issue no 39

Issue No: 39 16th April, 2013

Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia (PCOM) 1



Read in this report:

Abbas accepts Fayyad’s resignation (P.4) Erdogan confirms visit to Gaza

in May (P.5)

Israeli troops shoot and arrest disabled

Palestinian (P.6) Report: Israel arrested 100 Palestinians

last week (P.6)

Livni criticised for wavering over Jewish

state label (P.7)

Article: Israel impunity and its culture of

torture (P.8)



CONTENTS

NEWS OF PALESTINE

Abbas accepts Fayyad’s resignation .......................................................................................... 4

Erdogan confirms visit to Gaza in May ..................................................................................... 5

Hamas: Jewish marches won’t succeed in wiping out facts ...................................................... 5

Israeli troops shoot and arrest disabled Palestinian ................................................................... 6

Report: Israel arrested 100 Palestinians last week ..................................................................... 6

ISRAEL INSIDER

Livni criticised for wavering over Jewish state label ................................................................. 7

ARTICLES & ANALYSES

Israel's impunity and its culture of torture ................................................................................. 8



Hamas: the resignation is not related to reconciliation

Abbas accepts Fayyad’s resignation

15/04/2013

Despite US and European pressure,

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud

Abbas has accepted the resignation of his

Prime Minister in Ramallah “Salam

Fayyad”. The president has asked Fayyad

to continue in the post until a new

government is formed.

Sources reported that Fayyad expressed his

deep thanks to President Abbas for his

support to the government over the years.

However, local sources claim that the

prime minister would not stay in the role

"even if the whole universe" asks him to

stay.

Senior American and European officials

have been putting a lot of pressure on

Abbas to reject Fayyad's resignation. He

has been hailed by the international

Middle East Quartet for his cooperation

with the West and Israel. US President

Barack Obama described the outgoing

prime minister as a "peace partner" during

his visit to the region last month, and

Secretary of State John Kerry held several

meetings with him in a show of solidarity

and support.

For its part, the Hamas Movement said the

resignation of Salam Fayyad as head of the

de facto government in the West Bank and

its acceptance by president Mahmoud

Abbas had nothing to do with the

Palestinian reconciliation.

"The acceptance of Salam Fayyad's

resignation by Mahmoud Abbas has

nothing to do with any reconciliation

agreement; it is only related to differences

between Fatah and Fayyad, and the

former's call for dismissing him as it

clearly stated in the last meeting of its

revolutionary council," Hamas spokesman

Sami Abu Zhuri stated in a press release.

Source: Agencies

NEWS OF PALESTINE



Erdogan confirms visit to Gaza in May

15/04/2013

Turkey's prime minister has confirmed that

he plans to visit the besieged Gaza Strip

next month. Recep Tayyip Erdogan made

the announcement during a video link with

a joint ceremony organised by the Turkish

Red Crescent Society and the Palestinian

Ministry of Agriculture.

In response to an invitation from Minister

of Agriculture Ali Al-Tarshawi, Mr

Erdogan said, "I am visiting Gaza in May

to shake hands with our families there."

The visit will go ahead despite US

pressure to postpone it. It will be entirely

for humanitarian purposes, said the

Turkish prime minister.

The Turkish Red Crescent was celebrating

the success implementation of several

agricultural projects it supports in the Gaza

Strip.

Source: MEMO

___________________________________________________________________________

Hamas: Jewish marches won’t succeed in wiping out facts

15/04/2013

Hamas warned against proceeding with the

Jewish march slated to start from Israeli

premier Benjamin Netanyahu’s house to

the Aqsa Mosque demanding full

sovereignty over the holy site.

The movement described the march in a

statement on Monday as “provocative” and

a desperate attempt. It added that the

march would not succeed in imposing a de

facto situation or in wiping out facts.

Hamas called on the Palestinian people to

unite their ranks in confrontation with the

Israeli occupation’s plots and projects.

Hamas urged the Arab League and the

Organization of Islamic Cooperation to

assume their responsibilities in protecting

Jerusalem and the Aqsa and to adopt

practical steps to deter the occupation’s

crimes against the land and holy shrines.

In a related context, the organizers of the

global march to Jerusalem said they would

stage a worldwide rally in support of the

holy city on June 7, 2013, which marks the

46th anniversary of Israel's occupation of

the eastern part of the city.



The organizers of the march said in a press

release on Monday that they intend to hold

this global march because of Israel's

persistent occupation of Jerusalem and its

escalation of its violations against the city

and its native people.

Source: PIC

___________________________________________________________________________

Israeli troops shoot and arrest disabled Palestinian

11/04/2013

Israeli troops have shot and wounded a

physically disabled Palestinian man during

an arrest operation in the southern West

Bank city of Hebron, according to

a prisoners' rights group.

Motazz Obeidu, 32, was "seriously

wounded by Israeli army gunfire during an

arrest operation" at dawn, the Palestinian

Prisoners' Society (PPS) said on Thursday.

The PPS held the occupation fully

responsible for Obeidu's life, whose health

condition is very critical. "He uses a

urinary drainage bag at all times and was

shot in his left leg by Israeli soldiers when

he was arrested two years ago, which led

to paralyzing his leg."

A large military force surrounded Obeidu's

shop, stripped him totally and left him

outside in the cold weather before

arresting him, according to his father.

Source: Aljazeera + Agencies

___________________________________________________________________________

Report: Israel arrested 100 Palestinians last week

14/04/2013

A Palestinian statistics report said that

Israeli occupation forces (IOF) nabbed 100

Palestinian citizens in the West Bank over

the past week.

The report published by Hamas on Sunday

said that most of those arrested were taken

from Al-Khalil governorate where 26

citizens were detained.

The report pointed out that the list

included three women, two of whom were

mothers of prisoners who were detained

during visits to their sons, and five who

were released from Palestinian Authority

jails.

Source: PIC



Livni criticised for wavering over Jewish state label

10/04/2013

Officials in Israel have launched a strong

attack against Justice Minister Tzipi Livni

for hinting that the government may be

willing to give up the demand for

Palestinian recognition of the "Jewish

State" as a precondition for a return to

negotiations. Livni has been put in charge

of negotiations by Prime Minister

Benjamin Netanyahu.

The leader of the governing coalition and

Knesset member for Likud, Yariv Levin,

said that Livni does not reflect the

government's official point of view on this

matter. "Israel as a Jewish state is the basis

of all negotiations and settlements," he

insisted. "It is an unequivocal demand that

is considered to be binding to all parties of

the coalition of the government in Israel."

Levin called on all members of the

coalition to "show more responsibility and

adhere to the principles that allow Israel to

achieve its demands in any future

negotiations".

Livni's statement also came under fire

from the Deputy Minister of

Transportation, Tzipi Ahtpola. "The Prime

Minister of Israel is the only one who

decides on the policy of the government

and determines the conditions for

negotiations with the Palestinians," she

said. "Any idea which opposes this

framework would be a gift to those who

reject peace."

According to the Minister of Construction

and Housing, Uri Ariel, of the far-right

Jewish Home Party, "Livni's words

demonstrate a total disregard for the

government's decisions and policies." He

noted that the Palestinians have to

acknowledge the requirement to recognise

the Jewish nature of the state. "How can

we conduct negotiations with those who

do not recognise our existence?" asked

Ariel. "It was silly talk by a minister."

Source: MEMO

ISRAEL INSIDER



Israel's impunity and its culture of torture

By: Ramona Wadi *

The recognition of torture in Israeli prisons

is subject to a host of narratives, entrenching

it within a distinct, yet hidden realm. Since

the start of Israel's illegal occupation,

thousands of Palestinians have been tortured

in a manner reminiscent of the macabre

extravagance now associated with

Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. The

revelation that torture was taking place in

Israel's prisons in 1977 was met with an

incredulous reaction from Prime Minister

Menachem Begin, who refused to acknowledge its existence.

The Landau Commission in 1987 failed to

ban torture in Israel. Instead of condemning

the practice as a breach of international law,

torture was deemed to be permissible in

certain cases, governed by a set of secret

rules which torturers adhered to. The

foundation for impunity was given a solid

structure; "lying to the court" about torture

was "intolerable" but the practice itself was

allowed. Thus was the relevance of the

impact of torture upon Palestinian prisoners

pushed to one side. In 1999, a Supreme

Court ruling that torture was illegal became

mired in ambiguity, owing to the same

court's allowance of torture in situations of

"necessity". Aided by experts in the medical

and psychological fields, torturers would

follow a set programme which stipulated the

limits of physical resistance prior to the

victim suffering irreparable damage. The

vagueness of the term used resulted in an

effective safeguard for torturers, who

ensured the isolation of prisoners in order to

fetter the emotional and physical scars of torture.

The death of Arafat Jaradat at the hands of

the Israeli internal security agency Shin Bet

in February brought state-sanctioned torture

onto the front pages. An autopsy revealed

that Jaradat had been subjected to brutal

torture; several bones in the neck, spine,

arms and legs were broken, and blood clots,

bruising and blisters were evident. As

expected, Israel failed to acknowledge the

veracity of the autopsy report, calling it

inconclusive and clinging to a fabricated

version of events which claimed that "cardiac arrest" was the cause of death.

Apart from the physical isolation of tortured

prisoners, the isolation of individual

recollections of torture within the collective

Palestinian memory contributes to its

displacement by other narratives. The instant

glorification of martyrdom is centred upon

an individual living under decades of

oppression, whereas if we focus on the

decades of oppression the subject of torture

can rise to the communal level. Maintaining

a false dichotomy between individual and

collective memory can prove

counterproductive to Palestinian resistance,

allowing sub-narratives to sink without trace.

Shin Bet's reliance on medical practitioners

to help with torture are documented in legal

rights group Adalah's report "On Torture".

Physicians have been known to disregard

torture complaints, help to send prisoners

back to their torturers, disclose medical

conditions to make torture "more effective"

and fail to report complaints about, or

personal observation of, torture. While the

elimination of socio-political processes plays

a role in transforming the torture victim's

identity into a stereotype, there is an inherent

culture promoted by the Israeli state that

Palestinians are a target the disposal of

which is necessary in order to achieve the

Zionist dream. In such a context, while

medical practitioners' identification with the

oppressor is an affirmation of allegiance to a

ARTICLES & ANALYSIS



"superior" state, the same state is responsible

for the dissemination and application of apartheid practices.

The protection of human rights cannot take

place if the political views of the oppressor

eliminate any possibility of such discourse

by encouraging its citizens to become active

participants in oppression. Israeli society is

not oblivious to the torture of Palestinians,

yet it has willingly conformed to the

requirements of stereotyping and

dehumanisation of the victims. Rhetoric

abounds about the preservation of the Jewish

state and references to Zionism, with these

influences being articulated with venom on

social media, advocating the use of further

violence against Palestinians. It has become

commonplace for Israelis sticking to the

Zionist agenda to suggest "breaking the

bones" of Palestinians or castration,

shooting, death by nerve gas or burning of

Palestinian children. The culture of violence

has been embraced eagerly, with the

Holocaust card trumping any outrage at

torture taking place in the name of the state

and creating irrational fears about

"existential" threats.

Sanctioned by almost every strata of society,

Shin Bet's impunity with regard to torture

has lasting consequences on Palestinian

victims. An absence of criminal

proceedings, despite over 600 complaints in

recent years, has resulted in a series of

myths regarding the practice. Claims that

certain techniques are no longer used, such

as prolonged beatings or hangings, thrive

within the parameters of bureaucratic form-

filling and secret proceedings. It is also

implied that certain torture techniques veer

towards the psychological, such as using

Palestinians willing to collaborate with the

Israeli secret service in exchange for

material benefits, which help to weaken the

defences of the prisoner under interrogation.

However, the physical violence has not

diminished, as demonstrated by the

lacerations evident on Jaradat's body. What

is remarkable, notoriously so, is Israel's

absolute impunity which allows it to regard

torture and murder as collateral damage in a "war against terror".

Having broken a multitude of UN

resolutions and regulations pertaining to

international law and never been held

accountable, it is apparent that the culture of

impunity which normalises and sanctions

violence in Israel has been ignored by the

international community. Understandably,

the US is incapable of condemning human

rights violations and torture since it is an

advocate of both; criticism of others would

attract attention to its own illegal activities.

Indeed, Israel and the US have sanctioned

torture in remarkably similar circumstances;

ostensibly to provide security for their

citizens at the expense of thousands of

people whose existence amounts to nothing

more than a name or number on a list.

Imprisonment and torture as a means to

safeguard Israeli security have distorted the

identity of Palestinian prisoners. If the

transformation and misrepresentation of

torture into the lesser of many evils can be

removed from the international

consciousness, then there is a chance that

Israel and other states could be called to

account for their crimes. The alternative is

that the Palestinian struggle will be

bludgeoned into oblivion by Israel's torturers

aided by the silence and complicity of its friends and allies.

* Ramona Wadi is a writer, book reviewer and blogger based in Malta specialising in

the Palestine, international relations and revolutionary philosophy. She writes regularly for

Middle East Monitor and her work has been published in various outlets, including academic

publications.

issue no 39

Documents

president abbas

palestinian reconciliation

reconciliation abbas

resignation of salam

israel impunity

ramallah salam fayyad

jewish state label

israel insider livni