issue no 43

Issue No: 43 16th Mau, 2013

Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia (PCOM) 1



Read in this report:

Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradawi in Gaza (P.4) Warnings of a new Nakba threatening Al-Aqsa

Mosque (P.5)

Israeli government to starts dividing Al

Aqsa Mosque (P.5) Israel approves nearly 300 new settlements

(P.6)

Report: Netanyahu spends $127,000 on

airplane 'rest chamber’ (P.9)

Article: The Nakba revisited (P.10)



CONTENTS

NEWS OF PALESTINE

Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradawi in Gaza ........................................................................................ 4

Warnings of a new Nakba threatening Al-Aqsa Mosque .......................................................... 5

Israeli government to starts dividing Al Aqsa Mosque ............................................................. 5

Plan to seize 7 million square metres in Negev and displace 90,000 Palestinians .................... 6

Israel approves nearly 300 new settlements to coincide with Kerry-Livni meeting .................. 7

Palestinian hunger strikers released from Israeli jail ................................................................. 7

Churches denounce Israel violence against Christians .............................................................. 8

ISRAEL INSIDER

Report: Netanyahu spends $127,000 on airplane 'rest chamber' ............................................... 9

ARTICLES & ANALYSIS

The Nakba revisited ................................................................................................................. 10



Haniyyah grants him a Palestinian Passport, Ramallah demands to detain him

Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradawi in Gaza

21/05/2013

Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradawi, head of the

international union for Muslim scholars, was

enthusiastically received by Palestinian

officials and massive crowds of citizens upon

his arrival on Wednesday evening in the Gaza

Strip.

The Palestinian premier Ismail Haneyya,

deputy speaker of the Palestinian parliament

Ahmed Baher and a number of officials and

dignitaries participated in the reception.

Following the arrival of Sheikh Qaradawi and

his accompanying delegation, premier

Haneyya held a news conference at Rafah

border area and gave a welcome speech

praising Sheikh Qaradawi and his stature in

the hearts of the Palestinians.

Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qardawi stated that his visit

to Gaza is intended to renew his oath of

allegiance to Palestine and its people.

"We are with you and we will celebrate the

victory together if I stay alive, but if it is God's

will that I do not live [to witness liberation],

you and the future generations would celebrate

this victory which is inevitable, God willing,"

Sheikh Qaradawi said.

For his part, The Palestinian premier Ismail

Haneyya has granted Al-Qaradawi a

Palestinian passport to honour him for his

great positions in support of the Palestinian

people and their just cause and rights.

On the other hand, the Palestinian Authority

Ministry of Interior has put out a notice

informing countries that recognize Palestine

that Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi holds a “fake”

Palestinian passport.

In a letter, the ministry called on all countries

to take legal action to detain him and seize the

passport if it is used contrary to international

law.

Member of Hamas's political bureau Ezzat Al-

Resheq criticized the Palestinian Authority and

its de facto interior ministry for its objection to

giving Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradawi a

Palestinian passport in honor of his role in

NEWS OF PALESTINE



supporting the Palestinian cause. Resheq said

that such attitude by the PA was unjustified

and a departure from the Palestinian traditions,

and would contribute to deepening the inter-

Palestinian division.

Source: Agencies

______________________________________________________________

On the 65th Anniversary of Nakbah

Warnings of a new Nakba threatening Al-Aqsa Mosque

15/05/2013

A senior Palestinian official called for

protecting Al-Aqsa Mosque from a "new

Nakba" threatening it due to the occupation

practices that aim to impose Jewish control

over it in preparation to demolish it and build

the alleged temple on its ruins.

Yousef Edais, head of the Supreme Council of

the Islamic courts in Palestine, called on the

residents of Jerusalem and the 1948-occupied

territories to intensify their presence in Al-

Aqsa Mosque, in order to confront the

repeated raids into its courtyards by the settlers

and the extremist Jewish groups.

Edais said in a statement on Wednesday that

Al-Aqsa Mosque has been witnessing daily

raids by Jewish groups under the protection of

the Israeli police, warning of attempts to

divide it as they did in the Ibrahimi Mosque.

He warned of a scheme made by settlers’

leaders and senior Jewish rabbis to divide Al-

Aqsa; stressing that it is a purely Islamic

endowment and that the Jews have no right in

it.

Source: PIC

_______________________________________________________________

Israeli escalation inside the mosque, popular marches to defend it

Israeli government to starts dividing Al Aqsa Mosque

21/05/2013

Israeli Ministry of Religious Affairs revealed

official attempts to divide Al Aqsa Mosque

between Muslims and Jews, claiming that

preventing Jews from performing their rituals

in Al Aqsa "is a violation of freedom of

worship."



Director of the Ministry of Religious Affairs

announced during the Knesset session that his

ministry will seek to "amend the law" that

allows the Jews to perform rituals in Al Aqsa

Mosque, and said: "a parliamentary committee

has been charged with studying the draft, in

order to enable Jews to pray at the site."

A Hebrew radio station broadcast a discussion

held on Wednesday concerning the law and its

aims of allowing an increased number of

Jewish settlers to enter Al-Aqsa Mosque at a

time when Palestinian and international parties

concerned with Jerusalem affairs have warned

against the division of the Mosque, both in

terms of time and structure, as is the case in

the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron.

In a related context, head of the Council of

Religious Endowments, Sheikh Abdel Azim

Salhab, stated that the Israeli authorities aimed

to increase the Israeli settlers' number in al-

Aqsa mosque while preventing the Palestinian

worshipers to enter the mosque. He called for

a firm position towards the Israeli continued

attacks and arbitrary restrictions against the

worshipers.

Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF)

violently suppressed different marches held on

Friday in the West Bank to protest Israel's

violations against the Aqsa Mosque.

On the other hand, Egyptian governorates on

Friday have witnessed mass rallies in support

of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque; called for

by the Muslim Brotherhood.

The marchers denounced the ongoing Israeli

violations against Al-Aqsa Mosque, and

demanded the Egyptian President Mohamed

Morsi to intervene to protect it from the Israeli

violations.

Source: Agencies

_______________________________________________________________

Plan to seize 7 million square

metres in Negev and displace

90,000 Palestinians

07/05/2013

The Israeli Ministerial Committee on

Legislation passed a draft law yesterday

regulating Bedouin settlement in the Negev

known as the "Prawer Plan", which will allow

the seizure of approximately 700,000 dunams

of the Negev and the destruction of 40

unrecognised villages. The government will

present the draft law to the Knesset for approval

over three readings before it becomes law.

Hundreds of "1948 Palestinians", most of

whom are Negev Bedouins, protested in front

of the office of Prime Minister, Benjamin

Netanyahu, in objection to the "Prawer Plan".

The protestors held signs saying "Work

towards stopping the Prawer Project" in

Arabic, Hebrew, and English and chanted

"Listen Prawer... the land of the Negev will

not surrender to you." The protest was in

response to the Israeli Ministerial Committee

on Legislation's discussion held yesterday on

the Prawer Plan and its plans to regulate the

settlement of Negev Bedouins.

Atiya al-Aassam, head of the Regional

Committee for unrecognised villages in the

Negev, said in a speech before the protestors,

"We want to tell Prawer, Tzipi Livni (Minister

of Justice) and all decision-makers that we

have endured 65 years of water scarcity and all

forms of torture, and we will continue to

endure and will not give up one inch of our

land." He said.

Source: MEMO



As a response to the Arabs concession in

Washington

Israel approves nearly 300

new settlements to coincide

with Kerry-Livni meeting

09/05/2013

As Israeli justice minister, Tzipi Livni, met

with US Secretary of State John Kerry in

Rome on Wednesday, the Israel Civil

Administration approved a plan to build 296

housing units in the West Bank settlement of

Beit El; an Israeli newspaper reported.

Although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin

Netanyahu had previously made undertakings

to stop further settlement construction until

next June when he met with Kerry, his

Defence Minister Moshe Ya'alon approved the

construction of the new housing units in line

with a promise the government had made to

settlers. A previous Israeli government had

promised to build 90 new housing units in the

settlements in an attempt to prevent clashes

during the eviction of the Ulpana settlement.

Recently, Kerry has achieved a diplomatic

victory when the Arab league delegation in

Washington announced an agreement to accept

that a land swap deal could be reached

between Palestinians and Israelis based on the

1967 borders.

For his part, head of the Palestinian

Legislative Council, Dr. Aziz Dweik,

confirmed that Israeli settlement construction

continued in the West Bank, saying that Israeli

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's order to

freeze settlement construction has no basis on

the ground.

Concerning the Arab League modified peace

initiative, Dweik said that it came in

contradiction to the Arab people's

revolutionary will, calling on the Arab

government to stop culture of concessions.

The modified Arab Initiative, based on land

swap, is a serious step that legitimizes Israeli

settlement construction, he added.

Source: Agencies

_______________________________________________________________

Abu Sisi's isolation extended for 6

additional months

Palestinian hunger strikers

released from Israeli jail

10/05/2013

On Thursday at dawn, the Israeli occupation

released Tariq Qedan and Jaafar Izzidin, two

Palestinian hunger strikers who have been on

strike for 93 days.

Qedan, 42, and Izzidin, 41, from Arraba

neighbourhood in South Jenin, went on hunger

strike in protest at their administrative

detention by the Israeli occupation.

It is worth noting that the sessions of their trial

were held at the notorious Al-Ramleh hospital

while both prisoners were sat in wheelchairs.



The released prisoners described the lives of

Palestinian inmates of Israeli prisons, who are

mistreated and receive poor health care, as

"hell".

On the other hand, the Israeli Central Court

has decided to extend the prisoner Dirar Abu

Sisi's solitary confinement for six additional

months, Tadamun Foundation for Human

Rights revealed.

Ahmed al-Beitawi, a researcher at the

Foundation, said that the court extended Abu

Sisi's isolation until October under the pretext

of being a threat to Israel's security.

Abu Sisi was transferred in March from his

isolation cell in Ashkelon prison to another

one in Ohli Kedar jail under worse conditions,

al-Beitawi said.

Source: Agencies

_______________________________________________________________

Churches denounce Israel violence against Christians

12/05/2013

Patriarchs and heads of Christian churches in

Jerusalem on Sunday released a joint

statement denouncing attacks by Israeli police

officers on worshipers and pilgrims during

Holy Saturday at the Church of Holy

Sepulchre.

Signatories of the statement highlighted that

they saw “awful scenes of the brutal treatment

to clerics, average people and pilgrims in

Jerusalem during Holy Saturday.”

They added: “A day of joy was turned into a

day of severe sadness and pain for several of

our faithful brothers who were mistreated by a

number of Israeli police officers at the gates of

the Old City of Jerusalem leading to the

Church of the Holy Sepulchre.”

It is unacceptable, according to the statement,

that clergymen and average people “get beaten

brutally and indiscriminately and be denied

access to their churches under the pretext of

keeping order.”

The statement was signed by heads of all

recognized churches in the Holy Land

including the Roman Orthodox Church, the

Latin Church, the Armenian Orthodox Church,

the Custodian of the Holy Land, the Coptic

Orthodox Church, the Syriac Orthodox

Church, the Ethiopian Church, the Roman

Catholic Church, the Maronite Church, the

Episcopal Church, the Lutheran Church, the

Syriac Catholic Church, and the Armenian

Catholic Church.

Source: Ma’an News Agency



Report: Netanyahu spends $127,000 on airplane 'rest chamber'

11/05/2013

TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma'an) -- Benjamin

Netanyahu's office spent $127,000 of tax

payers' money on an airplane "rest chamber"

for the Israeli premier, Israeli media reported

Friday.

The walled-off chamber included a double bed

for the prime minister and his wife and was

installed on the airplane that took the couple to

London in April, Channel 10 reported.

The installation required electricians,

engineers, porters and additional workers and

cost $127,000.

Responding to the report, the prime minister's

office said the expenses for the trip to attend

Margaret Thatcher's funeral were reduced "as

much as possible," the Ynet news site

reported.

"The flight was scheduled for midnight after a

hectic day. The following day, the PM was

supposed to represent the State of Israel in a

number of formal international events,

including meetings with Canadian Prime

Minister Stephen Harper and British Prime

Minister David Cameron," Netanyahu's office

said.

"In light of this, it is appropriate that Israel's

Prime Minister will be able to rest the night

between such busy days."

Source: Ma’an News Agency

ISRAEL INSIDER



The Nakba revisited By: Khalid Amayreh*

Today marks the 65th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, the violent

usurpation and occupation of Palestine by Zionist Jewish invaders

coming from around the world. The seizure of Palestine can be

considered as one of the greatest acts of theft in the history of mankind.

Israel itself therefore is a gigantic war crime and a crime against humanity.

Thanks to the infamous Balfour declaration of

1917, Palestine, an Arab country since the

seventh century, was given by another country

(Britain) to a third people (the Jews) without

even consulting the native people of the

country.

According to the British Philosopher Bertrand

Russell:" The tragedy of the people of

Palestine is that their country was ‘given’ by a

foreign power to another people for the

creation of a new state."

In fact, it can be safely argued that the West,

particularly Britain, committed the original sin

by envisaging, planning and implanting Israel

in the heart of the Arab world in order to

protect its colonial and imperialistic interests.

In 1905, Britain's Prime Minister Sir Henry

Campbell-Bannerman invited the Western

Imperial powers for conference which

continued until 1907.

The conference of the thieves recommended

the establishment of " a state on the lands of

Palestine, to serve as an advanced base for the

covetous colonialists, and protect their

interests, implement their plans and schemes

and ensure the outflow of natural resources

from the region, as well as the import of their

goods and products into the markets of the

region."

The American Jewish writer Noam Chomsky

described this evilness committed by these

European powers, especially Britain:

"When a man brings a snake and puts it in the

bed of a child and it stings the child, the man

is responsible for the child’s death, not the

snake,”.

The person who brings the snake into the

child’s bed is the real criminal, not the snake.

This person cannot claim innocence and say 'I

did not know that the snake is so poisonous!'"

The famous British historian Arnold Toynbee,

in his book "A Study of History" said that

"while the direct responsibility for the

calamity that overtook the Palestinian Arabs in

A.D. 1948 was on the heads of the Zionist

Jews who seized a lebensraum for themselves

in Palestine by force of arms in that year, a

heavy load of indirect, yet irrefutable,

responsibility was on the heads of the people

of the United Kingdom.

But the "snake" (Israel) has acquired a life of

its own, and it no longer depends on its

erstwhile western benefactors for its survival

and continuity."

None the less, there is no guarantee, historical,

moral or religious that the "snake" will have an

extended life, e.g. live longer than a century.

ARTICLES & ANALYSIS



In the final analysis, Israel is an immoral and

illegal being that will have to go. Yes, Israel is

a regional superpower, has a prosperous

economy, is technologically advanced and

tightly controls the government, Congress and

media of the United States .

But nations don't live by modern fighter jets

and nuclear bombs alone. The Soviet Union

had a plenty of these.

In order to have a sustained existence nations

must possess a moral justification. Justice, not

military might, is what guarantees the

longevity and continuity of states.

In 1948, Zionist leaders such as Ben Gurion

thought that that the Palestinian people would

go into oblivion, slowly but surely. Indeed,

just as the genocidal invaders from Eastern

Europe and elsewhere bulldozed and

obliterated more than 500 Palestinian villages,

Zionist elders thought that old Palestinians

will die and young Palestinians will forget!

But to the Zionists' chagrin, the Palestinian

cause is still as vivid and relevant in the minds

and hearts of the Palestinian people today as it

was in 1948.

Thousands of Palestinians still retain the keys

to their homes from which they were expelled

at gunpoint when Israel was created 65 years

ago. The trust is bequeathed by the older to

younger generations.

Today, even the least patriotic Palestinians

who would rather reach "a peace deal" with

Israel by hook or by crook wouldn't even dare

suggest that they would sell out the right of

return even in return for a state in the West

Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Today, one is really affronted by these

fanatical Jewish settlers who terrorize and

savage peaceable Palestinian villagers, poison

and kill their livestock, burn down their fields

and orchards.

And when the unprotected helpless

Palestinians seek redress at Israeli courts, they

are told by the Jewish judges that the settlers

have a point because "your homes and land

once belonged to the settlers' ancestors some

three thousand years ago."!!!

Such a state where inequity and oppression are

rampant can't and will not live long, even if it

possessed all the modern warplanes in the

world.

The Demographic situation in

Israel/Palestine

Apart from the historical rights and moral

high-ground, the Palestinians also have a

strategic advantage over Zionism, namely the

demographic asset. According to the

prominent Israeli demographer Della Pergula,

there are already more non-Jews than Jews

between the River Jordan and the

Mediterranean.

"We have already reached the demographic

critical mass, the establishment of a

Palestinian state now is therefore more of an

urgent Israeli need than a Palestinian need"

But the possibility for establishing a viable

Palestinian state no longer exists in light of the

phenomenal expansion of Jewish settlements

mentioned earlier. More to the point, the

concept of a bi-national state is a kind of

anathema for most Israelis as it would mean

the end of Israel as a Jewish state. Hence, the

problem.

There are millions of Israelis who would think

or probably are already thinking of

unthinkable scenarios such as expelling large

number of Palestinians. But expulsion can't

really be carried out without some sort of a

genocide. None the less, the Palestinians have

thoroughly learned and imbibed the lessons of

1948 and would never ever leave their

country. They would rather die in their own

homes, towns and villages rather than give

Zionists the joy of watching them repeat the

Nakba scenario.



The Israeli Zionists have already committed

huge and numerous crimes against the

Palestinian people. Needless to say,

committing still more crimes would be

suicidal and fraught with grave consequences

for Israel and Jews.

In the final analysis, the repetition of what

happened in 1948 could speed up the process

of Israel's demise and extinction.

* 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.

issue no 43

Documents

palestinian officials

palestinian passport

palestinian people

sheikh yousuf alqardawi

arrival of sheikh qaradawi

alaqsa mosque

al aqsa mosque

palestinian hunger strikers