* One fisherman arrested after assaulting his boat and turning it upside down. Israeli military boats continue chasing fishermen in the sea of the Gaza strip. (Al Quds)

* The Jordanian interior minister visits the Palestinian territories. Abdel Rahim: the visit is a genuine support to the brotherly ties between the two people. Fayyad briefed the guest on the developments in Palestine. A-Ro`ud: continuous support and removing the obstacles that our brothers face when visiting Jordan.  (Al Quds)

* The Christian Orthodox church to celebrate today holy Easter. Dozens of thousands celebrated the “Holy Fire in the Sepulcher Church. The president congratulates the Christian Orthodox denominations on Easter. (Al Quds)

* A delegation meets with the Egyptian general intelligence in Cairo, the Independent Palestinian Personalities Forum insists on finalizing the reconciliation and ending the division. (Al Quds)

* Israeli forces raid the Civil Defense headquarter in Qalqilia. (Al-Quds)

* The president holds talks with the Japanese Prime Minister and a delegation of businessmen will visit Palestine soon. (Al Ayyam)

* Egypt: Suleiman, Abu Ismail, a-Shater and Nour disqualified from running presidential election. (Al Ayyam)

* The UNSC decides dispatching monitors to Syria. Assad`s regime violates the truce and more people have been killed. (Al Ayyam)

* Ban Ki-Moon: number of displaced people from Syria exceeds one million. (Al-Ayyam)

* Three thousands Syrians flee to Jordan after the cease-fire (Al-Ayyam)

* More European airlines cancel fly tickets of participants in “welcome to Palestine” campaign. Netanyahu to activist: you should go first to Syria, Iran and Gaza. (Al-Ayyam)

* Istanbul: “constructive and useful” talks between Iran and the greatest powers on the nuclear file. (Al-Ayyam)

* “Shabak” threatens to arrest or assassinate 40 liberated prisoners under Shalit deal. Al-Hayat Al-Jadida)

Al-Quds: 1) Jericho- Israeli occupation forces intercepting cyclists in al-O`ja yesterday; 2) Ramallah- Tayyeb Abdel Rahim while receiving the Jordanian interior minister Muhammad a-Ro`ud and the Jordanian ambassador to the PA Khaled Awwad a-Serhan.

Al-Ayyam:  1) Tokyo-president Abbas and the Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda during their meeting yesterday; 2) Ramallah- Premier Salam Fayyad joining the Orthodox denominations the celebration of the “Holy Fire” yesterday; 3) UNSC members during voting on a resolution on Syria.

Al-Hayat Al-Jadida:  1) The president during his meeting with the Japanese president in Tokyo yesterday; 2) Secretary of the Palestinian presidency while receiving the Jordanian interior minister; 3) The prime minister while joining the residents of Ramallah in the “Holy File” celebration yesterday; 4) the occupation army intercepts solidarity activists in cyclists` march yesterday.

The Gaza strip: Israeli occupation forces heavily shell Palestinians` houses east of Gaza city.  

**PLO`s Yousef: we expect a negative Israeli response to the Palestinian letter; we do not expect a serious US role afterwards that would apply pressure on the Israeli government**
Wasel Abu Yousef: member of the PLO Executive Committee
Q: President Abbas said that the US administration will probably offer some options. Do you have guarantees to that?

We certainly do not have guarantees. We are aware of that the US administration will be preoccupied this year with the presidential election in addition to its constant partiality towards Netanyahu-led government as it has refrained from taking any counter measure to compel Israel to halt the colonialist expansions and to engage it instead in a political process.
President Abbas said a letter will be sent to Netanyahu and to the world leaders. Afterwards, we will wait to a response from Netanyahu-led government although we are fully aware it will reject its content.
Since the USA considers itself as a mediator in the peace process, it should fulfill a key mission. Nevertheless, the alternative steps which president Abbas talked about will probably be handled with the international community including the international and legal agencies.

Q: Do you expect the US administration to impose specific demands on both the Israeli and Palestine sides?

The US administration could impose something once and retreat from it after a while. Everyone knows well how president Obama talked shortly after he assumed his office, specifically in his Cairo speech, on the necessity of halting the illegal settlement actions and opening a political prospect on the basis of the pre-1967 borderlines. Yet, everyone is also very aware of how he backtracked on all these positions, including in his speech at the UN and the one before the AIPAC.

Therefore we do not expect a serious role by the US administration in terms of applying pressure on the Israeli government.

Netanyahu’s offer for peace
by Musa Keilani (http://jordantimes.com/netanyahus-offer-for-peace)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is said to be drafting a letter to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, detailing his offer of renewed peace negotiations in response to a Palestinian statement on their stand.
Netanyahu’s letter, according to officials quoted in the Israeli news media, will contain nothing new except that it will not include a demand for Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.
Netanyahu will restate his demand that Israel maintain control over the Jordan Valley and that any future Palestinian state be demilitarised, according to the reports.
Netanyahu has repeatedly demanded that the Palestinians recognise Israel as the state of the Jewish people as a precondition to the peace talks. Such recognition is a non-starter because it would mean denying the Palestinian refugees the right of return to their ancestral homeland, from which they were evicted in 1948.
According to Israeli officials, the demand that the Palestinians offer this recognition will be made only towards the conclusion of the peace negotiations.
Netanyahu’s office said last week that during his scheduled meeting with a delegation of senior Palestinian officials this week, the Israeli premier would suggest holding direct negotiations with Abbas. Netanyahu’s aide, Yitzhak Molcho, will relay this message at his upcoming meeting with Abbas, during which he will also present the Israeli message to the Palestinian president.
The Palestinian delegation is expected to include Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, top negotiator Saeb Erekat and Palestine Liberation Organisation Secretary General Yasser Abed Rabbo.
The delegation will present Netanyahu with a message regarding the peace process. The message, said to be the final product of months of Palestinian deliberations, will stress that no negotiations would go ahead while settlement construction continues and while Israel refuses to accept the 1967 borders as the basis for negotiations for a two-state solution.
It is difficult to see any breakthrough while Israel insists on its terms for peace. While the Palestinians recognise that a peace agreement could be achieved only through negotiations, the Israeli refusal to accept the legitimate rights of the Palestinians as the basis for a solution renders the whole process meaningless.
Israel is also twisting the Palestinian position that the 1967 borders should be the starting point for negotiations, a position explicitly backed by US President Barack Obama, which does not entirely mean that Israel will withdraw to the positions it held at the outset of the 1967 war. In principle, the Palestinians are willing to accept some territorial compromises in order to accommodate Israel’s insistence that it keeps most, if not all, major Jewish settlements in the occupied territories. Israel deliberately ignores this position and has repeatedly stated that the 1967 lines are “indefensible”.
Abbas said that if Netanyahu is not willing to resume peace negotiations by suspending settlement construction in the occupied territories, the Palestinians will file a complaint against Israel in the UN. Not that it would do any good, given Israel’s stubborn refusal to heed UN resolutions and appeals, but it would go on UN record that the Palestinians are only demanding their legitimate rights as enshrined in UN resolutions and international law.
Abbas is under pressure from Obama to drop his demand for a freeze of Israeli settlement work before renewed peace negotiations. It is high time for the US president to realise that it is a legitimate demand, as well as a political stand, given that Israel is not willing to offer any token of good faith and sincerity for a solution for its conflict with the Palestinians.
It is not difficult to understand that it is not at all easy for Netanyahu, who is saddled with extremist partners in his coalition government, to declare a freeze in settlement work. How could his coalition partners be expected to endorse a peace agreement based on the legitimate rights of the Palestinians when some of them clearly said they would quit the coalition if the government ever made concessions on the status of Arab East Jerusalem in peace negotiations. Others threatened to bring down the government if Netanyahu agrees to negotiate the status of the Jewish settlements in the occupied territories.
The picture is clear. There is no hope of fruitful negotiations as long as the present coalition remains in power in Israel, since it is unable to take any realistic measures for peace with the Palestinians.
Therefore, it would be wise if the Palestinians would wait for the next general elections in Israel and see whether there is any change in the coalition structure that will allow serious negotiations to be launched.
In the meantime, they should continue to strengthen their international standing and pursue their quest for UN recognition of their statehood regardless of any pressure from any quarter. They definitely need to refocus their efforts. The shameful low-level attention that this year’s Land Day, which falls on March 31, received seems to imply how fast and deteriorating is Arab and Muslim interest in the Palestinian struggle. The Palestinians need to restore that interest.
Welcome to Palestine: 'Even prisoners are allowed visits'  

Even Jews can be barred by Israel from travelling to Bethlehem - for the thought crime of supporting Palestinian rights.

So far, there has been scant US press coverage of 'Welcome to Palestine' [EPA]  
Washington, DC - What difference will it make to the lives of Palestinians in the West Bank when the world meets their demands for freedom and self-determination?
One difference it will make: like other peoples of the world, the Palestinians will get to decide who they can invite to visit them.
Right now, if you, as a citizen of the United States, Canada, or Europe, decide that you want to visit Bethlehem, a Palestinian city in the West Bank - the same Bethlehem that Christians believe to be the birthplace of Jesus - you have two ways to begin your journey. You can fly to Israel, and cross the 1967 border to the West Bank. Or you can fly to Jordan, and cross to the West Bank over one of the bridges. But whichever way you go, you cannot pass to Bethlehem without the permission of the Netanyahu government, which controls all paths you can take to Bethlehem.
If you are a Likud supporter, flying into the Israeli airport should present no problem. But if you are a supporter of Palestinian rights, the Netanyahu government could stop you from going to Bethlehem on purely political grounds - even if you have never committed any crime and have no intention of ever committing one, even if you have never attended a Palestinian protest in the West Bank and have no intention of attending one. You could be barred by the Netanyahu government from going to Bethlehem simply for the thought crime of supporting Palestinian human rights.
Indeed, even Jews from the US can be barred by the Netanyahu government from travelling to Bethlehem for the thought crime of supporting Palestinian rights.
Given the economic, political and diplomatic support given to the Netanyahu government by North America and Europe, this is a spectacular state of affairs. You might think that governments and media in North America and Europe would express forceful concern if their citizens' right to travel were obstructed by a government they were doing so much to support.
Palestinian campaign
This weekend, this question will be put to the test by the "Welcome to Palestine" campaign.
The Associated Press reports:
Activists with the "Welcome to Palestine" campaign are set to land in Israel on dozens of flights Sunday. They say they wish to travel to nearby Bethlehem in the West Bank to participate in a week of activities, like the dedication of a school and homestays with Palestinian families.
Mazin Qumsiyeh, a Palestinian campaign organiser, said the activists were coming to exercise their right to visit the Palestinian territories.
"The object is not to fly in to make a protest at the airport. The object is for foreigners to visit us," Qumsiyeh said. "Even prisoners are allowed visits."
The Netanyahu government says that it will "round up activists who land in the country and deport them", which is again a spectacular fact. Apparently, you can be deported by the Netanyahu government not because of what you do, but because of who you are. If you are an "activist", then Palestinians welcome you to Bethlehem, but you may not be able to get there, because the Netanyahu government may deport you for being such an "activist".
So far, there has been scant press coverage in the US of "Welcome to Palestine", and this again is a spectacular fact. But the good news is that, thanks to the wonders of the internet, we don't need to wait on the New York Times and the Washington Post. We can follow and spread the news on Welcome to Palestine on Twitter using the hashtag #fly2palestine.


*Robert Naiman is Policy Director at Just Foreign Policy.

The Blast is coming inevitably
By: Ziad Abu Zayyad (al-Quds)

Does anyone of you remember the number of times in which the Palestinian government announced it will conduct reshuffles to Salam Fayyad`s government and the subsequent rumors and exchange of names before the issue gradually calms downs until totally vanishes away and placed on the shelf?
Does anyone of you remember the number of times Ismail Haniyyeh practically conducted ministerial reshuffles by adding new ministers and discharges others without any accompanied announcements, rumors and speculations of names?
This comparison is meant to show that the first one makes announcements without implementation while the other one implements without making announcements. The reason for this could be that the Palestinian government is adherent to unity and is determined not to conduct any action that could be explained as abandoning unity…Does not Gaza share the same adherence?
Two days ago, Dr. Nabil Shaath said we are not hostage to the US election but “we” are waiting to the results of the internal election in Hamas. Is this true? This is a new rhetoric that reinforces the conviction that the Gaza strip is taking the West Bank as a hostage and it is even taking the entire cause as a hostage.
When president Abbas headed to the UN to deliver a speech, some voices were heard in Gaza questioning its viability, and when the PA retreated under pressure of threats and exactions from the statehood membership application in the UN, no one in Gaza articulated any alternative except the some talking about reconciliation which has rapidly evaporated and disappeared from the agenda.
The PA wants legislative and presidential election in order to re-mandate the people to decide on who should represent them. Why has Gaza obstructed the process of the election although it is the only path to reverse the situation to normality and to correctness?
We, before anyone else, should be blamed for the stalemate in our cause because we insist on preserving seats and reject mandating the people to play their role in an election.
Over half of the PA`s budget goes to Gaza as it pays for salaries, health and educational services, water and electricity; and yet it is treated as loathsome. What compels the PA to continue with this game?
The continuation of the current situation simply means consecrating the division and laying the foundations for an Islamic emirate in Gaza that will be battled over after the purpose for which it was established is exhausted.
Also, the continuation of the situation in the West Bank means persisting cloud of the “negotiations` crisis” that overshadows the PA-Israel ties, during which settlement actions father deepen and intensify until the possibility for establishing a Palestinian state vanishes away like a dream that is far away from reality.
Despite of this frustrating and dark picture, the less beneficiaries of this aberrant situation, the silent majority of the people, is sick with this division, occupation, settlements, negotiations, the Quartet, international envoys, donors and all the like.
No one could guarantee the continuation of its silence and no one could guarantee the consequences of the break of the silence. Increasing pressure would lead to a blast and this blast is coming inevitably.