Direct talks between Palestinians and Israelis are still on hold as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continued to reject the notion of extending a settlement freeze despite a handsome US military "incentives package" put forth last week. The proposal has reportedly been officially offered to the Israelis, who are still mulling over it. The premier did seem positive however, about the idea of receiving 20 stealth F-35 planes in exchange for a mere 90 days of West Bank settlement freeze, maintaining that he was "sure the ministers would approve it since it is what is good for the State of Israel."
Tensions between the two sides were further heightened on November 23 when the Knesset ratified the so-called "Referendum on Withdrawal" Law, which stipulates that any political decision to withdraw from Jerusalem and the Golan Heights must either receive a two-thirds Knesset majority vote or would be put to a national referendum so as to "prevent ratifying an irresponsible agreement."
Palestinians gawked at the move, saying it was a way to obstruct peace. "The Israelis want to tell the whole world that they will not withdraw from Jerusalem or the Golan," President Mahmoud Abbas said.
Amid the uproar, the US played its expected card, with the State Department releasing press statement on November 24 saying that a referendum was an "internal Israeli matter".
In any case, such a move is a long way off since even a freeze of illegal settlements in the West Bank has not yet been established. On the contrary, Jewish settlers have taken additional steps this week to consolidate their presence in the occupied Palestinian territories including the announcement on November 26 of a possible rail link between Ariel, one of the largest northern West Bank settlements, and the Tel Aviv area. While the project is still supposedly "under consideration", the Hebrew daily Maariv claims NIS3 million had already been allocated for a feasibility study. Netanyahu has repeatedly insisted that Ariel would be annexed to Israel should a peace deal be signed. The rail link would only further solidify a Jewish presence on occupied land given the additional land confiscation and resources it would require.
On November 24, Jewish settlers seized yet another building in occupied east Jerusalem, this time in the neighborhood of Jabal Al Mukabber, evicting three families from their homes under the protection of Israeli army and police forces.
In the West Bank, demolitions were carried out in the southern West Bank town of Yatta. The 250 square meter home was razed to the ground on November 25, leaving 25 family members without shelter. Israeli civil administration authorities said the apartment building had been constructed without the proper licensing. Local officials say more than 30 other homes in the area have been handed out demolition orders, all of which are located near the Karmeil settlement, slated for expansion.
On the same day, Israeli forces demolished 10 homes in the Tubas area in the northern West Bank district of Tubas in addition to a mosque in the village of Yasra.
On November 21, the Israeli daily Haaretz ran a story on Jewish settlers turning natural springs in the West Bank into tourist sites and barring Palestinians from reaching them. According to the article, Hebrew signs have been posted near many of the springs, some reading, "Death to the Arabs". Many of these springs, like the Ein Arik spring, which has also been taken over by Jewish settlers, are a fundamental source of ground water for Palestinian crops.
A controversy on the political level arose this week when a Palestinian Authority official released a five-page report on November 24 claiming that Jerusalem's Old City Western Wall was not a Jewish site and was only sacred to the Muslims, or what they call Al Buraq Wall. Thus, the area must be part of Palestinian Jerusalem, it said.
Israeli officials have been up in arms over the report, with Prime Minister Netanyahu calling it a "distortion of historical facts."
The now infamous report was penned by Deputy Minister of Information Mutwakil Taha in light of Israel's November 21 approval of an NIS 85 million ($23 million) five-year renovation plan for the Western Wall area, a move to which the Palestinian Authority is strongly opposed. "Any Israeli activity in the occupied part of Jerusalem is illegal," PA spokesman Ghassan Khatib said. "It's not healthy as far as the peace process is concerned because peace requires the end of the occupation of east Jerusalem," he added.
European Union Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton expressed her discontent with the status quo in the Gaza Strip on November 22, complaining that Israel had failed to live up to its commitments on easing the blockade on the Strip. Ashton said Israel had promised to ease its grip on Gaza in June, soon after the international uproar over the Turkish flotilla fiasco that left nine Turks dead. Five months later, she said, nothing has changed. "Gaza remains a source of great concern for me ... at the present time, we think that what's happened with Gaza is unsatisfactory, the volume of goods is not increasing as significantly as it needs to," she said, speaking on behalf of all EU foreign ministers.
Finally, President Mahmoud Abbas officially opened the PLO headquarters in Ramallah on November 23. During the inauguration ceremony, the president vowed that the headquarters in Ramallah would be temporary. "The time will come when we will move them to Jerusalem, the capital of an independent Palestinian state."
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.
