The story of the hour has been the documentary film broadcast by Al Jazeera on July 3 which indicates that late President Yasser Arafat died of polonium poisoning. The investigation has caused a flurry of reactions, not least of all by the Palestinians themselves. President Mahmoud Abbas, amid criticisms that the PA had somehow failed to give sufficient attention to Arafat’s mysterious death, immediately ordered a new investigation with Arab and international expertise to look into Al Jazeera’s findings.
On July 5, Arafat’s nephew and head of the Yasser Arafat Foundation, Nasser al-Qudwa met with President Abbas in Paris to discuss the new allegations that Arafat was poisoned with the radioactive element polonium-210 in 2004. Al Qudwa said the late president's body would be exhumed if necessary to determine the true cause of his death.
The Palestinian Authority also said it would approve Arafat’s widow Suha Arafat's request to exhume his body for an autopsy. While fingers continue to point at Israel as the main culprit in the poison theory, Israel has remained adamant that it had nothing to do with Abu Ammar’s death.
In related news Tunisia called for Arab ministers to meet to discuss the death of President Arafat, a senior official in the Arab League said on July 5. Tunisia has a particular interest in the case given that one of Arafat’s personal physicians is Tunisian and has now said he would participate in any international probe into the mysterious circumstances of the president’s sudden demise. The Palestinians say that after the poison theory is proven they want to pursue those behind the assassination and bring them to justice.
Meanwhile, inside the Palestinian territories, reconciliation efforts have come to a screeching halt yet again with Hamas on July 2 suddenly announcing that the Central Committee Elections would not be allowed to begin voter registration in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas officials claimed that the increase in arrests of Hamas members in the West Bank meant that Hamas affiliates could not register to vote or hold party meetings to prepare for elections. Mahmoud Zahhar, one of Hamas’ more hawkish leaders, accused Fatah of planning electoral fraud. He said the Central Elections Commission was dominated by Fatah members, thus allowing Fatah to supervise the electoral process.
The PLO officials met in Ramallah the same evening to discuss Hamas' decision. The meeting, headed by President Abbas, called the move an "unjustifiable decision which contradicts with all agreements reached in Cairo and Doha."
"The Palestinian leadership is surprised by Hamas’ behavior which will impede the first step towards reconciliation, and return us to a tense atmosphere, which we had moved on from," a statement released after the meeting said.
On July 5, UN envoy Robert Serry travelled to the CEC headquarters in Gaza. Serry called on Hamas to reconsider its decision, saying it was "very disappointing as both Palestinian reconciliation and the democratic renewal of institutions in the occupied Palestinian territory were long overdue."
He called on those responsible "to reverse the suspension and allow the CEC to resume this vital process without further delay."
On July 7, CEC official Jamil Al-Khalidi, said they were continuing to exert efforts to reopen voter registration in Gaza, saying that several Palestinian factions along with Egypt were communicating with Hamas to reverse its decision. However, no progress has been made so far.
On July 6, the United Nations named French judge Christine Chanet as the leader of a Human Rights Council team of three experts who will investigate whether Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories violate human rights law. This of course was met with immediate Israeli rejection. "The establishment of this mission is another blatant expression of the singling out of Israel in the UNHRC," an Israeli foreign ministry statement said.
"This fact-finding mission will find no co-operation in Israel, and its members will not be allowed to enter Israel and the Territories." But even if the team could enter and investigators conclude that settlements violate human rights law, the US will most likely stop any attempt to impose punishment on Israel.
Settlements are and continue to be the biggest threat to peace. On July 2, Richard Falk, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian Territories, said in a press conference that the acceleration of settlement building had "closed the book" on the feasibility of a two-state solution.
"The Palestinian position gets weaker and weaker through time and the Israelis get more and more of a fait accompli through their unlawful activities," he said. On July 5, OXFAM also released a report named “On the Brink’ calling on the EU to pressure Israel into halting settlement construction, which it said threatens the future viability of a Palestinian state.
Israel has other plans, though. On July 5, Israeli military authorities announced that work would resume on the West Bank separation wall within a few weeks. The High Court of Justice approved the renewed work in the Gush Etzion and Jerusalem areas, also approving work in the Ma’aleh Adumim settlement area, scheduled to begin in 2013.
Settlers, meanwhile, continue to wreak havoc for the Palestinians. On July 5, Jewish settlers uprooted 120 olive trees in the village of Yitma and took over five dunams of agricultural land in Khader near Bethlehem. A day earlier, Jewish settlers took over more land in the Jordan valley to expand the settlements of Rotem and Bracha. And in Husan, near Bethlehem, four locals were served eviction orders for plots of land near the Bitar Illit settlement in the area.
On July 3, around 1,000 Palestinians demonstrated in Ramallah opposing negotiations with Israel and the Oslo Accords signed in 1993. The demonstration ended quietly, perhaps because of criticism of the PA’s crackdown on last week’s demonstrations in Ramallah against Shaul Mofaz’ cancelled visit. On July 1, a day after the first crackdown, another demonstration at the Muqata was met with a violent response from PA security services, ending in five people being treated for broken bones.
On July 3, a spokesman for EUPOL COPPS, an EU mission that has been training Palestinian police since 2006, told the Palestinian media network Maan that the European Union was "concerned" at the reports of the use of excessive force.
"In its bilateral dialogue and cooperation with the Palestinian Authority the EU continually stresses the necessity to uphold international human rights standards and respect fundamental freedoms, in particular the right to peaceful protest and demonstration and freedom of expression and the media," Benoit Cusin said.
Cusin said the EU would continue its training but based on the rule of law, adding that the EU welcomed the decision of the Palestinian Authority to establish a committee to investigate the incidents."
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.
