotiation is the only method for achieving a real and stable peace agreement."
Netanyahu capped off his statements by saying settlement building – which the Palestinians cite as the major obstacle to reaching a final deal – would not interfere in peace efforts. "Construction in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] will not affect the peace map. It is important to focus on the real issues," he said.
Obviously, for Netanyahu and right-wing Israelis, settlements are the real issues, at least expanding them as fast as possible. On June 27, the Settlements Council announced it was planning to construct 4,321 new settlement units in 10 settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank. Head of the Council Dani Dayan said the construction maps are ready waiting for ratification from Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
The plan sounds about right, if the October 24 approval of a bill by the Israeli Ministerial Committee on Legislative Affairs is taken into consideration. The bill defines Jerusalem as a "national priority area" of the first order in the areas of housing, employment and education sectors. In practical terms, this means construction in the city will be given priority including in east Jerusalem. Demolition orders handed to Palestinian families in Silwan on October 25 seem to be right in line with Israel's national priority.
Meanwhile, Israel is up in arms at a UNESCO decision to define the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron and the Bilal Ibn Rabah Mosque in Bethlehem as holy sites of the Palestinian territories. In reference to the latter, the statement issued by the UN body reaffirmed that the site was, "an integral part of the occupied Palestinian territories and that any unilateral action by the Israeli authorities is to be considered a violation of international law." UNESCO's executive board also expressed concern over Israel's "ongoing Israeli excavations and archaeological works" at the Aqsa Mosque compound.
Netanyahu lashed out that the decision was "absurd" saying it was an attempt to "detach the people of Israel from its heritage." Israel only recently declared both sites, holy to Muslims, as Israeli heritage sites, a move that drew sharp criticism from the Palestinians.
On the up side of things, Culture Minister Osama Issawi showed appreciation on October 28 for the decision by Arab ministers, meeting in Doha, Qatar, to adopt Jerusalem as the permanent capital of Arab culture.
While one UN agency was praised this week by the Palestinians another was strongly criticized for the statements of one of its high-ranking officials. Last week Andrew Whitley, New York director of UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugee affairs, said at a National Council for US-Arab Relations that Palestinian refugees needed to start "debating their own role in the societies where they are rather than being left in a state of limbo where they are helpless."
He said the refugees, who continue to adhere to their demand to the right of return, should "not be allowed to preserve the cruel illusions that perhaps they will return one day to their homes. “It’s not a politically palatable issue," he maintained.
Both the PLO and Hamas strongly criticized Whitely's statements on October 27, calling it "dangerous" and demanding that Whitely apologize. Dr. Zakaria al-Agha, head of the refugees file in the PLO, retorted that Whitley should have demanded that Israel implement UN resolutions [allowing the refugees the right to return to their homes]. Hamas went a step further and demanded that Whitely be discharged from his post. Jordan, which hosts a large part of Palestine's refugee population, also criticized Whitley's statements. Wajih Azaizeh, who directs Jordan's Palestinian Affairs Department called the remarks, which included the notion of Arab country's resettling the refugees, "irresponsible."
Hamas and Fateh, meanwhile, said on October 29 that they would meet in Damascus to discuss reconciliation. On October 27, Hamas PLC member Omar Abdelrazeq even said the two sides had mutually decided to stop all political arrests in the West Bank immediately after any reconciliation agreement is reached.
Inside the 1948 borders Palestinian-Israelis clashed with extremist right-wing Israelis who took to the streets of Um al Fahem on October 27. Dozens of Palestinians were arrested and injured after they threw stones and entered into scuffles with the right wingers, who were protesting the participation of Islamic leader Sheikh Raed Salah in the Turkish freedom flotilla into Gaza last May. The protesters were calling for the government to outlaw the Islamic movement of which Saleh is head. A day later Um Al Fahem observed a general in protest of police brutality used against the Palestinian protesters.
Right wing Israelis found another venue this week to voice their extremism. On October 26, hundreds of Kahana supporters gathered in a west Jerusalem hotel to hold a memorial service for the extremist right wing Rabbi Meir Kahana who was assassinated 20 years ago. The attendees pledged their support for the late Rabbi, whose movement was outlawed in Israel for its terrorist activities against Palestinians and vowed that they would destroy any "Ishmael [Palestinian] state" that might be built.
PLO Executive Committee member and chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said President Abbas welcomed the outcome of the Catholic Synod meetings on October 24. In its final statement, the Catholic representatives called for an end to the Israeli occupation saying, "The Palestinian people will thus have an independent and sovereign homeland where they can live with dignity and security." The synod, which represents the bishops and patriarchs of the region's Catholic churches, urged the UN and the international community to "conscientiously work to find a peaceful, just and definitive solution in the region."
The synod also said Israel cannot use the Biblical concept of a promised land or a chosen people to justify new settlements in Jerusalem or territorial claims. "We have meditated on the situation of the holy city of Jerusalem. We are anxious about the unilateral initiatives that threaten its composition and risk to change its demographic balance," it said.
Israel, of course, did not take the criticism well, accusing the Vatican gathering of having become a “forum for political attacks on Israel in the best history of Arab propaganda.”
Finally, one Palestinian was killed and three injured on October 27 from Israeli tank shell fire in Jabalya. Jihad Sobhi Afaneh, 20 from Al Quds Brigades was killed when Israeli troops fired at three people near the border.
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.
