Protesters break through separation wall

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Palestinians on Friday tore a hole through part of Israel’s separation wall in the outskirts of east of Jerusalem, witnesses and a security official said.

Protesters were marking the Nakba anniversary and upon reaching the wall they ripped a 4-meter hole in it, onlookers said.

Clashes broke out after the incident and Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets. Several injuries were reported.

An Israeli army spokeswoman confirmed damage to the wall in the town of Abu Dis, which is outside East Jerusalem. A spokesman for the border police did not immediately return calls.

Activists uploaded footage of the damage on YouTube and Facebook.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiVO9tGTICw&feature=player_embedded

(Source / 17.05.2013)

UFree Network raises the prisoners’ issue at the European Parliament

BRUSSELES, (PIC)– UFree Network to defend the rights of Palestinian prisoners raised the issue of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails on the sidelines of a meeting held at the European Parliament in Brussels on the 65th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba. UFree praised, in its statement issued on Thursday, the European Parliament meeting to mark the anniversary of Palestinian Nakba for the first time since its founding. The Oslo based network stated that the meeting discussed at first the European Parliament delegation’s visit to the Palestinian occupied territories. Dr. Salman Abu Sitta, chair of Palestine Land Foundation, detailed during the meeting the Israeli massacres and ethnic cleaning against the Palestinian people since the Nakba. He also stressed that the Palestinian Right of Return will never be compromised, calling to stop arming Israel. For his part, Dr. Arafat Madi, the Director of the Council for European Palestinian Relations (CEPR), stressed the need to end the Palestinian refugees’ suffering by reinforcing the right of return of millions of Palestinians who were forcibly deported from their homeland. Mr. Mohammed Hamdan, head of UFree Network, presented the Palestinian prisoners’ suffering in Israeli jails and detailed the Israeli violations and discrimination policies against the detainees particularly the prisoners carrying the blue ID cards. In a related context, Dr. Tareq Tahboub, vice president of the Assembly of Palestinian Doctors in Europe, highlighted the Israeli deliberate medical neglect policy against the Palestinian prisoners, calling for the formation of a European committee to check on the prisoners’ detention conditions in Israeli jails. (Source / 17.05.2013)

No peace deal without Palestinian unity: Turkey

 

US Vice President Joseph Biden (R) shakes hands with Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a luncheon at the State Department on May 16, 2013 in Washington, DC. It will be impossible to reach a Middle East peace deal without a reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas militants, Erdogan warned Friday.

AFP - It will be impossible to reach a Middle East peace deal without a reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas militants, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Friday.

“The process of unity between Fatah and Hamas, this has to be achieved. If this reconciliation is not achieved, then I don’t believe that a solution or result will come out of the Israeli-Palestinian discussions,” Erdogan told a Washington think-tank during a visit to the United States.

He was speaking after confirming following talks Thursday with US President Barack Obama that he planned to visit the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip as well as the West Bank some time next month despite US opposition.

The dual stops mean Erdogan would meet with the Hamas rulers of Gaza as well as with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, likely in Ramallah.

“I place a lot of significance on this visit in terms of peace in the Middle East. I’m hoping that that visit will contribute to unity in Palestine,” the Turkish leader said Thursday at a joint press conference with Obama.

Washington had urged Erdogan to postpone any visit to the impoverished Gaza Strip, saying it would be a “distraction” from its efforts to revive the moribund Middle East peace process.

“As we’ve said consistently, we oppose engagement with Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization which remains a destabilizing force in Gaza and the region,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters later.

“We urge all parties who share our interest in the creation of a Palestinian state to take steps that promote the resumption of peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel.”

Erdogan’s announcement that he would also visit the West Bank appeared aimed at soothing US anger that he would meet with militant Hamas leaders in Gaza.

There has been a renewed effort by Washington since Secretary of State John Kerry took office in February to galvanize international efforts to kick-start the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks stalled since late 2010.

Kerry is returning to the Middle East region next week and is expected to make his fourth visit to Israel in three months.

(Source / 17.05.2013)

Abbas leaves Egypt after 3-day trip

CAIRO (Ma’an) — President Mahmoud Abbas left Egypt on Friday, after a 3-day trip.

During the visit, Abbas met his Egyptian counterpart Muhammad Mursi and discussed recent Israeli actions at the al-Aqsa compound, and progress in Palestinian reconciliation.

The president also met with Mohamed Raafat Shehata, the chief of the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate, and discussed implementation of reconciliation agreements.

Abbas held a news conference before finalizing his visit with a meeting with the leader of the Egyptian Popular Current coalition, Hamdeen Sabahi.

(Source / 17.05.2013)

UNESCO to send fact-finding commission to Jerusalem

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) – UNESCO will send a fact-finding commission on May 20 to investigate ongoing Israeli measures in Jerusalem, the Palestinian minister of foreign affairs said Thursday.

Riyad al-Malki told a news conference in Ramallah that the commission would spend five days in Jerusalem before returning to the UNESCO headquarters in Paris to submit a detailed report.

The last time an international commission investigated Israeli procedures in Jerusalem was in 2004.

Al-Malki highlighted that Israeli assaults against holy places in Jerusalem were part of a systematic policy crystallized recently. There have been clear attempts to take control of the al-Aqsa Mosque and its squares and gates, he said.

President Mahmoud Abbas, meanwhile, has asked the ministry of foreign affairs to call an emergency meeting of the Arab League. The council convened Sunday, added al-Malki, and came up with several decisions related to Jerusalem.

Messages have also been sent to foreign ministers all over the world urging them to help protect Muslim and Christian holy places in Jerusalem and to exert pressure on Israel.

Asked about Palestine joining the International Criminal Court, al-Malki said that move wouldn’t be easy as it couldn’t be achieved immediately. The Palestinian leadership, he said, has given directives to complete all preparations to join the ICC, but that necessitates that Palestine signs the Rome Convention.

Palestinian legal experts should first study the Rome Convention and learn about the consequences of such a step before signing the convention, according to al-Malki.

(Source / 16.05.2013)

CONFERENCE RELEASE: Palestinian Shatat Conference convenes in Vancouver for Return and Liberation

May 15th, 2013 – In an effort to unite the Palestinian community through adherence to fundamental principles predicated on return and liberation, Palestinian activists and their allies in North America convened on unceded Coast Salish territories at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada from May 3 – 5, 2013.

With the firm belief that Palestinians in the Shatat should be actively engaged and invested in advancing the Palestinian cause as we commemorate 65 years of Nakba, participants discussed various issues, including, among others, accurate and accountable representation, defining the relationship of Palestinians in North America with Palestinians inside Palestine and the refugee camps, and finding methods to confront Zionist settler colonialism inside and outside of Palestine.

According to Khaled Barakat, a member of the organizing committee of the conference, “at a time when the right of return is under attack and Palestinian land is under threat from occupation attacks and so-called ‘land swaps’, the voice of Palestinians in shatat must be raised. The conference is a critical step towards addressing these concerns, and a new forum to engender positive changes in the Palestinian national liberation movement.”

The program of the conference included workshops spanning various topics, such as strengthening Palestinian organizing in the Shatat, Palestinian shatat participation and leadership in the growing boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, forging joint struggles with justice movements in North America, gender and queer issues, combating Zionism and normalization, the centrality of the right of return to Palestinian liberation, discourses on national unity and addressing issues regarding representation and the Shatat’s relationship with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

The conference, which featured Palestinian freedom fighter Leila Khaled, who greeted conference attendees for a one-hour presentation via Skype in which she called for Palestinian national unity on the basis of resistance and struggle for return and liberation saluted the Palestinian prisoners in their fight for freedom and liberation, and reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen the Palestinian national liberation movement.

Conference participants included members of Idle No More, as well as other longtime indigenous activists; conference participants dined on bannock donated by Indigenous chefs and a Wet’suwet’en drum group introduced Khaled. According to Omar Shaban, director of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) at UBC, “it is important to recognize, over and again, that this conference was held on unceded indigenous territory, and that the struggle of the Palestinian people in the Shatat is incomplete without recognizing and joining the struggle of the indigenous people of Canada and the United States.”

Throughout the various discussions which spanned various points of views, political perspectives and diverse ideologies, attendees vowed to continue the conversation on forging a united front against Zionist colonization in Palestine. Conference participants formed a follow-up committee, which will be releasing a proposed action plan for Palestinian mobilization in the North American diaspora in the coming weeks.

For more information please contact:
Omar Shaban
604-379-4050
info@palestinianconference.org
palestinianconference.org

To get involved with these initiatives and the follow-up work of the conference, please contact info@palestinianconference.org.

The points of unity of the conference and its follow-up committee are as follows:

May 2013 marks the 65th anniversary of the Nakba, and the 65th year of the ongoing struggle for Palestinian refugees’ return and the liberation of Palestine.

1. The Palestinian people are one people and our cause is one cause. Our objective is to revive the Palestinian national liberation movement and build the national institutions of the Palestinian people based on popular participation and direct democracy, in order to achieve the liberation of the land and people of Palestine and the implementation of the right of Palestinian refugees to return their homes.

2. The conflict with the settler colonialist state of Israel will only be resolved through the dismantling of the racist settler colonial nature of the state, meaning decolonization from Zionism, in all its forms, social, economic and political.

3. The right of return is the first and foremost step to the exercise of our right to self-determination.

4. Based on history, language, culture and geography, Palestine is an integral part of the Arab world and the Palestinian people are an integral part of the Arab nation.

5. Palestine is part and parcel of international resistance to colonialism, settler colonialism, imperialism and Zionism. The Palestinian people’s struggle is the struggle of an indigenous population directly connected to national liberation movements around the world facing the same powers, including the struggle of Indigenous peoples of North America, where this conference is taking place.

6. This effort is part of the struggle to achieve the basic right of Palestinians to elect our representatives in a democratic manner, and to overcome all obstacles being placed in front of our people in Palestine and in the shatat. As Palestinians in shatat, we have a right to representation and raise the voice of the shatat in our national liberation movement.

7. Palestinians have the right to resist injustice and occupation in order to achieve the liberation of their land and people.

8. The governments of the United States and Canada are directly responsible for apartheid, colonization and occupation in Palestine, through their diplomatic, political, military and economic support for the state of Israel. We recognize the US and Canada to be settler colonies built on indigenous lands.

9. We have the responsibility to confront the role of the US and Canada, hold the governments of the US and Canada accountable, and to build alliances with oppressed peoples and communities in North America.

10. We recognize the leadership and central role of Palestinian women in the national liberation movement, in this initiative, and in political representation.

(Source / 16.05.2013)

Gaza’s children entertainment project

A continuation of the projects that we have set up entertainment in the past years and documented on the website.

We are in the process of implementing several projects in the next few weeks, and these projects are competent to the children of Gaza, who still suffer the presence of violence in the Palestinian territories, especially in the Gaza Strip.

This geographical area small and inhabited by one million eight thousand Palestinian citizens suffer from a crippling blockade and a fierce war between now and then destroy the calm that they live within a few months to be surprised to escalate military brings them woes and tens or even hundreds of people including children, women and the elderly, most of them civilians.

Therefore, we are coming to put between your hands our project entertainment, which will serve a handful of Gaza’s children who have lost part of their families in the ongoing violence in the Gaza Strip and also sick children suffered from a psychological condition is difficult because of hearing the sound of explosions from missiles huge received Israeli warplanes in residential areas civilian in the Gaza Strip.

Aim of this project is to service the minds of these children to change the atmosphere in their minds that you do not know, but the atmosphere of war, we do not, we must make these minds are looking for the flag, freedom and stability, we go to you and hope your support for us to support these children with all our efforts and energy to provide all of their material and moral and draw a smile back on the faces of these children.

(Source /16.05.2013)

Hamas, the Arab Spring and the West

‘Hamas itself has been willing to negotiate right from the beginning.’

The “Arab Spring”, as we now have come to know it, has seemingly changed the nature of politics and the balance of power in the Middle East forever.

The West was caught off guard and after initially grappling with the new situation, are now dealing with Islamist parties whom they had vowed never to sit at the same table with.

Prior to the Arab Spring, all the branches of the ‘menacing’ Islamic Brotherhood were outlawed, and legitimate targets in the worldwide War on Terror.  The outsized blanket of Islamophobia seemed to smother anyone of Middle Eastern origin, let alone an Islamist. Much to the surprise of the world however, since their coming to power in countries like Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen, the Brotherhood have been welcoming and willing to deal with the rest of world in a refined, professional manner. To the dismay of the fear-mongering neoconservatives, they turned out to be moderates prioritizing stability, security and prosperity in their countries even if it meant relinquishing power and adopting a power-sharing strategy with their former oppressors. Slowly but surely, an increasing number of Western countries have begun to deal with them and found them to be the moderates, they always were.

The neoconservative extremists in the West, as well as the extremist factions in the East, are clearly not pleased. Continuous efforts to undermine the governments and instigate instability within the countries have been the trademark of the first year since the Arab Spring.

One group however, with the exact same moderate ideology and principles, has been excluded. They have always been willing to meet and deal with Western governments. They are the Muslim Brotherhood group in Palestine, better known as Hamas.

Hamas’s popularity in the Middle East knows no bounds. As analysts like Ed Hussein and others have noted, not only Christians and Muslims in the West Bank support Hamas’s resistance, but that is the general thinking pattern of the majority of those residing in the Middle East – be they Christian, Muslim, secular or Islamist. If the West wants popular opinion to swing in their favor – which they always claim they are trying to do – they should “accept the facts on the ground” and open dialogue with Hamas. It is in the best interests of the West to have the newly emerging democracies as well as the 300 million Arabs on their side if they intend to have any influence in the region.

Even the occupying Zionist state that normally fans the fire of separation negotiated with Hamas (in both official and unofficial capacities) to secure the release of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. They also negotiated a ceasefire with Hamas during the last war in 2012 via the Egyptian government.

What the West fails to comprehend is that although Hamas’s image has been portrayed as extremist, they are, and have always been moderates. If dialogue isn’t opened with them, their more radical counterparts will be tougher to deal with. The West must understand the ideological difference between the extremists on one hand who have no political vision and who attack indiscriminately in public areas and on the other hand an Islamist political movement who participates in good faith, in free and fair elections. Hamas has never struck anywhere outside the theater of the occupation for their objective is only to liberate the occupied lands.

The branding of Hamas as terrorists may have worked in the past, but today is to a large extent, falling on deaf ears. History bears testimony that even renowned leaders like George Washington and Nelson Mandela, together with their parties were all regarded as terrorists to suit the occupiers’ needs, whereas the world now hails them as symbols of freedom. Hamas has also come a long way and are different to the Hamas of the past. They have in recent years structured a well-run government dealing with all issues facing their society from security to road maintenance. They have been responsive to the criticism of NGO’s and Human Rights’ organizations alike. They have negotiated ceasefires, accepted the 1967 borders, abandoned suicide attacks and have generally become more flexible in their viewpoints. Far from being a failed state or ‘Hamastan’ as critics initially purported, Gaza is safer today than it has ever been since the occupation began.

Analysts like Helena Cobban and others have noted that, “Western governments already engage in intention-probing diplomacy with many international actors whose actions are far more damaging than those of Hamas. (Such as North Korea.)” So the question is asked for the umpteenth time, why not Hamas?

Even the former head of Mossad, Efraim Halevy noted that, “Hamas has demonstrated a will and a capacity to think and act pragmatically when it believes it useful or necessary. There’s no better example of this than its governance of Gaza. Yes, it continues to play the role of peace-process spoiler when that role suits its interests. But Hamas has also demonstrated a serious capacity to exercise responsibility and restraint when that role suits its purposes. It has demonstrated its ability to control Gaza effectively, to both enforce a long-term cessation of hostilities and to withstand the combined efforts of the United States, Israel, and Egypt to bring it to its knees.” He also remarked that dialogue with Hamas is the only way forward.

Hamas itself has been willing to negotiate right from the beginning. In a letter addressed to the Quartet very soon after their electoral win in 2006, members stressed that they, “urge members of the Quartet to intensify their diplomatic efforts to bring both sides to the negotiation table in order to discuss and forge as equal partners a solution to the ongoing conflict that is based on international law and various UN resolutions passed in this regard.” They went on to say that they, “appeal to all peace forces around the world to heed our call for dialogue, peace and justice. We call on the international community to ponder what we perceive as a fair and reasonable stance. And we urge the Quartet to engage us in direct and intimidation-free dialogue. Our ultimate object is to achieve peace for our people, and dialogue has proven the only harbinger for true peace.”

It really isn’t as if the phenomenon of Islamists and the West working hand in hand is something totally alien to the modern world. They worked very well together in Afghanistan and Bosnia against the invading forces, both having the same interests, which produced results that both sides were pleased with.

Is it not high time that the age-old East/West divide is bridged? Can the West afford to contrive on this cultural collision course? Will they carry on in this manner for the next millennium or can they see that there is a better strategy in sight?

(Source / 16.05.2013)

Turkish PM says Gaza visit set to take place in June and include West Bank

Erdoğan had previously said he intended to visit Gaza in April, before saying announcing that the trip would finally take place after his talks in the United States. AA photo

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said his visit to Gaza would probably take place in June and include the West Bank, during his joint press conference with U.S. President Barack Obama in the Rose Garden of the White House May 16. “I believe that my visit to Gaza will contribute much to the Palestine alliance and [regional] peace,” Erdoğan said, adding that it was out of the question for Turkey to show support just to one of the Palestinian groups. “I give much importance to contributing to Palestinian peace,” he said

Obama emphasized the importance of the normalization of Turkish-Israeli relations, saying it would contribute to advancing the two-state solution to the Middle East problem. Erdoğan said compensation negotiations between Turkey and Israel for the eight Turkish citizens and one Turkish-American dual citizen were continuing.

Erdoğan had previously said he intended to visit Gaza in April, before saying announcing that the trip would finally take place after his talks in the United States. Meanwhile Washington did not initially fully back the plan as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he asked Erdoğan to postpone his Gaza visit during a meeting on the sidelines of a Friends of Syria meeting in Istanbul last month.

(Source / 16.05.2013)

Video: At least 16 Palestinians arrested after Nakba clashes

Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian protestor as clashes broke out near Damascus gate in Jerusalem on May 15, 2013 during a rally to mark the 65th Nakba.

Protesters and Israel forces clashed in the West Bank on Wednesday as thousands of Palestinians commemorated the Nakba (catastrophe) of the Jewish state’s creation in 1948, during which 760,000 Palestinians fled their homes.

Soldiers fired rubber bullets at protesters gathered in front of Ofer military prison near Ramallah, wounding 15 of them, Palestinian medical officials said.

Demonstrators pelted soldiers with stones, the army said.

In east Jerusalem, police clashed with demonstrators outside the Old City’s Damascus Gate, police spokeswoman Luba Samri told AFP

Protesters threw stones at police, injuring three of them, she said. Security forces responded with stun grenades, water hoses and horses to disperse the demonstrators, she said.

A total of 16 Palestinians were arrested, Samri added.

Thousands of Palestinians took to the streets in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to demonstrate on Nakba Day and assert their “right to return” to where their ancestors fled after the Israeli victory over Arab armies.

Protesters held aloft Palestinian flags and replicas of the keys to the houses their families abandoned in 1948.

Some 1,000 people turned out in the northern West Bank town of Nablus, and another 300 in southern Hebron.

Palestinians threw a petrol bomb at an army jeep near Hebron burning it out entirely and wounding four soldiers inside it, an army spokeswoman told AFP.

In Hamas-ruled Gaza, thousands of people gathered in the center of Gaza City, holding placards that read “We will get back to Palestinian villages and towns, no matter how long it takes” and “The right of return is sacred and inalienable”.

Earlier in the day, Gaza-based militants fired a projectile that hit an open field in southern Israel that struck in an open field, causing no damage or casualties, police said.

A military spokeswoman could not say whether the projectile was a mortar shell or rocket. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the incident.

Over the past two months, there has been an uptick in rocket fire on southern Israel after more than three months of complete quiet that followed a deadly confrontation in November that ended with an Egyptian-brokered truce.

In Ramallah, where the Palestinian Authority is based, sirens sounded for 65 seconds, representing the 65 years of the existence of the modern state of Israel.

In a televised speech on Tuesday evening, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said “there is no country in the world, including the United States of America, that denies our right to establish our independent state based on the 1967 borders” — a reference to land occupied by Israel since the Six Day War.

“We are today a number (of people) and a truth that cannot be overlooked,” he said.

In 1948, more than 760,000 Palestinians — estimated today to number more than five million with their descendants — fled or were driven out of their homes.

Around 160,000 Palestinians stayed behind and are now known as Arab Israelis. They and their descendants number about 1.3 million people, or some 20 percent of the population.

(Source / 15.05.2013)