Abir Dandis, the mother of the two girls who were murdered in the Negev town of Al-Fura’a last week, couldn't find a police officer to listen to her warnings, neither in Arad nor in Ma’ale Adumim. Both police stations operate in areas where Israel wants to gather the Bedouin into permanent communities, against their will, in order to clear more land for Jewish communities. The dismissive treatment Dandis received shows how the Bedouin are considered simply to be lawbreakers by their very nature. But as a resident of the West Bank asking for help for her daughters, whose father was Israeli, Dandis faced the legal-bureaucratic maze created by the Oslo Accords.

The Palestinian police is not allowed to arrest Israeli civilians. It must hand suspects over to the Israel Police. The Palestinian police complain that in cases of Israelis suspected of committing crimes against Palestinian residents, the Israel Police tend not to investigate or prosecute them.

In addition, the town of Al-Azaria, where Dandis lives, is in Area B, under Palestinian civilian authority and Israeli security authority. According to the testimony of Palestinian residents, neither the IDF nor the Israel Police has any interest in internal Palestinian crime even though they have both the authority and the obligation to act in Area B.

The Palestinian police are limited in what it can do in Area B. Bringing in reinforcements or carrying weapons in emergency situations requires coordination with, and obtaining permission from, the IDF. If Dandis fears that the man who murdered her daughters is going to attack her as well, she has plenty of reason to fear that she will not receive appropriate, immediate police protection from either the Israelis or the Palestinians.

Dandis told Jack Khoury of Haaretz that the Ma’ale Adumim police referred her to the Palestinian Civil Affairs Coordination and Liaison Committee. Theoretically, this committee (which is subordinate to the Civil Affairs Ministry) is the logical place to go for such matters. Its parallel agency in Israel is the Civilian Liaison Committee (which is part of the Coordination and Liaison Administration - a part of the Civil Administration under the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories).

In their meetings, they are supposed to discuss matters such as settlers’ complaints about the high volume of the loudspeakers at mosques or Palestinians’ complaints about attacks by settlers. But the Palestinians see the Liaison Committee as a place to submit requests for permission to travel to Israel, and get the impression that its clerks do not have much power when faced with their Israeli counterparts. In any case, the coordination process is cumbersome and long.

The Palestinian police has a family welfare unit, and activists in Palestinian women’s organizations say that in recent years, its performance has improved. But, as stated, it has no authority over Israeli civilians and residents. Several non-governmental women’s groups also operate in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem, and women in similar situations approach them for help. The manager of one such organization told Haaretz that Dandis also fell victim to this confusing duplication of procedures and laws. Had Dandis approached her, she said, she would have referred her to Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, which has expertise in navigating Israel’s laws and authorities.

John Kerry revealed his long-awaited plan for peace in the Middle East on Sunday, hinging on a $4bn (£2.6bn) investment in the Palestinian private sector.

The US secretary of state, speaking at the World Economic Forum on the Jordanian shores of the Dead Sea, told an audience including Israeli president Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas that an independent Palestinian economy is essential to achieving a sustainable peace.

Speaking under the conference banner "Breaking the Impasse", Kerry announced a plan that he promised would be "bigger, bolder and more ambitious" than anything since the Oslo accords, more than 20 years ago.

Tony Blair is to lead a group of private sector leaders in devising a plan to release the Palestinian economy from its dependence on international donors. The initial findings of Blair's taskforce, Kerry boasted, were "stunning", predicting a 50% increase in Palestinian GDP over three years, a cut of two-thirds in unemployment rates and almost double the Palestinian median wage. Currently, 40% of the Palestinian economy is supplied by donor aid.

Kerry assured Abbas that the economic plan was not a substitute for a political solution, which remains the US's "top priority".

Peres, who had taken the stage just minutes before, also issued a personal plea to his Palestinian counterpart to return to the negotiations.

"Let me say to my dear friend President Abbas," Peres said, "Should we really dance around the table? Lets sit together. You'll be surprised how much can be achieved in open, direct and organised meetings."

Thick locks hug the front gates of shuttered shops, now covered in graffiti and dust from lack of use. Only a handful of customers pass along the dimly lit road, sometimes stopping to check the ripeness of fruits and vegetables, or ordering meat in near-empty butcher shops.

“All the shops are closed. I’m the only one open. This used to be the best place,” said 64-year-old Mustafa Sunocret, selling vegetables out of a small storefront in the marketplace near his family’s home in the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City.

Amidst the brightly coloured scarves, clothes and carpets, ceramic pottery and religious souvenirs filling the shops of Jerusalem’s historic Old City, Palestinian merchants are struggling to keep their businesses alive.

Faced with worsening health problems, Sunocret told IPS that he cannot work outside of the Old City, even as the cost of maintaining his shop, with high electricity, water and municipal tax bills to pay, weighs on him.

“I only have this shop,” he said. “There is no other work. I’m tired.”

Abed Ajloni, the owner of an antiques shop in the Old City, owes the Jerusalem municipality 250,000 Israeli shekels (68,300 U.S. dollars) in taxes. He told IPS that almost every day, the city’s tax collectors come into the Old City, accompanied by Israeli police and soldiers, to pressure people there to pay.

“It feels like they’re coming again to occupy the city, with the soldiers and police,” Ajloni, who has owned the same shop for 35 years, told IPS. “But where can I go? What can I do? All my life I was in this place.”

He added, “Does Jerusalem belong to us, or to someone else? Who’s responsible for Jerusalem? Who?”

Illegal annexation

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, including the Old City, in 1967. In July 1980, it passed a law stating that “Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel”. But Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem and subsequent application of Israeli laws over the entire city remain unrecognised by the international community.

Under international law, East Jerusalem is considered occupied territory – along with the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Syrian Golan Heights – and Palestinian residents of the city are protected under the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Jerusalem has historically been the economic, political and cultural centre of life for the entire Palestinian population. But after decades languishing under destructive Israeli policies meant to isolate the city from the rest of the Occupied Territories and a lack of municipal services and investment, East Jerusalem has slipped into a state of poverty and neglect.

“After some 45 years of occupation, Arab Jerusalemites suffer from political and cultural schizophrenia, simultaneously connected with and isolated from their two hinterlands: Ramallah and the West Bank to their east, West Jerusalem and Israel to the west,” the International Crisis Group recently wrote.

Israeli restrictions on planning and building, home demolitions, lack of investment in education and jobs, construction of an eight-foot-high separation barrier between and around Palestinian neighbourhoods and the creation of a permit system to enter Jerusalem have all contributed to the city’s isolation.

Formal Palestinian political groups have also been banned from the city, and between 2001-2009, Israel closed an estimated 26 organisations, including the former Palestinian Liberation Organisation headquarters in Jerusalem, the Orient House and the Jerusalem Chamber of Commerce.

Extreme poverty

Israel’s policies have also led to higher prices for basic goods and services and forced many Palestinian business owners to close shop and move to Ramallah or other Palestinian neighbourhoods on the other side of the wall. Many Palestinian Jerusalemites also prefer to do their shopping in the West Bank, or in West Jerusalem, where prices are lower.

While Palestinians constitute 39 percent of the city’s population today, almost 80 percent of East Jerusalem residents, including 85 percent of children, live below the poverty line.

“How could you develop [an] economy if you don’t control your resources? How could you develop [an] economy if you don’t have any control of your borders?” said Zakaria Odeh, director of the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem, of “this kind of fragmentation, checkpoints, closure”.

“Without freedom of movement of goods and human beings, how could you develop an economy?” he asked.

“You can’t talk about independent economy in Jerusalem or the West Bank or in all of Palestine without a political solution. We don’t have a Palestinian economy; we have economic activities. That’s all we have,” Odeh told IPS.

Israel’s separation barrier alone, according to a new report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTD), has caused a direct loss of over one billion dollars to Palestinians in Jerusalem, and continues to incur 200 million dollars per year in lost opportunities.

Israel’s severing and control over the Jerusalem-Jericho road – the historical trade route that connected Jerusalem to the rest of the West Bank and Middle East – has also contributed to the city’s economic downturn.

Separation of Jerusalem from West Bank

Before the First Intifada (Arabic for “uprising”) began in the late 1980s, East Jerusalem contributed approximately 14 to 15 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the Occupied Palestinian territories (OPT). By 2000, that number had dropped to less than eight percent; in 2010, the East Jerusalem economy, compared to the rest of the OPT, was estimated at only seven percent.

“Economic separation resulted in the contraction in the relative size of the East Jerusalem economy, its detachment from the remaining OPT and the gradual redirection of East Jerusalem employment towards the Israeli labour market,” the U.N. report found.

Decades ago, Israel adopted a policy to maintain a so-called “demographic balance” in Jerusalem and attempt to limit Palestinian residents of the city to 26.5 percent or less of the total population.

To maintain this composition, Israel built numerous Jewish-Israeli settlements inside and in a ring around Jerusalem and changed the municipal boundaries to encompass Jewish neighbourhoods while excluding Palestinian ones.

It is now estimated that 90,000 Palestinians holding Jerusalem residency rights live on the other side of the separation barrier and must cross through Israeli checkpoints in order to reach Jerusalem for school, medical treatment, work, and other services.

“Israel is using all kinds of tools to push the Palestinians to leave; sometimes they are visible, and sometimes invisible tools,” explained Ziad al-Hammouri, director of the Jerusalem Centre for Social and Economic Rights (JCSER).

Al-Hammouri told IPS that at least 25 percent of the 1,000 Palestinian shops in the Old City were closed in recent years as a result of high municipal taxes and a lack of customers. “Taxation is an invisible tool…as dangerous as revoking ID cards and demolishing houses,” he said. “Israel will use this as pressure and as a tool in the future to confiscate these shops and properties.”

Rice Sympathizes with Israeli Settlers, But Says: ‘It Cannot Be Gaza Only’

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and Israel condemned as an act of “Jewish terror” the shooting spree by a Jewish settler that claimed the lives of four Palestinian workers, including two brothers, on Wednesday, a few hours after Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pledged to develop settlement activity in the West Bank.

Sharon has repeatedly argued that Israel’s exit from the Gaza Strip will enable it to expand other Israeli settlements in the West Bank despite its “official” commitment to the Quartet-drafted and UN-adopted “roadmap” peace plan, which stipulates a freeze on such activity.

“Settlement activity has allowed the state of Israel to achieve important ends. There are settlement blocs that will remain under our control,” he pledged.

“Settlement is a serious program that will continue and develop,” Sharon said, expressing full of admiration for the settlers' achievements.

“We all had a dream, I had a dream, to hold on to all the areas but many things have passed. We must not have the feeling that everything they had done has been in vain,” he added.

Israel seemed determined to stick to Sharon’s statements last week that he will not negotiate Jerusalem, will cling to major Israeli colonies in the West Bank and will not allow Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland in Israel.

The illegal Jewish settlement blocs of Maale Adumim, Gush Etzion and Efrat near Jerusalem, Ariel together with two more colonies in the northern West Bank, as well as those in the Jordan Valley “will remain under Israeli control,” Israeli “Defense” Minister Shaul Mofaz told army radio on Monday.

“The settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and the Jordan valley will remain under Israeli control,” Mofaz said.

The number of illegal Jewish settlers in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) in 2004 reached 440,415, of which 432,275 live in Israeli colonies in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, and 8,140 in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) reported last week (Sunday).

The settlers have always been the major obstacle to peace between the Palestinian and Israeli peoples.

Jewish Settlers’ Terror

“Before the disengagement from the Gaza Strip, there were warnings of violence and Palestinian terror that would provoke a harsh Israeli response and halt the evacuation. Wednesday, it appeared that the violence and terror now find their source in Israeli right-wing extremists. Soldier Eden Natan Zada has been joined by another Israeli murderer, Asher Weissgan, 38, a settler who sought to strengthen the evacuated settlers, but weakens them and casts a blight on their entire movement,” Ze’ev Schiff wrote in Haaretz on Thursday.

Schiff was commenting on the latest settlers’ outrage.

A Jewish settler killed four Palestinian workers including two brothers in a shooting rampage that also seriously wounded three others before being arrested in the Israeli Shilo colony that was built on the occupied Palestinian lands of the villages of Turmus A’yya, Qaryoot and Sinjil, north of Ramallah.

The victims were identified as brothers Bassam, 40, and Osama Mousa Ahmad Tawafsheh, 30, from the Palestinian village of Sinjel, Mohammad Ali Mansour, 49, from the village of Kufr Qallil, and Khalil Mohammad Salejh Walwil, 35 the northern West Bank town of Qalqilya.

The four deaths brought to more than 3,894 the overall Palestinian death toll since the outbreak of the Al Aqsa Intifada on September 28, 2000.

According to Israel Radio, the Jewish terrorist, identified as Asher Weisgan, 40, is from the settlement of “Shvut Rahel,” north of the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Israel’s Channel 1 said Weisgan admitted to the killings and said he had committed the attack in an attempt to thwart disengagement.

Israeli police said the terrorist was a driver who had taken Palestinian workers to jobs in Shiloh. Once there, he snatched a security guard's gun and turned it on his passengers. Police later arrested him.

Weisgan, who worked for Ortal Transports as a driver for Palestinian industrial zone workers, opened fire on his own passengers.

The security guard who was working at the main gate of the site, said that Weisgan, a father of two, asked him for water, and that when he tried to oblige, Weisgan threatened him with a knife and demanded his gun.

Weisgan then reportedly shot and killed two Palestinians who sat in his vehicle, then advanced to the industrial area, where he shot an additional three Palestinians, killing one and wounding two - one seriously and one moderately.

This is the second attack against Palestinians by Jewish terrorists in less than two weeks.

On August 4, 2005, a settler-soldier opened fire onboard a bus heading to the Israeli Palestinian town of Shafa-Amr, killing four Israeli Arab citizens and injuring at least 15 others.

The victims of the terrorist attack were identified as two sisters, Hazar 23, and Deena Torkey, 21, Nader Hayek, 55, and Michael Bahhouth, 56 years old.

The terrorist, Natan-Zada, was a military deserter residing in Tapoah settlement, in the West Bank; the settlement is slated for evacuation under the disengagement plan.

Abbas, Sharon Condemn the ‘Jewish Terror’

Both Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Israeli premier Sharon condemned the crime as an act of “Jewish Terror” aimed at thwarting the Israeli evacuation from Gaza and urged restraint.

“This sorrowful incident aims at obstructing the process of the (Israeli) withdrawal from Gaza,” Abbas decried in a written statement.

He called on the Israeli government to carry out its responsibilities towards innocent civilians.

Abbas branded the crime “a terrorist incident” and appealed to Palestinians not to retaliate. According to Israel’s Channel 10, Abbas has contacted Hamas leaders and urged them not to respond to the attack.

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat told reporters that the Israeli government should immediately disarm Jewish settlers in the West Bank, adding that, “it should arrest and sue criminals and terrorists.”

“These criminals and terrorists killed three Palestinians in a cold-blooded manner. The Israeli government should confiscate the settlers' guns immediately in order to avoid repeat of such awful crimes,” said Erakat.

Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri urged Palestinians not to respond to “provocations and not to provide any pretexts or excuses to those wishing to halt the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.”

“By freeing the hand of settlers to shed Palestinian blood, the enemy is opening the door for resistance factions to respond to these Zionist crimes which take place during the calm,” he said.

Nonetheless al-Masri warned that, “This crime is not going to pass without tough punishment.”

The anti-occupation Islamic Jihad group also issued a similar warning but said any retaliatory attacks would take place in the West Bank or Israel, but not in Gaza.

Sharon also condemned the shooting spree as an act of “Jewish terror … aimed against innocent Palestinians, out of twisted thinking, aimed at stopping the disengagement,” adding that that he regarded the attack “very gravely.”

“I view this act of Jewish terror, which was aimed at innocent Palestinians with the twisted thinking that it would stop the disengagement plan, very gravely,” Sharon said in a statement released by his office.

Labor Party Whip MP Ephraim Sneh warned that, “The Jewish terror attack in Shilo is a sign of things to come in the next few weeks,” Sneh urged “the Israel Defense Forces must place a curfew on the communities” where the Jewish terrorists came from, a routine measure imposed on Palestinians by the Israeli Occupation forces (IOF) as a collective punishment.

US Sympathizes with Settlers, But Condemns Settler’s Attack

Meanwhile US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice herself on Wednesday offered sympathy for the Israeli settlers who are being evacuated from the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip, but designated to her spokesman the condemnation of the Jewish terror act.

“Everyone empathizes with what the Israelis are facing,” Rice said in an interview, reported by The New York Times.

Israeli troops dragged sobbing Jewish settlers out of homes, synagogues and even a nursery school Wednesday and hauled them onto buses in a massive evacuation.

Throughout the day Wednesday, some 14,000 IOF troops entered six Jewish settlements — Morag, Neve Dekalim, Bedolah, Ganei Tal, Tel Katifa and Kerem Atzmona. By evening, all but Neve Dekalim were emptied, military officials and witnesses said.

Three colonies in the Gaza Strip and two more in the West Bank are confirmed evacuated so far.

However Rice added, “It cannot be Gaza only,” describing the Israeli evacuation as a “dramatic moment” in the Middle East.

She urged Israel and the Palestinians to quickly follow-up with more steps toward creation of a Palestinian state, The New York Times reported.

Separately the US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack condemned Wednesday’s settler attack.

“We condemn this attack, condemn acts of violence committed as part of this withdrawal process, and our condolences go out to the victims' families,” McCormack said.

McCormack said the United States had been in touch with the parties in the region to urge calm and respect for the rule of law.

On the Palestinian side, he said, “they have shown a seriousness of purpose in working very closely with the Israeli government, in seeing that the withdrawal is a success.”

The American Jewish Committee also strongly condemned the murder Wednesday of four Palestinians in Shiloh.

“This wanton attack on innocent Palestinians must be condemned in the harshest language,” said David A. Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee. “The murder of Palestinians who were employed in Shiloh is a blow to Jewish-Arab coexistence.”

The European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana also strongly condemned “the attack on Palestinian civilians near the northern West Bank settlement of Shiloh.”

Separately in an official statement, the EU Presidency, held by Britain, praised both Palestinians and Israelis for restraint during the disengagement while denouncing the killings.

The Presidency “urges both sides to continue [the restraint]... in the face of such a provocation,” the statement said.

Palestinian Civil Affairs Minister Mohammad Dahlan and Israeli “Defense” Minister Shaul Mofaz met Wednesday night to discuss several issues related to Israeli pullout from Gaza Strip and northern West Bank.

Saeb Erakat and Israeli Vice PM Shimon Peres also met in Tel Aviv on Wednesday and discussed changing the security status of the northern West Bank area from Area “B” to area “A.”

US Assistant Secretary of State David Welch accompanied by security coordinator William Ward made a surprise visit to the Gaza Strip on Tuesday and told Palestinian security officials they must coordinate and cooperate with Israeli forces during the evacuation of Israeli troops and settlers, AP had reported.

The sponsors of the roadmap to Israeli-Palestinian peace - the UN, the US, the EU and Russia - will meet in mid-September to assess Israel's disengagement from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's spokesman said Monday.

In a report titled “The Myth of Incitement in Palestinian Textbooks,” the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education has refuted as “unfounded” the Israeli and US allegations that Palestinian textbooks incite hatred and violence, ahead of attempts by some US Congressmen to attach conditions to direct US aid to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), including changes to the Palestinian syllabus.

US Congress is taking the unprecedented step of establishing an in-house oversight apparatus to monitor daily how American aid money to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) is being spent.

Following is the text of the ministry’s report that was distributed to the foreign diplomatic corps in PNA as well as to the US institutions, Senators, congressmen and women:

The Myth of Incitement in Palestinian Textbooks

Allegations Unfounded

There has been a flood of accusations for several years over the content of Palestinian textbooks; that the textbooks incite children to hatred and violence towards Israeli Jews, and fail to promote the values of peace, tolerance and coexistence. This claim has been widely accepted as a fact mostly in the United States and Israeli official circles. Such claims are largely based on reports by the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace (CMIP), a Jewish organization with links to extremist and racist Israeli groups that advocate settlement activities in the Palestinian territories, expulsion (transfer) of Palestinians from their homeland, and claims that Palestinians are all "terrorists" that peace with them is not possible. Israel's supporters now are intensifying their orchestrated crusade against Palestinian education, in preparation for the House International Relations Committee's planned consideration of the Foreign Relations Authorization bill, FY 2006-2007.

The issue of Palestinian incitement "is going to be a very big issue for Congress as we move ahead to the next few years," said Ester Kurz, legislative strategy and policy director of the influential pro-Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), according to Jewish American paper The Forward, 27 May 2005.

Senator Hillary Clinton has continued to criticize Palestinian textbooks since her first Senate campaign. “All future aid to the Palestinian Authority must be contingent on strict compliance with their obligation to change all the textbooks in all grades—not just two at a time,” she insisted five years ago. Unfortunately, she fails to realize that leading the campaign against what she calls "new generation of terrorists" is in itself an act of incitement to hate and racism. (“Hillary Clinton: Link PA Aid to End to Antisemitism,” Jerusalem Post 26 September 2000)

A member of the United States Congress wrote to The New York Times: "According to the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace, today’s sixth-grade Palestinian students are required to read the textbook 'Our Country Palestine,' which has a banner on the title page of Volume I that reads, 'There is no alternative to destroying Israel.'" (Steve Israel, letter to The New York Times, 10 June 2001, Section 4, p. 14). Had Congressman Steve Israel checked his sources before making his declaration, he would have found that there is no such banner in the textbook.

However, in their rush to judgment, some American politicians repeated the allegations without bothering to verify such claims. Thus, and consequently, victimizing the Palestinian people and children further. In the words of Alice Rothchild, co-chair of Visions of Peace with Justice, in a speech given at World Fellowship Center August, 2001: "The campaign of the CMIP has created a self-fulfilling prophecy that is devastating to the peace movement." And she asked: "What does this tell us about our own stereotypes, racism, power relationships and knee jerk responses?"

Criticism of Palestinian textbooks has been largely based on claims by Israeli government sources and CMIP, who's work has been criticized as "tendentious and highly misleading" by Nathan Brown, Professor of Political Science at George Washington University, and Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who has also published his own studies on this subject. According to Prof. Brown, CMIP's "method was to follow harsh criticisms with quotation after quotation purporting to prove a point…In short, the CMIP reports read as if they were written by a ruthless prosecuting attorney anxious for a conviction at any cost… Exaggerated rhetoric, charges of anti-Semitism and racism, and denial of the significance of existing changes in the curriculum will hardly convince anyone further improvements are worth the effort." (Nathan J. Brown, Getting Beyond the Rhetoric about the Palestinian Curriculum, 1 January 2002)

CMIP's claim that the European Union was funding Palestinian textbooks with anti-Semitic content infuriated Chris Patten, on the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament, and External Relations Commissioner. He declared: “It is a total fabrication that the European Union has funded textbooks with anti-Semitic arguments within them in Palestinian schools. It is a complete lie.”

The European Union, responding to the false allegations, issued a statement on 15 May 2002 which asserted that: "Quotations attributed by earlier CMIP reports to the Palestinian textbooks are not found in the new Palestinian Authority schoolbooks funded by some EU Member States; some were traced to the old Egyptian and Jordanian text books that they are replacing, some to other books outside the school curriculum, and others not traced at all. While many of the quotations attributed to the new textbooks by the most recent CMIP report of November 2001 could be confirmed, these have been found to be often badly translated or quoted out of context, thus suggesting an anti-Jewish incitement that the books do not contain… Therefore, allegations against the new textbooks funded by EU members have proven unfounded."

In "A Study of the Impact of the Palestinian Curriculum", commissioned by the Belgian Technical Co-operation at the end of 2004, and conducted by education experts, Dr. Roger Avenstrup and Dr Patti Swarts, they found that: "In the light of the debate stirred by accusations of incitement to hatred and other criticisms of the Palestinian textbooks, there is no evidence at all of that happening as a result of the curriculum. What is of great concern to students, teachers and parents alike is that although they wish it, students find it difficult to accept peace and conflict resolution as a solution to the conflict, and teachers find it difficult to teach, while soldiers and settlers are shooting in the streets and in schools and checkpoints have to be braved every day. It would seem that the occupation is the biggest constraint to the realisation of these values in the Palestinian curriculum."

In his evaluation of Palestinian Civic Education, Dr. Wolfram Reiss, University of Rostock, Germany, at the Conference on "Teaching for Tolerance, Respect and Recognition in Relation with Religion or Belief," Oslo, 2-5 September 2004, Wrote: "[I]t must be said first that, in general, the Palestinian textbooks cannot be considered a “war curriculum”. At least these textbooks of Civics Education convey visions of society, in which tolerance to other religions, human rights, peace, pluralism, democracy and other values are encouraged and fostered much… There is no hatred or incitement against Israel, the Israeli people or Judaism. The textbooks do not contain anti-Semitic language."

Dr. Reiss added that "civics education textbooks do not only avoid hatred and incitement against the West, but foster very much Western values: democracy, human rights, the individual rights, the education for peace and tolerance of all religions, the rights of women and children, the civil society and the protection of nature… From a Western perspective the civics education textbooks therefore have to be highly praised indeed."

Finally, the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI), in their June 2004 report, "Analysis and Evaluation of the New Palestinian Curriculum" (30 books for Grades 4 and 9), commissioned by the US Congress and submitted to the Public Affairs Office of the US Consulate General in Jerusalem, concluded that: "There is, moreover, no indication of hatred of the Western Judeo-Christian tradition or the values associated with it," and that "the textbooks promote an environment of open-mindedness, rational thinking, modernization, critical reflection and dialogue."

The report also confirmed that the textbooks "promote civil activity, commitment, responsibility, solidarity, respecting others’ feelings, respecting and helping people with disabilities, and... reinforce students’ understanding of the values of civil society such as respecting human dignity; religious, social, cultural, racial, ethnic, and political pluralism; personal, social and moral responsibility; transparency and accountability."

Palestinians welcome having their own textbooks examined and scrutinized from an academic, not prosecutorial stand point, but it is also fair and legitimate to ask those rushing to prosecute to look at Israeli curricula and compare how each side views the "other". Incidentally, the United States Congress has an ongoing program to fund research on Palestinian school books, but is on record as refusing to pay a dime for research on Israeli school books. Concern about Palestinian education and curricula, however, can gain credibility if it is not seen as blatantly one-sided and totally political.

Israeli Incitement

Those who are critical of what Palestinian children are learning should try to find out how Israeli children are taught to hate Arabs, and trained to kill them?

Israeli daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronot, May 7th 2002, published a letter titled “Dear Soldiers, Please Kill a Lot of Arabs,” that came from Israeli children who sent such letters to Israeli soldiers serving in the Tulkarm area during the so-called “Operation Defensive Shield”. The letters sent by Israeli school students encouraged soldiers to disregard rules and regulations and to kill as many Arabs as possible. According to “Yedioth Ahronoth”, dozens of the letters were sent to soldiers, mostly from children in the 7th through 10th grades, attending religious schools.

Egyptian researcher Safa Abdel-Aal studied the Israeli curriculum and media, and published her findings in a new book entitled Racist Education in the Israeli Curricula in which she found that Israel's educational curricula incite the new generation for war, and racism against the Arabs. Abdel-Aal's book analyses eleven history and five geography books for elementary school from grades three to six.

She thought that these books deliberately paint distorted pictures of the Arabs, giving them such derogatory descriptions as "Arab thieves" or "embezzlers", and saying they are "bastards, thirsty for Jewish blood" or that they are "underdeveloped Bedouins" and "vagrant highway robbers," and "house of Arab reptiles".

Abdel-Aal said that Arabs are maliciously described as murderers and thieves. In one example she quoted the following from one Israeli textbook, "despite a harsh climate and strange environment full of attacks by Arab embezzlers, thieves and terrorists". And in another citation that refers to the city of Tiberias where "a feeling of insecurity and fear of the Arab murderers spread among the residents of the city."

Ruth Firer and Sami Adwan, an Israeli and a Palestinian scholar, who conducted research comparing Palestinian and Israeli textbooks, March 2002, wrote that the Israeli books "strongly emphasizing the collective values connected to the history of the Jewish nation in 'their land' and God's promises to the Jews that give them an absolute right on the land. The land of Eretz Israel described in the books includes the territories of the PNA from 1967."

A study by Daniel Bar-Tal of Tel-Aviv University reviewed 124 Hebrew language books approved for use in 1994 by the Ministry of Education. The study concludes that "the majority of [Israeli school] books stereotype Arabs negatively." In one children’s book, Bar-Tal offers this sampling, "We were lonely… pioneers surrounded by a sea of enemies and murderers." In elementary school books, according to Bar-Tal, Arabs are often stereotyped negatively and portrayed as "uneducated people and enemies."

In a report titled "Israeli Textbooks and Children’s Literature Promote Racism and Hatred toward Palestinians and Arabs," journalist Maureen Meehan concluded that "Israeli school textbooks as well as children’s storybooks, portray Palestinians and Arabs as 'murderers,' 'rioters,' 'suspicious', and generally backward and unproductive. Direct delegitimization and negative stereotyping of Palestinians and Arabs are the rule rather than the exception in Israeli schoolbooks." (Washington Report for Middle East Affairs September 1999)

In a study presented at the hearing of the political committee of the European Parliament, 24 October 2003, titled "The attitude towards Palestinians in Israeli textbooks," Dr. Nurit Elhanan, of the Hebrew University, revealed that "the Palestinians are absent from all textbooks, The Occupation is never mentioned, and the area where Palestinians live is presented in the maps either as an empty space referred to as 'an area without data' (Man and Space maps) or it is incorporated into the state of Israel (The Geography of the land of Israel maps). In both cases use of the term 'occupation' is out of the question, since you cannot occupy illegally what is yours anyway and you cannot occupy illegally an empty space."

Dr. Elhanan added: "When reference is made to date in the West Bank it is only to Jewish colonies or to main cities like Nablus, Hebron or Beth Lehem as Israeli tourist sites…In Israel today there is already a second generation of children who don’t know there are occupation, illegal domination and illegal settlements."

A report by an Israeli research institution, The New Profile, entitled Child Recruitment in Israel, 29 July 2004, by: Amir Givol, Neta Rotem, Sergeiy Sandler, reveals the extent of the militarization of the Israeli education system. It states:

"To begin with, militarised education naturally feeds on the militarism prevalent in society at large. In a country where various kinds of weaponry are permanently displayed in public places and the status of the military is used to promote anything from cheese to political candidates, militarised education comes natural. One absorbs militarism at home and on the street. The military is physically present in schools and school activities. Soldiers in uniform are stationed in schools, many of them are actually teaching classes. Other teachers, and especially principals, are recently retired career officers, without proper teacher training. High schools normally have a display on one of the walls in the school building with the names and photographs of “the fallen” among their graduates. School field trips, at all ages, are often made to military memorials set up on former battlegrounds. "Official curricula and textbooks also reflect the militaristic attitudes inherent in the Israeli educational system, all the way from kindergarten to the last years of high school, where there is a mandatory programme for all Jewish state-run schools called “preparation for the IDF,” that in most cases includes actual military training. Whole curricular subjects are often described to the pupils, and in official documents, as having the aim of preparing pupils, or some of them, to military service. Glorifications of the military and military conquest, and negative or skewed representation of Palestinians, are to be found in many Israeli textbooks."

Education Under Occupation

Roger Avenstrup, who is an international education consultant and has worked in various countries in conflict and post-conflict situations, wrote in the International Herald Tribune, December 18, 2004, that the "biggest constraint, in the words of a Palestinian parent, is that Israeli tanks and soldiers are shooting in the streets outside while teachers are trying to promote peace in the classroom."

Since September 2000, according to the Palestinian State Information Service (SIS), Israel has killed over 4,032 Palestinians, including 750 children; and wounded over 45,000 as of April 30, 2005. Denial of access to medical facilities at checkpoints caused the death of 131 civilians. Of a population of 3.5 million, the Israeli occupation still imprisons 8,500 Palestinians, including 350 minors; 69,843 homes were damaged, 7,438 of those were completely destroyed.

Haim Yavin, Israeli Popular TV Anchor since 1968, commenting in the first segment of a five-part documentary he produced, after listening to settlers insisting that God gave them the lands, admitted: "Since 1967, we have been brutal conquerors, occupiers, suppressing another people…We simply don't view the Palestinians as human beings." And "At one point, according to AP report "Yavin shifted the camera toward the Israeli soldiers to ask why they weren't letting people through. 'I look for danger in these people and I can't find it,' Yavin said in the film." (Associated Press, May 31, 2005) Fouad Moughrabi, director of the Qattan Center for Educational Research and Development, Ramallah, Palestine, wrote, “I find no evidence of brain washing or anti-Jewish incitement in the new texts produced by the PA.” He noted that “Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands breeds more hatred and mistrust than any schoolbooks can."

The Convention on the Rights of Child of November 1991, Article 2, obliges State Parties to “respect and ensure the rights set forth in the present Convention to each child within their jurisdiction.” Israel has repeatedly violated these rights and ignored it obligations. In its 20 November 2004 press release, Defense for Children International (DCI), appealed "to the international community and world leaders to abide by their declared commitment to protect the rights of all children, including the children of Palestine. We urge them to bring pressure on the Israeli government, to abide by international law and end the occupation which is incompatible with any declared commitment to promoting and protecting the basic human rights of all."

In the same press release (20 November 2004) DCI reported that: "Since the start of the second Intifada on 29 September 2000, Palestinian children have borne the brunt of the upsurge in Israeli violence. Over the course of the past four years, more than 660 Palestinian children have been killed and almost 9,000 injured – hundreds of whom have been left with permanent physical disabilities. Many thousands more are suffering psychological trauma from the daily horrors they witness. An estimated 3,000 children have been arrested during this Intifada, while currently there are still 335 children being held in Israeli prisons and detention centers."

Conclusion

The First Palestinian Curriculum Plan of 1998 stated that the principles of the Palestinian curriculum are that Palestine is a democratic state, ruled by a democratic parliamentary system; Palestine is a peace-loving state, working towards international understanding and cooperation based on equality, liberty, dignity, peace and human rights; Palestinian national and cultural identity must be fostered and developed; social justice, equality and the provision of equal learning opportunities for all Palestinians, to the limits of their individual capacity must be ensured without discrimination on grounds of race, religion, color, or gender; opportunities must be provided to develop all Palestinians intellectually, socially, physically, spiritually and emotionally, to become responsible citizens, able to participate in solving problems of their community, their country and the world.

Palestinian opposition to Israel must be understood in the context of their opposition to Israeli occupation and oppression, their quest for freedom and self-determination, self preservation, and national liberation. Ruth Firer, of the Hebrew University, who carried out research on Palestinian textbooks was quoted in Americans for Peace Now published interview as saying "we were surprised to find how moderate the anger directed toward Israelis in the Palestinian textbooks is, compared to the Palestinian predicament and suffering."

Experience has shown that changes in school textbooks and syllabi are not at all the necessary ingredients for the fulfillment of a meaningful peace agreement between states in conflict, but rather the sincere will and commitment of both parties for achieving such an agreement. For over fifty years Palestinians have tried reconciliation and compromise. They declared a state on 22 percent of their original country for the sake of peace and security, through the Palestine National Council Conference of 1988 in Algiers, and accepted all U.N. resolutions regarding the Palestinian issue.

In 1993 the PLO signed the Oslo Agreement which called for ending the Israeli occupation and implementing the two-state solution. The Israelis responded by expanding settlement activities, in violation of international law and the Oslo Agreements at a frantic rate, with more violence, more land expropriation and house demolitions, incitement, demonization, and eventually the cantonisztion of the Palestinian population in apartheid-like ghettos. More recently, the (apartheid) Wall, which was condemned by the International Court of Justice at The Hague and by the international community, has added to the inciting nature of measure taken by the Israeli government against the Palestinian population under occupation.

As long as Israel continues to look for excuses attacking Palestinian institutions to smoke screen it brutal military occupation, and to deny the Palestinians' self-determination, freedom, and human rights, in violation of international law, and all U.N. resolutions, the conflict will continue. Palestinians need peace more than any other nation on earth, but peace must be based on mutual respect and justice for all.

Khadija Habashneh: Noble Prize Isn't Exclusive for Men

Names of eight Palestinian women, nominated for the Noble Peace Prize as part of the Project 1000 Women for the Noble Peace Prize 2005, were officially announced during a press conference that was held at the Palestine Media Center in the West Bank town of el-Bireh on Wednesday.

The Noble Peace Prize was awarded for the first time in 1901 and up to now, it has been awarded mainly to men and to organizations, and only 11 times to women, said Rosmarie Zapfl–Helbling at the conference, adding that women are largely excluded from the sustainable implementation of peace programs, despite their reliability in such processes.

The first woman to be awarded the Noble Peace Prize was the Austrian Bertha von Suttner in 1905, and now after 100 years, “We want 1000 women to receive this prize in 2005,” Zapfl-Helbling, the Project’s Selection Committee representative, told reporters.

Helbling is also a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

Palestinian Advisory Council set up, Selection Committee Formed

Project 1000 Women for Noble Peace Prize 2005 aims at searching for 1000 women all over the world to be nominated for the Noble Peace Prize for the year 2005. The idea behind the project is to direct global attention to the vital role those women play in all aspects of life to build and support peace in their societies.

A nine-member “Advisory Council of the Association 1000 Women for the Noble Peace Prize 2005” was set up in Palestine a year ago. Faiha' Abdul-Hadi is the Project Coordinator.

Announcements were published in local newspapers, and notices were sent to women’s organizations in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and in the Palestinian Diaspora, inviting nominations, said Abdul-Hadi.

The Advisory Council received thirty-nine complete nominations together with the requested supporting documents.

A six-member Selection Committee was formed from professionals representing Palestinian civil society organizations and universities, who have no family or work relations with any of the nominees.

Eight Candidates Nominated

The committee recommended eight candidates who were endorsed by the Advisory Council as the official nominees.

As selection criteria, the Council agreed to recognize contributions to peace, demonstration of achievements under adverse conditions, and prominent social, political, community and cultural awareness.

Representative of the Palestinian Selection Committee Randa Siniora read the names of the nominees: Isam Abdul-Hadi, Yusra Berberi, Nafeesa Al Deek, Zahira Kamal, Salma Khadra Jayyusi, Amneh Abdul-Jaber Al-Rimawi, Hanan Mikhail Ashrawi and Amneh Jibril Sulaiman.

Abdul-Hadi and Zapfl-Helbling were joined at the press conference by Khadija Habashneh, member of the Palestinian Advisory Council, Randa Siniora, and Lea Valanlta the Peace Building Advisor at the Representative Office of Switzerland to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).

Valanlta: Situation in Palestine a ‘Challenge’

Valanlta said that it is important for women to search for peace and to find development strategies to create peace within their societies, adding that women have a vital role in their societies during conflicts.

The situation in Palestine urges Palestinian women to struggle and challenge the conflict in order to get rid of the occupation, bring peace to their people and to achieve a democratic society free of all kinds of discrimination, Valanlta told reporters.

“The idea was first created in March 2003 by Member of the Swiss Parliament (National Council) and the Council of Europe Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold, who presided the Association 1000 Women for Noble Peace Prize 2005 later on,” Abdul-Hadi indicated.

Swiss Initiative with Support in 153 Nations

In May 2003, Vermot-Mangold started searching for regional coordinators for the project to hold the first workshop on the project in August 2003 to set up standards of the nomination for the prize.

The initiative has gained international support by UNIFEM and UNDP and is under the patronage of the Swiss UNESCO Committee. The Association works in close collaboration with the Swiss Peace Foundation, where the main office of the project is located. The project will come to a close in 2006.

Project 1000 Women for Noble Peace Prize has representations in 153 countries, including Palestine.

The number of nominations depended on the population size of each country, but the countries that witness conflicts were given higher presentation as women in these countries bear bigger burdens in resisting violence and sustaining conflicts.

The total number of selected women was 999. Woman number 1000 was left for the women who are still behind prison bars or still neglected behind social barriers, said Abdul Hadi.

“Here we toll bells that Noble Prize isn't exclusive for men,” commented Khadija Habashneh.

Briefs of Palestinian Nominees:

**Issam Abdul-Hadi:

She was born in Nablus in 1928. She participated in the establishment of the PLO through representing the Palestinian woman in the meetings of the preparatory committee of the First Palestinian National Council in 1964; she was elected Head of the General Federation of Palestinian Women in 1965; She was detained by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) and deported to Amman in 1969 after organizing a sit-in strike and hunger strike before the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem in protest against the killing of several women in Gaza by the IOF and she was the first woman to be elected member of the Palestinian Central Council in 1974. In 1981 she was elected Head of the General Arab Women Federation. In 1993, she returned to the West Bank with another 30 leaders allowed return.

**Yusra Berberi:

She was born in Gaza in 1923 and she was a teacher and became leader in social, political and educational activities in the Gaza Strip at a time women were denied access to public affairs. She speaks three languages and received B.A degree in Social Sciences from Cairo University in 1949 to become the first Gazan woman to get a university degree. She initiated a programme to train teachers to develop to an institute for teachers in Gaza. She was Principal of the Women’s Branch of Gaza’s Open Public University and later became a social science inspector for girls’ schools in the Gaza strip.

**Nafeesa Al Deek:

She was born in 1940 in Kufr Ne’meh village near Ramallah. She is a grassroots leader and political figure who spent her life for others. She was able to bring services to her village and surrounding areas that led to her house being used as a center for rehabilitation and teaching, sewing, knitting, embroidery and cooking for local women. As a political activist, she was detained by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) twice in 1981 and in 1993 she was put on military trial. She overcame illiteracy by convincing an NGO to open up adult-literacy classes in her village in 1981. She raised money to develop the girls’ school in her village in 1986 and convinced her village residents of the importance of teaching their girls.

**Zahira Kamal:

She was born in Jerusalem in 1945. She is now PNA Minister of Women Affairs. She is active in the field of women rights and issues of peace and Palestinian struggle. She received her B.A in Physics from Ein Shams University in Egypt in 1968. She is deemed the founder of the Palestinian Federation of Women’s Action and represented it in several international conferences in many European countries and in Russia and the USA. She participated as advisory member in the Madrid Conference for Peace.

**Salma Khadra Jayyusi:

She was born in 1927. She is a poet, literary critic and academic who was interested in spreading the Palestinian culture. She founded Prota (Project of Translation from the Arabic). For two and a half decades, she dedicated herself to translating this vision into a vibrant, successful project.

**Amneh Abdul-Jaber Al-Rimawi:

She was born in 1957 in Beit RIma village near Ramallah. She participated in grassroots and labour activities, defending the rights of the Palestinian workers, especially the working Palestinian woman. She was Deputy Head of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions until 1994 and now she occupies the position of member of the National Secretariat of the Federation and Head of the Woman’s Department in it. She was detained by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) for two years (1991-1993) and was prevented from traveling for fifteen years (1982-1997).

**Hanan Mikhail Ashrawi:

She was born in Nablus in 1946. She was appointed as spokesperson for the Palestinian Delegation at the Peace Conference in Madrid. She was elected member of the Palestinian Legislative Council for the Jerusalem constituency. She received her B.A degree in English Literature from the American University in Beirut and her PhD degree in the Middle Ages Literature from Virginia University in 1971. She worked in Bir Zeit University (1974-1995) and occupied the position of the Faculty of Arts in the Unversity (1986-1990).

**Amneh Jibril Sulaiman:

She was born in 1951 in Beirut, Lebanon. She received a B.A degree in English Literature from Beirut Arab University in 1977 and participated in organizing workshops on rehabilitation, Palestinian women’s affairs, illiteracy, child labour and gender issues. She worked with the UNRWA and started voluntary work with students in 1972. In 1982, she was elected Head of the General Union of Palestinian Women/ Lebanon Branch. Then in 1983 she became member of the Palestinian National Council.

Shaath to BBC: Bush Re-election Doesn’t ‘Look Very Promising’ 

The PLO has welcomed the plan put forward by the EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana to revive the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations and implement the UN-adopted “roadmap” peace plan as the Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Sha’ath said that peace prospects do not seem “promising” if the US President Bush is re-elected for a second term.

The Palestinian leadership “welcomes the plan announced by the European foreign policy chief Mr. (Javier) Solana to revive the peace process, implement the roadmap, conclude a reciprocal ceasefire and enforce all the signed accords,” the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) said on Sunday.

Following its weekly meeting, which was chaired by President Yaser Arafat and attended by representatives of national factions in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the leadership requested that the European Union provide economic aid to the Palestinian people while it welcomed its “brave” position voiced by the EU foreign ministers, who demanded last week that the Israeli government put an immediate end to its military operations in the northern Gaza Strip.

More than 2000 IOF troops, accompanied by 200 Israeli tanks, dozens of US-made Apache helicopters and armored bulldozers entered one of the most populated regions of the Gaza Strip, namely Jabalya, Beit Lahya and Beit Hanoun refugee camps, which are home to more than 250,000 Palestinians.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad Qurei said on Saturday that 140 Palestinians were killed and some 500 injured during the Israeli military invasion, which began on September 28.

More than 50 Palestinian children were among the victims and more than 300 civilians, including more than 80 children, were among the wounded.

Infrastructure, farms and more than 100 homes were destroyed, bulldozed and demolished. The scene left before the IOF redeployed on Friday outside the population centers in the towns of Beit Lahya, Beit Hanoun and he Jabalya refugee camp was compared to the aftermath of an earthquake.

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat called in a statement Sunday for an international investigative panel to probe the Israeli invasion and to provide immediate and urgent aid to rebuild what Israeli Occupation Forces have destroyed in the area.

FM Shaath Voices Palestinian Frustration with US

The Unites States’ failure to condemn and to join the EU in demanding an immediate end to the IOF invasion coupled by the US veto, which killed a United Nations Security Council resolution demanding the Israeli withdrawal, were interpreted by the Palestinians as a “green light” to Israelis to carry on their atrocities for more than two weeks.

The Palestinian frustration with the US indifference was echoed Sunday by the Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Sha’ath.

“If (US President George W.) Mr. Bush is re-elected, he promised that he would reinvigorate the peace process, but with his team around, and with his views so far, it doesn’t look very promising,” Sha’ath told BBC television.

While acknowledging that a victory for Democratic challenger John Kerry could signal a better outlook, Sha’ath also voiced pessimism that his team would bring about swift progress in the stalled peace process.

“If Mr. Kerry were to win, most likely some of (former US president Bill) Clinton’s team would come back. That is okay, but it might take them a year before firming up a policy. We cannot wait that long,” Sha’ath added.

Palestinians also hold the Bush Administration responsible for the siege imposed by the IOF on President Arafat since December 20001.

Bush’s refusal to deal with Arafat was interpreted by Palestinians as another “green light” for Israel to impose and to maintain the siege on Arafat.

However, Ahmad Ghneim, an official from Arafat’s ruling Fatah movement, believes that world leaders “will put pressure on the incoming American administration to show more openness, particularly with regard to the Palestinian leadership.”

“There is no fundamental difference between Kerry and Bush regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but the current president has a tendency to pursue policies which encourage violence, as in the case of Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said.

Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini told the London-based Al-Hayat daily Sunday that the EU is trying to work out “a joint step” with Israel to end President Arafat’s siege.

But the Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom was quick to pre-empt such a possibility by announcing that his country opposes the UN and EU demand to end Arafat’s siege.

Arafat’s political adviser Bassam Abu Sharif on Sunday proposed that the Secretary General of the Arab League Amre Mousa immediately starts contacts with the African Union (AU), the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) with the aim of persuading their leaders to join the besieged Palestinian leader on a fast-breaking meal at his headquarters in Ramallah during the holy month of Ramadan, in a move to “break his Israeli shackles.”