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Dec. 24, 2013
Daily summary - Tuesday, December 24, 2013
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Main News
PLO OFFICIAL: KERRY WARNED PALESTINIANS AGAINST GOING TO THE UN; CALLED ON THEM TO “SWALLOW’ THE REALITY OF SETTLEMENS AND TO CONTINUE NEGOTIATING
A senior official in the PLO said the PA was under tremendous pressure from US Secretary of State John Kerry, which reached the point of warning the PA from going to the UN Security Council or any other UN body to complete Palestine’s membership into a full member, or to file complaints about Israel. The Palestinian official, who asked to remain unnamed, told Al Quds in Amman that Kerry informed the PA that any resort to UN agencies, would constitute a ‘transgression for the Americans and for the negotiations process.” According to the official, Kerry told the Palestinians not to “be encouraged’ by the European position on settlements because it would not serve their interests in terms of the Americans’ sponsorship over the negotiations, ostensibly telling them: “You will not find an alternative sponsor.” He also said that Kerry admitted that the settlements were an impediment to the peace process, but that they were a reality, which the Palestinians must ‘swallow” and move on with talks.
The official said the Israelis wanted to solve the refugee issue within the framework of an Arab solution and with the host countries and the Arab League. He said the Israelis want the Palestinians to forgo the right of return and, with an agreement, declare an end to all claims (Al Quds)
SAMER ISSAWI: WITH OUR UNITY OUR PEOPLE WERE VICTORIOUS IN THE ‘EMTPY STOMACHS’ BATTLE
Freed prisoner Samer Issawi said yesterday that the unity of the people from all parties were victorious in the battle of ‘empty stomachs’ and in breaking Israeli occupation laws. Issawi, who was given a hero’s welcome in his hometown of Essawiyeh in occupied Jerusalem, called on the behalf of all prisoners for an end to the political split and a return to national unity in order to be able to confront the occupation and its oppressive measures. He also expressed his appreciation for the role of the Palestinian people in standing by his side during his long nine-month hunger strike including the wide media coverage it received.
Thousands of people participated in the homecoming celebrations of Issawi last night in spite of a heavy Israeli military presence in the town. According to Qudsnet, Israeli forces checked all cars entering and exiting Essawiyeh during Issawi’s welcome, issuing tickets to several. Representatives of all Palestinian factions and forces were present in the festival, raising faction banners and Palestinian flags and shooting fireworks into the sky.
Issawi was released from the Shatta prison inside Israel and was received in Jericho by minister for prisoner affairs, Issa Qaraqe’ and a delegation from the Prisoner’s club. President Mahmoud Abbas called Issawi to congratulate him on his release. He was released eight months after reaching an agreement with the Israeli prison services stipulating that his sentence would end with the end of the term, after he waged a hunger strike for over 265 days that almost claimed his life. (http://qudsnet.com/news/View/260849/صور-سامر-العيساوي-بوحدتنا-وتلاحم-شعبنا-انتصرنا-بمعركة-الامعا-الخاوية-/)
MAARIV: RELEASE OF 26 LONG-SERVING PRISONERS IN THE MIDDLE OF NEXT WEEK
The Hebrew-language daily Maariv said this morning that Israel would release 26 long-serving Palestinian prisoners, as the third group of prisoners to be released according to an agreement reached before negotiations started. In tandem with this, the newspaper said Netanyahu’s office also decided to postpone the announcement of marketing for land to build West Bank settlements for two weeks or more so as not to jeopardize the negotiations. An Israeli security source said the postponement was a result of American and European pressure on Netanyahu so as not to link the release of prisoners with an immediate announcement of settlement expansion, which has been the case the last two times. The parties said such an announcement could ‘torpedo the talks.” (http://safa.ps/details/news/118847/معاريف-الإفراج-عن-26-من-قدامى-المعتقلين-وسط-الأسبوع-المقبل.html)
ISRAELI ANALYST: THE POPULAR RESISTANCE IS OUT OF ABU MAZEN’S CONTROL
Israeli military analyst Ron Bin Yeshai said in the Hebrew-language daily Yedioth Ahranoth that there are signs that the Bet Yam operations was carried out by a small local group that works out of the West Bank on authorization from the Gaza Strip. Yeshai said the latest operation should be a warning, not just to Israel but to the Palestinian president that the popular resistance, which he boasts about, is out of his control and could pose a danger to the future of his authority. The writer said Abu Mazen had failed to control the Palestinian street completely, saying the PA security forces had slowly lost control over the West Bank refugee camps, including over Fatah. He said Hamas and Jihad were taking advantage of this in the Gaza Strip to increase their financial and moral support they offer to cells working out of the West Bank for operations against Israel. He warned Abu Mazan that he was “playing with fire” that could burn him as well, calling on Israeli PM Netanyahu to stop feeding into this fire, saying that if both parties failed, there would be a major escalation before even before the negotiations end. (http://qudsnet.com/news/View/260868/محلل-إسرائيلى-المقاومة-الشعبية-خرجت-عن-سيطرة-أبو-مازن/)
Kadima head Shaul Mofaz mirrored similar opinions, saying that the Bet Yam bus bombing was ‘the start to anther beginning of a wave of terror…which could be an indicator of a new intifada,” saying Israel should not take this lightly. Mofaz also expressed his opposition to releasing the third group of pre-Oslo prisoners in the wake of the bombing. (Al Ayyam)
ISRAELI SECURITY SPEAKS ABOUT A CELL INSIDE THE GREEN LINE WHO CARRIED OUT THE BET YAM OPERATION
Israel’s Channel 10 said on its website that new evidence from investigations into the Bet Yam operation showed that, contrary to the initial belief that the bombers came from the West Bank, they may have been part of a Palestinian cell from inside the Green Line. (Al Ayyam)
EREKAT: WE REFUSE ANY EXTENTION OF THE NEGOTIATIONS AND WILL NOT ACCEPT A NEW FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT OR AN “OSLO 2”
Head of the Palestinian negotiating team Saeb Erekat said yesterday that what is taking place now are Palestinian-American negotiations and American-Israeli negotiations in order to reach a final peace deal. He stressed that the leadership would not accept any new framework agreement for the negotiations and that the Palestinian decision was to reach a final peace deal by the end of April. He also said there was an absolute Palestinian rejection to the possibility of extending the period for negotiations, under any circumstances. He also debunked rumors that the Palestinians may accept a new framework deal or an “Oslo 2” agreement and then negotiate over details of the agreement at a later stage, stressing again that the leadership was looking to reach an agreement on all final status issues within the nine month period, which will end on April 29, 2014. He said this was the original agreement with the Americans, adding that the Palestinians would not accept any more transitional deals (Al Ayyam)
ISRAELI POLICEMAN STABBED NEAR THE SETTLEMENT OF ADAM NORTH OF JERUSALEM
An Israeli policeman was wounded last night after being stabbed by a Palestinian near the settlement of Adam, built on lands of the village of Jaba’ northeast of Jerusalem, who was able to flee the scene. The police said they believe the stabbing was for nationalist purposes, with the 30-year old policeman taken to a Jerusalem hospital for treatment. The army closed off the Jaba’ checkpoint for two and a half hours after the stabbing, holding back hundreds of cars. (Al Quds)
HEALTH CONDITIONS OF A NUMBER OF PRISONERS DETERIORATE; RISK OF DEATH FOR NAIM SHAWAMREH
The prisoner affairs ministry warned against the deteriorating health conditions of several sick prisoners inside Israeli jails. The ministry also warned that Naim Shawamreh could face sudden death at any moment. According to ministry attorney Hanan Khatib, who visited him in the Ramleh hospital, Shawamreh is in a wheelchair and spends the entire day slumped and asleep. He can barely speak and does not move at all. According to medical reports, Shawamreh has muscular dystrophy and has difficulty breathing, eating and swallowing not to mention that he is in excruciating pain. The early release committee will meet on January 12 at the request of the prisoner affairs ministry due to this extremely poor situation.
The ministry also warned about several other prisoners in poor health condition in Israeli prisons who are not getting the proper medical attention such as Tamer Hamayel and Mohammed Saya’reh (Al Quds)
JERUSALEM OCCUPATION MUNICIPALITY ISSUES DEMOLITION ORDER TO TWO BUILDINGS IN SILWAN
The West Jerusalem municipality issued yesterday a decision to demolish two apartment buildings with five apartments in Silwan, which belong to brothers Hamouda and Mahran Siam, under the pretext of not having the proper licenses. Municipality teams stormed the two buildings and hunger up the orders after photographing them. The buildings were built 10 years ago, according to the men’s brother, who said the first building of four apartments, houses 12 people. Seven people live in the second. He said that his mother built the houses and was faced with a demolition order right then. She was made to pay a fine instead of NIS650,000, which the family paid over the years until she died, after which Israeli authorities began hounding them again. The brother said the family has always tried to obtain a building permit but were turned down by the municipality, which claims the buildings are built on ‘green land.” (Al Ayyam)
MAN WOUNDED BY ISRAELI ARMY BULLETS IN NORTHERN GAZA STRIP
A Palestinian was shot and wounded by the Israeli army last night in the northern Gaza Strip, according to a health ministry source in the Hamas government. Physician Ashraf al Qidra said a 27-year old man was brought in with a bullet to the stomach shot by Israeli soldiers near the Sudaniyeh beachfront, close to Beit Lahyia. He said the man’s condition was serious. Eyewitnesses said a group of young men were close to the border fence when the army opened fire, hitting one of them (Al Ayyam)
DMERI: AUTOPSY OF KAWAJBEH’S BODY TO FIND OUT CIRCUMSTANCES SURROUNDING HIS DEATH IN THE BETHLEHEM PRISON
Spokesperson for the Palestinian security services Adnan Dmeiri said the Nawaf Kawajbeh was rushed from the Bethlehem prison to the Beit Jala hospital last night but died upon arrival in what they believe was suicide in his prison cell. He said an autopsy would be conducted and the results would be later revealed. Nawaf’s brother Nayef said his brother handed himself in several days ago to preventative security forces, adding he did not think his brother would commit suicide. Kawazbeh was arrested on several charged, including the latest armed attack on the Taquou’ police station during which an policeman was killed. He is also the husband of Khaleda Kawajbeh, who was killed last many when she and her husband tried to flee police in Sair, Hebron. (Al Hayat Al Jadida)
ISRAEL REFUSED PERMITS FOR QATARI AND TUNISIAN TOURISM MINISTERS; STALLED ON PERMITS FOR EGYPTIAN AND BAHRAINI MINISTERS AND ONLY ISSUED ONE FOR JORDANIAN MINISTER
Official Palestinian sources confirmed yesterday that Israeli intelligence services completely refused to give entry permits to the Qatari and Tunisian tourism ministers to enter Palestine in order to participate in Christmas festivities. The source said Israel granted the Egyptian and Bahraini ministers permits, but that they stalled until last night to grant them, prompting the ministers to cancel the visit altogether. Only the Jordanian minister was granted the permit on time and will attend. (http://www.alquds.co.uk/?p=116693)
UAE OFFERS $50 MILLION TO SUPPORT PA
The Palestinian Authority announced yesterday that the UAE presented the PA with $50 million as support for the general treasury. According to WAFA, President Abbas thanked UAE president Sheikh Khalifeh bin Zayed for the support, which he said would allow the authority to meet some of their financial commitments. Abbas and PM Hamdallah are looking to collect $600 million from Arab and donor countries in order to cover all of the PA’s commitments, especially when the PA’s debts to local banks, the private sector and international financial organizations is nearly $4 billion. (http://alhayat.com/Details/585407)
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Headlines
*The President calls on pilgrims to the holy land during the Pope’s visit (Al Hayat Al Jadida)
*Western denominations begin celebrations for Christmas today (Al Hayat Al Jadida)
*large amounts of spoiled meats and fish caught in Qalqilya (Al Hayat Al Jadida)
*Hamdallah calls on security leaders to pursue criminals (Al Hayat Al Jadida)
*Netanyahu breaks his silence: American spying is not acceptable (Al Hayat Al Jadida)
*Egyptian ambassador condemns Hamas rocket shot into Egyptian regional waters (Al Ayyam)
*The President in his Christmas message: Palestine has retained is cultural identity and the Christians are not a minority, but a part of the people (Al Ayyam)
*Israeli officials: Hamas has increased its missile range (Al Ayyam)
*Israel and Turkey close to compensation agreement for Marmara victims (Al Ayyam)
*Shabak: rise in number of operations since negotiations resumed (Al Ayyam)
*Kalashnikov dies (Al Ayyam)
*17 arrested in the West Bank (Al Quds)
*Samer Issawi: We promise the prisoners that will remain loyal to their cause until they gain their freedom (Al Quds)
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Front Page Photos
Al- Quds:Jerusalem: scene from festival welcoming freed prisoner Samer Issawi after he is released from prison
Al-Ayyam:1) festival welcoming freed prisoner Samer Issawi in his hometown Essawiyeh; 2) Mikhail Kalashnikov
Al Hayat Al Jadida:1) Samer Issawi holds up victory sign while being held on men’s shoulders
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Voice of Palestine News
Gaza Strip: one man was injured in Beit Lahyia yesterday by Israeli soldiers; he is in critical condition after being hit with a live bullet in the stomach. The soldiers shot him from a watchtower near Beit Layhia. The man, 25, was with a number of young men in the area, which is close to the separation fence, when the soldiers opened fire. This was just after Israeli boats shot at fishermen in the same area, the Sudaniyeh, in the northern Gaza Strip. In the eastern Gaza Strip two days ago, two people were injured, one who is a child.
Also, Egypt will partially reopen the Rafah Crossing today, for humanitarian emergency cases. It will be open from 9 in the morning for three days.
Qalqilya: Fatah members held a solidarity protest with the people of Izbat Al Tabib east of Qalqilya; they set up protest tents in front of the services complex being threatened with demolition, in protest of the Israeli order and against the repeated Israeli attacks against the people there. They are trying to forcefully displace them by not given them any permits to build in the Izba. Israel does not recognize the hamlet of Izbat Al Tabib and refuses to give them a blueprint for the town. Now 33 houses are being threatened with demolition.
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Voice of Palestine Interviews
**Samer Issawi, on his release from Israeli prison
This is a victory for all of us, represented in my release. We were victorious. I dedicate this victory to the souls of our martyrs because it is for them that we waged this strike and for all my people. And will continue the struggle.
Q: How can you explain the period when you were almost on your death bed because of your hunger strike?
This was battle and the only way out was freedom or martyrdom. That is how I went into it and I was not about to back down. They tried to strip the deal that was made of any content for me and for the other prisoners, but we did not back down.
**Ahmad Abu Khayran, head of the popular committee for Arroub camp, on Israeli forces hanging up flyers in the camp warning parents of the consequences of their children continuing anti-Israel actions
Q: What did the parents think about this threat given that this is a precedent in the camp
This is the first time, like you said, that they would post flyers with pictures of children and parents and for arrested youths, and directly threatening them. They have distributed communiques before where they warn the camp residents against acts of violence or stone throwing; but what is so surprising is that the troops posted pictures of parents and fathers of children, some who are in jail and others who are not, directly threatening them that they would respond harshly if their sons disturbed order.
Q:What are the parents worried about now, especially since names were published?
The Israelis have used many methods before to collectively and individually punish parents. Most of the parents do not have permits to enter Israel or Jerusalem and are banned from getting them because their sons are in jail or participated in some sort of activity, or threw rocks at settlers or the army. Around 90% of workers from Arroub have had their permits revoked. What is so worrying is that for these parents, their children’s pictures have been distributed at the entrance to the camp and at checkpoints in the camp. I am convinced that this will have repercussions – they will be arrested, harassed, etc.
**Naser Al Rayes, legal advisor to Al Haq institute, on this subject
Q:What do you read into this new method of posting pictures on Arroub camp walls?
There is more than one angle to this. This is an admission by the army that their troops can reach the children themselves and do them harm. When they gather information about certain children and threaten their parents and tell these parents that they are responsible for the consequences of their children’s actions, I think this is a clear admission that Israeli authorities will soon take measures against these children. Secondly, legally speaking this is a threat. Thirdly, this is clear intimidation of civilians. When a parent feels that their children or they are in danger, they have put fear in their hearts.
Q: Legally, what can be done to stop this?
Definitely, this is evidence that the army is directly threatening these parents and wants this result. Now, we are going to wage a campaign and distribute to all relevant parties – the HRC, international human rights organizations, to warn them of the dangers of this policy on the Palestinians, and to also intervene to halt these measures against children.
Q: Have you encouraged the parents to file complaints in court?
We will not turn to Israeli courts. Many civil society organizations have taken a position that Israeli courts are biased to the state of Israel and therefore we should not use this judiciary. We will turn to international agencies and bodies, and call on them to intervene.
**Lieutenant Colonel ‘Ala Shalabi, from the Bethlehem police, on their preparations for midnight mass
Q: How prepared are you for Christmas mass tonight?
We actually devised a plan several weeks ago after meeting with the relevant parties. The police have a plan which has been in force since last night. We deployed all of the police forces participating in the events. In the afternoon, Bethlehem will begin receiving its guests and Arab and foreign delegations that will participate in the mass.
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More Headlines
Israeli officials: Hamas is increasing the range of its missiles
Israeli security officials said yesterday that the military wing of Hamas, the Izzedin Qassam Brigades in the Gaza Strip is making tremendous efforts to increase the range of their rockets by dozens of kilometers. The officials said this extra range would allow Hamas to wage deeper attacks into Israel even farther than the Gosh Dan area, according to the Israeli news website Yedioth Ahranoth. They also said that although Egypt has destroyed most of the border tunnels, there was still a way to smuggle raw materials used for rocket-making. (Al Ayyam)
Gaza Christians travel today to Bethlehem for Christmas
Gaza Christians began leaving the Strip today to travel to the West Bank and participate in Christmas celebrations there. Israel has allowed 610 Christians in Gaza to participate in Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem, according to the Palestinian liaison office. According to sources from the office, the permits have been granted only to those under 16 or above 35for a two-week period.(http://maannews.net/arb/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=659722)
Israeli occupation forces demolish home and four shacks south of Jericho
Israeli occupation forces raided the village of Fasayel this morning in the central Jordan Valley and demolished five facilities under the pretext that they had built in military areas without a permit. According to head of the village council of Fasayel Ibrahim Obeidat, the demolitions included four shacks and a home belonging to the residents of the village, saying Israel was preventing the horizontal expansion of the village. (http://safa.ps/details/news/118853/الاحتلال-يهدم-منزلاً-و4-بركسات-جنوب-أريحا.html)
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Arab Press
Israel’s shackling of children in leg irons can shock even hardened politicians
By Chris Doyle
Five years ago, a lawyer working in the occupied Palestinian territories approached me regarding Palestinian child detainees. He asked me whether I would bring British members of Parliament to the military courts. My immediate and stunningly mistaken reaction was that the last thing busy politicians would want would be to get stuck for hours on end in a military court. After all, there is so much more seemingly dramatic issues to witness in the occupied West Bank, including walls, barriers, demolished homes and refugee camps.
This issue of Palestinian child detainees has become an integral part of every parliamentary delegation we at the Council for Arab-British Understanding (Caabu) take. Watching kids as young as 13 facing military trials, often for very minor offences, is shocking even for veteran politicians. This is the sort of experience one expects in dictatorial regimes, not in a country such as Israel that touts its democratic credentials across the world.
More vitally, increased international attention and pressure is just beginning to tell. Israel is showing signs of concern about the damage to its reputation following human rights reports, a Unicef report in March as well as a damning report funded by the British foreign office last year.
For the first time, during a visit in November, Israeli officials met us at the court and later fielded a legal expert to try to explain their view. Indeed, Mark Regev, the spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has accurately stated “the test of a democracy is how you treat people incarcerated in jail, and especially so with minors”.
So does Israel pass this test in its treatment of Palestinian children? Sitting inside the court of Ofer’s military base, the first sign of child detainees approaching is the jangle of their leg irons. They enter the court in twos and threes in brown jumpsuits – swap for orange, and you have Guantanamo. They can be as young as 12. Just in case these children turn on their military guards, they are handcuffed as well. One senior British politician encapsulated it perfectly – it is a processing centre.
Two parallel universes then emerge. In the first, there is a military process, an insult to the word legal. The uniformed judge, prosecutor and defence counsel discuss what to do with the case while an interpreter translates everything into Arabic. On one occasion, I saw the interpreter was busy texting at the same time.
The children typically meet their lawyers for the first time in the court. Around 60 per cent of the cases concern stone throwing. No evidence is presented, no witness is questioned. In the Palestinian universe, the kids have their minds elsewhere, clearly having no faith in the system. Their eyes scour the back of the courtroom for the two members of their family who are allowed to attend. They start catching up on family and village news.
This short experience, perhaps five minutes long, is almost certainly the first time they have seen family member since they were arrested. As one lawyer told me: “This is why they look forward to going to court. No other reason.”
It is not only two parallel universes but two parallel legal systems. Contrast the way an Israeli settler child living in the same jurisdiction is treated. The settler child is afforded all the rights and privileges of Israeli civil law. Nahum Korman, a settler, received a penalty of six months of community service for beating an 11-year-old to death. Suad Ghazal, a 15-year-old Palestinian received six and a half years in jail for stabbing a settler. They were both sentenced on the same day.
But to understand why this is a processing centre and why the detainees have no faith in the system, you have to check out the court’s own official figures. To start with, 87 per cent of the children are denied bail. Worse, Ofer military court’s own 2010 annual report reported an incredible 99.74 per cent conviction rate. This startling figure is produced by a mixture of fear, and a not unnatural desire to exit the military process.
The lawyers typically advise their clients that if they contest their case, they will be held in detention longer. It is the fastest way out of the system. The fear of further incarceration originates from the way that they have been arrested from day one.
Palestinian children are arrested on stone-throwing charges close to areas of friction, such as settlements and checkpoints. The army is reluctant to head into a Palestinian village or refugee camp in daytime, so it conducts night-time raids. Often the first thing the children know about a raid is when they find fully armed soldiers in their bedrooms. They are taken away, usually blindfolded and cuffed, and put into the back of military vehicle. Their parents are not informed where they are being taken. This is scary for adults, so imagine what it is like for a 13 or 14 year old.
Most children report some roughing up in the vehicles and later in interrogation. According to Defence for Children International, based in Geneva, 75 per cent of Palestinian child detainees experience ill treatment during arrest, interrogation and pre-trial detention.
Most children then confess during interrogation, some after being put into solitary confinement. As a result, around a third sign confessions in Hebrew, which of course they do not understand. When we pressed an Israeli government legal adviser on this, he claimed that this was fine as it could be raised in court, and failed to understand why this might prejudice the case.
It is these first 48 hours that are the most worrying. This is the time when the children suffer maximum trauma. Any progress towards genuine change should be measured by how the Israeli authorities transform treatment at this stage.
Israeli authorities are making changes but are they serious, or tweaks to the system that creates just a best practices occupation? There is a juvenile court but the reality is that it is barely any different. There have also been serious reductions in the time before a child has to see a judge. Children under 14 have to see one within 24 hours, still longer than in the Israeli system where it is 12.
Moreover there are now more recordings of interrogations, but not from start to finish and only in around half the cases. Child detainees are still not allowed to be accompanied by their lawyers during questioning.
Most children are not told that they have a right to silence. Israeli diplomats informed us that there is a pilot programme being planned for issuing summonses instead of night-time arrests. This would be a major improvement but it appears that the Israeli military is not so keen. As yet, no pilot has been formally announced and nor is there any available plan as to where, when and how this would be implemented.
Since 1967, around 750,000 Palestinians have been prosecuted under Israeli’s military system. Around 8,000 children have been detained in the past 12 years alone. As Unicef’s report stated: “The deprivation of liberty of children should only be used as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time.”
The harsh reality is that Israel’s military has always needed such a system to maintain its occupation of the West Bank. In most cases they are not sure which Palestinian children have thrown stones, but nevertheless they must pick them up and put them through a process that terrifies them.
Without that, could the Israeli army control the West Bank? They know that there would be huge protests every day. The military refuse to apply the same system to the 550,000 Israeli settlers. The result is an occupation that requires force to impose it, and a discriminatory two-tier legal system. It highlights an inalienable and everlasting truth – a foreign military occupation is not sustainable and is not just.(http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/comment/israels-shackling-of-children-in-leg-irons-can-shock-even-hardened-politicians#full)
A precarious Christmas in the Mideast
by James J. Zogby
In the face of growing insecurity, Christians throughout the Arab east will soon be celebrating Christmas. While the conditions they face today are as frightening as they were at the time Jesus was born, there are bright spots, as well, that point the way forward.
Two thousand years ago, Palestine was under harsh Roman rule. Jews were allowed to worship at their temple in Jerusalem, but owing to the multiple hardships they faced under occupation, many abandoned their homeland, settling in far-flung colonies throughout the Roman Empire.
When the new faith of the Christians first took root, it, too, faced persecution from two distinct sources: from an intolerant religious establishment in Jerusalem that saw the new faith as a challenge to its authority and from threatened Roman rulers who were concerned that the new group would be a destabilising force.
Through the ages, Christian communities survived throughout the Middle East, facing war, persecution and foreign rule. And they remain a presence up to the present day.
The indigenous Christians of the Arab east are organised into churches whose diverse rites reflect the complex and turbulent history of this region. Throughout the liturgical year, these churches celebrate their ancient rites in all the places memorialised in the Bible — in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Antioch, Sidon and Tyre, in Egypt and Iraq, and sites further east.
This year, however, as Arab Christians gather to celebrate the birth of Jesus, the promised “peace on earth, good will to men” will appear, at best, as a remote dream.
Bethlehem, the place where Jesus was born, remains under Israeli occupation, with its residents, both Christian and Muslim, cut off from their lands by an oppressive 10-metre-high concrete barrier and by massive settlement colonies.
The resultant loss of freedom, land and opportunity has taken a serious toll on the fabled “little town”.
Christians can pray, to be sure, but they cannot move freely about, engage in commerce, provide for their families or insure for the future of their children. An immediate impact of these policies has been the crippling of Bethlehem’s world-renowned Mother of Pearl and olive wood craft industries. A further result of the pressure of occupation has been the exodus of many of the town’s young.
If all is not well for Christians in the birthplace of Jesus, they are immeasurably worse in several other Levantine countries. Continued sectarian conflict in Iraq, and now in Syria, placed the ancient Christian churches in those countries at risk.
The US invasion of Iraq led to a breakdown of order, leading to insurgency and ultimately to sectarian conflict.
As armed groups cleansed neighbourhoods and communities of their rivals, defenceless Christians were caught in the middle and were deliberately targeted by violent extremists who bombed their churches and businesses.
During the first five years of the American occupation of Iraq, more than one-half of Iraq’s Christians were forced into exile. Those who remained lived and prayed in fear for their safety.
Syria, despite the brutality of its authoritarian regime, was once known for its openness to religious diversity. The country, which provided a welcoming refuge for Christians fleeing Iraq, is now in the throes of a long and increasingly violent civil war.
The Syrian conflict, which began as a protest movement for freedom that the regime attempted to brutally repress, has since devolved into an increasingly violent civil war. Over time, the fighting took on a sectarian dimension, which has been aggravated by regional powers who have further transformed it into a proxy war.
Caught in the middle, as one Syrian has termed it “between the anvil of the regime and the hammer of violent extremists”, the country’s Christians paid a dear price.
Scores of churches were destroyed and two bishops were kidnapped by shadowy extremist groups. The famed ancient Aramaic-speaking town of Maaloula has been overrun by an Al Qaeda-affiliated group that is holding captive the nuns from that community’s monastery.
In the face of this violence and destruction, almost half of Syria’s Christians joined their Muslim compatriots as refugees. Those who remain in the country live in fear for their future.
Egypt is home to the region’s largest Christian community — the Coptic Church, which represents between eight to ten per cent of the country’s population. Owing to its size and influence, this community has thrived despite long-standing problems with discrimination, intolerance and violence.
Beginning with the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, however, the situation for Christians worsened. Following the July 3 deposing of the Muslim Brotherhood government by Egypt’s military, there was an unprecedented acceleration of violence against Coptic churches, businesses and communities, as extremist groups supportive of the Brotherhood accused the Christians of siding with the military.
For the time being, the Christians of Lebanon appear to be secure. Because Christians constitute over a third of Lebanon’s population and because they have built strong institutional ties in all areas of governance, they have so far been insulated from the storms brewing in the region. While Lebanon has received the largest number of Syrian refugees, the war has not spread across its border. Nevertheless, many Lebanese remain concerned that the cancerous sectarian Syrian conflict may yet infect their homeland.
Jordan, despite housing huge numbers of Syrian and Iraqi refugees, has so far remained stable, owing to the country’s wise leadership and its tolerant culture. It is the one bright spot in the Levant.
King Abdullah has championed inter-faith dialogue and sponsored programmes calling for mutual respect among different religious communities.
If Jordan is a model of religious harmony, so are some of the smaller Gulf countries. This Christmas, for example, Egyptian, Syrian, Lebanese, Palestinian and Iraqi Christians living in the UAE will all pray openly in an environment free from fear.
Last Christmas season, I was in Abu Dhabi teaching at NYU. The churches in that city host services in all the different languages spoken by those who work in the country. And on Christmas, the country’s Muslim leaders even come to church as a sign of respect for their Christian Arab neighbours.
The current situation for Christians in the Middle East may be worrisome, but it is not unique to this region and it can change.
Many other countries and regions of the world (including my own) have lived through bloody civil wars and known periods of deadly religious-motivated intolerance. And as Jordan, the UAE and a few other Gulf countries make clear, the problems facing Arab Christians today do not come from Islam. Rather, they spring from war, occupation and the extremist ideologies that originate in war.
What the region needs, therefore, is an end to war and repressive violence. It also needs wise leadership that will hold up the value of mutual respect among religions and the benefits that accrue from diversity — both being essential features of Islamic history.(http://jordantimes.com/a-precarious-christmas-in-the-mideast)
Gaza calling: A Christmas appeal to Pope Francis
By Vacy Vlazna
Your Holiness, Pope Francis,
At Christmas, as you say, we contemplate "the faithfulness and tenderness" of Boundless Love. This holiday also embraces the season of refugees recalling The Holy Family's flight to Egypt to escape Herod's massacre of the innocents. Their journey from Bethlehem meant passing through Gaza, which, since 1948, is itself in a wretched refugee limbo. Families in Gaza have no escape. Its borders are hermetically sealed and bound by Israel and Egypt. Gaza needs your help.
In December, in desperation, a campaign was launched appealing to you to give a helping hand to release the suffering people of Gaza from the genocidal strangulation of Israel's seven-year blockade.
There is no world leader other than yourself who possesses the moral strength, the political freedom and the spiritual imperative to help Gaza. There is none of global influence to whom the Gazans can turn except Your Holiness.
Through your words and actions, we see the same star that heralded the advent of Gandhi, of Mandela, of Jesus. Its light - the spiritual simplicity of love for the human family, for the oppressed, for the poor - is again penetrating human hearts and consciences.
It shone bright when you went to Lampedusa, the refugee purgatory, drawing the world's attention to the "globalisation of indifference".
"We are a society that has forgotten the experience of weeping, of 'suffering with': The globalisation of indifference has taken from us the ability to weep! ...We are accustomed to the suffering of others, it doesn't concern us, it's none of our business. ...Herod sowed death in order to defend his own well-being, his own soap bubble. And this continues to repeat itself." (Lampedusa Homile)
Today's Israeli Herods have systematically made Gaza a hell on earth by imposing a blockade in violation of international law that has made Gaza an open air concentration camp imprisoning 1.7 million innocent people, half of whom are children.
As the world makes merry this festive season, the people of Gaza have deliberately, cruelly, been deprived of fuel by Israel for two months: They suffer in freezing temperatures, with no electricity, no light, no heat, scarcity of food, no essential services. When the waste water treatment plant stopped functioning sewage flooded the streets. Then kicking families while they are down so low, Israel opened dams east of Gaza drowning hope and the last vestiges of normal life.
Imagine, truly, if this Christmas you were in Gaza, suffering with Gazan families, and you have no place to run, can't get medical help for your hungry and cold children, can't cook, clean their clothes, keep them dry, warm, safe and happy.
Meanwhile the Christian kings of the "free world", Obama, Cameron, Merkel, Hollande, Abbott will attend Christmas mass under a blaze of cameras and their own sinful hypocrisy in full knowledge that the Gaza humanitarian disaster, unlike the Philippines, is man-made. Herod-made. Nor will they lift a finger to bring the gifts of justice, compassion and love to Gaza's immiserated manger.
Speaking of "manger", doesn't it strike you as bizarre and un-Christ-like that Christians have for decades, overlooked, ignored or tolerated the sacrilege that Bethlehem, the birthplace of the Divine Child, is in illegal occupied territory and surrounded by the illegal annexation/apartheid wall enforced by the Israeli military?
And speaking of Palestine's military occupier, unconscionably, Israeli Herods sow death to raise the profits of Israel's armament juggernaut. In his recent shocking documentary, The Lab, Yotam Feldman exposes how Palestinians have been dehumanised as sacrificial guinea pigs:
"I think the main product Israelis are selling, especially in the last decade, is experience… the testing of the products, the experience is the main thing they [customers] are coming to buy. They want the missile that was shot in the last operation in Gaza or the rifle that was used in the last West Bank incursion."
Inevitably, profits soared in 2009-10 after surgical strikes by F16s, attack helicopters drones, and phosphorous bombs slaughtered 1,400 Gazans, one-third of whom were children, and again in November 2012 - business as usual for the Western Caesars of Profit who have swept with their wars and political subterfuge through the Middle East like locust plagues devastating the lives of our Christian and Muslim brothers and sisters in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Iran.
The blockade of Gaza is the crime of the 21st century and is integral to Israel's 65 years of war crimes, crimes against humanity, apartheid policies, state terrorism and illegal colonisation perpetrated against the indigenous people of Palestine. Gaza/Palestine is also the great lament in the sacred heart of humanity.
The blood and weeping never dry up in the Gazan soul. It is crying out. Will you respond? Please.
In your Lampedusa homily, you pose two questions that call our spirit to live in solidarity with the poor, with the oppressed, "Adam, where are you?" "Where is the blood of your brother?" These questions are versions of the quintessential question, Who am I?
And in this instance who is Pope Francis? Whose shoes do you step into - The Fisherman's or Caesar's?
The signs of your papacy are hope-filled.
The 1968 film, The Shoes of the Fisherman, based on Morris West's novel, portrays a spiritually pragmatic pope of profound compassion who sells off the Vatican's treasures to alleviate the lethal poverty of Communist China.
The film also drew inspiration from the Archbishop of Venice, the beloved Albino Luciani, who later became, for a shimmer of time and light, Pope John Paul I. Over the years, Luciani had condemned "the hypocrisy of the Vatican treasures". (White Light, Dark Night, Lucien Gregoire)
Of Luciani and Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II), Gregoire writes,
"During the 20 years they served as bishop and cardinal, each of their countries suffered from an immense orphan problem - about two million in each country. During that time Wojtyla built and dedicated 53 churches and not a single orphanage. Luciani, on the other hand, built and dedicated f4 orphanages and not a single church."
Like Luciani, you, Pope Francis, mingle with your flock and criticise the "idolatry of money" and the "new tyranny" of capitalism.
Gandhi fasted and marched with humility for justice. Mandela, with humility, sacrificed 27 years for justice. So when you see the glittering lights of the Christmas tree in St Peter's Square, may you reflect on the wretched darkness in Gaza and know that peace on earth doesn't exist without peace in Gaza and all of Palestine. Peace for Palestinians is your and our business.
Gaza doesn't need Vatican treasures; it needs liberation to live fully and humanely.
We, who respect justice and human dignity, have just lost the presence of Mandela but, Insh'Allah and God Willing, we have gained you, Pope Francis.(http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/12/gaza-calling-christmas-appeal-pope-francis-2013122212323472366.html)
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Opinions
The will of the prisoners is stronger than any occupation
Al Quds Al Arabi Editorial
The list of prohibitions, which Israeli occupation forces impose on the Palestinians, is very long. Still, yesterday they added a new order when Israeli intelligence forces raided the home of Samer Issawi, handing them an order prohibiting any celebrations for his release.
The imposition of such a decision by such a strong Israeli services shows the scope of their defeat before the determination of one person who believed in his cause and fought with all possible means. The last was his ‘battle of empty stomachs’, during which he waged a nine-month hunger strike, forcing his prison wardens to acquiesce and reach a deal for his release.
With its brute force and heavy weapons, Israel can impose its arbitrary laws. However, these weapons cannot stop celebrations or prohibit joy. Neither can they stop the tears of Um Ra’fat Issawi, Samer’s mother, who collapsed in tears from how happy she was standing in front of the Shatta prison doors waiting for her son to be freed.
Samer Issawi was arrested in 2002 and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Ten years later, he was released in the Shalit prisoner swap. Several months after that, Israeli authorities rearrested him under the pretext that he had broken the conditions for his release, which were not to leave the area of his residence, which meant that Israel could re-arrest him to finish out his sentence, or 20 more years.
Issawi did not bow to the will of the prison warden and waged a hunger strike that lasted 266 consecutive days, thus becoming the longest hunger striker in history. During one of his court sessions while he was on strike, Samer stood up, opened his shirt and asked the Israeli judge: What does this scene remind you of? His emaciated and weak body was a carbon copy of pictures distributed by the Zionist media machine of Nazi victims.
Over the past 56 years, Israeli prisons have witnessed several collective hunger strikes demanding a halt to the arbitrary measures taken inside prisons and to gain the minimum ceiling of their rights, such as medical treatment. Today, around 2,000 prisoners suffer from chronic diseases and over 150 prisoners have been killed inside prison.
In spite of the Oslo Accords and in spite of the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, which is still being besieged, Israel continues to hold more than 5,000 prisoners. Furthermore, the number of arrests made since 1967 has been estimated at 800,000 arrests, or 20% of the population of the Palestinians. Basically, this means that virtually every Palestinian family knows what arrests are like. These arrests have included all sectors and groups in society, including the elderly, children, women, the sick, journalists, academics, and military and political leaders.
Anyone who has experienced arrest has dealt with mistreatment or torture of some form, either physically or psychologically. During this year, the Prisoner Affairs Ministry’s statistics department said 3,874 Palestinians had been arrested. Not one day went by in 2013 that did not include a case of arrest. Then, in violation with international law, Israel arbitrarily imposed what is called “administrative detention” under which 3,000 Palestinians have been detained for years without trial and without a charge sheet. Today, 150 of these detainees still remain in Israeli prisons.
Today, Israel is using the predicament of the prisoners to impose new concessions on Palestinian negotiators. Through US Secretary of State John Kerry, they are linking the release of groups of pre-Oslo prisoners with agreement to Israel’s security conditions. This is completely rejected by the prisoners, who say they would rather stay in jail than to concede basic rights for which they paid their freedom to achieve. We, along with the Palestinians and other Arabs, hope that the ‘free’ Palestinian negotiators have the same determination and iron-will as the prisoners, and refuse to concede any rights, and insist that the release of all prisoners is a condition for any peace agreement. (http://www.alquds.co.uk/?p=116713)
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