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Aug. 25, 2015
Daily summary - Monday, November 4, 2013
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Main News
ISRAEL RECEIVES KERRY WITH A NEW WAVE OF SETTLEMENT CONSTRUCTION AND WITH DECISION TO BUILD WALL ON PALESTINIAN-JORDANIAN BORDER
Just hours before the arrival of US Secretary of State John Kerry, Israel announced tenders for the construction of 1,859 new housing units in settlements in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem in addition to its determination to build a wall in the Jordan Valley at the Palestinian-Jordanian border. Peace Now reported yesterday that two days before Kerry’s visit, the Israeli government announced tenders for the construction of over 1,800 housing units, including 1,061in the West Bank and 828 in East Jerusalem. In its report, Peace Now said that the tenders were the first step before the construction stage, saying that months after the tenders are published, contractors are chosen to begin the construction. Peace Now said the tenders including 283 units in the settlement of Elkana, 114 in Maaleh Adumim, 196 in Karneh Shomron, 102 in Givat Zeev, 18 in Ariel, 80 in Adam and 238 in Betar Illit. Last week, a tender for 30 units was published for the settlement of Beit El. In Jerusalem, the tenders included 387 units in Ramat Shlomo [part of the plan to build 1,500 units announced during the visit of Joe Biden in addition to 130 units in the settlement of Har Homa along with 311 in Gilo. According to the a Palestinian official, President Abbas is waiting to meet with Kerry on Wednesday in Bethlehem to see what the US Administration is doing to rein in Israeli settlement expansion so that the negotiations could continue. Yesterday, the Israeli construction and housing ministry and the Israel Land Authority announced the marketing of land for the establishment of 1,700 units in the aforementioned settlements.
The new announcements came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during the weekly cabinet meeting that “in order for peace to be achieved between us and our Palestinian neighbors, they have to recognize the right of the Jewish people to their national state in their homeland,” and to relinquish their national demands including the right of return or any other national demand from the State of Israel in any final settlement. “This is one of the keys to solving the conflict,” he said.
This also came after Netanyahu ordered the Israeli army to begin planning for a wall along the Palestinian-Jordanian border in the Jordan Valley. According to the Israeli daily Maariv, plans had begun to build the wall under the pretext of Israel’s fear that Syrian refugees would infiltrate the border from Jordan into the West Bank. The second reason, the newspaper said, was to close the Israeli border to send a message to anyone who opposes an Israeli presence in the Valley, making a clear statement that Israel would defend its eastern border and that it had no intention of withdrawing from the Jordan Valley in any final settlement. Presidential spokesperson Nabil Abu Rdeineh strongly criticized the Israeli condition to build the wall, saying that “Netanyahu’s statements about the wall in the Jordan Valley are a proactive step to foil Kerry’s upcoming visit to the region.” (Al Ayyam)
ISRAELI JERUSALEM MUNICIPALITY DISTRIBUTES DEMOLITION ORDERS TO 11 APARTMENT BUILDINGS ON THE PALESTINIAN SIDE OF THE WALL
According to the Israeli daily Haaretz today, the Jerusalem municipality began distributing demolition orders for 11 apartment buildings that were built ‘without a license’ in the Ras Khamees and Ras Shehade neighborhood on the Palestinian side of the separation wall. The newspapers said that the orders would most likely not go into effect because of political pressures on the municipality.[see Haaretz story below](http://maannews.net/arb/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=644009)
ISRAELI COURT REJECTS COMPENSATIONS LAWSUIT FILED BY PALESTINIANS, FINING THEM WITH NIS210,000
The suit filed by 37 Palestinian relatives of seven Palestinian police killed eight years ago by Israeli occupation forces has ended. The army was avenging the killing of six soldiers at the Ein Arik checkpoint where Palestinian fighters attacked a group of soldiers. The suit was completely rejected and the families were made to pay the court fees of NIS210,000. The Jerusalem district court rejected the compensations suit, which claimed that the Israeli army killed the policemen out of pure revenge and was a decision taken at the highest levels of Israel’s military and political echelons. The families said it was premeditated and therefore qualified as a war crime. The state attorney said that the police helped and supported “terrorist operations” and therefore the decision to attack a police checkpoint was taken and was a ‘good decision” saying they were treated like any other terrorist target. (Al Ayyam)
EGYPTIAN SECURITY SOURCE: THE ARMY KILLED THREE PALESTINIANS
An Egyptian security source in the northern Sinai district said yesterday that the Egyptian army killed three Palestinians while they were planting three explosive devices in the village of Albarath, south of Rafah. The source said the security force there was also able to capture another group of Palestinians who were taken to Arish for questioning. An Egyptian military campaign had been carried out in several villages south of Rafah including Albarath, where they discovered the three Palestinians planting the explosives. Three were killed and two were arrested (Al Quds)
JORDANIAN MONARCH: WE WILL CONFRONT ANY ISRAEL ATTEMPT TO CHANGE THE IDENTITY OF JERUSALEM; WE WILL CONTINUE OUR SUPPORT FOR PALESTINE; THE TWO-STATE SOLUTION IS A JORDANIAN INTEREST
Jordan’s King Abdullah II reaffirmed yesterday that Jordan would continue its religious and historic duty towards preserving Jerusalem and its holy Muslim and Christian sites and would confront any Israeli attempt to change the identity of Jerusalem. During his Speech from the Throne, Abdullah said to the Jordanian parliament that the Palestinian cause was at the “forefront of our foreign policy,” and that the peace process and a solution on the basis of two states is a “higher Jordanian national interest.’ He also said that Jordan fully supported the Palestinians in the current negotiations to deal with all final status issues including those linked to Jordanian interests. (Al Quds)
AL AHMAD: WE WILL DISSOLVE THE NEGOTIATIONS IF THERE IS NO PROGRESS WITHIN A MONTH; PLO STUDYING MOVE TOWARDS SECURITY COUNCIL AGAINST SETTLEMENTS
Fatah Central Committee member Azzam Al Ahmad said yesterday that the Palestinian leadership has not seen any progress in the current negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis, saying that “it has been three months and we have not seen any progress. We are still treading water.” He said that if the remaining six months proceed in the same way and not progress is made, the Palestinian leadership would dissolve the negotiations process. Al Ahmad also called on the Palestinian media not be dragged into the Israeli claims that the release of prisoners was in exchange for Israel continuing to build settlements, saying these prisoners were supposed to be released back in 1994 but that Israel had failed to deliver. (Al Quds)
In related news, PLO Executive Committee member Wasel Yousef said that the PLO had begun to consider ways of resorting to the UN Security Council in protest of Israeli decisions to intensify settlement construction, saying that all Israeli decisions on settlements were null and void given the settlements’ illegality (Al Ayyam)
KERRY IS ‘OPTIMISTIC’ ABOUT THE NEGOTIATIONS!
US Secretary of State John Kerry said yesterday that he was optimistic about Palestinian-Israeli negotiations and the peace process, expressing hope that progress would be achieved within the next few months. At the start of his regional tour, which began in Cairo yesterday, Kerry said that he was optimistic; saying that the United States would do its utmost to push the process forward in a fair and balanced way and which was consistent with the complexities of the issues. He asked that the parties ‘give the negotiations enough opportunity” to work. He said say that settlements had ‘shaken’ people’s views on whether the negotiators were serious or not, but insisted that there was a possibility of moving forward still. (Al Ayyam)
THE QASSAM BRIGADES TAKE OVER AN ISRAELI RECONNAISSANCE PLANE NORTH OF GAZA
An Israeli army spokesperson admitted yesterday that an unmanned Israeli plane went down over Gaza but claimed that this had nothing to do with Hamas. The spokesperson said that “contrary to Palestinian reports from Gaza about shooting down an unmanned plane, we would like to clarify that this was a small plane that crashed because of a technical disorder.” The Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing had announced that it has taken over an unmanned Israeli reconnaissance plane north of the Gaza Strip. The source, who talked to Xinhua but preferred to remain unnamed, said the plane was a Caspar and was being kept by the Qassam Brigades, but did not explain exactly how the plane went down. the source said the plane was taken over in the area east of Jabalyia about 500 meters from the separation fence with Israel. (Al Ayyam)
YAALON WARNS HAMAS AGAINST RENEWAL OF VIOLENCE
Israeli defense minister Moshe Ya’alon warned yet again against any renewal of violence in the Gaza Strip. While visiting the five Israeli soldiers who were injured on Thursday, Ya’alon warned Hamas of renewing any violence against Israel. According to the Hebrew-language daily Ynet, while he was leaving Soroka Hospital, Ya’alon said that Hamas considered the underground tunnel which Israel newly discovered as ‘ a means of building an infrastructure for waging terrorist operations.” He said Hamas was preparing itself for the renewal of violence, saying that the Israeli army “knew how to deal with them.” (Al Ayyam)
TWO CHILDREN ARRESTED…AND A SETTLEMENT MARCH IN JERUSALEM
Israeli occupation forces arrested last night two minor brothers after raiding their home in the Bab Hutta quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. According to Amer Iseed, Israeli troops and intelligence officers raided their home last night, searched all the rooms and the courtyard before arresting 15-year old Obaida and 13-year old Othman. He also said they confiscating cleaning equipment from the home. The boys were taken to the Russian Compound for interrogation. Obeida had only been released from Israeli prison 10 days ago after serving five months in Israeli jails.
In related news, Israeli police forced merchants to close their shops in the Wad and Atareen markets of the Old City to safeguard a settler march that crossed their path. (http://maannews.net/arb/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=643977)
ISRAEL CONSIDERING HANDING OVER A MILITARY OUTPOST NEAR RAMALLAH TO THE PA
Informed Israelis sources said the Israeli army and security circles in Tel Aviv were studying a possible handover of a military outpost at the southern entrance to Ramallah near Al Ram to the PA. the sources said there was also a security plan to hand over authority of areas classified as Area C to the PA and expand the Palestinian security services’ jurisdictions in other areas. The outpost may be handed over to the PA by the end of this year. The source said the army would gradually evacuate the post until it was ready for handover in addition to handing over the areas of Al Ram, Anata, Ezzariyeh, Abu Dis and Sawahreh officially and allowing PA forces to deploy there. (http://qudsnet.com/news/View/256705/إسرائيل-تدرس-تسليم-موقع-عسكري-بالقرب-من-رام-الله-للسلطة-الفلسطينية/)
ISRAELI OCCUPATION PREPARING TO HOLD MILITARY DRILLS IN NABLUS AREA
The local government directorate in Nablus warned against Israeli occupation forces holding military exercises in the Nablus area and in its villages yesterday. The directorate called on citizens in the villages adjacent to Israeli settlements and ‘flashpoints” with the occupation, to be cautious and extra careful for their own safety, after the army handed them papers saying there would be military drills on Monday-Wednesday of this week. the “There is Law” organization, furthermore, said that the Israeli military prosecutor allowed the army to hold drills inside populated Palestinian villages, saying the army raided a number of villages during the night without prior coordination with the residents under the pretext of “night drills.” (http://safa.ps/details/news/115303/الاحتلال-يُعد-لإجراء-تدريبات-عسكرية-في-محيط-نابلس.html)
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Headlines
*The Palestinians are the biggest losers among those displaced from Syria (Al Quds)
*Al Malki calls for an official and popular stance to save the Aqsa from the threat of Judaization (Al Quds)
*Finance ministry to cash employee salaries today (Al Quds)
*Finance ministry transfers money to Israeli fuel companies Al Quds)
*Palestine to witness partial solar eclipse (Al Hayat al Jadida)
*One citizen killed in mysterious circumstances in Nusseirat camp (Al Hayat al Jadida)
*Tomorrow is the Hijri New Year (Al Hayat al Jadida)
*Washington supports transitional authority in Egypt…Mursi trial starts today (Al Hayat al Jadida)
*President grants Columbian historian Edward Carnavli honorary citizenship (Al Hayat al Jadida)
*Health ministry begins confiscating unlicensed food supplements and pharmaceuticals (Al Hayat al Jadida)
*Al Aloul and members of the Revolutionary Council to visit Marwan Barghouti soon (Al Ayyam)
*Palestinians in Syria: looking for a new exile (Al Ayyam)
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Front Page Photos
Al- Quds:Sayda : Palestinian refugees from Syria, in front of their tents in the Ein Hilweh camp (Al Quds)
Al-Ayyam:Jerusalem: one part of the Ramat Shlomo settlement, which is slated for expansion
Al Hayat Al Jadida:Settlement of Ramat Shlomo
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Voice of Palestine News
Jerusalem: A popular meeting took place yesterday in Shufat Camp; a follow-up committee was formed to discuss the demolition orders for apartment buildings in Ras Khamees and Shehade neighborhoods. Jerusalem governor Adnan Husseini participated in the meeting. Legal follow up is planned to counter these demolition orders. Legal experts were also present to look into the possibility of filing a complaint with the Security Council. A sit-in took place at the checkpoint at the entrance to Shufat camp in protest of home demolitions.
Yesterday, over 40 Jewish extremists broke into the Aqsa Mosque under police protection. Israeli troops also broke into the Iseeda home in Bab Hutta, arresting his two sons.
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Voice of Palestine Interviews
**Jerusalem governor Adnan Husseini, on Israeli measures in Jerusalem, namely the plan to divide the Aqsa
Q: Today the Knesset will discuss the division of the Aqsa Mosque both spatially and temporally; what measures do you plan to take against this Israeli decision?
The low level that this Israeli behavior has reached is surprising to everyone. They are playing with fire. This is an issue that concerns 1.5 billion Muslims. And they know that in the past, this has led to battles and even massacres. But we all say, this division cannot happen as long as there is one Palestinian Jerusalemite left in Jerusalem. They would never forfeit the Aqsa; it is the nucleus around which they exist.
Q: But let’s be honest. Other than the people of Jerusalem, we have not seen any Muslims move in defense of Jerusalem.
That is true. There is no support for Jerusalemites ,even though they are the ones waging the battle of defense for the Aqsa, even with their humble means. What can we say, the Muslim nation has problems. And definitely this is something that has encouraged Israel to carry on. But Israel must know that there are red lines when it comes to Al Aqsa, or disaster will hit us all. I also don’t understand how the West turns a blind eye to Israel, knowing that it is playing with fire. What kind of peace can come on the ruins of the Aqsa?
**Coordinator for the National Forces in Gaza, Waleed Awad, on Israeli threats to attack the Gaza Strip
Q: What is required of the Palestinians should there be an Israeli assault on Gaza?
Let me speak as a member of the PPP and say that Netanyahu’s government is sending a message to Israeli society through these threats, telling them that Israel is continuing its settlements in the West Bank, attacks on holy Jerusalem and also is threatening force against the people in Gaza – it wants to achieve three goals: the first is to confuse the Palestinian leadership at the negotiating table, especially now that it is thinking seriously of resorting to the UN; second is to test the new Egyptian leadership to ensure the truce between the two; the third is to keep Gaza on a hot plate at all times and keep it vulnerable to Israeli extortion.
Also Hamas has its own interests from such an escalation. It wants to summon up an Egyptian role in the region, as if saying to the new Egypt that Gaza could become a new hotbed at any given time, which could be a burden to Egypt; thus prompting an Egyptian role.
The Palestinians cannot in any means confront such an assault individually. The first step is to work faster to end the split and achieve reconciliation. The second step is for all Palestinian factions to agree on escalating popular resistance against the occupation alongside diplomatic activity to expose Israel’s occupation measures.
Q: Is it true that there is an acute lack of basic necessities in Gaza such a fuel and bread?
The crisis is ongoing in Gaza for the past seven years but I think part of the crisis is also because of the Palestinian split – this affects what come into Gaza and also in the past, what came in through the tunnels. Now, there needs to be clear economic activity in Gaza since the tunnel activity has diminished. I think these burdens on the citizens should also be bore by the ruling party in Gaza, which should search for solutions to the crisis. So, Hamas has a huge responsibility for this crisis.
**Nablus governor, Jibreen Al Bakri, on the Israeli military drills in the area
Q:Were the municipalities and village councils informed that the army was going to conduct drills in the region?
The area is southeast of Nablus, adjacent to the Jordan Valley. The Palestinian liaison office was informed by the Israelis that there would be drills in which tanks and other army vehicles would be used. This is part of a bigger plan, which is to further harass the people and make things more difficult. It is part of Israel’s approach to tighten living conditions for Palestinians through the army and settler actions. This is new type of exercise, which is also linked to Israel’s plans to build a wall in the Valley, and to sabotaging the negotiations.
Q: You said Palestinian homes were also used by the army. How can we document this and perhaps use it against Israel?
We have distributed cameras in all the districts that are targeted by settlers and the army so people can document their moves. We also informed the media of these drills, so we can expose their practices against the citizens. These are unprecedented drills. Huge, heavy machinery is being used this time; I believe it is a disgrace that the international community allows these drills to be carried out in the middle of populated areas.
**PLO Executive Committee Secretary Yasser Abed Rabbo, on Kerry’s upcoming visit and the peace process
Q: Israel has announced more than 1,800 settlement units and today Netanyahu is saying this is not a breach of agreements with the Palestinians, also announcing the construction of the wall in the Jordan Valley. Despite all this, Kerry says he is “optimistic” about the peace process.
Until now, I don’t see any justifications for this optimism because everything happening on the ground gives no reason for it or that there is a serious peace process going on that will ultimately end the occupation. The opposite is taking place; the occupation is being consolidated, strengthened. In addition, Israel is spreading false claims and rumors that there is an agreement with the Palestinians that allows them to continue with settlement construction. There is no such agreement.
We are still waiting to see what Kerry is bringing with him, even though I think he will not bring anything with him but repeated promises that there will be a political breakthrough in a few months. The reality indicates that things are actually getting worse, not better.
Q: Do you think Kerry has come just so that the peace and negotiations process does not collapse?
Perhaps this is the main reason. But there are no real negotiations in the first place. There is only one side that is serious about entering into a political process and that is us. Israel meanwhile is carrying out settlements, allowing settlers to rein free, attacking Jerusalem and the Aqsa, etc. We are the only ones making serious proposals.
Q: We have heard that the Palestinians may take stronger positions against Israel. Is this going to happen soon?
I think there is no other way but to go to the Security Council and propose this, not only as a complaint but as a demand that measures are taken against Israel by the SC and the international community. There is no other way; Israel did not listen to the European voice until Europe decided to boycott settlements and their products. They don’t listen to anyone unless they take serious positions against Israel. This is what we need if there will be any real negotiations because today, there are no real negotiations.
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More Headlines
The PA calls for a serious position to save the Aqsa
Minister of foreign affairs Riyad Al Malki called for a serious official and popular stance from Arab countries to save the Aqsa Mosque from the threat of judiazation which faces it on a daily basis. Al Malki said during the emergency session of Arab foreign ministers yesterday at the Arab League that the Israeli government was taking advantage of Arab, Islamic and international silence to Judaize Jerusalem and divide the Aqsa. (Al Hayat Al Jadida)
Al Aloul and members of the Revolutionary Council to visit Marwan Barghouti soon
Fatah announced yesterday that a delegation from the movement would soon visit member of Fatah’s Central Committee Marwan Barghouti in prison in the first visit of its kind. The announcement did not say whether Israel had granted approval for this visit. According to the movement on its official Facebook page, Mahmoud Al Aloul, member of Fatah’s Central Committee and several Revolutionary Council members will pay Barghouti a visit to debrief him on the conditions of the movement and the political situation in general (Al Ayyam)
Eight Palestinians killed in Syria
The working group for Palestinians in Syria said that eight Palestinians were killed yesterday in the ongoing conflict in the country. According to the group, seven of the eight, including sibling children Judie and Omran Maree, were killed when a missile was fired at them while they tried to exit the Sabeena checkpoint. The eighth Palestinian, Mohammed Al Maghari, was killed from shelling in the Dara’ camp, thus bringing the total number of Palestinians killed in Syria to 1,722. (http://qudsnet.com/news/View/256734/استشهاد-8-فلسطينيين-في-سوريا/)
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Arab Press
Mideast talks: Little cause for optimism
By Steve Hibbard
US Secretary of State John Kerry has brought Israelis and Palestinians to the peace table. But are they any closer to peace?
Direct talks were launched in Washington under Kerry’s auspices at the end of July. The parties are now meeting on a weekly basis, alternately in Jerusalem and Jericho. Talks cover a full range of issues, including Jerusalem, borders, security arrangements, Israeli settlements, and refugees.
Palestinians long said they would not reopen negotiations until Israel froze settlement activity. While Israel still refuses to do so, it has agreed to release 104 long-serving Palestinian prisoners in compensation. In return, the Palestinians promised not to upgrade their membership in UN agencies. Palestinian complaints about ongoing Israeli settlement activity, which some maintain is meant to undermine the talks, have been matched by vociferous protests in Israel over the release of the most recent 26 Palestinian prisoners. There is stark evidence of sensitivities and passions on both sides.
A two-state solution to Israeli–Palestinian differences would be welcome. For decades, the conflict has contributed to Middle East tensions and the rise of extremist groups such as Al- Qaeda. The conflict has been especially problematic for the United States, which has had to reconcile reflexive support for Israel with broader interests in the Arab and Islamic worlds.
Little news has leaked from the secret talks, but one can gauge progress through a Palestinian complaint that the US Special Envoy, Martin Indyk – a former US Ambassador to Israel – has not been attending the weekly sessions. Indyk’s uncharacteristically relaxed approach suggests the two sides have yet to broach matters of substance. The pace of the meetings is not indicative of pressure to achieve results.
An axiom of American-led Middle East peace efforts has been the need for active involvement from the US president. Without US President Jimmy Carter’s mediation, there would have been no deal between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar El-Sadat at Camp David in 1978. The backing of US President George H.W. Bush gave his Secretary of State James Baker what was needed to bring Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir to the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference. But even the active involvement of the US president is no guarantee of success, as President Bill Clinton found in 2000 when he failed to broker a deal between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
US President Barack Obama’s agenda includes sensitive international and domestic issues such as Iran’s nuclear program, Syria, the economy, and immigration reform. These must be managed in the face of a hostile Republican majority in the House of Representatives. Any hint of pressure on Israel, given the influence of Israel’s supporters, would lead to an outcry not only from Republicans, but also from members of his own party. Burnt on this front during his first term, Obama, with good reason, is likely to be wary.
The outlook for a breakthrough to an Israeli–Palestinian settlement or even meaningful progress on issues such as borders, settlements, and Jerusalem is dim. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has boasted of undermining the Oslo accords, is unlikely to endorse many substantive proposals acceptable to the Palestinians. The credibility of the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, has been damaged by factors such as his inability to halt illegal Israeli settlement activity and differences between the Fatah-controlled West Bank and Hamas-ruled Gaza. The Gaza leadership, facing internal pressure from extremists, has taken a negative stance consistent with the call by the Qatar-based head of its political wing, Khaled Mashal, to immediately end talks with Israel. Hamas’ position will also resonate with a good many West Bank Palestinians. Abbas’ negotiation parameters will be constrained by such opposition, especially on the most sensitive issue of all, Jerusalem.
In the unlikely event that negotiations survive such difficult issues as settlements, borders, and refugees, Jerusalem is the rock on which they could founder. As the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat told me, Jerusalem was the issue that undermined President Clinton’s peace efforts. The holy city is central to the national identity of both Israelis and Palestinians.
Neither President Abbas nor any other Palestinian leader could survive an agreement that did not make East Jerusalem, with Al-Haram Al-Sharif, the capital of a Palestinian state. Images of its holy sites are fixtures in Palestinian homes. But the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock are built on the Temple Mount, which is holy to Judaism and central to Jewish history — and, by extension, to the Jewish state. It would be difficult for any Israeli leader to find support in the Knesset or among the Israeli people for concessions on Jerusalem sufficient to meet Palestinian needs. Given his record, it is doubtful Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu will even try.
Perhaps these negotiations will modestly narrow Israeli–Palestinian differences. More likely, they will break down in acrimony and further complicate the road to separate Israeli and Palestinian states.(http://www.arabnews.com/news/471811)
Peace is war: After the Oslo Accords
Joseph Massad
On the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, Columbia University Professor Joseph Massad explains how the reframing of the concepts of peace and war were at the core of the Zionist strategy in colonising Palestine.
In the wake of the 1973 War, the US had started an earlier version of the so-called "peace process", one that fully adopted Vladimir Jabotinsky's model. The US was represented by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Kissinger's plan, which would lead in a few years to Egypt's capitulation at Camp David, was to eventually include the PLO in "peace" talks, whereby the organisation would only be invited after Egypt, Jordan, and Syria had recognised and accepted the irreversibility of the Jewish settler-colony. Kissinger declared: "We need first to get them [PLO] under control and bring them only at the end of the process."
Recognising that talking to the PLO of the 1970s, which, even then, was willing to concede many of the rights of the Palestinian people, but was still not ready to fully resign itself to the irreversibility of Jewish colonisation, Kissinger added, "We cannot deliver the minimum demands of the PLO [at present] so why talk to them?" Kissinger explained that "recognition will come at the very end after the Arab governments have been satisfied." While the US could not deliver the minimum to the PLO in the 1970s, Israel would be able to do so in the 1990s.
It was in this context that 20 years ago the PLO accepted to fully surrender to Israel and accept its colonisation of Palestine in what came to be known as the Oslo Accords. The abandonment of the anti-colonial struggle would be first formalised with the unofficial dissolution of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, especially the "Liberation" part of its name, and its re-emergence as the Palestinian National Authority (PA), an authority that no longer sought to liberate anything, much less offer any resistance to colonialism. Instead, the PA would offer its services to Israel by collaborating with its forces in suppressing any Palestinian resistance to Jewish colonisation while seeking guarantees from Israel for a modicum of privileges that could sustain it in power.
The PA, however, proved to be even more of a collaborator with Israel than Jabotinsky had thought possible. Jabotinsky had postulated that after resigning themselves to their defeat, those Palestinian leaders who demanded maximal liberation would be removed and "the leadership will pass to the moderate groups, who will approach us with a proposal that we should both agree to mutual concessions. Then we may expect them to discuss honestly practical questions, such as a guarantee against Arab displacement, or equal rights for Arab citizens, or Arab national integrity."
Israel's formula for the peace agreement, namely "land for peace" to which the PLO acceded prejudices the entire process by presupposing that Israel has "land" which it would be willing to give to the "Arabs", and that the "Arabs", seen as responsible for the state of war with Israel, can grant Israel the peace for which it has longed for decades.
Selling out
The PA, as everyone now knows, has never made such demands whatsoever. It has abandoned Palestinian citizens of Israel altogether - they were not even mentioned in Oslo - and has indeed done its share in displacing Palestinians in the West Bank for the benefit of construction projects sponsored by its own Palestinian businessmen (such as the Rawabi project) while acceding to the on-going Israeli displacement of Palestinians from their land, on-going as we speak in the Jordan Valley.
As for Arab "national integrity", the PA does not pretend to have any, much less demand that Israel "guarantee" it. Jabotinsky's were pessimistic expectations regarding Palestinian surrender, namely that "we cannot offer any adequate compensation to the Palestinian Arabs in return for Palestine. And therefore, there is no likelihood of any voluntary agreement being reached. So that all those who regard such an agreement as a condition sine qua non for Zionism may as well say 'no' and withdraw from Zionism."
Contrary to Jabotinsky's pessimism, however, and as part of the Oslo Accords, a sufficient amount of financial compensation was offered and indeed accepted by the PA in return for Palestine. The amount has so far reached $23bn but more is on the way.
As I argued at the time of the Oslo signing, Israel's formula for the peace agreement, namely "land for peace" to which the PLO acceded prejudices the entire process by presupposing that Israel has "land" which it would be willing to give to the "Arabs", and that the "Arabs", seen as responsible for the state of war with Israel, can grant Israel the peace for which it has longed for decades.
This formula is, in fact, a reflection of the racial views characterising European-Jewish Israelis and Palestinian and other Arabs. Whereas the Israelis are being asked, and are ostensibly presented as willing, to negotiate about property, the recognised Western bourgeois right par excellence, Palestinians and other Arabs are being asked to give up violence - or more precisely "their" violent means - which is an illegitimate, unrecognised right attributable only to uncivilised barbarians.
At the time, I explained that the Oslo Accords amounted to the following:
Israel will continue to control the land, the waters, the borders, the economy, Jewish settlements, in short, everything it has sought to control, without Palestinian resistance and its necessary suppression, which would cause the possible death of Jewish boys in the process. The PLO has pledged that no such resistance will be allowed. Now, Palestinian boys … would kill Palestinian boys and girls whom Israeli Jewish boys would have had to kill, endangering themselves in the process. Meanwhile, the Israelis will be reminding the world that their previous murderous campaigns against the Palestinians must have been justified, as it is now the Palestinians themselves who recognise the necessity of controlling a savage and recalcitrant population.
In line with Jabotinsky and Ben-Gurion, Israel's foreign minister at the time (and its current president), Shimon Peres, acknowledged that when Israel finally recognised the PLO as the representative of the Palestinians, it did so because the PLO no longer sought to reverse Jewish colonialism. He declared correctly: "We haven't changed - it [the PLO] changed."
Since Oslo, overall Jewish colonisation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem has doubled, but if we exclude East Jerusalem, which was annexed to Israel formally in 1980, Jewish colonisation of the West Bank since Oslo has, in fact, tripled. This tripling of colonisation has taken place "peacefully", under the umbrella of Oslo. All Palestinian attempts to suppress it, whether during the second intifada, or through the electoral success of Hamas, and daily acts of resistance against the Israeli military, was suppressed by Israel and the PA. In the case of Hamas, its suppression would be greatly intensified with the collaboration of the Mubarak regime in Egypt, and more recently with the coup-regime of General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
Through the strategy of "peace is war", Israel has also sought to change the vocabulary used to describe its colonial project by insisting that the Palestinians must submit to its own nomenclature, which the US and European media use to cover over Zionist colonialism.
What's in a word
In the history of colonial wars and anti-colonial resistance, especially in the context of settler-colonies, the struggles of natives against European colonists have always been named "liberation" struggles. Examples include the Algerian liberation struggle against French colonialism and colonists, the Zimbabwean people's liberation struggle against British colonialism and colonists, and the anti-apartheid struggle for liberation in South Africa against the racial privileges of white colonists.
In none of these cases was the struggle for liberation from colonialism referred to primarily or secondarily as a "conflict". Indeed there has never been such a technical term as the Algerian-French "conflict", or a White-Black Rhodesian or South African "conflict" either, not even for the colonists themselves. In these cases, both the settler-colonists and those resisting them were not shy in naming their struggle as a struggle for colonial and racial supremacist privilege or for liberation from racism and settler-colonialism respectively. This nomenclature would also apply to Zionist settler-colonialism in Palestine and to Palestinian resistance.
The project of European Jewish colonisation of Palestine, which started in the 1880s and has not abated since, remains the most spectacular fact of the Palestinian encounter with Zionism, but it is simultaneously the most strenuously guarded open secret. This is the case so much so that to refer to Israel as the "Jewish settler-colony" in Israel or in pro-Israel Europe and the US (which is how Palestinians and Arabs have always described it) is an unbreakable taboo and elicits wide condemnation in those rare cases when it is broken. Indeed, not only has the European Jewish colonisation of Palestine been renamed by Zionism and its European and American allies as the so-called Palestinian-Israeli "conflict", but Zionism has insisted that the Palestinians and the Arabs must also adopt this nomenclature as a precondition to any kind of "dialogue", much less acceptance of them as partners for "dialogue" let alone "peace" negotiations.
The on-going secret negotiations between Israel and the PA at present aim to devise a plan wherein the PA and Israel find the right formula to bring this acquiescence about, so that Jewish colonisation of the entire land of the Palestinians will be finally supported and celebrated by the Palestinians themselves and the century-old Zionist war against the Palestinian people will finally be won under the banner of "peace".
Giving up 'Liberation'
As Zionism understands that it lives in a world where colonialism and certainly settler-colonialism, are no longer openly fashionable, this renaming is central to its camouflage propaganda operation. The Palestinians understood Israeli strategy all along and continued unhindered to insist on their liberatory names. That the Palestinian organisation that represented Palestinian resistance until 1993 called itself the Palestine Liberation Organisation, that its constituent guerrilla groups called themselves the Movement for the Liberation of Palestine (known by its acronym Fatah), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, or the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, understood their encounter with Zionism as one with settler-colonialism and its racist structures which they insisted on resisting and overthrowing.
That post-1993, the PLO metamorphosed into the Palestinian National Authority, not only christened the new goal of the Palestinian leadership as one of establishing a "national authority" rather than to liberate Palestine and the Palestinians from settler-colonialism, the word colonialism itself no longer figured in that vocabulary either. The new understanding of European Jewish colonialism as a Palestinian-Israeli "conflict" that should be "resolved" through a "peaceful settlement" via negotiations became operative throughout the "peace" offensive, which Israel waged against the Palestinian people in 1991.
Twenty years of "peace" negotiations brought about more colonialism, more theft of Palestinians lands, more Palestinians deaths, more Palestinian poverty, more restrictions on the movement of Palestinians, more unemployment, in short more oppression on every front. Yet, the PA continues to declare without equivocation that it recognises the right of Jews to colonise Palestine and to set up a Jewish settler-colony on the lands the Zionists conquered in 1948 as well as the rights of those same Jews as colonial settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem which they conquered in 1967.
What it asks for, however, is that the Israelis not increase the existing number of Jewish colonists in the West Bank (but not in East Jerusalem) and that a Bantustan-like state be set up for the PA to rule over Palestinians without sovereignty. The Israelis are appalled by these conditions and continue to push the PA to declare openly and without equivocation that whatever arrangement Israel will bestow on PA leaders in the guise of a Bantustan "state", Israel's conditions remain that the Palestinians must accept not only the right of existing Jewish colonists to continue to colonise all parts of Palestine, but also their future rights to colonise more of the land, short of which, the Israelis insist there will be no "peace" deal.
Of course, Israel insists that it would continue in the meantime to wage "peace" to convince the PA leadership of the importance of their full acquiescence in its comprehensive colonial project. The on-going secret negotiations between Israel and the PA at present aim to devise a plan wherein the PA and Israel find the right formula to bring this acquiescence about, so that Jewish colonisation of the entire land of the Palestinians will be finally supported and celebrated by the Palestinians themselves and the century-old Zionist war against the Palestinian people will finally be won under the banner of "peace". The only problem is that the Palestinian people, unlike the PA leadership, refuse to acquiesce in Zionism's colonial project, as they have not given up hope but remain hopeful that the colonisation of their land is reversible and that their resistance will ultimately bring it to an end, irrespective of the deals concluded by their collaborator leadership and of Israel's waging peace as war. (http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/10/peace-war-after-oslo-accords-20131031124827574136.html)
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Opinions
The “Zionist” vision
Al Khaleej Editorial
The Zionist vision for Palestine is clear: it reaffirms that all of Palestine belongs to the Jews. Zionist intellects in all different spheres have realized that the reality on the ground will not allow for this vision to be realized in one move. This is why they worked to find a foothold – that is, the establishment of a Zionist entity from which they moved forward by continuing to expand this entity so that it would eventually include all of Palestine. They were aided in this endeavor by the international collusion with it, coupled with the Arabs’ weakness.
The Nakba war in 1948 was an opportunity to expand the spot of land granted to them by the UN. The Naksa war in 1967, however, was a golden opportunity to move forward in carrying out the vision in its entirety. Since then, they have been able to empty over half of the West Bank from its original inhabitants. Israeli measures have been able to lower the number of Palestinians in the Jordan Valley from 300,000 people before the Naksa to almost 60,000 people at present. With the settlements that surround Jerusalem, they were able to completely separate the city both officially and practically from the West Bank. Israel is also working through all possible means to expel the largest number of people from this area.
As for the separation wall and other Israeli measures that accompany it such as banning Palestinians from entering areas separated by this border, this has led to a huge drop in the number of Palestinians in these areas. The continued settlement expansion on what is left of the West Bank has first separated cities and villages from the land that provides livelihood for them, and has also confined Palestinians to cantons. When Israeli measures are completed, the Palestinians will find themselves crammed into a very small part of the West Bank.
Zionist settlement was not merely a tactic to grab more Palestinian land. It was mostly a strategy to complete the Zionist vision. That is why the insistence on continuing settlement building and not accepting any freeze on it. If it were only part of a tactic, Israel would have accepted to at least freeze construction. But because settlements are the heart of the strategy, Zionist leaders are willing to take on the world for its sake.
Some might think that the outcome of all this is a bi-national state, which would pose an existential threat to Israel. This might be true if Israel had annexed all of the territories to its entity. However, it annexes areas that are mostly empty of people, leaving the heavily populated areas of Palestinians in disconnected open-air prisons so that they would hopefully one day see that they have no choice but to leave. Israel’s oppressive measures are there to push things along.
So where is the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League in all of this? And where are the international resolutions that reject the occupation and reaffirm the restoration of occupied land and oppose settlements? (http://www.alkhaleej.ae/portal/afa7a042-fd4f-4a14-917f-2edefe21279b.aspx)
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