Protests throughout the West Bank over rising fuel and commodity prices have swept major West Bank cities, with protesters calling for the resignation of the government and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
On September 6, Fayyad, who has come under fire by protesters and some say by Fatah, addressed the nation in a press conference. Countering President Mahmoud Abbas’ characterization of the economic protests as the “start of the Palestinian Spring” Fayyad said it was no such thing.
"We will not reproduce the Arab Spring here, because we are not a state," he said.
A day later, Fayyad posted on his official Facebook account to address concerns.
"We cannot fix the prices of goods because their demand will be increased with less supply ... This might expose traders to lose their money," he wrote.
"Importing oil from other countries, is a good proposal, but will not lead to lower prices," he said, while insisting that the PA continues to sell fuel below market rates.
He also wrote: "I know we are going through a difficult time, and I hope this will be fixed as soon as possible."
Amid calls for his resignation, the PM played it cool and smart. On September 6 he said he would resign if that was the “will of the people,” but warned that replacing figures was not the solution to the financial crisis; rather a new economic strategy was needed. He also partially blamed Israel’s restrictions on Palestinians as one reason for the paralyzed economic growth, even though he said he was “hurt “by the demands for his removal.
The protests, which took place in Hebron, Ramallah and Bethlehem, took a disturbing turn this week with three attempts at self-immolation. On September 2, Ehab Abu Nada, 18, who had been looking for a job in vain, doused himself in petrol and set himself on fire in front of Gaza City's Shifa Hospital. He died on the same day.
"He left to seek work and he did not come back. My heart was shattered," his father told a local radio station.
On September 3 Hasan Qahwaji tried to set himself and his six-year-old daughter on fire in Ramallah. Luckily, bystanders stopped him before he was detained by police.
Local sources said Qahwaji could not afford his daughter's cancer treatment, although President Abbas' office said he had received financial support from the PA and other sources including treatment for his daughter in Jordan.
Then on September 4, in Hebron, 42-year-old Khaled Abu Rabee entered a municipality building and covered himself in gasoline. He was also stopped by a security guard before setting himself alight.
On September 6, taxi drivers, held a two and a half hour strike during the morning rush hour, causing chaos and delays. Protesters have been calling on the PA to abolish the Paris Protocol, which they said was largely to Israel’s benefit.
Between September 5 and 6, six Palestinians including two brothers have been killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, which Israel said was a response to rocket fire from the Strip. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said the airstrikes were "unjustified," and came after Egyptian President Mohammad Mursi delivered a speech affirming his support for the Palestinian cause.
"Muhammad Mursi and the Arab League supported the Palestinian people," Barhoum said. "Israel's attacks are aimed at testing the Arab position."
On September 7, three Palestinian refugees were killed in the Yarmouk Camp in Damascus during Syrian army shelling. The killings came one day after an UNRWA employee and his son were killed in their home on al-Jaouna street, both Palestinian refugees.
At least nine Palestinian refugees were among 20 people killed on September 6, local sources said.
Also on September 6, security services said they have detained suspects believed to be behind the shooting death of Hisham al-Rukh, a senior security commander in Jenin earlier in the week.
"There are some suspects who were detained for investigation, and there are security organizations working with us in the investigation process," Adnan al-Dmeiri said.
Meanwhile, Israeli settlers kept up their rampages in the West Bank. On September 7,
settlers set fire to around 130 olive and almond trees in the northern West Bank village of Qaryout, local sources said.
Residents of the Immanuel settlement set the orchards ablaze while residents were at Friday prayers.
On September 2, Israeli settlers took over a room in the Hamdallah home in Ras Al Amoud under tight Israeli police and army protection. Peace Now warned that the move was a precursor for a larger settlement plan in the area, including the construction of 20 new housing units on the ruins of the entire house.
On September 5, European Union representatives said they were concerned by the rising number and severity of "continuous settler violence and deliberate provocations against Palestinian civilians." The EU missions in Jerusalem and Ramallah called on Israel to prevent settler violence, protect Palestinians, and bring perpetrators to justice.
A boat carrying immigrants sunk on September 6 just tens of meters off of Turkey's western Aegean coast. According to sources from the Palestinian embassy in Turkey, around 12 Palestinians survived but it was still unclear as to how many were among the casualties. Over 60 migrants were killed when the overcrowded boat sank.
Finally, on September 5, Democrats reinstated language into the party platform declaring Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel. The move came after Republicans accused them of showing weak support for Israel. A Democratic official said the reinstatement of the term reflected the “personal view of President Barack Obama.”
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.
