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Dec. 12, 2013
Daily summary - Thursday, December 12, 2013
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Main News
Kerry starts today new meetings in Ramallah and Israel
Foreign Minister John Kerry starts a new round in the region and holds a series of meetings with senior Israeli and Palestinian officials, in an attempt to reach understandings allowing him to submit his peace plan.Kerry, who is visiting the region for the second time in a week, will meet with President Mahmoud Abbas and the Israeli Prime Minister to see their responses to the security arrangements in the West Bank, Kerry will met Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem to discuss the talks with the Palestinians and the Iranian nuclear file. He will also meet President Abbas in Ramallah on his ninth visit since taking office.Kerry wants to finalize an Israeli-Palestinian joint statement on progress in the negotiations to be issued next month.Ha'aretz said that the goal of the MinisterKerry’svisit is to present a framework agreement to resolve the core issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict within few weeks. Haaretz added that Kerry aims to induce Netanyahu and Abbas to reach a point decide either to approve or reject the US peace plan.(http://maannews.net/arb/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=656637)
Snow in the West Bank today, rain flooded dozens of homes in the Gaza Strip
A cold air frontreached Palestine last night and snow began to fall on the mountains of Galilee through Hebron, Halhoul and progressing towards Jerusalem, the Ministry of Education decided to shot dawn schools today.Meteorological Department Director Yousef Abu Asaad said to “Ma’an” that“at 8 p.m. yesterdaya cold front entered Palestine, snow began falling at elevations above 1000 meters in Halhoul, Hebron and the Galilee Mountains.”Asaad said “snow would continue to fall intermittently until the morning on cities and villages more than 950 meters, and up to more than 900 meters, but the snow will not accumulate so much because of rain.” Heavy rain fell over most provinces today, ministries and provincial operations rooms said they are ready for any emergency. With no incidents in the West Bank, but one of rescuing a family in Hebron, after flooding their home, in addition to sank dozens of homes flooded in the Gaza Strip.(Al-Hayat Al-Jadida)
Demolishing a house in the village of Duke; the United Nations calls on Israel to stop this policy
Israeli occupation forces demolished yesterday the House of Nidal Mohammed Salem Blylat, inDuke Village, north of Jericho without a prior warning. Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs of the United Nations in the Palestinian territories, James Rowley, called to "immediately cease demolition of Palestinian homes in the West Bank.” Rowley expressed in a statement hi "concern at the demolition of Palestinian buildings in the Jordan Valley (Tuesday)," and that “30 buildings that were demolished leading to the displacement of 41 people, including 24 children, and 20 others affected."Rowleyadded: “such demolitions must stop immediately," saying it is "inconsistent with international law".(Al-Hayat Al-Jadida)
Al-Hamdallah: we are ready to supply fuel to the Gaza power station
Prime Minister RamiAl-Hamdallah confirmed the Government remained ready to supply fuel to the Gaza power station, without the tax imposed on fuel, stressing the need for concerted efforts to face challenges and to address all problems faced by our people in the Gaza Strip. Al-Hamdallah said during a meeting Wednesday, at his Office in Ramallah, with member of the Reconciliation Committee Khalil Assaf, that there is no national project without the Gaza Strip.(http://wattan.tv/ar/news/81738.html)
Halutz: it is difficult to reach peace with the Palestinians
Israeli army former chief of staff Dan Halutz said: "it will be very difficult to reach an agreement with the Palestinians." Maariv quoted Halutz as saying during a fund-raising event for the Tel Hashomer Hospital in Moscow:"security arrangements are more important for the Government of Israel, the remainder could be compromised." Halutz added: "I am not optimistic about the possibility of reaching agreement because I have some experience with the Palestinians."For regards to Israeli American ties, Halutz said "as they pass a difficult period because of the agreement between the great powers and Iran,” considering that “the United States has been weakened and exhausted and that Israel is ready to a stage of a dramatic decline of American intervention in the Middle East", but warned of the damage to Israeli relations with The US, saying that "the United States is not prepared to continue with this intervention because their interests have changed.” (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida)
Livni: “Jewish Home” Party insists on building settlements and kill negotiations
Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni Attacked “Jewish Home” Party on Wednesday and its leader "Naftali Bennett", and said that the party is considering intensifying building of settlements anddon’t think about the establishment of a democratic State and support peace.According to Ma'ariv, Livni said that Party members prefer to build settlements in all areas instead of supporting the peace process; Livni said that Minister of housing of a Jewish House Party supports settlements every time in sensitive periods, as this period of peace talks with the Palestinian side.(http://www.pnn.ps/index.php/israel/75548-%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%81%D9%86%D9%8A-%D8%AD%D8%B2%D8%A8-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%87%D9%88%D8%AF%D9%8A-%D9%85%D8%B5%D8%B1-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%89-%D8%A8%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B3%D8%AA%D9%88%D8%B7%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%88%D9%86%D8%B3%D9%81-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%81%D8%A7%D9%88%D8%B6%D8%A7%D8%AA)
European financial inspection agency calls to review financial aid to Palestinians
The financial inspection agency said the European Union should conduct a "comprehensive review" of the financial aid provided by the European Union to the Palestinian Authority and make major changes to some of its aspects.Gustav Weissbergm who is responsible for the report, said in a press conference in Brussels that although conditions are tough but "a number of aspects of the current approach need thorough review."Weissbergm stressed the need to make “extensive revisions such as encouragement of the Palestinian Authority to implement further reforms, particularly in the public sector ".(http://qudsnet.com/news/View/259863/%D9%87%D9%8A%D8%A6%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA%D9%81%D8%AA%D9%8A%D8%B4-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%AA%D8%AF%D8%B9%D9%88-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%89-%D9%85%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%AC%D8%B9%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B3%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%84%D9%84%D9%81%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%B7%D9%8A%D9%86%D9%8A%D9%8A%D9%86/)
Israeli occupation legitimizes 1000 settlement building in an expansion plan
Israeli sources revealed that the occupation authorities are trying to legalize hundreds of buildings established without permits in settlements’ allowing legalization of other building. Israeli website “Walla” said that the higher council of the Israeli civil administration in the occupied territories is the body which implements these procedures, and that Israeli authorities continue to reach progress in building plans in settlement in light of the possible progress in negotiations. And that the council legalized 250 housing units in the settlement of Ofra lately. (Al-Quds)
The United Nations adopted by overwhelming majority resolutions on UNRWA and the committee of investigating Israeli violations
The United Nations General Assembly adopted by an overwhelming majority, on Wednesday, on the recommendation of the Fourth Committee and the special political and Decolonization Committee, several draft resolutions concerning UNRWA agency, and the Special Committee to investigating Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people and other Arabs in the occupied territories. On the resolutions on UNRWA, the General Assembly adopted a decision to provide assistance to Palestine refugees by majority 173 States in favor of the resolution, and the opposition of a single State (Israel), with 8 abstentions (United States, Canada, Cameroon, Marshall Islands, Palau, Micronesia, South Sudan, and Paraguay), noting that the number of States that voted in favor of this resolution has increased compared to last year.(Al-Quds)
President Abbas receives a telephone call from Haneyeh
President Abbas received a telephone call form Hamas leader Ismail Haneyeh, and the two discussed the humanitarian situations in the Gaza Strip. (Al-Quds)
Activists demolish parts of the separation wall in Al-Ezareyeh
Tens of young Palestinians, activist of the popular resistance movement, managed yesterday to demolish parts of the separation wall n Al-Ezareyeh, in Al-Shayah area separating Al-Ezareyeh from Jerusalem. Eyewitnesses said that tens of young Palestinians the demolished parts were close to the military tower, and that the young Palestinians managed to demolish 4 meters of the wall despite the fact that cameras were installed in the place, using hammers. (Al-Quds)
Qalqilya: Israeli soldier stabs a tied student
A senior officer in the Israeli occupation army stabbed an 18-year-old Palestinian student, who was tied, after being arrested form his home near the city of Qalqilya. Israeli website “Walla” quoted the Palestinian stabbed student, Zaher Tyayeb, as saying: “the Israeli army arrested me from my home at the early hours of the morning, after raiding the house and searching it, and I was then transferred to the Border Guard base near the village of Ezbet Al-Tayeb for detention.” Zaher, who is a student in the Law department at Al-Najah University, added that “two soldiers armed with knives of the Israeli army entered the detention room, and one of them attacked me and insulted me.” (Al-Ayyam)
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Headlines
** Islamic States reaffirms the centrality of the Palestinian issue and Jerusalem (Al-Ayyam)
** Dutch Water Company confirms end of ties with Israel (Al-Ayyam)
** New leadership of the "popular front" 70% and its central committee will prove Saadat as secretary without a vote (Al-Ayyam)
** Criticized the salaries of employees not working in Gaza, the EU report says: no doubts in dealing with European assistance authority (Al-Ayyam)
** The Mandela family appreciates the stand of President Abbas (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida)
** Three prisoners injured in "Megiddo" and lack of covers in "Ramon" (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida)
** Israeli Attorney General recommends an appeal on the decision acquitting Lieberman (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida)
** US provides $ 400 million to support Israel's air defenses (Al-Hayat AL-Jadida)
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Voice of Palestine Interviews
**Ziyad Abu Ain, deputy minister of prisoner affairs, on prisoner strikes and conditions in the prisons
Q: Administrative detainees say they will go on hunger strike. Is this for one day?
Yes, for now. but this escalatory; they are boycotting the courts and there are indications that they will escalate because they keep getting transferred illegally and held without charge, etc.
Q: How are the conditions in the prisons with this snow storm? There are calls for more blankets and warm clothes?
First of all, prison services are responsible for the prisoner including all of their health and nutrition needs, clothes, etc. but it seems that Israel is evading this responsibility, in contravention to international law.
Q: What can you do as the prisoner affairs ministry?
There are 1,000 blankets ready to go off to the prisons in coordination with the national defense forces and we are trying our hardest to get those things in.
Q: Is there anything new about releasing the third batch of prisoners?
We reject any postponement or any merging of groups of prisoners. This is according to an American agreement with us and this is what should happen.
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Arab Press
With a friend like that, who needs enemies?
By Nicola Nasser
US Secretary of State John Kerry was scheduled to start his 9th trip of shuttle diplomacy between Palestinian and Israeli leaders on this Dec. 11. However, the bridging “security arrangements,” which he proposed less than a week earlier on his last trip, have backfired and are now snowballing into a major crisis with Palestinian negotiators who view Kerry’s “ideas” as a coup turning the US top diplomat from a mediator into an antagonist.
Kerry’s “ideas” had provoked a “real crisis” and “will drive Kerry’s efforts to an impasse and to total failure,” the secretary general of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Yasser Abed Rabbo, said on this Dec. 9.
Resumption of the peace talks and US involvement in the negotiations with Israel were both on record Palestinian demands. Disappointed by the deadlocked negotiations and more by the way Kerry decided finally to get his country involved, the Palestinian presidency expectedly stands now to regret both demands. Kerry’s shuttle diplomacy during his current trip seems more aimed at controlling the damage his “ideas — proposal” caused than at facilitating the deadlocked bilateral talks.
On Dec. 6, Kerry said that (160) American security specialists and diplomats, headed by Gen. John Allen, the former commander of the US forces in Afghanistan, had drafted the “proposal,” believing “that we can contribute ideas that could help both Israelis and Palestinians get to an agreement.”
According to leaks published by mainstream Israeli media as well as by the official Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam, the US “security arrangements” propose:
- Demilitarization of the future State of Palestine.
- US monitoring of its demilitarization.
- To put the border crossings into Jordan under joint Israeli-Palestinian control.
- Maintaining an Israeli military presence deployed along the western side of Jordan River after the establishment of a Palestinian state.
- Installing Israeli early warning stations on the eastward slopes of the West Bank highlands.
- Postponement of arrangements for the final status of Gaza Strip, i.e. severing the strip from the status planned by Kerry’s proposal for the West Bank.
- All of the foregoing are on the background of the US recognition of an understanding that the large Israeli illegal colonial settlements on the West Bank would be annexed to Israel, according to the letter sent by former US President George W. Bush to the comatose former Israeli premier Ariel Sharon in April 2004, to which the incumbent administration of President Barak Obama is still committed.
Kerry and his administration have obviously coordinated a political coup by the adoption of the Israeli preconditions for recognizing a Palestinian state almost to the letter, turning the Palestinian priorities upside down and changing the terms of reference for the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, which Kerry succeeded to resume and sponsor late last July.
When he announced the resumption of talks on last July 29, Kerry declared that his goal would be to help the Israelis and Palestinians to reach a “final status agreement’” within nine months. Interestingly, Kerry hinted that the negotiations might have to extend beyond the agreed upon nine months, thus, from a Palestinian perspective, planning to buy Israel more time to create more colonial facts on the occupied Palestinian ground.
Kerry’s “ideas” alienated the Palestinian “peace camp” and negotiators led by Fatah, which rules the Palestinian Authority (PA) and leads the PLO, who have put “all their eggs in the US basket” for the past two decades, let alone all the other PLO member factions who are against the resumption of the negotiations with Israel for pragmatic reasons, but first of all because they did not trust the US mediator; Kerry has just vindicated their worst fears. Non-member organizations like Hamas and Al-Jihad oppose the negotiations as a matter of principle.
On Dec. 8, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, according to The Times of Israel three days later, met with the US Consul-General in Jerusalem, Michael Ratney, and formally rejected the proposal, saying that the Palestinian position was “unequivocal”: No Israeli presence, though the Palestinians would tolerate a third-party military presence.
Kerry, who on his last trip, warned Israelis of a Palestinian third Intifada seems himself laying the ground for one. His “ideas” clash head to head with the Palestinian repeated and plain rejection of long or short-term interim or transitional arrangements based only on Israel’s security. He seems obsessed with Israel’s security as “the top priority” for Washington, both in nuclear talks with Iran and peace talks with the Palestinians.
In his press availability at Ben Gurion International Airport on Dec. 6 he used the word “security” and “secure” 20 times in relation with Israel, but no words at all about the Israeli “occupation” and “settlements.”
More likely Kerry is dictating to and pressuring the Palestinian presidency with the only option “to take” his proposal or “leave it,” to be doomed either way, by its own people or by the US-led donors to the PA. With friends like Kerry, Palestinian Abbas for sure needs no enemies. Ironically, Kerry’s “ideas” create a solid political ground for a Palestinian consensus that would be an objective basis for ending the Palestinian divide and reviving the national unity between the PLO in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip as a prerequisite to be able to stand up to Kerry’s “coup.”(http://www.arabnews.com/news/491256)
Red-Dead deal offers important new opportunities
Gulf News
The agreement between Jordan, Palestine and Israel to go ahead with the massive Red-Dead Conduit is an important step for all three nations in working together, even if all sides have been downplaying the political implications of the deal and have preferred to treat it as a necessary technical issue. Despite the disastrous political situation in the West Bank and Gaza with continuing Israeli occupation and building of new homes in the illegal colonies, the prospect of access to a new source of lots of fresh water has forced the three sides into agreement. Nonetheless, it would be a mistake to regard the agreement as a confidence-building measure in the context of the on-going peace talks sponsored by the Americans.
The plan has been a Jordanian dream for decades, as the country with few natural resources is desperate for both power and fresh water.
The idea is to build a pipeline from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea, which will use the natural fall of 400 metres to generate electricity in several power stations, with a desalination plant at the start of the pipeline that will give fresh water that will be shared between the three states, and the brine from the desalination will flow into the Dead Sea and slow its dangerously fast evaporation.
The electricity and the desalinated water are the important parts of the projects, but an important byproduct is that the salty water going into the Dead Sea could slow its rapid shrinking.
Ruthless exploitation of the upper waters of the Yarmouk and Jordan rivers has meant that 90 per cent of their waters have been used for agricultural and domestic purposes, and as a result the Dead Sea has shrunk by 30 per cent in the past 20 years, and it is predicted that it could dry up completely by 2050 if action is not taken. The Red-Dead Conduit allows the three nations to cover up their failure to manage their water resources, while at the same time providing an important new source of economic opportunity to all.(http://gulfnews.com/opinions/editorials/red-dead-deal-offers-important-new-opportunities-1.1265939)
Prawer Plan buries the two state solution
By Zohra Ahmed
That Bedouin communities, in both Israel and the Occupied Territories, face strikingly similar challenges, underscores the inadequacy of the two state "solution". The Israeli Knesset is set to pass legislation this week to displace 40,000 Negev Bedouins within Israel. Called the Prawer Plan, this is part of Tel Aviv's latest attempt to displace Bedouins on both sides of the Green Line that separates Israel from the Occupied Territories. The Israeli government's policy tries to make Bedouins, whether citizens of Israel or subjects of military occupation, effectively invisible.
Two years before Israel was established in 1948, there were as many as 95,000 Bedouins in the desert region called the Negev. By 1953, there were only about 11,000. The new Israeli state had relocated many to smaller tracts of land within a designated area of the Negev. Others fled to the West Bank. Over the next sixty years, the militarisation of the border between Israel and the West Bank cemented the physical and legal separation of these two Bedouin communities. Today, however, both communities face similar challenges.
In Israel and the West Bank, Bedouins encounter administrative barriers that make everyday life exasperating. Bedouin villagers must deal with complicated zoning procedures, disputed land claims, and an active policy of demolishing Bedouin homes. This is because Israel's land policy tries to shrink Bedouin land. In Israel proper, the Prawer Plan forcibly transfers Bedouins into urban townships away from their land. Since Israel won't formally recognise the Bedouins' right to stay on the land on which they live, everything - including getting enough water to drink - has been a struggle. The Prawer Plan will be a tragic end to Bedouin communities' valiant struggle.
Water apartheid
Under current Israeli military law, if a Bedouin resident in the West Bank needs to repair a leaky pipe, or build a water cistern, she/he has to get official permission from the Israeli military, (known paradoxically as the Civil Administration). The bureaucracy repeatedly denies permission for projects as minor as pipe repairs, to laying down new pipes.
By contrast, Israelis in settlements build homes with plenty of running water. In fact, Israeli settlers in the West Bank get as much water as they like (369 liters per day per person), and 24 times more water than their neighbouring Bedouin villages who consume 15 liters per day per person. And, for however little water they get, Bedouins end up paying as much as 4 times more than their Jewish counterparts. The Israeli military also demolishes Bedouin homes and water structures. In 2011, 82 water structures were demolished. There are thousands of demolition orders still pending. As a result, Bedouins have to travel several kilometres to transport their own water in tankers. This is an expensive enterprise: They have to rent a tractor, and the tankers themselves are small.
In Israel, comparable state planning objectives constrain and frustrate Bedouins' access to water in areas like the Negev. For the past few years, Israel has been reorganising the Negev to accommodate expanding military and housing needs, to make way for the Prawer Plan.
Under the plan, Israel will forcibly relocate and urbanise the Bedouins, and expropriate their land for state development purposes. In preparation for the plan, the Israeli state has created strict requirements for recognising Bedouin villages and for permitting construction. Those requirements leave 35 villages, with some 70,000 people, unrecognised by Israel. The Israeli Water Authority does not provide direct water connections for those who live in these unrecognised villages. Families living in these areas have to pay for their own water pipes or rely on their own tankers, just as Bedouins do in the West Bank. And, they end up paying much higher rates than neighbouring Jewish Israelis. In one case, in the Bedouin village of Beer M'shash, a family paid almost 13 times more for its water than nearby Jewish neighbourhoods.
Green Line is irrelevant
When it comes to basic rights such as access to water, the Bedouin citizens of Israel are treated no better than Bedouins living under Israeli military occupation. Ultimately, the Green Line is not a border the Israeli state respects. When the Israeli Civil Administration destroys water cisterns in the West Bank, it violates Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Similarly, the Israeli government violates human rights law, when it conditions the right to water on the state's planning objectives inside its own territory.
The different legal regimes do not produce a significant difference in Israel's policies. If Israel were bound to the different legal norms governing the West Bank and the Negev, one would expect that Bedouins who are citizens of Israel would be treated categorically differently than Bedouins under military law. While Oslo is based on the assumption that Israel will abide by territorial limits, in reality, Israel's behaviour is not different across territory, but across populations. If the Bedouins, on both sides of Green Line are to see any improvement in their quality of life, a meaningful solution must account for the reality of Israeli discrimination towards Palestinians, whether citizens or non-citizens. (http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/12/prawer-plan-buries-two-state-solution-2013121053610751391.html)
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Opinions
Kerry’s plan to legitimize the occupation
Al Quds Al Arabi Editorial
US Secretary of State John Kerry is beginning his trip to the Palestinian territories and Israel today in an attempt to market a new American plan to the Palestinian Authority. This comes after he came up against Israel’s intransigence and attempts to waste time in the negotiations without offering any concession on final status issues whether on Jerusalem, settlements, refugees or borders. On the contrary, Israel expanded its settlements during the negotiations as well as insisting on a new issue alongside the final status issues, which is recognition of the Jewish character of Israel. This of course, entails a threat to the very existence of Muslim and Christian Palestinians in the 1948 areas instead of discussing the return of Palestinian refugees who were expelled from their homes 65 years ago and who still keep – either themselves or their children – the ownership documents and keys too their houses.
Kerry is arriving today to discuss a number of ideas which he put forth during his last visit last Wednesday, December 4, and which adopt the viewpoint of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The United States is backtracking on any talks or efforts towards reaching a comprehensive agreement within nine months and has replaced this with a framework agreement, which should be implemented in stages over the next 15 years and which focuses on security arrangements.
At the top of the list for these arrangements is Israel’s military presence in the Jordan Valley region along with joint Palestinian-Israeli supervision over the border between the West Bank and Jordan. This is at a time when the Palestinians had put the condition of no Israeli soldier in the Palestinian territories. They did accept a third party led by the United States in accordance with a previous agreement, which had been reached under the sponsorship of former American envoy to the peace process General James Jones.
Kerry’s plan also includes the establishment of a Palestinian airport, but on Jordanian land in the Jordan Valley. Its entrance would be under joint Palestinian-Israeli administration whereby there would be an invisible Israeli presence. The same situation would apply to all crossings in the Palestinian territories.
Among other points, the Kerry paper adopts the establishment of early-warning stations on the mountains and hills of the West Bank; Kerry’s paper also promises to offer advanced military equipment including unmanned planes to detect acts of espionage. It also discusses the maintaining of settlements under Israeli security control.
In an attempt to pressure on the PA to accept the proposed agreement, Kerry suggests that the third group of prisoners slated for release in three weeks, is postponed even though the Palestinians never linked the release of these prisoners to the negotiations. Rather, their liberation was linked to the Palestinians’ postponement of requesting membership in UN institutions.
The US administration, which is working to appease Israel after the Iranian nuclear deal, presented ideas that express its full submission to Netanyahu’s demands, something revealed by the central region commander in the Israeli army, General Nitzan Elon when he said that: “in a rare case, we were able to influence our American counterparts who are working with us, and who presented our positions and our statements.” He described the Palestinian demand for sovereignty as, “a statement full of nonsense and foolishness.”
We did not need Elon’s confessions to know this because Kerry’s paper is clear in its Israeli nature. It designated borders according to Israeli demands, which will retain sovereignty over land and air. Furthermore, it will lead to a transitional agreement that does not fulfill the requirements for independence and freedom for the Palestinians; it will not even lead to state with truncated sovereignty, only one with no sovereignty at all. These are ideas for reaching an agreement that will legitimize the occupation but call it a state. (http://www.alquds.co.uk/?p=112872)
Mohammed Shtayeh’s frankness
Al Quds Editorial
It is difficult for anyone to accept the idea of negotiations between two parties when there is such a clear defect and huge difference in the balances of power between the two. This is what is happening with the Palestinian negotiating team; hence, Fatah central committee member and negotiator Mohammed Shtayeh decided to resign after explaining his reasons for this.
Shtayeh was candid and clear in admitting the blatant dysfunction in the balances of power. He said: “We wanted a third party at the negotiating table so they could hear what was going on because the relationship at the table is unbalanced.”
Shtayeh’s candidness prompts the observer to ponder this: as long as the relationship is unbalanced, and you knew that before you ever returned and sat down at the negotiating table, then why did you agree to return to the talks in the first place?
What is even more noteworthy in Shtayeh’s statements is when he call called for a Palestinian Geneva agreement in light the Iran one and the project for a Geneva-Syrian conference. He said sponsorship of the negotiations should not be confined to the Americans alone because this sponsorship is not balanced. This is where we disagree with him in gauging the situation – Iran imposed itself on the international community given that they had major cards in their hand and forced the major powers to sit down with it as equals and barter over achieving its interests. Here, the language of interests was at play because of power cards and not because of rights, emotions and pleas.
Shtayeh also talked about the lack of a partner for peace. This is a basic of power relationships between parties because simply put, it is the relationship between countries and is not based on emotions, tears or rights. rather, it is based on the relationship of interests and power. So, imagine what this means when we are talking about an arrogant and bullying occupying power which humiliates its subjects every day by arresting them, confiscating their land, usurping resources in the West Bank, besieging the Gaza Strip and judiazing Jerusalem.
Netanyahu was happy to return to negotiations because by this he could achieve a number of goals and hit more birds with one stone, boasting of his power and arrogance. The Arab state, meanwhile constitutes a golden opportunity for him to do what he wants; the three strongest Arab armies are currently entangled or preoccupied with their peoples in one way or another.
Shtayeh said clearly that the occupation’s measures have remained the same during the negotiations, in terms of settlement expansion, killing, demolition of homes and arrests. Every citizen of the West Bank and Jerusalem can see this is true every day and night. Soldiers and settlers run free in the West Bank while internal issues continue to press down on the people, including rising prices, university graduate unemployment, the emigration of young talents and the overall lack of hope.
Final status issues such as Jerusalem, settlements, borders, water, refugees and security in addition to the new article imposed by Israel – the Palestinian recognition of the Jewish state of Israel – mean to Shtayeh the expulsion of Palestinians in the ’48 territories. The occupation that expelled them once and carried out massacres has no qualms about doing it again.
Frankly, Shtayeh’s candidness seriously exposes the failure of the negotiations. If there is any light at the end of the tunnel, it is tied to the Palestinian people. “Liberated” people do not heed the high price of freedom and do not surrender to the miserable realty; they roll up their sleeves and take to the streets in defiance, fight the good fight and walk towards victory with confidence. (http://www.amin.org/articles.php?t=opinion&id=22807)
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