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March 28, 2014
Daily summary - Friday, March 28, 2014
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Main News
ISRAEL REFUSES TO RELEASE FOURTH BATCH OF PRISONRS; LINKS IT TO NEW CONDITIONS
Deputy minister for prisoner affairs Ziad Abu Ain confirmed today that the meeting between the Palestinian leadership and US envoy Martin Indyk over the release of the fourth batch of prisoners ended this morning with no results. Abu Ain said Israel is refusing to release the fourth group of prisoners, slated for release tomorrow, March 29, linking their release to the condition of extending the negotiations and to implementing the conditions for a framework agreement. In a statement posted on his Facebook page, Abu Ain said that as a result of its internal crises, “Israel wants to blow up the agreement and the American promise to the Palestinian leadership, which it previously agreed to and which is not linked to the course of the negotiations. The deal was that we would not turn to international institutions in exchange for the release of all 104 pre-Oslo prisoners.” He continued that Israel agreed, but on condition that the negotiations are extended and possibly even more conditions such as the framework agreement. He said the leadership considered this a ‘huge violation” of the principle of the agreement and the commitment made, adding that Israel is trying to blackmail the Palestinians with new conditions.
Abu Ain also reaffirmed the leadership’s rejection of these conditions, saying: “We will not pay the price twice. We already paid the price of eight months in which settlement expansion, killings, arrests and assaults took place. We did not turn to any international institution in accordance with the deal and so that the last 30 prisoners would be released. Now the other side must also abide and the sponsor of the peace process must also carry out its promises.”
He continued that the American shuttle visits yesterday – Kerry in Amman and Inkyk in Ramallah and also calls with the Israelis – did not result in any positive result, adding that Israel delivered a painful blow to the United States, showing it as week and incapable of fulfilling its promise, thus stripping it of its credibility and trust.
Abu Ain went on to say that the leadership “would not negotiate over a previous agreement again and will not pay the price twice. Israel must abide by its commitment and release the prisoners without delay.” He also said that the moment the leadership is free from its commitments, it would turn to the UN and to international agencies. He also warned that the leadership had word that the prisoner movement would explode in anger with this breach of the agreement, saying “we are at the brink of a very dangerous period for which Israel and the United States will be held responsible.” (http://maannews.net/arb/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=685438)
THE PRESIDENT REFUSES ANY COMPROMISE IN PRISONER RELEASE
A Palestinian official who asked to remain unnamed said yesterday that President Abbas told US Secretary of State John Kerry that he would reject any compromise over the release of the fourth batch of prisoners. The official said the president refused to discuss any issue other than that of the prisoners from now until March 29 when they are supposed to be released, including any discussions over American ideas or proposals pertaining to a framework agreement.
Meanwhile, an official in the State Department said that the meeting between Kerry and Abbas were ‘constructive”
Prisoner Club head Qaddura Fares said Israel had already implicitly postponed the release given that the list of names should have been approved yesterday in order to give Israelis the chance to appeal at the High Court. (Al Hayat Al Jadida)
ISRAEL ALLOCATES NIS200 MILLION TO CARRY OUT 18 PROJECTS IN SETTLEMENTS
Israeli sources revealed yesterday that Yizrael Katz, the Israeli transportation minister, plans to allocate NIS200 million to carry out 18 projects in West Bank settlements over the coming years. Six other projects are still lacking funding but are in their initial stages of preparation. According to the Israeli daily Haaretz, the biggest and most central of these projects will cost around NIS66 million and is a ‘separation project’ on the Adam-Hizma road in order to expand it. The narrow and winding road is used by settlers traveling from Jerusalem northwards and also used by Palestinians traveling from Ramallah to Bethlehem. Settlers have been campaigning for its expansion for some time now. Other projects include the renovation of several other settler roads in the West Bank that separate them from the Palestinian residents of the West Bank. (Al Quds)
ISRAEL INCURS LOSSES OF $8 BILLION; ARAB PARTIES JOIN BOYCOTT
PLC member and head of the Palestinian National Initiative Mustapha Barghouti said yesterday that Israel’s losses because of the boycott of Israeli settlements were estimated at $8 billion, or 20% of its annual income. Barghouti also said that an agreement had been made with 13 Arab democratic parties to form boycott committees in Arab countries. He said that while the EU had not issued a decision to boycott Israel, there was a boycott of any relationship or agreement with settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. “This is something the must be spread all over the world and not just in European countries,” Barghouti said, adding that “there are many places in the world prepared to boycott settlements.”
The agreement with the Arab parties to join the boycott came after the National Initiative and Fatah participated in the Arab democratic and social forum in Amman. During the forum, a consensus was reached to adopt a draft resolution on Jerusalem along with the decision to boycott and impose sanctions on Israel. The participants called on all Arab countries to adopt the BDS strategy. (http://www.qudsnet.com/news/View/269986/)
ISRAELI REGIONAL UNIT FOR PLANNING AND CONSTRUCITON TO DISCUSS PLAN TO BUILD THE ‘JEWEL OF ISRAEL’ TEMPLE; PA WARNS AGAINST IT
PLO Executive Committee member and head of the Jerusalem affairs department Ahmad Qurei’ warned today over the discussion of the regional department for planning and construction of objections to the Israeli plan aimed at building a Jewish temple named the “Jewel of Israel’ in the Old City of Jerusalem. The temple is slated for construction about 200 meters from the Aqsa Mosque at its western end. Qurei’ said this plan entails the renovation of an old Jewish temple but said that even this building was built over the ruins of an Islamic prayer house. The new temple will comprise of three floors and will rise to about 24 meters. If the regional planning department approves the plan, its execution will begin immediately on the ground, constituting the beginning of the third synagogue over the past few years, all of which have been built over Islamic ruins. The Israeli municipality in Jerusalem previously allocated NIS50 million to build this “Jewel of Israel’ synagogue, thus moving forward with its judization of Jerusalem.
Furthermore, Qurei’ condemned the Israeli housing ministry’s publication of tenders for 569 housing units in the settlements of Pisgat Zeev and Ramat Shlomo. (http://maannews.net/arb/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=685433)
ISESCO CALLS ON ITS MEMBERS TO GO TO ‘ICJ TO TRY ISRAEL FOR VIOLATIONS IN JERUSALEM
The committee of archeologists in the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, ISESCO, called yesterday at the end of its meeting in Amman, on its member states to make diplomatic overtures towards friendly countries in order to support rights in Jerusalem. It also called for continued support of the Palestinian people and to resort to international organizations including the International Court of Justice. The committee stressed on the necessity of taking immediate measures to halt Israeli excavations in Jerusalem and especially in the Old City and around the Aqsa Mosque Compound. (Al Quds)
WORLD BANK TRANSFERS $29 MILLION IN SUPPORT FOR PA BUDGET
The World Bank transferred yesterday the amount of $39 million to the PA from the multi-donor investment fund allocated for the Palestinian reform and development plan. In a statement, the World Bank said the amount, which was contributed by the British and Norwegian governments, will help to provide the urgent needs of the PA budget including support for educational, health and social services in addition to current economic reforms. (Al Quds)
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENTARIANS CALLS FOR A HALT TO DEALING WITH SETTLEMENT PRODUCTS
Members of the European parliament called for urgent action to discourage a number of European companies from dealing with Israeli settlement products. The call came in a letter sent by 29 members of parliament to the EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. The letter said that “private companies in Europe play a pivotal role in funding and supporting illegal Israeli settlements and encourage Israel’s violations of international law through offing services and goods that help the existence of these settlements; they also import and sell settlement products and invest in companies and projects in the settlements.” The signatories called for raising the awareness of these European companies to the necessity of severing their economic relations with the settlements, clarifying that the EU is obligated to take advantage of its existence in Israel and the Palestinian territories to guide and advise these companies on the dangers of this relationship and to encourage members states to take similar steps. (Al Ayyam)
ISRAEL REFUSES TO ALLOW EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT DELEGATION INTO THE GAZA STRIP
Israeli occupation forces refused to allow the entry of an official European parliament delegation into Gaza. A statement by the EU parliament said that Israeli authorities claimed that the EU’s visit through the Erez crossing had nothing to do with the humanitarian situation in the Strip. The delegation refuted this claim, saying that Israel’s closure of the Gaza Strip constituted a violation of international law. The delegation was planning to hold meetings with UNRWA officials during their visit to Gaza to discuss the use of EU funds in humanitarian projects in Gaza. (Al Quds)
ISRAELI ARMY IMPOSES CURFEW ON AYDEH CAMP, INJURS SEVEN PEOPLE EAST OF BEIT HANOUN DURING PEACEFUL MARCH
Last night, the Israeli army imposed a curfew on the Aydeh refugee camp north of Bethlehem after an explosive device was thrown at a military jeep and the army raided the camp and clashed with youths. A military tower was also burned. According to local sources inside the camp, around 20 soldiers turned the Abu Aker family home into a military encampment after raiding and searching it. Approximately 100 soldiers raided the camp, firing live and rubber-coated metal bullets, searching homes.
In Gaza, seven Palestinian youths were injured including a photojournalist after heavy inhalation of teargas which Israeli soldiers shot into a peaceful march east of Beit Hanoun. According to eyewitnesses, photojournalist Ayman Al Sayfi was wounded after being directly hit by a teargas canister. The march was in commemoration of Land Day, which falls on March 30. (Al Quds)
ISRAELI SOLDIER ADMITS TO FABRICATING STABBING STORY
An Israeli soldier admitted during a police investigation that he made up the story that he was stabbed by three Arab youths yesterday in the Pisgat Zeev settlement. According to the police, during the soldier’s questioning, he admitted to being injured because of a fall and not because he was attacked. He said he fabricated the story because he did not want to go back to the military based where he served. Military ambulances had rushed to the scene yesterday morning after they were informed that a soldier had been stabbed in the lower part of his body. The police initially claimed the attack had most likely been on ‘nationalistic grounds” but later reneged, saying there was an investigation into the soldier’s claims. (Al Quds)
JEWISH CHARITY ORGANIZATIONS RECEIVE DONATIONS OF $26 BILLION ANNUALLY
According to a study published in the United States, the American Jewish Community’s network of charity organizations has collected donations valued at $26 billion a year, most of which goes to Israel. The study was published by “Forward” magazine. The study was based on data sent to the US government by these organizations in order to be exempt from taxes in addition to several interviews conducted with officials in these organizations, numbered at 3,600. According to the study, 38% of the donations go organizations that offer aid to Israel, while 20% go to education and another 20% to health and social services. New York was ranked as the top state that donates to Jewish charitable organizations, with California coming in second. (Al Hayat Al Jadida)
CEC REJECTS STATEMENTS BY BARDAWIL
The Central Elections Committee rejected yesterday statements made by Hamas leader Salah Bardawil, who said there was a ‘need to form a Palestinian and Arab safety network to guarantee the integrity of Palestinian elections” calling for the formation of a national framework to look into the mechanism for upcoming elections. The CEC responded to Bardawil, confirming that the transparency and integrity of any election process is guaranteed by elections law and the measures of the committee, reminding him that the CEC has carried out several elections processes with both transparency and integrity including the elections in which Hamas won in 2006.(Al Hayat Al Jadida)
HAMAS CALLS FOR HALT TO EGYPTIAN INCITEMENT AFTER THE PUBLICATION OF LEAKED DOCUMENT
Hamas said yesterday that the leaked document from the Egyptian intelligence administration ‘irrefutably confirms that Hamas had nothing to do with the events in Egypt.” In a statement issued last night, Hamas called for the need to halt the media incitement campaign on Gaza and the resistance after it was proven that Hamas is not involved in the current events in Sinai. It said the document confirmed that Hamas safeguarded Egypt’s national security by controlling the border with Gaza and maintaining Egyptian security. The statement also said that the document was a ‘sharp response’ to all the accusations directed at Hamas by Egyptian authorities and media, adding that the ban on Hamas and the closure of the Rafah crossing was an ‘unjustified political decision.”
Last night, the Jazeera Satellite Channel ran a leaked document from the military intelligence administration signed by Major General Mahmoud Hijazi, which dates back to May of last year before the June 3 coup. Hamas says the document does not include any accusations against the Muslim Brotherhood or Hamas for damaging the security of Sinai. On the contrary, it calls for intensifying communication with Hamas. (http://safa.ps/details/news/125478.html)
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Headlines
*Abu Diak : Summer time to begin tonight (Al Hayat Al Jadida)
*Israeli police open new investigation against Olmert (Al Hayat Al Jadida)
*Vatican: the Pope’s visit to the holy lands will proceed on schedule (Al Hayat Al Jadida)
*Netanyahu government ministers: Israel is a state for the Jews only; no unilateral concessions (Al Quds)
*The Guardian: Barghouti a leader in waiting (Al Quds)
*Preparations completed inside the Green Line to commemorate Land Day (Al Quds)
*Putin gives his teacher the gift an apartment in Tel Aviv (Al Quds)
*Occupation forces arrest 8 in Ramallah, Bethlehem and Salfeet (Al Ayyam)
*Turkey: nearing an agreement with Israel over compensation (Al Ayyam)
*Settlers ruin winter crops, smash solar panels east of Yatta (Al Ayyam)
*Candle burns to death the two children, along with the hearts of the Rafah camp residents (Al Ayyam)
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Front Page Photos
Al- Quds:Late Palestinian journalist and founder of Al Quds newspaper Mahmoud Abu Zuluf
Al-Ayyam: Ramallah: hundreds of families of prisoners at the popular conference in support of prisoners call for release of their children; 2) Patriarch Twal speaking at a press conference; 3) grandfather of two children who died in the fire crying
Al Hayat Al Jadida:.1) Mothers of prisoners raise pictures of their sons in the prisoner conference; 2) Patriarch Twal announces program for Pope’s visit to occupied Jerusalem
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More Headlines
Student university in British university decides to boycott Israel
The student union at Kings College in London decided to join the international boycott of Israel after its general meeting on Tuesday. In the text of the decision, the union said that the boycott was an ‘effective tactic” and pressured economic institutions and companies to change their practices and put political pressure on the international community. As part of the decision, the union said it would look into the investments, companies and partnerships with the university that could be contributing in the violation of Palestinian rights. Israeli students responded by saying the decision was ‘discriminatory” and that a boycott would destroy the path to constructive talks. (Al Quds)
The Pope’s itinerary to the holy lands announced
Jerusalem’s Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal announced yesterday the program of Pope Francis’ visit to the holy lands between May 24 and 26, which will include a visit to the Aqsa Mosque, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the [Buraq] Western Wall. The Pope is scheduled to visit Jordan, Palestine and Israel. On May 25, he will meet with President Abbas in Bethlehem after which he will hold mass in Nativity Square and eat lunch with Palestinian families. After visiting the Nativity church, the Pope will meet with children from the Dheisheh, Aydeh and Jibreen camps. He will also visit the Holy Sepulcher on Sunday the 25th. (Al Ayyam)
Israeli army arrests two youth after crossing over border with the Gaza Strip
This morning, the Israeli army arrested two Palestinian youths after they crossed over the border fence around the Gaza Strip on route into Israel. According to the Hebrew-language website Walla, the two men were arrested near “Kfar Gaza” after crossing the fence and handed to authorities for questioning. (http://maannews.net/arb/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=685445)
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Opinions
Kerry will fail and the negotiations will be halted
By Jamil Al Nimri
Mr. Nabil Shaath offered a detailed explanation for [US Secretary of State John] Kerry’s framework for peace between the Palestinians and Israelis, which is not much different from what we already know. However, actually listening to the bitter details from a person directly involved takes on another dimension.
We are before a failed plan that has no chance of survival. Shaath said that Kerry’s proposals are not even close to what was offered to Palestinians in previous initiatives, not to mention that they are completely rejected by the Palestinians. He said the Palestinians had agreed to return to negotiations so they would not be held responsible beforehand for rejecting pace efforts. However, they also will not accept to extend the negotiations, which end on April 30, except if there is a complete halt to settlement construction, which Israel has intentionally escalating during the talks.
Shaath presented at the Arab and European socialist-democratic parties conference, which was held in Amman last week, offering participants a poignant explanation, strongly condemning America’s approach, which goes is in harmony with what Israel wants, but cloaked in more ambiguous and malleable terms.
For example, Israel wants to maintain a military presence in the Jordan Valley for 80 years while Kerry is proposing 10 after which its withdrawal would be contingent on Israel’s satisfaction with the security situation! Israelis are refusing for East Jerusalem to be the Palestinian capital and so Kerry offers a phrase that says that he understands the Palestinians’ desire for a capital that is within the framework of greater Jerusalem. Practically speaking, this could be any town outside the city itself. Furthermore, the framework agreement accepts that the basis of negotiations is the ’67 borders, but should take into consideration the demographic facts on the ground – that is, all Israeli settlements. As for security, the crossings would remain under Israeli supervision along with air control and the right of pursuit deep into Palestinian territory.
The situation was also explained by Dr. Mustapha Barghouti, who said that the proposal was nothing more than Palestinian “Bantustans” under Israeli domination, which the Palestinians can name whatever they like, a state or whatever.
Barghouti offered a painful picture of what is really happening on the ground. He sees no point in negotiating. The current Israeli government is one of the most extremist and right win governments in Israel’s history. Furthermore, the Arab and international situation is worse than ever before and the balances of power do not allow for a reasonable settlement to be reached. Actually, the entire Oslo process has proven a failure. He says it would be much more useful to turn our attentions to organizing popular resistance according to the successful experiences so far in popular mobilization at flashpoints with settlements and Israeli troops.
I detected some official optimism among us towards Kerry’s plan. This was misguided. It was also not appropriate for political and academic circles and even parliamentarians to take to the streets dramatizing the ‘impending danger’ in terms of the settlement on the way in collusion with the PA. I have no doubt that there is no such thing on the way. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right wing government can never offer anything that is even remotely close to what more moderate governments have offered in the past. Also, everything that was offered in the framework agreement shows that the American have no intention of moving too far from the Israeli position. Finally, it was clear that President Obama has distanced himself from getting directly involved in this attempt, leaving the almost certain failure to his secretary of state.
What remains is for the PA to truly adhere to their position of not renewing the negotiations unless there is a full and complete halt to settlements. Of course, we expect that Israel will refuse this condition and so the negotiations will come to a halt and the Palestinians will have to think of an entirely alternative strategy. (http://www.alghad.com/articles/512738)
The obligation of the prisoner release
Al Quds Editorial
From the beginning, the release of all prisoners and emptying out jails of all prisoners is an obligation on Israel which has been delayed for 20 years. The prisoners should have been immediately released after the Oslo Accords were signed, much like similar precedents in pace deals between liberation movements and occupying and colonial countries. The most apparent two examples of this are the Evian Accords between the Algerian Liberation Front and the French government in 1962 and also the peace treaty between north Vietnam and the Viet Kong and the United States in 1973.
However, since the start, Israel has decided that the prisoners are a pressure card to be used on the Palestinians, both leadership and people. Many times, it used to send the prisoners back onto the buses that were supposed to take them to their cities and villages, shipping them back to jail without any given reason.
If it were not for the prisoner swaps that have taken place over the past two decades, Israeli jails would have been full of thousands of prisoners who Israel would have wanted to leave only as martyrs or dead from illness. This is the epitome of a lack of humanity and lack of sentiment towards humans whose leadership has supposedly signed a peace treaty – even if transitional – with Israel.
Over the past eight months, Israel has tried to link the futile negotiations with the release of pre-Oslo prisoners. It has used their case as pressure on the leadership, conditioning it with the resumption and extension of the negotiations, even though the agreement was US brokered.
In the least, what Israel is doing is political blackmail, which is completely rejected. Dragging in a humanitarian issues such as the prisoners into its justifications for negotiations is not congruent with logic or justice. It is behavior worthy of condemnation from all human rights groups at the international level.
Basically, Netanyahu and his extremist government want to halt the negotiations in any way possible, using whatever excuse it needs to achieve this goal.
On the one hand, it is taking advantage of the sensitivity of the prisoner issue in Palestinian society to pressure the leadership into extending the negotiations. On the other hand, we see Israel imposing the condition of recognition of Israel as a Jewish state to push the Palestinians into rejecting this altogether and then use this rejection to hold the Palestinians responsible for the failure of the negotiations when actually they failed because of Israel’s settlement policies and its refusal to recognize legitimate Palestinian rights.
The United States, which is the sponsor of these negotiations, must pressure Israel into carrying out the last phase of the prisoner release because any stalling or failure to carry out the agreement will undermine the US’ credibility as a sponsor. It will also encourage Israel to evade any other obligations agreed on under its auspices or without it.
Palestinians are eagerly waiting for the release of these prisoners, as a precursor to the release of all prisoners in Israeli jails. If this does not happen, then Israel’s intentions towards the negotiations and the peace process in general must be questioned, at the Palestinian, Arab and international levels. (Al Quds)
ARAB AND OTHER PRESS______________________________________
West’s inability to call Israel’s bluff
By: George S. Hishmeh
It is amazing how quickly the US and its European allies, members of the G7, have quickly — in a matter of few weeks — come out with a set of punitive measures against Russia for its annexation of neighbouring Crimea, which has a large majority of Russians who have just supported the reunion in a popular vote.
The shocking other side of the coin is the inexplicable inaction of the same group, alongside many other westerners, in punishing Israel for its continued illegal occupation since 1967 of the Palestinian West Bank and the subsequent illegal Israeli colonies that have mushroomed there. This abhorrent move is believed to be a “war crime” in accordance with Article 8 of the International Criminal Court statutes.
To date, there are more than 500,000 Israeli colonists in the occupied West Bank, which is hardly 22 per cent of Palestine — including occupied Arab East Jerusalem, better known as the “Old City”. And this illegal Israeli expansion in the Occupied Territories is shockingly proceeding daily — thanks to its western allies who have kept looking the other way for the last 47 years.
And now, to add more fuel to the fire, the right-wing Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is insisting that the Palestinians ought to recognise Israel as a “Jewish state” — a position that has been rejected time and again by the Palestinians and more assuredly seconded again this week by the leaders of the 22-member League of Arab States at their just-concluded summit meeting in Kuwait.
Additionally, ethnic cleansing is pursued regularly and harshly by Israelis, though they ought to note that this blatant action is in violation of Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. This month, more than 2,000 housing units were added in the illegal West Bank colonies and, according to the Ma’an news agency, Israeli bulldozers early last Wednesday had demolished a Palestinian-owned building in occupied East Jerusalem — that housed a mosque, a medical centre and apartments — “without prior notice”.
Israel’s “pugnacious” Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman — as described by Mondoweiss.net, a progressive American Jewish website — has now managed to get an alleged legal opinion from his legal adviser, which would allow Israel to transfer Palestinians living in north Israel, the area known as the Triangle, to the projected Palestinian state.
In turn, Haaretz, the liberal Israeli daily, declared that “the very fact that the Foreign Ministry is discussing transferring part of the (Palestinian Arab) population outside the borders of the state of Israel for ethnic and nationalist reasons is unacceptable in principle”. In other words, the foreign minister, and now his ministry as well, Haaretz added, “are effectively telling the (Israeli) state’s Arab citizens that they aren’t wanted in the state of Israel, and their citizenship is temporary and conditional”.
Lieberman’s plan, the paper continued, “has a single overarching goal: Turning Israel into a pure ethnic and religious state. Therefore, the goal of this plan cannot be described as anything other than ethnic cleansing — even if not by force of arms”. This Israeli view by a prominent member of the Israeli cabinet should give US Secretary of State John Kerry — who is scheduled to meet Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz alongside President Barack Obama today after his earlier meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas — is enough ammunition to silence the Israeli right-wing and to seriously consider a more reasonable approach to settle the decades-old conflict. Israel has to understand that this is one reason why the Palestinians cannot accept Israel as a “Jewish state” where 20 per cent of the population is Palestinian Arab-Muslims and Christians.
The charm of a one-state solution is now gaining ground. Even the son of the Palestinian president, as noted in a recent New York Times interview, Tareq Abbas, has been telling his father that the last chance for a two-state settlement is already long gone and the negotiations are futile. The New York Times described Abbas’s 48-year-old son as “part of a swelling cadre of prominent Palestinians advocating instead the creation of a single state stretching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, in which Jews and Arabs would all be citizens with equal rights”.
The immediate and crucial test for Israel will come tomorrow when it releases, as agreed upon with Kerry, the last batch of Palestinian prisoners, including a few Arabs from Israel, ahead of the end-of-April deadline for final negotiations. If successful, the final negotiations will begin soon thereafter.(http://www.amin.org/articles.php?t=ENews&id=4409)
Arab League right to reject ‘Jewish’ Israel
Gulf News Editorial
This week’s Kuwait summit of the Arab League did not come to any great conclusions over the major issues rocking the Arab world, as the civil war in Syria spreads into Lebanon and Iraq, the chaos in Libya continues to deepen and where some Arab republics survive as working entities there is an open struggle between Islamists and nationalists for power.
It was all the more noticeable when the Arab League was able to make a clear statement rejecting the “Jewish” nature of Israel. This ludicrous new definition of Israel’s nature was played up by its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before a previous round of peace talks and he has kept this issue in reserve as yet another reason with which to quarrel with the Palestinians.
The on-going talks headed by US Secretary of State John Kerry have focused on finding a way to a final solution, which would include agreement on borders, refugees and the status of occupied Jerusalem. As these talks seem to have moved forward, Netanyahu has been forced to fall back on his trumped-up definition of Israel as a “Jewish” state. Therefore, it is right that the Arab League has backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s refusal to meet Israel’s demand to be recognised as a Jewish state. Any agreement on this may allow a future Israeli government to expel all its Arab citizens and will open the way for the racism of Zionism to become part of Israel’s legal structure.(http://gulfnews.com/opinions/editorials/arab-league-right-to-reject-jewish-israel-1.1309604)
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