Activists
Slam
‘Racist’
Remarks Towards Palestinians
by Lebanese Minister
Palestinian and Lebanese activists have denounced remarks made
by Lebanese Foreign Minister, Gebran Bassil, who said that he
“Supports giving citizenship to children of Lebanese female
nationals, except that if they were married to Palestinians
and Syrians.”
He added during a conference in New York that he supports this
opinion, “Because our constitution is like this, our identity
is like this, and we should not give nationality to 400,000
Palestinians living in Lebanon.”
Some 400,000 Palestinian refugees live in Lebanon, and only a
few thousands are married to Lebanese.
https://twitter.com/Gebran_Bassil/status/777204061103947776
(Translation: I support granting the children of Lebanese
females citizenship if Palestinians and Syrians are excluded,
to protect our country).
A social media activist wrote, “For your sake Gebran Bassil, I
will migrate to China.” Another commented, “We look racist
today with Bassil’s racist remarks.” A Lebanese journalist
stated, “Gebran Bassil should be stripped of his official
position.”
(PC, Sky News)
54% of Gaza’s Reconstruction
Funds Have Not Been Delivered
A report published by Gaza’s Chamber of Commerce has revealed
that 54% of Gaza’s reconstruction funds have not yet been
paid, although donor countries have pledged to do so two years
ago. The report noted that 1.596 billion dollars out of 3.5
billion dollars have been pledged by various donor countries
have been delivered.
The report warned that the reconstruction process of Gaza
might take several years if Israel does not change its current
policies and allow more construction materials into Gaza.
https://twitter.com/CIR_Palestine/status/777521379356934144
Maher Altabaa of Gaza’s Chamber of Commerce has revealed that
612 million dollars have been allocated for emergency work;
251 million dollars to the UNRWA, 89 million dollars for fuel,
386 million dollars for reconstruction, 253 for emergency
relief work, and 299 million dollars to support the
governmental budget.
Altabaa added that 1181 housing units have been rebuilt out of
11,000, which were destroyed during the 2014 offensive on
Gaza, which amounts to only 10.7% of the total number of
destroyed houses. Some 50% of the houses, which were partially
destroyed, have not yet been rebuilt.
He asserted that only 16% of the Gaza Strip’s needs for
reconstruction have been met.
https://twitter.com/abbysmardon/status/773913385557786624
Altabaa added that 65,000 Palestinians out of 100,000, who
were made homeless in 2014, are still displaced, and half of
them might not get any financial support during the second
half of 2016.
The report concluded that 160,000 children in Gaza are in need
of constant psychological support.
(PC, HADAF News)
Risking Death by Drowning to
Escape Gaza Siege
By Hamza Abu Eltarabesh
Sajed’s family understands why he decided to travel towards
Europe. Opportunities are severely restricted in Gaza, which
has been under siege and closure since 2007 and has suffered
three devastating Israeli military attacks since 2008.
“After the long years of siege and three wars, people want to
have a way out,” Muhammad, Sajed’s brother, said. “They need
an option to get out of this prison. The last war made many
people think about finding opportunities so that their
children could escape horror and death.”
Sajed had a small media production company which was bombed by
Israel in August 2014.
He rented an office in al-Basha Tower, a high-rise building in
Gaza City. The building was attacked late at night. Sajed and
his colleagues were not there at the time, but all of their
firm’s equipment was destroyed.
The company was known as Sjaia after the Arabic word for
“qualities.” Established only a few months before it was
bombed, Sajed had borrowed money in order to set it up.
“Sajed always chased his dreams and was really enthusiastic
about his work,” said his sister Nour. “He was the one who
gave us strength when we tried to console him for losing the
company,” she added. “He was relieved that he and his friends
weren’t in the office at the time. He was more worried about
the people who lost their homes or members of their families.”
Following the attack, Sajed decided to travel to Turkey to
pursue a Masters program in media studies. He had obtained a
scholarship to study there one year earlier. He had, however,
previously been unable to take up the scholarship because of
travel restrictions.
Sajed was determined to keep the company going, despite the
attack. He planned to run it from Turkey and return to Gaza
once his studies were completed.
Traveling to Turkey by a safe, legal route — via Egypt — was
not possible. “The Egyptian authorities had denied entry to
people from Gaza who held visas for Turkey, among other
countries,” Nour said.
This meant that Sajed was unable to go through the Rafah
crossing, which separates Gaza from Egypt. Instead, he had to
enter Egypt through a tunnel. And once in Egypt, he was not
able to travel to Turkey. With little alternative, he embarked
on the dangerous voyage towards Italy.
“Dying Slowly”
Palestinians have continued to try and leave Gaza, despite the
disasters and drownings.
Muhammad Lubad set off from Gaza just a few days after the
sinking that likely claimed Sajed’s life.
Muhammad, an art graduate from al-Aqsa University in Gaza,
resolved not to let fear stop him. After paying $2,000 to a
people smuggler — contacted via a mutual friend — he took a
seasickness tablet and boarded a boat in the Egyptian port
city of Alexandria.
Muhammad left his wife and two children behind in Gaza. He was
planning to sail towards Italy and find a way out of Gaza for
his family once he arrived in Europe.
Before boarding the boat, Muhammad called his mother Amna. “I
begged him to come back,” she recalled. “I had heard about the
other boat which had sunk. Unfortunately, he would not listen.
I kept crying until he asked me forgiveness and helped me to
calm down.”
The boat on which Muhammad left Egypt was small. There were 15
other passengers on board, mostly women and children.
The boat sailed for about an hour before it reached a fishing
vessel. All of the boat’s passengers were transferred to that
vessel, which was carrying a few hundred people. The vessel
was alarmingly overcrowded.
“It was a mess,” said Muhammad. “We huddled together, barely
able to find places to sit. A child near me was crying, a
woman was ill. There was a man hugging his child tightly.”
The voyage lasted for days. At one point, the boat’s captain
started shouting. “At that moment, we realized there was
something wrong with the boat’s engine,” said Muhammad.
“But the captain said that everything was under control.”
Although it could not sail properly, the boat remained at sea
for several more days. Food became increasingly scarce.
“Nights were full of horror,” Muhammad said. “Children were
frightened and crying. When you looked around, it was as if
you were surrounded by dead people. Then in the mornings, the
sunlight would be too strong. I became so dizzy that it was
unbearable. It was really tiring. I tried my best to keep
going by eating dates.”About 10 days into the voyage, Muhammad
heard someone shout, “My son is dying.”
Osama, a 4-year-old, had gone into a coma. Muhammad tried to
help the boy’s family, but there was nothing he could do.
The boy died a day later. Muhammad helped Osama’s father wrap
the child’s body in a white cloth before he was placed in a
wooden box.
Eventually, the boat was surrounded by a number of vessels and
by Egyptian maritime police who pointed guns at the
passengers. They ordered the passengers to leave the boat one
by one.
The passengers were brought to the coast and kept in a sports
hall for a couple of days. Then the passengers from Gaza,
including Muhammad, were deported back to the Strip.
Amna, Muhammad’s mother, was hugely relieved. “When Muhammad
called me and said that he was back, I came back to life once
again,” she said. “I died every day that I didn’t hear from
him.”
Muhammad is nonetheless still planning to leave. “I will
travel when I have the opportunity to do so,” he said. “We’re
dying slowly in Gaza.”
Rising Above Hardship
Some Palestinians have survived their dangerous journeys out
of Gaza and arrived in Europe.
Abdel-Aziz Hamdouna now lives in Brussels, where he is hoping
to establish a career as an artist. It took more than two
weeks of traveling before he made it to the Belgian capital
earlier this year.
Abdel-Aziz grew up in the Jabaliya refugee camp, north of Gaza
City.After leaving Gaza in February, he flew from Cairo to
Istanbul. Unlike when Sajed set off, the Egyptian authorities
were allowing people from Gaza to travel if they had Turkish
visas.
From Istanbul, he and a few other young men traveled to Izmir,
Turkey’s third-largest city. As arranged, they met a people
smuggler there. Each man paid the smuggler $1,000. Then they
boarded an inflatable boat. It sailed towards Greece, carrying
approximately 25 people.
The crossing to a Greek island took a few hours and everyone
landed safely.
In Greece, the authorities placed Abdel-Aziz in a refugee
camp. There he was able to secure a document enabling him to
travel by boat to Athens with Syrian refugees.
Abdel-Aziz recalled it was cold when he arrived. “I bought
some food, water and clothes from one of the Syrian refugees
who was in the camp where the Greek police put us,” he said.
Abdel-Aziz did not stay in the camp for long. When it was
dark, he escaped by climbing over the camp’s fence. “I had a
map to show me the way to Macedonia,” he recalled.
Abdel-Aziz walked for hours until he was too exhausted to go
any farther. After lighting a fire to keep himself warm, he
lay down on the ground and fell asleep.
Day after day, Abdel-Aziz found enough strength to keep moving
toward Macedonia. He met some young men from Algeria in a
forest and they proceeded together. They eventually reached a
military checkpoint on the Greek-Macedonian border after a few
days.
It was not possible, however, for them to enter Macedonia. The
authorities were only allowing Syrian refugees through. As a
Palestinian, Abdel-Aziz lacked the right documentation.
Realizing that they had no chance of getting past the
checkpoint, Abdel-Aziz and his Algerian friends turned back
toward the forest. As they were walking, a police car started
following them.
The young men ran until they reached a river, which they swam
across despite the cold of the water.
The men had to walk through woodland again. They did so for
another few days before coming across another Macedonian
military checkpoint, Abdel-Aziz recalled. Hundreds of people
were waiting at that crossing. He and his friends joined them.
The Macedonian forces, who have been known to use heavy-handed
tactics at the border crossing, opened fire on the refugees.
Abdel-Aziz managed to run away, but became separated from his
Algerian friends. Alone and out of food, all he had to sustain
himself was a bottle of water and some cigarettes. As he tried
to sleep one night, he was attacked by dogs. He escaped by
climbing a tree.
Abdel-Aziz finally found a way into Macedonia with the help of
a refugee family he had met. “I first saw this family from
afar,” he said. “They were among the refugees standing in a
queue.”
Abdel-Aziz crossed Macedonia and entered into Serbia.
In Serbia, he stayed at a shelter run by the International
Committee of the Red Cross for a few days. He did not have
enough money for a train fare to Germany.
“I told one of the [Red Cross] staff that I could draw,” he
said. “She agreed to pay for my ticket if I drew her
portrait.”
He felt unwell on the train, but kept traveling until he
reached Germany. Then he began the final leg of his journey —
to Belgium. It involved walking, taking lifts in cars and
sleeping in the restrooms of restaurants.
Safely there, Abdel-Aziz has a title for an art exhibition
that he is hoping to organize about his journey and his
experiences in Gaza. He wants to call it Phoenix. The name
seems apposite. Like so many refugees, he is determined to
rise above hardship and oppression.
-Hamza Abu Eltarabesh is a freelance journalist and writer
from Gaza. (This article was first published by The Electronic
Intifada and is republished in the Palestine Chronicle with
permission from the author)
Qatar: Reconciliation Meeting
Underway Between Hamas and
Fatah
Osama Al-Qawasmi, the spokesperson for the Fatah movement, has
affirmed that Qatari efforts are underway to hold a
reconciliation meeting between Hamas and Fatah in the Qatari
capital of Doha.
Al-Qawasmi noted that the Palestinian leadership and the
Qatari officials are in touch to resume reconciliation
meetings in Doha, which have stopped for three months, adding
that the meeting will take place after Qatar sent an
invitation to various Palestinian political parties.
The date of he meeting is still to be decided, based on the
schedule of political leaders of both parties.
https://twitter.com/ChildrenofPeace/status/744566254351093761
Al-Qawasmi asserted that his movement is interested in
realizing Palestinian unity, calling on Hamas to take the
necessary steps to achieve this reconciliation.
A meeting between Hamas and Fatah leaders took place in Qatar
three months ago. However, leaders of both Hamas and Fatah
have exchanged accusations over its failure.
Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh arrived in Doha on Saturday as
part of a visit to the country.
(PC, SAMA)
Israeli
Forces
Arrest
Palestinian
Writer
in
Ramallah
The Israeli occupation forces arrested Palestinian writer,
Salah Hamideh, 44, from his house in the town of Bitounia, in
Ramallah, in the West Bank, on Sunday
Local sources told SAFA News Agency that an Israeli force
stormed the house of Hamideh, searched it, interrogated its
residents and took Hamideh to Ofir Military Prison and
Interrogation Center.
https://twitter.com/M7madSmiry/status/777171120915111936
Hamideh is known for his pro-resistance writings. He is a
former political prisoner in Israeli jails. He nominated
himself for the local elections, which was supposed to be held
in October 2016.
Israeli forces arrest dozens of Palestinians in the West Bank
on a daily basis. There are currently some 6,500 Palestinians
prisoners in Israeli jails.
(PC, SAFA)
Israel Condemned for Shooting
of Jordanian National
The Jordanian Foreign Affairs Ministry has issued a statement
yesterday condemning Israel’s shooting of Jordanian national,
Said Hayil al-Amr, at Alamoud Gate in Jerusalem after Friday
prayers.
Sabah Alrifaee, the spokesperson for the Jordanian Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, has cast doubts on Israel’s narrative that
al-Amr attacked Israeli soldiers with a knife, especially as
Israel claimed that no solder was harmed.
https://twitter.com/benabyad/status/777435826246578176
Alrefaee noted that the Jordanian government is following up
the issue in order to hand over the body of Al-Amr to his
family and so that it could take legal and diplomatic measures
to handle the issue.
Al-Amr entered Jerusalem on Thursday as part of a tourist
group to visit Al-Aqsa Mosque. He “always dreamed of praying
in Al-Aqsa Mosque,” his family told Ma’an via telephone from
their home in the village of Al-Mughayyir in al-Karak, Jordan.
(PC, Palestine Now, MA’AN))
Survivors
Recount
Shatila Massacre
Sabra-
By Nour Samaha – Shatila Camp, Lebanon
(Three
women
who
lived
through
the
1982
massacre
at
Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon remember harrowing
killings.)
The fighters began at sunset, meticulously working their way
through the alleys and homes, bodies riddled with bullets and
slashed with machetes left crumpled in their wake.
Between September 16-18, 1982, in the middle of Lebanon’s
civil war and a few months after Israel’s invasion of the
country, hundreds of members of the Phalange party – a
Lebanese Christian militia – in collaboration with the Israeli
army, slaughtered about 2,000 Palestinian refugees, mostly
women, children, and the elderly, in the Sabra and Shatila
refugee camp located in Beirut.
The massacre came on the heels of the assassination of Bashir
Gemayel, the leader of the Phalangists. The Phalangists
wrongly blamed the Palestinians for the assassination, and
executed the massacre as a reprisal attack with the Israeli
army, who had invaded Lebanon to fight the Palestinians and
supporters of the Palestinian cause.
Three survivors recounted their stories to Al Jazeera, 30
years after the massacre.
Siham Balqis, a resident of Shatila, was 26 years old when it
happened. “We heard gunshots on Thursday night, but didn’t
think anything of it, because it was the war and this was not
an unusual sound for us,” she told Al Jazeera. Living at the
Shatila end of the two camps, she said men began in Sabra and
worked their way northwards. “They didn’t reach us until
Saturday morning.”
At 7am, she was confronted by three Phalangists and an Israeli
soldier who ordered them to leave their house.
“One of the Lebanese launched forward to attack me, but the
Israeli pulled him off me, as if to show he was the better of
the two,” she remembered.
In the commotion that ensued, a Lebanese neighbour of hers
spoke to the fighters, saying she heard they were slaughtering
people. The fighters dismissed these claims, so she asked them
to help the Palestinians who were holed up in Gaza Hospital,
located at the Sabra end of the camp.
After asking for directions, the fighters marched those they
had rounded up, about 200 people, to the hospital.
Once there, they ordered the doctors and nurses out of the
building, the majority of whom were foreign or Lebanese.
“I remember there was one Palestinian boy from the Salem
family, in his early 20s, who donned a doctor’s coat to try
and escape,” Balqis said. “The Lebanese caught him, realised
he was Palestinian, and pumped his body full of bullets.”
Crawl and Die
At one point, the fighters separated the group, putting the
women to one side and the remaining men on the other.
“They would pick on the men at random and make them crawl on
the floor. If they thought they crawled well, they assumed it
was due to some sort of military training, so they took them
behind a sand bank and killed them.”
The Lebanese fighters took those they had not killed and
forced them to march over the dead bodies scattered on the
streets toward the large sports stadium on the outskirts of
the camp.
“We were made to walk over the dead bodies, and among cluster
bombs,” Balqis said. “At one point I passed a tank, where the
body of a baby only a few days old was stuck to the wheel.”
At the stadium, the command changed from Lebanese to Israeli.
“It was here the Israelis took my brother Salah, who was 30years-old, for interrogation,” she said.
Inside the stadium the men were interrogated, tortured, and
killed. Few were able to leave alive. The Israelis threatened
them, saying, “If you don’t cooperate with us, we will hand
you over to the Phalangists.”
Wadha Sabeq, 33-years-old at the time, was living in Bir
Hassan, a predominantly Lebanese neighbourhood just outside
the camps.
“On Friday morning, our neighbors told us we needed to get our
IDs stamped next to the Kuwaiti embassy,” outside the Sabra
entrance, she told Al Jazeera. “So we went.”
She brought her eight children, ranging from three years to
19-years-old.
As they walked past Shatila, they were stopped by the
Phalangists. “They took us with others and separated the men
from the women.” The fighters took away 15 men from her
family, including her 19-year-old son Mohammad, her 15-yearold son Ali, and her 30-year-old brother.
“They lined the men up against the wall, and told the women to
go to the sports stadium. They ordered us to walk in a single
file, and to look neither left nor right.” Phalangist fighters
walked next to them to ensure they followed the instructions.
This was the last time she saw her family.
Once at the stadium, they waited. “We still didn’t know what
was going on, we still thought they wanted to check our IDs,”
she said.
After spending the whole day at the stadium, the Israelis sent
them home.
Covered in Blood
The following morning Sabeq headed back to the stadium to ask
about the men.
“A woman came down to the stadium screaming, telling us to go
up to the camp to identify the slaughtered,” she said.
They ran up to the camp, and as she saw the bodies scattered
on the ground, Sabeq fainted. “You couldn’t look at the faces
of the bodies, they were covered in blood and disfigured,” she
said. “You could only identify people by the clothes they were
wearing.
“I couldn’t find my sons, none of my family,” Sabeq said. “We
went to the Red Crescent, to the hospitals, every day, to ask
about them. No one had answers.”
“We never found their bodies,” she said, tears running down
her cheeks.
Jameel Khalifa was 16-years-old and newly engaged when the
massacre took place.
“On Saturday morning, we saw them [fighters] climbing down the
sand bank and heading for the houses,” she told Al Jazeera.
“We saw the tanks coming in, on them were Israeli soldiers and
Lebanese fighters, some in civilian clothes, some with masks
on.”
As the fighters began pounding on the front door, most of her
family escaped through the back into their neighbors’ shelter.
On hearing the soldiers’ orders that they would not shoot if
they surrendered, an elderly woman in the shelter ripped up
her white scarf, handing each of them a strip to wave to stop
them from being shot at.
“My dad was holding me, telling me not to leave the shelter,
but I told him we should,” she said.
The women left the shelter first.
As her mother came out the shelter, a Lebanese fighter shoved
his Kalashnikov in her stomach. “I’m going to kill you, you,
b****!”
An Israeli soldier observing nearby told him in Hebrew to
leave her alone.
“My father was coming out [of] the shelter behind my mother.
As he stepped out, he was killed with a bullet to the head by
an Israeli soldier,” Khalifa said.
No One Believed Us
Like everyone else, the group was forced to move by the
fighters. On the way, Khalifa and a few other children managed
to escape down a little alley toward one of the mosques
located further inside the camp.
“We came across a group of elderly folk sitting outside the
mosque, and told them the Israelis had come and were killing
people. They didn’t believe us, called us liars, and told us
to leave them alone,” she said.
Khalifa eventually found herself at the Gaza Hospital, where
she was able to reunite with her family. Watching as people
around them were executed, the group plotted to escape and
managed to sneak out through one of the many tiny alleys that
make up the camp.
“We were really scared to leave because we’d seen others try
and get killed by snipers,” Khalifa remembered.
They managed to get out of the camp and found refuge in a
school in the Lebanese neighbourhood of Corniche el Mazraa.
They only returned to the camp once they received news the
massacre was over.
“We went back to see dead bodies explode as they were being
removed because the Phalangists and Israelis placed mines
underneath them,” she said.
“I remember the smell. It was so strong, and it stayed for a
week, even though they sprayed the camp to get rid of it.”
-Nour Samaha is journalist covering the Middle East for the
last 10 years, with an expert focus on Syria, Lebanon, Israel
and the Palestinian Territories. (This article was first
published by Al-Jazeera and is republished in the Palestine
Chronicle with permission from the author).
Israeli
Forces
Forcibly
Evacuates Palestinian Family
From Their Jerusalem Home
Israeli forces in Jerusalem have forcibly evacuated the 8member Girsh family from their Jerusalem home which they have
been living in since the 1930s, and handed it over to an
Israeli settler group.
The apartment is the 9 th to be appropriated by the settler
group. In 2010, the group took over eight apartments in the
same building.
https://twitter.com/UNISPAL/status/776535662698782720
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
said in a statement, “The evicted family has been renting this
property since the 1930s. The home is part of a larger
residential complex comprising nine apartments, eight of which
were occupied by Israeli settlers in July 2010, causing the
displacement of seven Palestinian households.”
In August 2016, another three Palestinian families, consisting
of seven adults and ten children, were evicted from their
homes in the Old City under similar circumstances.
https://twitter.com/benabyad/status/776770864918454272
OCHA noted that “In recent decades, Israeli settler
organizations have intensified their efforts to take control
of properties in Palestinian neighborhoods of the so-called
‘Holy Basin’ area of East Jerusalem – comprising mainly the
Muslim and Christian quarters of the Old City, Silwan, Sheikh
Jarrah, and At-Tur (Mount of Olives).”
The international community considers Israel’s measures in
Jerusalem illegal under international law. Israel annexed East
Jerusalem in 1967 following the Six Day War.
Israel rarely gives permits to Palestinians in Jerusalem to
build new houses while it continues to construct new houses
for Israeli settlers.
(PC, SAFA)
Israeli Occupation Forces
Kill Three Palestinians
The Israeli occupation forces executed three Palestinians in
Jerusalem and Hebron yesterday, Palestinian sources said.
Local sources said Fareed Amer was shot dead in front of
Alamoud Gate in Jerusalem after Friday prayers. Israeli
sources claimed that he attempted to stab Israeli soldiers in
the area. Amer is a holder of a Jordanian passport and he
crossed to the West Bank via Allenby Bridge on Thursday.
https://twitter.com/PalestineVideo/status/776854024528072704
Palestinian Ministry of health announced that a Palestinian
youth was shot dead near Kiryat Arbaa settlement in Hebron
yesterday. Another Palestinian woman who accompanying him was
critically injured, according to the Ministry. The Ministry
said the slain youth is Firas Khadour and the injured
Palestinian is Raghad Khadour.
https://twitter.com/Palestinolizer/status/776725478736588800
The Ministry announced that a Palestinian youth who has still
not been identified was also shot dead in Hebron. Israeli
sources claimed that he also attempted to stab soldiers in Tal
Aroumaida neighborhood in Hebron before being killed.
(PC, Palestine Now)
Hamas Minister of Interior:
‘US is the Biggest Supporter
of Israeli Terror’
In response to the US State Department’s labelling of Fathi
Hammad, the former Hamas Minister of Interior and founder of
Al-Aqsa TV, as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, Hammad
said in a press statement that the United States “is the
biggest supporter of Israeli terror.”
Hammad noted that the designation would not “terrorize us, and
would not deter us from serving and defending our people’s
rights regardless of the price.”
He added, “The American decision came at a time when
Israeli campaign against Palestinians in the West Bank
been accelerated and days after the US signed a military
deal to give Israel 38 billion dollars over the next
years.”
the
has
aid
ten
https://twitter.com/iskandrah/status/777026850925088769
Hammad asserted, “The US has designated me on the terror list
while it is the biggest support of Israeli terror.”
He concluded that such a decision “is a new black chapter in
the American government’s notorious bias in favor of Israel.”
https://twitter.com/The_NewArab/status/777007262967664640
The US State Department said in a statement published
yesterday, “The Department of State has designated Fathi Ahmad
Mohammad Hammad as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist
(SDGT) under Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, which imposes
sanctions on foreign persons and groups determined to have
committed, or pose a significant risk of committing, acts of
terrorism that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the
national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United
States.”
(PC, SAMA)
Palestine FM Slams Israel in
Speech in Venezuela
Palestine’s foreign minister, Riyad al-Maliki, slammed the
Israeli occupation during a speech in Venezuela before the
Non-Aligned Movement.
Addressing the Non-Aligned Movement in a speech during the
17th summit of the movement in Venezuela, al-Maliki was
critical of Israel for choosing occupation over peace, adding
that the movement has been always strong and constant
supporter of Palestine and its people.
“The Palestinian people have hopes for a future where they
live in peace and freedom away from the occupation,
colonialism and oppression, and the absence of justice,” the
Palestinian Foreign Minister was quoted by Ma’an news agency
as saying.
He added that Israel’s occupying forces have been targeting
and killing Palestinian children in recent months merely for
being Palestinians.
https://twitter.com/Ramdog1980/status/776906341092843520
The minister highlighted the increasing settlement activity
over the past few years and how Israel and extremist factions
within the settler community have been destroying any chance
of peace.
Israeli official data shows that illegal settlement
construction in the West Bank has increased by 40 percent in
the first half of 2016 compared to the previous six months,
Israeli organization Peace Now revealed Wednesday.
Al-Maliki further urged members of the NAM movement as well as
the international community to respond to their legal and
moral responsibilities to end the occupation, reverse the
settlement policies and take legal actions against those who
commit crimes against Palestine that amount to war, and crimes
against humanity.
He also called on the countries to boycott Israeli goods
produced in the illegal settlements.
(Telesur, PC)
Former Palestinian PM Calls
for Annulment of Oslo Accords
Ahmed Qurei, a former prime minister of the Palestinian
Authority and peace negotiator with Israel, has declared that
he supports the annulment of the Oslo Accords, Chinese news
agency, Xinhua reported.
In a televised interview, Qurei said it is necessary to annul
the Accords “because the previous and the current Israeli
governments trampled the agreement.”
He added: “The Israeli governments had turned the agreement
into a meaningless one.”
https://twitter.com/bevsackville/status/775594550064734208
Qurei was at the heart of the negotiation process that led to
the signing of the agreements by then Prime Minister of
Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, and Palestinian President, Yasser
Arafat.
Now, however, he believes circumstances have changed. “It’s
the right of all parties to wonder whether the agreement is
still valid or not… The two-state solution is not over yet,
but currently, the Israeli position is the worst, ever since
the signing of the agreement.”
(MEMO, PC)
ICRC Expresses Concern over
Health of Hunger Strikers
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) released a
statement on Thursday, expressing the organization’s concern
with the severely deteriorating health of three hungerstriking Palestinian prisoners currently protesting their
administrative detention orders.
In the statement, the ICRC addressed the cases of Malek alQadi, and brothers, Muhammad and Mahmoud Balboul, who have all
been on hunger strike for more than 60 days, and are currently
being held in Israeli hospitals.
“At this very critical time, we encourage the patients, their
representatives and the competent authorities to find a
solution that will avoid any loss of life or irreversible
damage to their health,” Dr. Hishal, the ICRC’s doctor who has
regularly visited the hunger-striking detainees in hospital,
said.
https://twitter.com/jncatron/status/776388085382680576
The organization highlighted that its delegates and medical
staff have continued to monitor the health conditions of the
detainees and their treatment by Israeli prison and medical
authorities.
“The ICRC has been in close contact with their families, whom
it has kept informed of developments, in accordance with their
wishes, and transmitted personal news between them,” the
statement said.
Highlighting the gravity of not consuming any food, vitamins,
or nourishment except for water, the statement continued:
“ICRC staff seek to ensure that all detainees on hunger strike
are fully aware of the implications of their decision, and
that they are acting on their own initiative and free will.”
https://twitter.com/MaanNewsAgency/status/773582475163492354
The ICRC’s statement came on the same day that the head of the
Palestinian Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs, Issa Qaraqe, made
a statement that Al-Qadi’s current medical state has rendered
him the Palestinian hunger striking prisoner in the most
critical condition since 2011.
(MA’AN, PC)
Barak-Netanyahu
Exchange
Insults over US Military Deal
Ehud Barak, Israel’s Former Prime Minister and Defense
Minister, has said that current Prime Minister, Benjamin
Netanyahu, had not dealt effectively with Israel’s
negotiations that led to the recent signing of a military aid
deal with the US worth $38 bn over a period of ten years.
In an article for the Washington Post, Barak blamed Netanyahu
for failing to garner more money from the US.
“The damage produced by Netanyahu’s irresponsible management
of the relations with the White House is now fully manifest.
Israel will receive $3.8 billion a year — an important
contribution to our security but far less than what could have
been obtained before the prime minister chose to blatantly
interfere with U.S. politics,” Barak stated.
https://twitter.com/regwhit1/status/776547995877646336
Yet soon after Barak’s comments, Netanyahu responded by
branding Barak “the greatest failure as a prime minister in
Israel’s history”,
going on to criticize him for making
comments to a foreign publication.
However, Barak was not finished. Throughout the evening he
gave several radio and TV interviews in Israel, all of which
were scathing towards Netanyahu’s
negotiations and beyond.
performance
in
the
He complained that Netanyahu had squandered the opportunity
for deeper ties with the US in fields such as intelligence
over Iran.
(PC, MEMO)
World
Bank:
Israeli
Restrictions
Palestinian Economy
Worsen
The Palestinian economy remains “worrying” as growth
stagnation, delays in aid delivery, and Israeli restrictions
continue to seriously impede improvements to the Palestinian
financial situation, a World Bank report revealed on Thursday.
According to the report, which will be presented to the Ad Hoc
Liaison committee (AHLC) this coming Monday, despite efforts
by the Palestinian Authority (PA) to consolidate its fiscal
situation and reduce its deficit, it will face a financial
shortfall of $600 million for 2016.
The World Bank estimated that the Palestinian economy would
only grow by 3.5 percent in the medium term, adding that “per
capita income growth has almost stagnated and projected growth
levels will not support an improvement in living standards” in
the occupied Palestinian territory.
https://twitter.com/RShilhav/status/722001102271549440
As a result of the economy being unable to keep up with its
population’s needs, the World Bank said the Palestinian
“stubborn” unemployment rate reached 27 percent, with an 18
percent unemployment rate in the occupied West Bank and 42
percent in the besieged Gaza Strip.
“The Palestinian economic outlook is worrying with serious
consequences on income, opportunity, and well-being. Not only
will it affect the Palestinian Authority’s capacity to deliver
services to its citizens, it may also lead to wider economic
problems and instability,” Marina Wes, the World Bank director
for the West Bank and Gaza, stated in the report.
The World Bank pointed at Israeli policies as being “the main
constraint to Palestinian economic competitiveness,” noting
that restrictions in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip
accounted for a third to a half of GDP lost growth.
https://twitter.com/TheHumanosphere/status/722547825012252673
“Israeli restrictions…have pushed private investment levels to
among the lowest in the world (in the Palestinian territory),”
the report noted.
It added, “GDP losses in Gaza since the blockade of 2007 are
above 50 percent.”
“Until there is a permanent peace agreement, the Palestinian
economy will continue to perform below its potential and this
will impact the economic and fiscal performance.”
(MA’AN, PC)
Berkeley Suspends ‘Palestine:
A Settler Colonial Analysis’
Course
Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, Nicholas
Dirks, has bowed to pressure from pro-Israel Jewish groups and
suspended a course that discusses the history of Palestine
since the late 1800s to the present day in the context of
“settler colonialism.”
The suspension came amidst accusations that the course has an
“anti-Israel” bias that seeks to study “ways to ‘decolonize’,
that is – eliminate – Israel,” the San Francisco Chronicle
reported Tuesday.
According to a campus statement, “The course has been
suspended pending completion of the mandated review and
approval process,” and concern that it offered “a single
political viewpoint and appeared to offer a forum for
political organizing.”
https://twitter.com/madeniexdan1/status/776370590416592896
According to the newspaper, 43 Jewish and civil rights groups
sent a letter to Dirks complaining that “all the course
readings … have a blatantly anti-Israel bias.”
The letter further stated that all course materials and its
instructors are one-sided in their view against Israel and
were performing “political indoctrination,” which violates the
UC Board of Regents’ policy on course content, which prohibits
using courses “as an instrument for the advance of partisan
interest.”
The Palestine course is among 194 student-taught classes this
semester at Berkeley, which are proposed by students and
approved by a committee every year.
https://twitter.com/Ania_Cia/status/755510195090927617
Within hours of receiving the letter, Dirks issued the
statement suspending the course, saying it “did not receive a
sufficient degree of scrutiny to ensure that the syllabus met
Berkeley’s academic standards.”
The letter called the faculty sponsor, Hatem Bazian, “a wellknown anti-Zionist activist who is also the chairman of
American Muslims for Palestine.”
However, the Academic Senate’s Committee on Courses and
Instruction did evaluate and approve the course, Academic
Senate chairman Bob Powell told the San Francisco Chronicle.
The decision to suspend a course, in this case “Palestine: A
Settler Colonial Analysis,” is rarely taken, but censorship of
anti-Israel views by university faculty members and students
in the United States is well-documented.
(Telesur, PC)
US and Israel to Sign Largest
Military Aid Deal
The governments of Israel and the United States are to sign a
$38 billion military aid package on Wednesday, which promises
Israel financial assistance and missile defense systems over
the course of 10 years, according to Israeli media.
According to the Times of Israel, the deal will be signed on
the condition that Israel will not seek additional funding
from the US Congress for the next decade.
The current military aid package, which gives Israel an annual
sum of $3.1 billion, is set to expire in 2018.
https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/775776907489075201
Multiple Israeli news websites reported that during talks
leading up to the new agreement, which will take effect in
2019, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had
requested the annual funding increase to as much as $4.5
billion. However, the US government later settled on $3.8
billion each year for the next decade, with no additional
requests allowed on Israel’s part, except during wartime.
US Ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, said on Sunday that the
deal, known as the “memorandum of understanding,” would
constitute “the US’s biggest aid package to any other country
in history.”
According to Ynet News, the new package is a first, in that it
will include provisions for missile defense projects, which in
the past have been drawn separately from funds directly from
the US Congress.
https://twitter.com/GlennFranco68/status/776103237556379648
The site reported that over the last few years, American
legislators have transferred up to $600 million to Israel for
missile defense purposes.
Though the current aid package allows Israel to spend 26.3
percent of US military aid on its own domestic defense
companies, the new deal reportedly contains a provision
curtailing Israel’s ability to spend the funds on its own
weapon industry for the first six years.
The site added that the US has either jointly developed or
financed all three tiers in Israel’s missile defense program –
Iron Dome (short-range missile interceptor), David’s Sling
(medium range) and Arrow (long range).
https://twitter.com/AFP/status/775936639818358784
More than 80 percent of American senators signed a letter in
April addressed to US President Barack Obama urging him to
reach an agreement on an increased military aid package to
Israel.
While US-Israel relations have seen a series of diplomatic
disputes during Obama’s administration, Israel remains the
number one long-time recipient of US military aid. US
representatives have also largely failed to hold Israel
accountable for violations of Palestinian rights and
international law.
In April, more than 90 percent of the United States House of
Representatives signed a letter urging Obama to veto “any
resolution at the United Nations that sets parameters for
Israeli-Palestinian talks.”
(MA’AN, PC)
Four West Bank Settlements
Need Funding for ‘Protection’
Israeli parliamentary committee has named four West Bank
settlements considered “the most threatened” and “in immediate
need of defense measures.”
According to a report by Ynetnews, a meeting held by the
Israeli Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Subcommittee named
Elon Moreh, Otniel, Karmei Tzur, and Neguhot as the
settlements most in need of additional funding for protection.
The Israeli newspaper described the four colonies as being “at
the centre of the past year’s wave of terrorism attacks.”
https://twitter.com/TimesofIsrael/status/752135837458919425
Israeli settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal
under international law, and have been described by human
rights groups as at the heart of an inherently discriminatory
system.
The Knesset meeting was attended by a number of senior Israeli
military and security officials.
Home Front Command Settlement Security Branch Head, Lieutenant
Colonel Or Ohayon, told the committee that, “Over the past
year, the Security Ministry allotted us NIS 9 million to
invest in technological measures, which is enough to cover
(the needs of) three settlements.”
She added: “In 2016, we managed to increase this budget by 25
percent, which is good, but still not enough.”
(MEMO, PC)
Lieberman
Orders
Israeli
Military to Boycott UN Middle
East Envoy
The Israeli Channel 2 reported last night that the Israeli
Defense Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has instructed his
ministry staff to boycott Nikolay Mladenov, the UN Envoy to
the Middle East.
According to the report, the decision came after Mladenov
criticized Israel’s policies regarding the treatment of
Palestinians and settlement construction, in addition to his
critique of Lieberman himself.
A few weeks ago, Mladenov told the UN Security Council that
the illegal expansion of settlements and the lack of
Palestinian Authority (PA) control in Gaza are the primary
obstacles to peace. He added that there had been “a surge in
Israeli settlement-related announcements and continuing
demolitions”.
https://twitter.com/DanielSeidemann/status/776254737876394006
Knesset member and former Minister of Justice, Tzivi Livni,
refused Lieberman’s decision, noting that it “harms Israeli
interests and security.”
She added, “As foreign minister he ordered his office to
boycott the former envoy, Robert Serry. Then Operation
Protective Edge happened and it emerged that Serry’s role was
critical in terms of assessing the IDF’s position in relation
to Hamas and the situation in Gaza, as well as for providing
UN inspection of humanitarian programs so that Hamas shouldn’t
exploit them. That’s also an Israeli interest.”
https://twitter.com/haaretzcom/status/758241057477844992
Lieberman has always stirred debates and arguments as a
foreign minister of Israel due to his remarks which are a
continuation of his support for settlement expansion. Two days
ago, he expressed his support for the Israeli soldier who shot
a wounded Palestinian in Hebron in the head, saying that he
would maintain his position “Even if he (the soldier) did
wrong.”
(PC, SAMA, Haaretz)
Palestinian Prisoners Stage
Mass Hunger Strike in Support
of Hunger Strikers
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club has said that some 50
Palestinian prisoners belonging to the Islamic Jihad Movement
and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in
various Israeli jails have yesterday launched an open-ended
mass hunger strike.
Their actions are in support of hunger striking brothers,
Mohammed and Mahmoud Balboul, and Malik Al-Qadi.
https://twitter.com/jncatron/status/775998170098565120
The Prisoners’ Club said the hunger strike would include other
groups in the future from Rimon, Nafha, Ofer and Negev
prisons.
https://twitter.com/OccPalGaza/status/775064284816605184
The three hunger strikers are are in very critical health
conditions following more than two months of hunger strikes.
The three hunger strikers started an open-ended hunger strike
to protest their detention without a trial or charge in
Israeli jails.
(PC, Palestine Today)
Three Israeli Airstrikes Hit
Gaza Overnight
Local sources in the Gaza Strip said three Israeli airstrikes
hit Gaza last night. The airstrikes targeted three sites in
northern Gaza as well as in Gaza City.
The first airstrike hit an empty lot adjacent to Askalan
military training site, which is run by the military wing of
Hamas, Al-Qassam Brigades.
In the second airstrike two missiles targeted the area
surrounding the Field Control post to the West of Bit Lahyia.
Fire was reported in the area following the airstrike.
https://twitter.com/Omar_Gaza/status/776268498016342016
The third airstrike targeted Alyarmouk military training site
in Gaza’s Shujayia neighborhood run by Hamas. No injuries were
reported.
The Israeli army said in a statement, “The airstrikes came
after a mortar shell fired from Gaza landed in Ashkol.”
Two weeks ago, the Israeli Forces launched 50 missiles and
shells into Gaza after a home-made projectile was fired into
southern Israel.
(PC, SAFA)
Mosquito-Borne Zika
Reported in Israel
Virus
A resident of the northern Negev region is being treated for
the mosquito-borne Zika virus, it has been reported. The man
was overseas when he was infected, said Israel’s Channel 10.
Zika is responsible for thousands of brain deformities of
babies infected in the womb, across the developing world. The
latest victim is said to be in an “advanced state of
recovery.”
The first confirmed Zika Case in Israel was a 2-year-old girl
returning from Columbia at the beginning of the year. Since
January, several other Zika cases have been recorded in the
country.
https://twitter.com/PalestineNewz/status/775952296404393985
In May, the World Health Organisation said that there was a
moderate likelihood of an outbreak of the Zika virus in
Israel. The main risk lies in the fact that mosquitoes present
in the region can carry and allow the virus to escalate.
Zika began to spread more widely in May, when an outbreak was
reported in Brazil. Governments have since warned their
citizens about travelling to areas where the virus is
spreading actively.
Although the viral disease has not become endemic in Israel,
it is speculated that the increase in the number of Zika cases
could affect the country’s tourism industry.
(MEMO, PC)
PA Resolves Electricity Debt
with Israel
The Palestinian Authority (PA) signed an agreement with Israel
on Tuesday reportedly resolving longstanding debt issues it
has with the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) by agreeing to
pay some 500 million shekels ($132,034,125) upfront to the
IEC.
The agreement was signed after discussions between Palestinian
Civil Affairs Minister, Hussein al-Sheikh, Israeli Minister of
Finance, Moshe Kahlon, and head of the Coordination of
Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), Yoav
Mordechai.
A spokesperson for Mordechai said in a statement that the
agreement was signed after “complicated” and “prolonged
talks.”
https://twitter.com/adanielroth/status/775902282198216704
He added, “We have reached a remarkable decision that will
allow the Israel Electricity Company to receive unpaid bills
accumulated over more than a decade.”
Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the PA provides around
88 percent of the total electricity consumption in the
occupied Palestinian territory.
The newspaper added that the initial payment was expected
immediately, while another billion shekels ($264,068,250) was
expected to be paid by the PA in instalments spanning an
extended period of time, and another 500 million shekels would
be permanently erased from the PA’s debt.
https://twitter.com/178kakapo/status/771687789075111936
The
agreement
also
shifts
full
responsibility
for
the
collection of electricity bills onto the PA, who in the past
had rejected responsibility for the debt, claiming it fell
under the jurisdiction of local electricity distribution
companies.
Under the new agreement, the PA will provide electricity to
local Palestinian electricity companies after purchasing it
from Israel, becoming the sole authority for electricity
distribution in the occupied West Bank.
The PA’s debt to IEC, now amounting to some two billion
shekels ($530 million), has been a source of tension between
the two parties for years, as the IEC has repeatedly cut off
electricity to the West Bank, most recently in April, when it
targeted the Hebron, Bethlehem and Jericho districts in a move
which was denounced as constituting collective punishment.
Following a Palestinian appeal, the Israeli Supreme Court in
April ordered that IEC suspend its policy.
(MA’AN, PC)
Israeli Doctors Urged Not to
Force-Feed Hunger Strikers
The head of the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) has urged
doctors to refuse to take part in the force-feeding of hungerstriking Palestinian prisoners, despite a recent Israeli
Supreme Court decision which has ruled that the practice is
legal.
In a letter to Israeli doctors, IMA chief, Dr. Leonid
Eidelman, urges doctors to abide by the principles of medical
ethics, regardless of the legal ruling. The statement was cosigned by IMA ethics committee chair, Dr. Tami Karni.
Israeli Physicians for Human Rights (PHRI) praised the
statement as “important” and “courageous.”
https://twitter.com/jeremybob1/status/774982348966338560
Following Israel’s recent ruling on force-feeding hunger
strikers, PHRI accused the Supreme Court of trampling “over
medical ethics”, saying that the judges had shown “disregard
for international declarations and ethics that prohibit the
force-feeding of hunger strikers, a practice that can amount
to torture.”
The group said that they hoped that “the medical community in
Israel will refrain from cooperating with this law, and will
keep acting according to the Hippocratic Oath and to medical
ethics.”
(MEMO, PC)
Israeli Forces Raid West Bank
on Third Day of Eid
Israeli forces have launched a series of raids on West Bank
resulting in the arrest of dozens of Palestinians on the third
day of Eid, the Muslim day of sacrifice.
The Israeli army said the raids resulted in the arrest of
Palestinians in Jerusalem and Ramallah. According to the
Israeli army, these Palestinians were sent to interrogation
centers.
Local Palestinian sources said the Israeli army arrested
Palestinian, Abdallah Assaf, brother f slain Palestinian, Issa
Assa,f from Jerusalem’s Qalandyia refugee camp.
https://twitter.com/plfpak/status/775258626231570432
Israeli forces also arrested Mussab Khalaf from Alaezarieh
neighborhood in Jerusalem.
IDF soldiers further raided the town of Bit Ummar in Hebron
and arrested Omar Awad, 16, and Ouday Alzakrawi, 22. Alzakrawi
works as a volunteer at the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.
(PC, Palestine Today)
Israel Denies PalestinianAustralian Professor Entry
Into West Bank
The Israeli authorities at Ben Gurion Airport have denied
London-based Palestinian-Australian professor, Adman Hania,
entry into the West Bank yesterday after he arrived in Israel
from London.
Hania was detained for a few hours before being sent back
despite having received an official invitation from the
University of Bir Zeit in Ramallah.
Media sources said Hania was interrogated about the work of
the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS)
against Israel. Hania’s wife, Rafeef Ziadah, is an active
member in the movement and he himself is a well-known
outspoken supporter of BDS.
Hania is a lecturer at SOAS in London and was invited to give
lectures to post-graduate students at Bir Zeit University in
the West Bank.
https://twitter.com/steketeh/status/767807703129452544
Israel
perceives
the
non-violent
BDS
movement
as
an
existential threat and has recently prevented its co-founder,
Omar Al-Barghouti from traveling by refusing to renew his
travel documents.
Israel has previously denied dozens of activists entry into
the West Bank due to their BDS links.
(PC, SAMA)
Ashrawi Meets
Delegation
With
German
Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the executive committee of the
Palestine Liberation Organization, PLO, met with a German
delegation yesterday in Ramallah to update them on the
situation in the West Bank and the continuing Israeli
violations against Palestinians.
https://twitter.com/IINANews_En/status/775986089735708672
Ashrawi stressed the role of the international community,
especially the European Union, in causing Israel to be
accountable for its crimes against the Palestinian people. She
stressed the importance of the role of the EU in ending
Israel’s military occupation and its regime of apartheid and
ethnic cleansing.
The delegation included new German Director of the Middle East
and North Africa ambassador, Philipp Ackermann, and the German
representative to the Palestinian Authority, Peter Beerwerth.
(PC, SAFA)
The Native American, the
Palestinian: A Spirited Fight
for Justice
By Ramzy Baroud
Thousands of Native Americans resurrected the fighting spirit
of their forefathers as they stood in unprecedented unity to
contest an oil company’s desecration of their sacred land in
North Dakota. Considering its burdened historical context,
this has been one of the most moving events in recent memory.
The standoff, involving 5,000-strong Native American
protesters, including representatives of 200 tribes and
environmental groups, has been largely reduced in news reports
as being a matter of technical detail – concerning issues of
permits and legal proceedings.
At best, both the tribes and the oil company are treated as if
they are equal parties in a purportedly proportionate tussle.
“’Dakota’ means ‘friendly’ and yet, it seems, neither side has
been too friendly to each other,” wrote Mark Albert in the
website of the American broadcasting television network, CBS.
The Dakota Nation is justifiably alarmed by the prospect that
its water supplies will be polluted by the massive pipeline,
which will extend across four states and stretching over 1,100
miles.
The ‘other side’ is the company, Energy Transfer Partners,
whose construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline at the cost
of $3.7 billion is infringing upon the territorial rights of
Native American tribes, destroying sacred burial grounds and
threatening to pollute the main water sources of large
communities of Native Americans.
Fear over future spills under the Missouri River is hardly a
hype. The US is struggling with ongoing water crises, partly
because of dilapidating infrastructure, but also because of
numerous oil spills and natural gas leaks.
The recent water crisis in Flint, Michigan, and the BP oil
spill earlier in the Gulf of Mexico – both resulting in
massive humanitarian and environmental crises – are only two
recent cases in point.
But the problem is far deeper and constantly worsening.
Data obtained by the news network, CNBC from the government’s
Environmental Protection Agency showed that “only nine U.S.
states are reporting safe levels of lead in their water
supply. These include Alabama, Arkansas, Hawaii, Kentucky,
Mississippi, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota and
Tennessee.”
As if that is not worrying enough, the massive crude oil
pipeline will be going across several of these states, likely
shortening the list of these states even further.
Discussion about the potential risks of the construction of
the pipeline has been rife for years. The issue, however,
received national and international coverage when Native
American tribes mobilized to protect their land and water
resources.
The mobilization of the tribes has been met with state
violence. Instead of appreciating the serious grievances of
the tribes, particularly those in the Standing Rock
Reservation – which is located only one mile away, south of
the pipeline – the state governor summoned all law enforcement
agencies and activated the National Guard. Mace was used on
protesters; they were beaten, arrested and chased out by armed
men in uniform.
In the United States, when the people stand up to
corporations, it seems that, more often than not, state
violence is galvanized against unarmed people to protect the
big businesses.
But missing from this story is an essential component: the
mobilization and unity among Native American tribes has been
the most awe-inspiring in many decades. As chiefs and
representatives of tribes from all across the United States
kept arriving at the encampment grounds, the collective spirit
of Native American nations was being vigorously revived.
In fact, the ongoing mobilization of Native American tribes is
far greater than the struggle against a money-hungry
Corporation, backed by an aggressive state apparatus. It is
about the spirit of the Native people of this land, who have
suffered a prolonged genocide aimed at their complete
eradication.
To see them standing once more, along with their families,
riding their feather-draped horses and fighting for their very
identity is a cause for celebration. It brings hope to
oppressed people all across the world that the human spirit
will never be destroyed.
The genocide of the Native Americans, similar to the ongoing
destruction of the Palestinian Nation, is one of the lowest
points of human morality. It is particularly disheartening
that there are yet to be serious attempts at addressing that
grave injustice.
For 500 years, Native Americans witnessed every attempt at
erasing them from the face of the planet. Their numbers
dwindled from ten million prior to the arrival of Europeans to
North America to less than three hundred thousand at the turn
of the 20th century. They were exterminated by colonial wars
and ravaged by foreign diseases.
Calls to destroy Native Americans were hardly implicit but,
rather, clearly-articulated. For example, Spencer Phips,
Lieutenant Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Province issued
this statement in 1755 on behalf of King George II:
“His
Majesty’s subjects to embrace all opportunities of pursuing,
captivating, killing and destroying all and every of the
aforesaid Indians.”
The price list for the scalp of murdered Natives were as
follows: “50 pounds for adult male scalps; 25 for adult female
scalps; and 20 for scalps of boys and girls under age 12.”
The genocidal
unabated.
approach
to
Native
Americans
continued,
A century later, in 1851, California Governor Peter H.
Burnett made this declaration: “A war of extermination will
continue to be waged between the two races until the Indian
race becomes extinct.”
Methods of extermination differed, from outright murder
to disease-infected blankets, to, as of today’s standoff,
threatening their most viable resource: water.
Yet, somehow, the spirit of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse and
numerous brave chiefs and warriors still roam the plains,
urging their people to stand up and carry on with an overdue
fight for justice and rights.
Palestinians have always felt that the legacy of the Native
Americans is similar to their own.
“Our names: branching leaves of divine speech; birds that soar
higher than a gun. You who come from beyond the sea, bent on
war; don’t cut down the tree of our names; don’t gallop your
flaming horses across the open plains.”
These were a few of the verses in Palestinian poet’s Mahmoud
Darwish’s seminal poem “Speech of the Red Indian.”
I recall the day that magnificent piece of Arabic literature
was first published in full in Palestine’s ‘Al-Quds’
newspaper. At the time, I was a teenager in a refugee camp in
Gaza. I read it with much trepidation and giddiness –
carefully, slowly, and repeatedly.
Those who could read, recited it out loud to those who could
not.
Many tears were shed on that day, mostly because we all knew
too well that we, in fact, were the ‘Red Indians.’ They were
us.
Long before feminist critical theory coined the term
‘intersectionality’ – which contends that oppression is
interconnected and one oppressive institution cannot be
examined in isolation from others, Palestinians – as other
victims of genocidal colonization – fully comprehended and
held such a belief.
Palestinians are losing their lives, land and olive trees as
they stand up to Israeli tanks and bulldozers. Their reality
is a replay of similar experiences faced – and still being
confronted – by Native Americans. Well into the 21st century,
the Native American-Palestinian struggle remains one and the
same.
“Our pastures are sacred, our spirits inspired,
The stars are luminous words where our fable
is legible from beginning to end..”
Wrote Mahmoud Darwish, of the Native Americans. Of the
Palestinians.
– Dr. Ramzy Baroud has been writing about the Middle East for
over 20 years. He is an internationally-syndicated columnist,
a media consultant, an author of several books and the founder
of PalestineChronicle.com. His books include “Searching
Jenin”, “The Second Palestinian Intifada” and his latest “My
Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story”. His
website is www.ramzybaroud.net.
Palestinian
Composer
of
Revolutionary Songs Dies at
76 (VIDEO)
Palestinian composer, Mahdi Abusirdana, known to be “The
composer of the Palestinian revolution songs” died at
Palestine Hospital in Cairo yesterday, at ther age of 76,
after days of struggle from a severe illness.
Palestinian ambassador to Cairo, Jamal Alshobaki, said
Abusirdana was a well-known composer who gave a lot to the
Palestinian cause, whose works became well-known by every
Palestinian and who added to the archives of Palestinian
revolutionary songs.
https://twitter.com/Farah_Gazan/status/565559460081704960
Abusirdana was born in Alfalouja village in the Greater Gaza
District in Mandate Palestine on the October, 15, 1940. His
family fled to Jordan in 1948 and he returned to Gaza where he
early in life joined the Palestinian revolution at the time.
He worked at the Voice of Arabs, which broadcast from Cairo in
1958. Later he joined the Voice of the Storm broadcasting
station, run by the Palestinian revolution, which was
broadcasting from Cairo.
https://twitter.com/TheMCRsoviet/status/565669373835476994
The most famous song he composed was “Ishhad Alina ya Alam w
Ala Bayrout” (O World, be witness to us and to Beirut), which
honored the Palestinian steadfastness during the time of The
siege on Beirut by Israel for 80 days in 1982.
(PC, SAMA)
Israel’s Bogus Civil War
By Jonathan Cook – Nazareth
Is Israel on the verge of civil war, as a growing number of
Israeli commentators suggest, with its Jewish population
deeply riven over the future of the occupation?
On one side is a new peace movement, Decision at 50, stuffed
with former political and security leaders. Ehud Barak, a
previous prime minister who appears to be seeking a political
comeback, may yet emerge as its figurehead.
The group has demanded the government hold a referendum next
year – the half-centenary of Israel’s occupation, which began
in 1967 – on whether it is time to leave the territories. Its
own polling shows a narrow majority ready to concede a
Palestinian state.
On the other is Benjamin Netanyahu, in power for seven years
with the most right-wing government in Israel’s history. On
Friday he posted a video on social media criticizing those who
want to end the occupation.
Observing that a Palestinian state would require removing
hundreds of thousands of Jewish settlers currently living –
illegally – on Palestinian land, Netanyahu concluded: “There’s
a phrase for that. It’s called ethnic cleansing.”
Not only
Netanyahu
that, in
supported
did the comparison upend international law, but
infuriated the Obama administration by implying
seeking to freeze settlement growth, the US had
such ethnic cleansing. A spokeswoman called the
comments “inappropriate and unhelpful” – Washington-speak for
deceitful and inflammatory.
But the Israeli prime minister is not the only one hoodwinking
his audience.
Whatever its proponents imply, the Decision at 50 referendum
is about neither peace nor the Palestinians’ best interests.
Its assumption is that yet again the Israeli public should
determine unilaterally the Palestinians’ fate.
Although the exact wording is yet to be decided, the
referendum’s backers appear concerned solely with the status
of the West Bank.
An Israeli consensus believes Gaza has been free of occupation
since the settlers were pulled out in 2005, despite the fact
that Israel still surrounds most of the coastal strip with
soldiers, patrols its air space with drones and denies access
to the sea.
The same unyielding, deluded Israeli consensus has declared
East Jerusalem, the expected capital of a Palestinian state,
as instead part of Israel’s “eternal capital”.
But the problem runs deeper still. When the new campaign
proudly cites new figures showing that 58 per cent support
“two states for two nations”, it glosses over what most
Israelis think such statehood would entail for the
Palestinians.
A survey in June found 72 per cent do not believe the
Palestinians live under occupation, while 62 per cent told
pollsters last year they think Palestinians have no rights to
a nation.
When Israelis talk in favor of a Palestinian state, it is
chiefly to thwart a far bigger danger – a single state shared
with the “enemy”. The Decision at 50 poll shows 87 per cent of
Israeli Jews dread a binational conclusion to the conflict.
Ami Ayalon, a former head of the Shin Bet intelligence service
and a leader of Decision at 50, echoed them, warning of an
“approaching disaster”.
So what do Israelis think a Palestinian state should look
like? Previous surveys have been clear. It would not include
Jerusalem or control its borders. It would be territorially
carved up to preserve the “settlement blocs”, which would be
annexed to Israel. And most certainly it would be
“demilitarised” – without an army or air force.
In other words, Palestinians would lack sovereignty. Such a
state exists only in the imagination of the Israeli public. A
Palestinian state on these terms would simply be an extension
of the Gaza model to the West Bank.
Nonetheless, the idea of a civil war is gaining ground. Tamir
Pardo, the recently departed head of Israel’s spy agency
Mossad, warned last month that Israel was on the brink of
tearing itself apart through “internal divisions”.
He rated this a bigger danger than any of the existential
threats posited by Mr Netanyahu, such as Iran’s supposed
nuclear bomb.
But the truth is that there is very little ideologically
separating most Israeli Jews. All but a tiny minority wish to
see the Palestinians continue as a subjugated people. For the
great majority, a Palestinian state means nothing more than a
makeover of the occupation, penning up the Palestinians in
slightly more humane conditions.
After many years in power, the right is growing in confidence.
It sees no price has been paid, either at home or abroad, for
endlessly tightening the screws on the Palestinians.
Israeli moderates have had to confront the painful reality
that their country is not quite the enlightened outpost in the
Middle East they had imagined. They may raise their voices in
protest now but, if the polls are right, most will eventually
submit to the right’s realisation of its vision of a Greater
Israel.
Those who cannot stomach such an outcome will have to stop
equivocating and choose a side. They can leave, as some are
already doing, or stay and fight – not for a bogus referendum
that solves nothing, but to demand dignity and freedom for the
Palestinian people.
(A version of this article first appeared in the National, Abu
Dhabi.)
– Jonathan Cook won the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for
Journalism. His latest books are “Israel and the Clash of
Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle
East” (Pluto Press) and “Disappearing Palestine: Israel’s
Experiments in Human Despair” (Zed Books). He contributed this
article to PalestineChronicle.com. Visit his website:
www.jonathan-cook.net.