Download - Issue no 45
Issue No: 45 28th May, 2013
Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia (PCOM) 1
Issue No: 45 28th May, 2013
Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia (PCOM) 2
Read in this report:
Hamas: Kerry's economic plan, a new
attempt to deceive public opinion (P.4)
Occupation demolishes 11 Jerusalemite
houses within one day (P.4)
Arab businessen pledge to invest in Gaza
(P.7) Netanyahu will not freeze settlements (P.6)
Malaysian NGO delegation arrives in
Gaza (P.8)
Article: A slap on the face (P.8)
Issue No: 45 28th May, 2013
Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia (PCOM) 3
CONTENTS
NEWS OF PALESTINE
Hamas: Kerry's economic plan, a new attempt to deceive public opinion ................................ 4
Occupation demolishes 11 Jerusalemite houses within one day ............................................... 5
Israeli forces escort rightists at Aqsa compound ....................................................................... 5
Netanyahu will not freeze settlements in return for resumption of negotiations ....................... 6
Israel renews administrative detention of 11 Palestinians ......................................................... 7
Arab businessmen pledge to invest in Gaza .............................................................................. 7
MALAYSIA & PALESTINIAN CAUSE
Malaysian NGO delegation arrives in Gaza .............................................................................. 8
ARTICLES & ANALYSES
A slap on the face ....................................................................................................................... 8
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Hamas: Kerry's economic plan, a new attempt to deceive
public opinion
27/05/2013
Hamas movement has considered Kerry's
new economic plan to activate the
Palestinian situation in West Bank as a
new attempt to deceive the public opinion.
Fawzi Barhoum, the movement's
spokesman, warned of the serious impact
of Kerry's plan, saying that US previous
projects were only attempts to provide
more time to implement the Israeli
Judaization and racist schemes.
The spokesman for the movement said that
the repeated meetings between Kerry and
Abbas raise doubts about the future of the
Palestinian reconciliation, rights and
resistance.
PA is subjected to US pressures to renew
negotiation with the occupation that will
affect seriously the Palestinian unity and
reconciliation, he added.
He stressed that all the Palestinian
segments have always rejected any attempt
to restart talks with the occupier.
On the other hand, the Prime Minister
Ismail Haniyeh expressed his surprise
towards president Abbas's recent
statements in favor of security
coordination with the occupier, saying that
it is not part of the Palestinian culture.
Haniyeh criticized PA concessions during
its repeated meeting with US secretary of
state John Kerry, stressing that many
enticements and money were offered to his
government, but they were refused
because "Palestine is not for sale."
During his speech to the World Economic
Forum in Jordan Abbas revealed that PA
security services returned 96 Israeli
soldiers who had mistakenly entered the
PA-controlled areas, to the Israeli
authorities in 2012.
"Kidnapping soldiers is not in our nature,
we do not use these methods, and we want
to live with neighbors in mutual respect.
Any Israeli that comes onto Palestinian
ground will be welcomed and returned
safely to his home," he said.
Source: Agencies
NEWS OF PALESTINE
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Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia (PCOM) 5
handed out dozens more of demolition notices in Jerusalem
Occupation demolishes 11 Jerusalemite houses within one day
23/05/2013
The Israeli authorities on Tuesday
demolished 11 apartments in the occupied
city of Jerusalem, displacing more than
one hundred Jerusalemite citizens, mostly
women and children.
Wadi Al-Helwa Information Centre said in
a report published on Wednesday that the
Jerusalem municipality teams,
accompanied by military and police forces,
demolished in Tur neighborhood and Jabal
Mukaber in eastern Jerusalem 7
Palestinian houses and a residential
building of four apartments.
The occupation authorities said the
apartments were built without a permit on
lands threatened with confiscation, and
started the demolition without any prior
notice.
The Information Center said the residential
building in the Jabal Mukaber, which
consisted of four apartments, has been
built since 1973, and that some years ago
the occupation tried to buy it.
In a related context, the occupation
municipality in Jerusalem handed to
dozens of citizens notifications informing
them of its intention to issue
administrative demolition orders in case
they do not stop construction work in their
buildings.
The lawyer Nael Rashid said he filed an
administrative petition to the
Administrative Court in Jerusalem against
these warnings, and that he found out that
they were arbitrarily issued against citizens
who had been earlier fined for carrying out
unauthorized building work. Rashid
stressed that the issuance of administrative
demolition orders against houses inhabited
for decades represents a flagrant violation.
Source: Agencies
_________________________________________________________________________________
Israeli forces escort rightists at Aqsa compound
27/05/2013
Israeli security forces and right-wing Jews
toured the al-Aqsa Mosque compound on
Monday accompanied by intelligence
officials, a local group said.
The al-Aqsa Foundation said in a
statement that the female officers led the
group through the Moroccan Gate, before
splitting into separate groups.
Muslim worshipers shouted "Allahu
Akbar" at the group, the statement said,
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adding that such visits have increased
recently.
Also Monday, settlers from the religious
Zionist Ateret Cohanim organization took
control of two shops belonging to
Palestinians in the Old City of Jerusalem.
Witnesses said dozens of settlers guarded
by Israeli police raided the two shops.
They evacuated all the contents of the
shops and changed the locks. She shops
had been closed for years.
The group claims that the stores were
seized before 1948 under the Absentee
Property Law, and an Israeli court had
ordered evacuation of the stores.
Source: Ma’an News Agency
_________________________________________________________________________________
Netanyahu will not freeze settlements in return for resumption of
negotiations
27/05/2013
An Israeli official has claimed that Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not
freeze West Bank settlements in order to
facilitate the resumption of peace talks and
negotiations with the Palestinian
Authority.
According to the Jerusalem Post, the
official said that Palestinian Authority
President Mahmoud Abbas has had such
an opportunity once before: "This will not
happen again." If the Palestinians want to
talk, he added, "They know we are waiting
for them at the table".
The paper noted that after four rounds of
talks in Jerusalem and Ramallah in the past
two months US Secretary of State John
Kerry is seeking to revive peace talks
between the Palestinian Authority and the
Israelis.
"Kerry urged Israel to halt settlement
activity voluntarily, but added that the
demand for such a freeze, as a pre-
condition to direct talks, was not helpful,"
the Jerusalem Post pointed out.
Source: MEMO
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Israel renews administrative detention of 11 Palestinians
22/05/2013
Al-Tadamun human rights organisation
said on Tuesday that the Israeli occupation
has renewed the administrative detention
of 11 Palestinians, including a former
hunger striker and two Palestinian
lawmakers.
The administrative detention order against
Samer al-Barq, 39, from Jayous village in
Qalqilya was renewed for six months. Al-
Barq went on a hunger strike in April 2012
for 120 days. On November 23, 2012, he
ended his hunger strike after he was
promised he would be released and
deported to Egypt.
With the renewal of the order against al-
Barq's, Al-Tadamun advocate, Osama
Maqboul, accused the Israeli occupation of
breaching pledges of release and
deportation. Others whose administrative
detention orders have been renewed
include members of the Palestinian
Legislative Council, Mahmoud al-Ramahi
and Basim al-Za'areer. Both were detained
at November, 2012.
The Israeli occupation renewed the
administrative detention of another eight
Palestinians from various cities and
villages across the occupied West Bank.
Many Palestinian prisoners have recently
gone on hunger strike in protest against
administrative detention which is a
military detention order issued on no
apparent basis.
Source: MEMO
_________________________________________________________________________________
Arab businessmen pledge to invest in Gaza
25/05/2013
Head of the Palestinian businessmen
forum Jamal Karim, who has led a
delegation of Arab businessmen to Gaza,
pledged to carry out investment projects
supporting the steadfastness of Gaza
people in the face of the occupation.
Karim made his remarks in an evening
meeting held on Thursday by the ministry
of economy at Movenpick hotel in honor
of the visiting businessmen.
The head of the delegation said that their
visit to Gaza was aimed at developing
some familiarity with the investment
environment in the Strip.
"The nation is awake and is waiting for the
right moment to march to the resistance
land in order to liberate Jerusalem from the
profanity of the Zionist occupation," he
stated.
Source: PIC
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Malaysian NGO delegation arrives in Gaza
26/05/2013
A delegation of Malaysian NGOs arrived
in the Gaza Strip Sunday to check the
humanitarian situation and open projects.
The delegation includes 80 representatives
and activists from humanitarian work
groups in Malaysia.
Azmi Abed al-Hamid, the chairman of the
board, held a news conference at the Rafah
crossing where he stressed the strategic
relationship between Malaysia and
Palestine.
Walid al-Amoudi, an NGO leader in Gaza,
welcomed the delegation.
Source: Ma’an News Agency
_____________________________________________________________________________
A slap on the face
By Khalid Amayreh*
The recent Israeli decision to build four
major settlements in the West Bank,
including one in the vicinity of Ramallah,
is a slap on the face of the Palestinian
Authority (PA), the United States, EU and
all those who still are working to revive
the moribund peace process.
The decision is a clarion political
statement which expresses Israel's
intransigence and rejection of all peace
efforts despite the humiliating surrender
displayed by the PLO leadership as well as
the disgraceful concessions offered to
Israel by the Arab League with regard to
the so-called Arab initiative.
In fact, even without the building of
additional settlements in the West Bank,
Israel has already decapitated any
ARTICLES & ANALYSIS
MALAYSIA & PALESTINIAN CAUSE
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remaining chances for establishing a viable
Palestinian state, especially a territorially
contiguous entity with East Jerusalem As
its capital.
The phenomenal Israeli settlement
expansion, along with the unrelenting
unlimited political and military support
Israel is receiving from the U.S., leaves no
real chance as to the possibility that Israel
might rethink its policies.
There are two main reasons for this
prognosis: First, Israel is too fanatical and
stubborn to rethink its settlement policies,
as the vast majority of Israelis would reject
any notion of giving up the spoils on the
1967 war.
Second, the U.S. government, including
Congress, White House and the media is
reeling under effective Jewish-Zionist
control that seriously restricts American
freedom, ability and independence to
pursue an honest policy toward the
Palestinians.
Indeed, for this to happen, the U.S. will
have to undergo a real revolution in
America's collective thinking, something
that is unlikely to happen in the
foreseeable future.
This also means that the ongoing efforts by
the American Secretary of State John
Kerry to revive the clinically-dead peace
process are doomed to failure.
It is just a pointless repetition or
regurgitation of past American and
international efforts to resolve the
Palestinian question.
Needless to say, all these efforts, from
William Roger (1968) to John Kerry
(2013), failed due to purely domestic
considerations, namely the rejection by a
Jewish controlled Congress of any
proposal that would make Israel give up
the occupied territories.
This also means that it is foolhardy to
count on the U.S. to convince, let alone
force Israel to walk in the path of peace.
The U.S. is too weak, even if willing, to do
so. Moreover, the classical Jewish
mentality is too insolent, too self-absorbed
and too uncompromising to allow for a
dignified peace in the region.
Needless to say, the U.S., Israel's
guardian-ally and bankroller, has had more
than half a century to force or convince
Israel to give up the occupied territories,
but to no avail. And there is no convincing
reason which would make any honest
observer believes that the Obama
administration will succeed where all other
administrations since Lyndon Johnson's
failed.
The more likely goal of the present
American administration is to bully or
cajole the powerless and gutless PA to
cede fundamental Palestinian rights,
including the paramount right of return for
millions of refugees who were uprooted
from their ancestral homeland at the hands
of Jewish-Zionist invaders.
So the American logic goes like this. If the
Obama administration is too weak and two
cowardly to pressure Israel to give up the
occupied territories in implementation of
international law, the same administration
is at least powerful enough to bully the
vulnerable Palestinian leadership, e.g.
Mahmoud Abbas, to give up Palestinian
rights "for the sake of peace."!!
But the Obama administration is very
likely to be mistaken in thinking that
Abbas would be able to sell the highly
politicized Palestinian public a deformed
deal with Israel that would seriously
compromise the right of return as well as
other vital issues pertaining to Jerusalem,
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the Jewish colonies and Palestinian
sovereignty.
The Palestinian people is stronger than its
leaders, including Mahmoud Abbas.
Abbas may try to play the financial card,
given the fact that the financial survival of
the PA depends to a large extent on
American bribes.
Congress prohibited the transfer of funds
to the PA when the latter sought
international recognition at the United
Nations a few months ago. Eventually, the
funds were released after the Obama
administration persuaded Congressional
leaders that a financially sunk PA would
harm Israeli interests and was likely to
benefit Hamas.
There is little doubt that Congress would
resort to the same punitive measures if the
PA leadership showed determination to
cling to Palestinian national constants by
refusing to capitulate to Israeli dictates and
conditions.
In the final analysis, Mahmoud Abbas
would have to choose the less of the two
evils, either be answerable to his people
who reject any deviation from the well-
known redlines or commit a political and
moral suicide by succumbing to American
and Israeli pressure.
The Palestinian question has been extant
since the Balfour Declaration in 1917. It is
therefore sad and illogical that some
Palestinian leaders are prompted to think
that "now it shall be or not at all."
Towering Palestinian leaders lived and
died without compromising our national
rights. On this occasion, we mention
Izzidin al-Qassam, Hajj Amin Husseini,
George Habash, Yasser Arafat, Ahmed
Yasin, Abdul Aziz Rantisi and others.
Abbas must never be think that the
Palestinian cause must be resolved in his
lifetime. He should show a real willingness
to leave this world, when his time comes,
rather than act under pressure.
After all, time is on our side. True the
Israelis are trying to narrow our horizons
by building more settlements. But
eventually, that which can be built, can be
destroyed.
More to the point, it is now crystal clear
that Palestinians already constitute a
numerical majority west of the River
Jordan. This is a factor of both historical
and strategic significance. It shows that
Abbas and cohorts should not be chasing
after a futile peace deal that would only
consolidate and perpetuate the historical
injustices meted out to our people.
With these facts in mind, it is not far
fetched to think that at a certain point in
the near future, Jewish-Zionist leaders
would grovel at Palestinian feet to "beg for
peace" as the circle of history would haunt
Israel as it did haunt many other
oppressive states and empires before.
So Mr. Abbas, you don't have to worry
about the Palestinian cause and people.
Israeli inequity shall not prosper. Israel
will disappear sooner than many people
think.
* Khalid Amayreh is a Palestinian journalist based in Dura, near Hebron. He is barred from leaving
the West Bank. For many years Amayreh was confined to his home village of Dura near Hebron by
the Israeli military occupation authorities.
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