Issue No : 127 23th March 2015
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Issue No : 127 23th March 2015
Read in This Issue
FEATURED STORY
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Displaced by Israel, Palestinians make homes in caves
UN officials accused of bowing to Israeli pressure over children›s rights list
Israel Insider
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Sheikh Ahmed Yassin: The man and the struggle
P 18 Wheelchair- bound teacher in Gaza
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Articles & analyses P 20 On Mother›s Day, 2 Palestinian mothers in Israeli prisons
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Israeli election results reflect deep divisions in that society
What comes after the Israeli elections?
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CONTENTS
Issue No : 127 23th March 2015
FEATURED STORY UN officials accused of bowing to Israeli pressure over children›s rights list
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News of Palestine UNRWA concerned about Palestine refugees 18 Palestinians tortured to death in Syrian jails Displaced by Israel, Palestinians make homes in caves “Israel” arrests 14 children in Jerusalem Isreal Insider Israeli election results reflect deep divisions in that society Israel destroyed 18 Arab houses in the Negev last week On Mother’s Day, 2 Palestinian mothers in Israeli prisons Sheikh Ahmed Yassin: The man and the struggle Hamas calls for Palestinian reconciliation after Israel poll Official: Israeli soldiers uproot 300 olive trees near Nablus Wheelchair bound in Gaza
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Articles & Analyses What comes after the Israeli elections?
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Issue No : 127 23th March 2015
Featured Story
UN officials accused of bowing to Israeli pressure over children›s rights list
Source says officials backed away from recommending that IOF be added to list of children’s rights violators after phone calls from Israeli officials
sequences if a meeting of UN agencies and NGOs based in Jerusalem to ratify the recommendation went ahead. Within hours, the meeting was cancelled.
Senior UN officials in Jerusalem have been accused of caving in to Israeli pressure to abandon moves to include the state’s armed forces on a UN list of serious violators of children’s rights.
“Top officials have buckled under political pressure,” said a UN source. “As a result, a clear message has been given that Israel will not be listed.”
UN officials backed away from recommending that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) be included on the list following telephone calls from senior Israeli officials. The Israelis allegedly warned of serious con4
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Organisations pressing for the IDF’s inclusion on the list since the war in Gaza last summer – which left more than 500 children dead and more than 3,300 injured – include Save the Children and War Child as well as at least a dozen Palestinian human rights organisations,
the Israeli rights organisation B’Tselem and UN bodies such as the children’s agency Unicef. “These organisations are in uproar over what has happened,” said the UN source. The IDF’s inclusion on the UN’s list of grave violators of children’s rights would place it alongside non-state armed forces such as Islamic State, Boko Haram and the Taliban. There are no other state armies on the list. It would propel Israel further towards pariah status within international bodies and could lead to UN sanctions. Although Jerusalem-based officials cancelled the meeting
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Issue No : 127 23th March 2015 – and subsequently decided not to recommend the IDF’s inclusion on the list – the UN complained to Israel over the intimidation of its staff. Susana Malcorra – a high-ranking official in the New York office of the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon – raised the issue in a private letter to Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor. The UN in New York said it could not comment on leaked documents. The telephone calls were made to June Kunugi, Unicef’s special representative to Palestine and Israel, on 12 February, the night before a meeting to decide whether to recommend the IDF’s inclusion on the list. One call was from a senior figure in Cogat, the Israeli government body that coordinates between the IDF, the Palestinian Authority and the international community; the other was made by an official in Israel’s foreign ministry. According to UN and NGO sources, Kunugi was advised to cancel the meeting or face serious consequences. However, Israeli sources described the telephone conversations as friendly and courteous attempts to persuade Kunugi to delay the working group’s decision on its recommendation regarding the IDF until Israel had been allowed to present its case on the issue. At 8.54am the next morning, an email was sent on behalf of James Rawley, a senior official with UNSCO (the office of the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process) who had called the meeting, to participants. It said: “Please be informed that today’s meet-
ing scheduled at 13:00hrs has been postponed. Sincere apologies for the inconvenience this may have caused.” A joint statement to the Guardian from Kunugi and Rawley said the “strictly confidential process” of determining inclusion on the list was still ongoing and was the “prerogative of the UN secretary general, and it rests with him alone”. The UN in Jerusalem was unable to comment on the process, it added, but the submission from Jerusalem to New York was “based on verified facts, not influenced by any member state or other entity”. Unicef has called a fresh meeting to update UN and NGO officials in Jerusalem on Thursday. The decision on which state and non-state armed forces are to be included on the list will be taken by UN chiefs in New York next month. However, according to the UN source, “a political decision has already been taken not to include Israel”. A separate source told the Guardian: “The UN caved to Israel’s political pressure and took a highly contentious step to shelter Israel from accountability.” The list of violators of children’s rights is contained in the annex of the annual report of the secretary general on children and armed conflict. A “monitoring and reporting mechanism”, established by a UN security council resolution, supplies information on grave violations of children’s rights, such as killing and maiming, recruitment of minors into armed forces, attacks on schools, rape, abduction, and denial of humanitarian access to children. The secre-
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tary general is required to list armed forces or armed groups responsible for such actions. Following last summer’s seven-week war in Gaza, a number of UN agencies and NGOs met to consider whether to recommend the IDF’s inclusion on the list. According to insiders, participants “agreed there is a strong and credible case to recommend listing”. A 13-page internal Unicef paper seen by the Guardian examined the case for the IDF to be listed on the basis of its actions in last summer’s war in Gaza, including the killing and injuring of children, and “targeted and indiscriminate” attacks on schools and hospitals. Several of the working group’s participants wrote to the UN secretary general to urge the inclusion of the IDF on the list. A letter sent in December by Defence for Children International (Palestine) said: “There is ample evidence to demonstrate that Israel’s armed forces have committed acts that amount to the grave violations against children during armed conflict, as defined by UN security council resolutions, including killing or maiming children and attacks against schools and hospitals.” The Israeli ministry of foreign affairs and Cogat declined to answer specific questions about the phone calls to Kunugi, but said in a joint statement: “Israel has a good working relationship with Unicef and the United Nations in general. Israel has no desire to get into a slanging match with anti-Israel elements nor to submit to their intimidations.”
Source: The Guardian |
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Issue No : 127 23th March 2015
News of Palestine
UNRWA concerned about Palestine refugees
The spokesperson for the UN agency tasked with providing aid for Palestinians, Christopher Gunness, made the remarks in a statement issued on Friday after it was revealed that nine Palestinians were among as many as 50 migrants who drowned in a boat-wreckage incident off the Italian coast near the island of Sicily early in March.
problem,” he said. Palestinians are facing the Israeli occupation and atrocities in the occupied territories. The Palestinian refugees are also encountering a deadly crisis in Syria and severe living conditions in neighboring countries such as Lebanon.
al-Quds and the Gaza Strip, and are demanding that Israel withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territories. Israel, however, has refused to return to the 1967 borders and is unwilling to discuss the issue of al-Quds.
According to the information on the website of UNRWA on March 21, “At a time of rising extremism in the there are as many as 526,744 regMiddle East region, the failure of the istered Palestine refugees in nine “The fact that this group reportedly international community to resolve camps in Syria. The data also show consisted of Palestine refugees from the Palestinian issue takes on an that 1,258,559 registered Palestine Syria, as well as from Gaza and Leb- added significance,” Gunness further refugees are living in eight camps in anon, is a clear and tragic sign that noted. the besieged Gaza Strip and there Palestine refugees are finding life in are 762,288 registered Palestine Gaza Strip has been under a cripSyria and beyond increasingly unrefugees in 19 camps in the occutenable,” Gunness said in the state- pling Israeli siege since 2007. The pied West Bank. It also shows that blockade, which has cut off the terri- as many as 449,957 registered Palment. tory from the outside world, has led to “These tragedies... stem not only an economic and humanitarian crisis estine refugees are residing in 12 camps in Lebanon and a total numfrom armed conflict, occupation and in the densely-populated enclave. ber of 2,097,338 registered Palestine a lack of protection of human rights, but more fundamentally from the fail- Palestinians are seeking to create an refugees in ten camps in Jordan. ure to resolve the Palestine refugee independent state on the territories Source: PRESS TV of the West Bank, East Jerusalem 6
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Issue No : 127 23th March 2015
18 Palestinians tortured to death in Syrian jails
The number of Palestinian refugees who died as a result of torture in Syrian prisons is on the rise, the Action Group for Palestinians of Syria warned yesterday. According to the group, the bodies of 18 Palestinians from Yarmouk refugee camp were identiďŹ ed mostly using leaked photos. The pictures show dozens of bodies of the captives who were tortured to death in Syrian jails. The group announced earlier that it had documented the killing of nearly 315 Palestinian refugees under torture in Syrian prisons.
17 March 2015
Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia
Source: MEMO
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Issue No : 127 23th March 2015
Displaced by Israel, Palestinians make homes in caves
Scores of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have made homes in caves on the outskirts of Al-Khalil (Hebron) because the Israeli occupation authorities continue to prevent them from building homes on territories earmarked for illegal settlements for Jews. Noaman Hamamda, 57, told Anadolu that he and his fellow Palestinians in this predicament have tried to build homes with bricks and cement, but the Israelis demolish the structures on the grounds that they have been built without a permit. It is very rare for Palestinians to be given a building permit by the occupation authorities. Hamamda and his 13-member family currently live in a cave covering around 30 square metres; they have no basic amenities. Nevertheless, he and other Palestinians in the area say that they would rather suffer such harsh living conditions in the caves than abandon their ancestral land to Israeli settlement projects.
“The occupation keeps trying to evict us,” said Hamamda while his wife Rasmiya prepared tea with primitive utensils, “but we refuse to give up the land. Life is hard for us here, but you get used to it.” The family’s cave is split into three sections: one for sleeping, another for storing grain; and a third for receiving guests. Outside the cave is a wood oven that Rasmiya uses for cooking and baking bread. “We live a primitive life, but we endure it for the sake of protecting our land,” she said. Hamamda’s is one of about 15 Palestinian families living in caves in Al-Khalil’s mountainous AlMafqara village, one of a cluster of Palestinian villages nestled between five affluent illegal settlements reserved for Jews and built by Israel on confiscated Palestinian land. Israeli troops have 8
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entered the area in force repeatedly in recent years to demolish structures built by Palestinian residents. The most recent raid by Israeli forces on AlMafqara was in 2013, when army bulldozers destroyed an electricity generator that had provided residents with power for a few hours each night. During the same raid, the Israelis also levelled a local mosque. “I can’t watch television any more because Israel destroyed the electricity generator,” said 11-year-old Adam, Hamamda’s youngest son. He and his friends in Al-Mafqara must walk three kilometres every day to reach their school in a nearby town. “When I come back from school, I either tend to the cattle or play with my friends,” he added. The boys also suffer from assaults by Jewish settlers. “Sometimes they chase us. If they catch us, they beat us,” said Adam. The ill-fated villages fall within so-called “Area C”, which accounts for nearly two thirds of the West Bank’s total territory and remains under “full Israeli security and civilian control” as per the USsponsored Oslo Accords. Signed between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in 1993 and 1995, the agreement divided the West Bank into Areas A, B and C. Typically, Israel prevents Palestinians in Area C from erecting structures on the
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Issue No : 127 23th March 2015 grounds that the land falls under “Israeli administration”. “Scores of Palestinian families in Al-Mafqara and surrounding areas live without basic facilities like water and electricity and have to use animals for transport,” Rateb Al-Jobour, coordinator of AlKhalil’s popular resistance committees, told Anadolu. “The [Israeli] occupation is trying relentlessly to force residents from the land so that it can be used for expanding settlements,” he pointed out. According to Al-Jobour, some 50,000 square kilometres of land in Al-Khalil are threatened with confiscation by Israel for building additional settlement units or military training camps. He said that Jewish settlers living near the villages routinely assault Palestinian residents. “Settlers frequently attack women and children from the villages,” he added. “They also routinely cut down trees and poison cattle.” Two months ago, Peace Now, a left-leaning Israeli NGO, said that the Israeli government had issued tenders for 450 new settlement units to be built in the occupied West Bank. International law considers the West Bank and East Jerusalem to be occupied territories captured by Israel in 1967; all Jewish settlement building on such land is illegal. Palestinian negotiators insist that Israeli settlement building must stop before the stalled peace talks can resume.
Source: MEMO
“Israel” arrests 14 children in Jerusalem Israeli forces yesterday morning arrested seven Palestinian children in the Silwan neighbourhood of Jerusalem, pls48.net reported. Pls48.net revealed the names of six of the minors: Baker Owis, 16, Nour Al-Zaghal, 17, Wael Salaymeh, 16, Karim Mustafa, 15, Yousef and Shaker Mustafa, both 16. The website said Israeli forces stormed Silwan, broke into the children’s houses, inspected them, before taking the minors to interrogation centres. The children were to appear at the Magistrates Court in Jerusalem yesterday in order for their detention to be extended. Israeli forces also arrested seven minors from Al-Issawiya and Ras Al-Amud.
17 March 2015
Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia
Source: MEMO
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Issue No : 127 23th March 2015
Israeli insider
Israeli election results reflect deep divisions in that society
Israel’s next chapter awaits the fallout from a contentious election unrivaled in that country’s history, say Stanford faculty experts. Benjamin Netanyahu’s centerright Likud party won a narrow victory this week over its principal rival, the center-left Zionist Union. The next step is for Netanyahu to form a coalition government after an election characterized by heated rhetoric and issues of existential importance to Israel.
him votes that would have otherwise gone to smaller right-wing parties. “The conservative political spectrum, in total, fared less well than it did in the previous election, although Likud now emerges as the uncontested leader of that camp,” said Berman.
He said the center-left spectrum suffered from candidates without charisma as well as a split among its multiple parties: “Beyond this Russell Berman, a Stanford pro- partisan political arithmetic, it is fessor of German studies and of clear that security concerns were comparative literature, said that the key to the election and NetanNetanyahu’s nearly single-mind- yahu articulated them more effeced focus on security issues won tively than his competition.” 10
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As for Israel’s stance against Iran’s nuclear program, Berman said that the real issue is not Israel’s stance but America’s strategy in the Middle East. “The consistent U.S. policy of reducing its footprint throughout the region has caused regional actors to begin to behave differently with greater attention to their own security. The real question is whether giving up on Pax Americana will also mean giving up on Pax,” said Berman, the Walter A. Haas Professor in the Humanities and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Stud-
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Issue No : 127 23th March 2015 ies. He explained that during the Cold War, some Europeans doubted the credibility of the American nuclear shield, asking whether the United States would risk nuclear war with Russia in order to defend West Germany. Recent events in Ukraine have revived these concerns in the Baltic states and Poland, he added. “This lesson is not lost in Israel, as Iran acquires enrichment capacity, all the while expanding its ballistic missile capacity,” he said. Berman believes the Israeli elections have had no impact on the possible reality of a nuclear Iran. “If Isaac Herzog [from the Zionist Union] had won, the Iranian nuclear enrichment would not have disappeared.” Political, religious, social divisions This was arguably the most contentious election in Israel’s history, said Reut Itzkovitch-Malka, a visiting scholar at Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law. A researcher from the Israel Institute, she studies political representation, gender and politics, political parties and elections. “It means more of the same,” said Itzkovitch-Malka, referring to the Netanyahu victory. “He has no reason and no incentive to change his policy, especially in regard to Iran. This is an issue he feels very strongly about, as well as one which, most likely, bought him some of the electoral revenues he got.” Depending on how the nuclear talks with Iran progress, she said, this could become a substantial
problem for Israel, one with serious implications for the U.S.-Israel relationship. The election exposed serious fault lines in Israeli society between the religious and the secular, and the right and the left, said ItzkovitchMalka. She said Israel is composed of different social groups with distinct national, communal and religious elements. “Group identities that are prominent in national politics reflect the rifts between Jewish and Arab citizens, between religious [Orthodox] and non-religious Jews; and between Ashkenazi Jews [whose origins are in Europe] and Mizrahi Jews [whose origins are in North Africa and Asia],” she said. In the last two decades, Israeli society has become more fragmented than ever, said Itzkovitch-Malka. Some of the recent campaign rhetoric reflected an “us or them” mentality, portraying the other side as demonic and destructive for Israeli society, she said. Racism against Arabs was also used in the politicking, she said.
ham H. Stuart Professor of International Relations and a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, said that Netanyahu’s apparent rejection of a two-state solution for now is a tactical mistake. “Even if a two-state agreement is not likely, there is nothing else on offer for now, and Israel loses nothing by keeping it on the table but risks alienating international support if it takes it off the table,” he said. Krasner said the outlines of a two-state solution have been on the table at least since the Camp David meetings at the end of the Clinton administration. “The fundamental impediment to reaching this settlement has been spoilers, especially but not exclusively on the Palestinian side, and the involvement of external actors,” he said. Krasner said he believes it would not be hard for the Israelis and the Palestinians to come to an agreement if “somehow the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea could be isolated from the rest of the world.”
And so, domestic and economic issues have almost taken a backseat to the focus on security and As it stands now, it is much hardgroup-minded politics, said Itzko- er to reach a two-state solution vitch-Malka. agreement since neither side is “To some extent, it is hard or even able to assess its relative power, impossible to talk about a com- he noted. mon feeling or common mood, In regard to the Iranian nuclear given the deep divisions in Israeli issue, Krasner described it as a society,” she said. The country’s threat to the stability of the Middle pressing concerns are the Pales- East and the world: “The only dutinian issue, the growing cost of rable solution is regime change in living, the deepening social cleav- Iran but this can only come from ages and racism, she noted. within Iran. It may or may not happen.”
Stephen Krasner, Stanford’s Gra-
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Source: Stanford |
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Issue No : 127 23th March 2015
Israel destroyed 18 Arab houses in the Negev last week
The Israeli interior ministry yesterday announced that it destroyed 18 Arab houses in the Negev Desert last week, PLS48.net reported. In a statement, the ministry said that it supervised the destruction of the houses in cooperation with the National Jewish Fund. The ministry added that the destruction took place in the neighbourhoods of Kseefah, Um-Bteen, AlAtrash and Sa’wah. One of the houses in Kseefah, the ministry said, was destroyed by its owner after he received a demolition order from the ministry. Palestinians and Arabs often destroy their homes themselves when they receive such orders because if they do not, they are forced to foot the bill for the destruction by the government. This is part of Israel’s increased campaign to demolish Arab buildings in the Negev. The properties were destroyed under the pretext that they had no construction licences.
17 March 2015
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Source: MEMO
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Issue No : 127 23th March 2015
On Mother’s Day, 2 Palestinian mothers in Israeli prisons The Palestinian Prisoner’s Center for Studies has issued a report to highlight Palestinian mothers who spent this year’s Mother’s Day in Israeli prisons. There are currently 22 Palestinian women prisoners in Israeli custody, including two mothers, said Riyad alAshqar, spokesperson for the center. Prisoner Samaher Suleiman Ali Zein al-Din, 35, from Nablus is a mother of six, the youngest of whom, Naim, is only 4 years old. Zein al-Din The Zein al-Dins’ children are currently living with their grandparents. was detained on May 28, Female prisoners are often banned from family visitation and frequently 2014. face privacy violations through cameras installed by Israeli prison authoriMeanwhile, prisoner Yas- ties in private quarters, in addition to late night searches, said Al-Ashqar. min Taysir Abd al-Rahman Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association Addameer reported in Shaaban, 32, from Jenin is 2014 that female prisoners are subjected to the same psychological and mother to four children. She physical abuse as male counterparts under Israeli detention, and have was detained in November reported beatings, insults, threats and sexual harassment. 2014, and is currently being held in the HaSharon jail and Female prisoners are also routinely humiliated by intrusive body searches, which often occur before and after court hearings, and during the night suffers from asthma. as punitive measures. Mother’s Day, which is celebrated on different dates Israeli forces detained 112 Palestinian women and girls in 2014, marking around the world, is marked a 70 percent increase from 2013. on 22 Mar. in most Arabic Israeli forces routinely detain both Palestinian men and women throughnations. out the West Bank, often on the pretext of perceived security threat, and According to al-Ashqar, the Zein al-Din family is especially badly affected, as Samaher’s husband, Nader Zein al-Din, is also being held in an Israeli prison.
Addameer estimates that 40 percent of the Palestinian male population has been arrested at some point.
As of February 2015 there were 6,200 political prisoners held in Israeli prisons in total, according to Addameer.
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22 Mar 15
Source: Ma’an
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Issue No : 127 23th March 2015
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin: The man and the struggle
On March 22nd, 2004, two Israeli warplanes targeted and attacked with several missiles a totally paralyzed elderly man pushed on a wheelchair. Minutes later, all Palestine and all Arab and Muslim countries erupted in protest and anger.
Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, 68, did not resist the occupation carrying guns or even stones. He was a man with a vision and a mission. He was the mastermind of the new Palestinian generation that swore to be free. And for that, Israel sought to imprison him and kill him. The death of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin took his body away from his followers and supporters. But his mind and his ideas will live forever in their hearts and minds. Ahmad Yassin, founder of Hamas Movement, has had a distinctive political and spiritual place in the hearts of the Palestinian resistance, which made him one of the notable figures of the Palestinian national struggle of the past century. Early life Ahmad Ismail Yassin was born in a historic village of ancient Ashkelon known as Al-Jorah in June, 1936. In that same year, the first armed revolution against the increasing Zionist influence in the Palestinian territories was launched. His father died when he was five. Ahmed Yassin witnessed the Arab defeat, also known as Nakba, in 1948 when he was 12 years old. Talking about that time, Yassin said, “The Arab armies that came to fight Israel 14
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unarmed us with the pretext that no force would be present other than the armies’. Consequently, our fate was attached to theirs, and we were defeated by their defeat. The Zionist gangs then started waging massacres and pogroms terrorizing the defenseless Palestinians. Had our arms been in our hands, the course of events would have been different.” Tough life Yassin enrolled to Al-Jourah Primary School for the first five grades. Nonetheless, the Nakba that befell Palestine and displaced its people forced him along with hundreds of thousands to evacuate. His family ended up in Gaza. In Gaza, everything was different and the family suffered poverty, starvation, and deprivation, like most of the displaced families then. Ahmed Yassin used to go to the Egyptian military camps with his counterparts to collect the
leftovers of the soldiers’ food to feed their families. He quit school for a year, 1949-1950, to help his seven-member family’s livelihood by working in a small fast food restaurant in Gaza. He went back to school later on. Injury When he was 16 years old, Yassin had an accident that changed his entire life. He had a fractured neck vertebra while he was playing with his counterparts in 1952. After forty-five days with a gypsum-splinted neck, he learned that he would spend the rest of his life paralyzed. Furthermore, he suffered from many diseases, including loss of vision in the right eye due to brutal Israeli investigation while he was in jail. He also suffered from a severe weakness in the left eye, a chronic inflammation of the ear, lungs diseases, and other gastrointestinal infections. Political activity
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Issue No : 127 23th March 2015 Yassin finished high school in 1957/58 and managed to get a job despite the initial refusal due to his health condition. And most of his teaching income was spent helping his poor family. When he was 20, he took part in the demonstrations that broke out in Gaza to protest the tripartite aggression on Egypt in 1956. He showed rhetorical and organizational capacities as he actively joined his counterparts in refusing the international supervision over Gaza and insisting on the importance of the return of the Egyptian administration. His oratorical skills began to develop distinctively and his name started to resonate among the scholars of Gaza. This invoked the Egyptian intelligence to arrest him in 1965 as part of its crack on Muslim Brotherhood. He remained in solitary confinement for around a month since he had no connection to the Brotherhood. His time in jail affected him as he described its impacts on him saying, “[My time in jail] deepened my hatred for oppression and emphasized that the legacy of any authority depends on its justice, and belief in the human right of living free.” The Israeli occupation Yassin’s activism disturbed the Israeli occupation, so he was arrested in 1982 and charged with forming a military organization and possession of weapons. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison, but he was released in 1985 in a prisoners swap deal between the occupation authorities and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Founding Hamas Movement In 1987, Yassin agreed with a number of Islamic leaders, who adopted the ideology of
the Muslim Brotherhood in the Gaza Strip, to establish an Islamic organization to resist the occupation until the liberation of Palestine. They agreed to name it “The Islamic Resistance Movement”, more commonly known by its acronym “Hamas”. He played a major role in the first Palestinian Intifada. Since then, he has been considered the spiritual leader of the Movement. As the resistance escalated, the occupation started thinking of a way to terminate Yassin’s activities. In 1988, the occupation stormed and searched his house and threatened to exile him to Lebanon. As the resistance attack against Israeli occupation forces and its collaborators increased, the Israeli authorities arrested Sheikh Yassin along with hundreds of Hamas figures on May 18th, 1989. On October 16th, 1991, a military court issued a life-imprisonment and a 15-year sentence against him. In the indictment, he was charged with incitement to kidnap and kill Israeli soldiers and of establishing Hamas and its military and security apparatuses. Attempts to set him free A group of Al-Qassam Brigades tried to set Shaikh Ahmed Yassin and other elderly prisoners free. Therefore, Hamas kidnapped an Israeli soldier near Jerusalem on December 13th, 1992. AlQassam offered Israel to swap the soldier with these prisoners, but Israel refused the offer and attacked the place where the soldier was kept killing him, the commander of the Israeli commando unit, and all members of the resistance group. In another swap deal, on October 1st, 1997, between Jordan and Israel in the wake of a failed
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assassination attempt of Khalid Mishaal, Head of Hamas Political Bureau in Amman, Yassin was set free. House arrest As Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, controlled by Fatah the mainstream faction of the PLO, carry contradictory strategies, the PA often tends to put pressure on Hamas. As one of those pressures, the PA imposed house arrest on Sheikh Yassin more than once. Martyrdom On September 6th, 2003, Yassin survived an Israeli assassination attempt as an Israeli helicopter targeted a flat where Ahmad Yassin and Ismail Haniyeh were meeting with off Hamas members. Yassin was slightly wounded in his right arm. At the break of dawn on Monday, March 22nd, 2004, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was brutally murdered by Israeli Apaches. The helicopters launched three rockets on his wheelchair while he was leaving Al-Mujamma Al-Islami Mosque in Al-Sabra neighborhood, Gaza. Seven of his attendants were also killed and two of his sons were injured in this attack that was commanded by Ariel Sharon, the Prime Minister of Israel then. The struggle goes on Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was one of those few and rare individuals who gave everything to Palestine. His path was clear as crystal: Palestine comes first. Sheikh Yassin always taught Palestinians that the killing of leaders should never stop the struggle but ignite it. And nowadays, we have hundreds of thousands in Palestine following the steps of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
22 Mar 2015 Source: PIC |
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Issue No : 127 23th March 2015
Hamas calls for Palestinian reconciliation after Israel poll
Senior Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouq said in a statement.”Implementing the reconciliation agreement ,signed last year by both Hamas and Fatah, is the best way to respond to the Likud party’s electoral victory,” Unofficial results of Tuesday’s Knesset polls indicate that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party had won 30 seats, while the center-left Zionist Union alliance had come in second with 24 seats. The Joint Arab List, meanwhile, a coalition of four Israeli-Arab parties, came in third with an unprecedented 14 seats. Hamas and Fatah signed a reconciliation deal almost one year ago aimed at ending seven years of division. That division had led to two rival seats of Palestinian government – one in Gaza and one in Ramallah– after Hamas routed pro-Fatah forces in 2007 and took control of the Gaza Strip. The Ramallah-based unity government, however, has yet to assume political responsibility for the blockaded Gaza Strip amid ongoing differences between the rival factions.
18 March 2015 16
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Source: World Bulletin
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Issue No : 127 23th March 2015
Official: Israeli soldiers uproot 300 olive trees near Nablus
Israeli forces on Wednesday evening uprooted 300 olive trees and destroyed more than 5,000 meters of stone barriers belonging to Palestinians in the village of Majdal Bani Fadil south of Nablus. Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian Authority official who monitors settlement activity in the northern West Bank, told Ma’an that dozens of Israeli military vehicles and bulldozers raided the area in the evening. He said that the soldiers entered the Kfar Ataya area, located on the northern side of the village, and uprooted hundreds of trees. Daghlas told Ma’an that the trees belonged to villagers Maher Abd al-Raouf Khatib and Bashar Abdullah Ahmad. He said that they had been planted as part of an agricultural project in the area. Israeli authorities have apparently objected to the project and Daghlas said the matter was currently in court. Israel’s Civil Administration told Ma’an that there was no “uprooting,” but “rather a demolition was carried out against terraces which were built illegally without the necessary permits on state lands.” Majdal Bani Fadil is located on the eastern edge of the Nablus region, and is surrounded by areas under Israeli military control as well as Israeli settlements on all sides.
18 Mar 2015
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Maan
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Issue No : 127 23th March 2015
Wheelchair bound in Gaza
Wheelchair-bound Palestinian student teacher Ahmed al-Sawaferi, 25, gives a class at an elementary school in Gaza City, March 18, 2015. Al-Sawaferi, said that he lost both legs and his left arm in an Israeli air strike in 2008. Al-Sawaferi, a father of two children, is due to hold a B.A in Islamic studies after ďŹ nishing his last university semester in June this year.
Ahmed al-Sawaferi gives a class at an elementary school in Gaza City, March 18, 2015.
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Ahmed al-Sawaferi pushes himself at an elementary school in Gaza City.
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Issue No : 127 23th March 2015
Ahmed teaches an elementary class in Gaza city.
Ahmed al-Sawaferi makes tea before leaving his house in Gaza City, March 18, 2015
Ahmed alSawaferi speaks with a student during the morning queue, March 18, 2015. Source: World Bulletin
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Articles & Analyses
What comes after the Israeli elections? 19 March 2015
a prelude to the resumption of The Israeli elections have been negotiations and an attempt and gone, and the numbers at to halt any unilateral decisions the polls indicate that the new taking by the PA in the internagovernment will be lead by Ben- tional arena. This is especially jamin Netanyahu and the Right. important when considering the In this sense, the current situa- possible lawsuits facing Israel in tion as embodied by the stag- the International Criminal Court nant status quo will not change. (ICC) with respect to crimes perpetrated by Israeli forces In fact, the most that the new Is- during their aggression on the raeli government can offer Pal- Gaza strip last summer. estinians in the form of change is lowering tax rates paid on im- The third possibility facing the ports in the hope of continuing Israeli government is is that of security coordination with the forming a national unity governPalestinian Authority (PA). Is- ment that would include all parrael knows that it can no longer ties; however, this government freeze the PA’s funds should it would be politically paralysed want to secure its cooperation and would not achieve much on matters of security; the cen- in terms of change and innovatral council agreed to halt its co- tion. The most they could agree operative efforts with the Israeli upon is to release frozen Palesgovernment during their last tinian assets for the sake of premeeting. Many senior Israeli of- empting any dangerous unilatficials have warned of the dan- eral steps from the Palestinian gers of withholding Palestinian side. funds out of fear that the current The question that seems to be PA would collapse and a new of prominent importance followanti-Israeli authority would take ing the Israeli election results, its place. and has been on the minds of The second possibility is that political circles in Washington, the “Zionist camp” will succeed New York and other American in forming a coalition with other cities that I have been visiting, parties, including right-wing reli- is: Will the international commugious parties, to form a new gov- nity be able to force both sides ernment. What will then happen to resume the negotiation prois that the government will stop cess and reach a settlement in its freeze on Palestinian funds which Israel agrees to withdraw and perhaps will also conduct its forces based on 1967 bora partial settlement freeze as ders? Many still believe that this 20
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Dr Hani Al-Masri is the only solution that would allow Israel to retain its sense of security while also solving the Palestinian refugee issue. The talk here in the US, especially in Palestinian and Arab circles, revolves around questions regarding whether or not Barack Obama’s administration is daring enough to take the initiative at the end of the second period of his presidency, as most American presidents before him did. Many are eager to see what Obama will do, especially in light of certain laws restricting him, as is the case with the Iranian issue. Yet, the president has broad powers with respect to US foreign policy and many are curious to see what will happen in light of the stress experienced by US-Israeli relations in recent years. This is in light of the recent deterioration
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Issue No : 127 23th March 2015 of personal relations between Obama and Netanyahu, especially following Netanyahu’s last visit and speech in Congress, which was done without the coordination and approval of the US administration. If the US decides to work with other great powers in the world, as it did in the Iranian, Ukrainian and even Syrian cases, then one could argue that the results of the Israeli elections are not all that significant, since the international community has the ability to pressure the Israeli government. It would, of course, be easier for the international community to impose their will on the Israeli government provided that the newly elected government is not too far to the Right; therefore, it is no secret at this point that the US, as well as many European and Arab countries, would be keen to see Netanyahu’s government reach its downfall. Many influential figures within his party have mentioned that there are many external factors that have been working to influence the outcome of these elections.
international organisations such as the ICC, as well as Palestinian efforts to hold Israel accountable for its illegal occupation of Palestinian territories.
there will be US and European pressure placed on the Palestinian side to make more concessions to ensure a higher chance of success
Many sources I have met with and spoken to indicate the presence of Russian, Chinese and European willingness, especially French in this case, to impose a solution on the parties before the situation deteriorates on the Palestinian front. In fact, the harsh reality facing Palestinians has led to an international call for a just and peaceful solution. Israeli-Palestinian relations have grown even tenser when considering Palestinian entry to
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No one truly believes that the US will join the international community in its efforts to put pressure on Israel or to work to find a suitable solution that would be imposed on both parties. Yet, many still agree that if the US does not act, it would be the final nail in the coffin of a 20-year peace process and the end of we have been calling the “two-state solution”. Many have considered the Obama administration’s appointment of Robert Malley as the man in charge of the Middle East file an indicator that potential changes might occur in US foreign policy. Malley is known to not be a member of the proIsraeli camp in the US government per se; moreover, he has been open to integrating Hamas in the political process and has shown some flexibility on the issue at large. There will more than likely be an international movement calling for a solution to the conflict with the participation of the US; however, there will be US and European pressure placed on the Palestinian side to make more concessions to ensure a higher chance of success. The nature of this conflict ensures that the US and Israel share common goals, and this is in part due to the fact that the Palestinian side is weak and disadvantaged due to the occupation and politically divided on the inside. The Palestinians are rendered weaker |
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Issue No : 127 23th March 2015 nothing other than strengthening, legitimising and continuing said occupation, and we cannot afford to do that with the precious time that we have left.
due to these circumstances and due to other factors such as the siege that has been imposed on Gaza. Therefore, it is necessary to give the utmost importance and attention to ending Palestinian national division and restoring unity. There needs to be a change in the old approach, or the implementation of a new approach that does not allow for the resumption of negotiations. New approaches to resolving the conflict, whether they include international and regional participation or not, could quickly work against the Palestinian people if international law and UN resolutions continue to be ignored. All parties involved in this must ensure that UN resolutions are implemented and not negotiated. More importantly, humouring the idea of Israel withdrawing the occupation in accordance with 1967 borders and potential land swaps could open the gates of hell because these land swaps would grant Israel the opportunity to annex large areas of land that it has occupied for long periods of time, which would end the possibility of creating a viable Palestinian state. There are many actors within Palestinian and regional panArab circles who are placing their bets on the outcomes of the Israeli elections or the possibility that the US administration will become more proactive in the second half of Obama’s final term; this is a fatal mistake and a trap that we must not fall into again. Placing bets on the occupation will simply result in 22
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there is no significant difference between the right-wing party in Israel and a coalition within the Zionist camp; public opinion on the Israeli Right is extremist and racist and represents the overwhelming majority.
In a lecture I recently gave at Brown University, I said that there is no significant difference between the right-wing party in Israel and a coalition within the Zionist camp; public opinion on the Israeli Right is extremist and racist and represents the overwhelming majority. It imposes on rival parties the need to compete with extreme ideologies to attract the highest number of votes. This reality ultimately places a great deal of responsibility on us Palestinians to place pressure on Israel and make the occupation costly and ineffective. If we simply look at the political programme that was proposed by Herzog and Livni, we would see that their campaign is based entirely on the notion of security and the idea that Israel is an exclusively Jewish state. Herzog recently stated that he does not believe in an Israeli state established along 1967 borders, nor does he believe in the Palestinian Right of Return or in dividing Jerusalem. Days before the election, he also expressed that he does not believe that Israel has a partner for peace in the Palestinian people and that the future government will pay close attention to the Iranian issue as well as restoring US-Israeli relations. Beware of the mirage and false promises of hope embodied by the Israeli elections. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect PCOM’s editorial policy.
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Issue No : 127 23th March 2015
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