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Dec. 25, 2013
Daily summary - Wednesday, December 25, 2013
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Main News
ONE MARTYR AND SIX INJURIES IN SERIES OF AIR RAIDS ON THE GAZA STRIP FOLLOWING KILLING OF ISRAELI WORKER; LATER REPORTS SAY 14 INJURED
A man and a child were killed and six others injured yesterday during Israeli air raids on the Gaza Strip. According to Ashraf Al Qidra, spokesperson for the deposed government’s health ministry, 3-year old Hala Abu Sbeikha was brought to the hospital already deceased from raids on the Maghazi camp, while her mother and brothers, Bilal, 4 and Mohammed 6, were injured. Three other citizens were injured in Israeli artillery shelling east of Gaza City. According to Maan sources, Israeli warplanes fired three missiles at Al Qadisiyeh in Khan Younis while another raid was conducted on a training site in Gaza. Another raid was waged on a training site for the resistance north of the Gaza Strip and one east of Breij. Three attacks were on the Farj site, belonging to the Islamic Jihad’s military wing, the Quds Brigades between Khan Younis and Deir Al Balah.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meanwhile, vowed that he would respond harshly to the sniper operation that took place in the Negev where an Israeli worker was killed. Israeli military analyst Roni Shaked said he believed the quick Israeli strike was more about deterring Hamas and forcing them to control other resistance factions in Gaza then it was about a response to the operation. Israeli defense minister Moshe Ya’alon said in response to the killing, that ‘calm would end in the Gaza Strip if it is not present in Israel.” (http://maannews.net/arb/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=659870). Eyewitnesses also say there is another martyr who was killed by the Israeli army west of Beit Lahyia but that his body has yet to be recovered.
Earlier, Israel radio announced that an Israeli had been killed by a Palestinian sniper bullet near the security fence around the Gaza Strip. According to Israeli army sources, the worker was doing maintenance work on the fence when he was shot. (http://www.alquds.co.uk/?p=116877)
AL NASSER BRIGADES TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR SNIPER FIRE AT WORKER AT GAZA’S BORDER
The Nasser Salah Eddin Brigades, the military arm of the Popular Resistance Committees, declared its responsibility for the sniper fire at the Israeli worker yesterday morning near the settlement of Nahal Oz east of Gaza City. A statement by the brigades said that the gunmen who carried out the attack had return to their bases after firing three mortars at the ‘settlement’ to create a smokescreen for their withdrawal. The brigades said the operation was a response to the crimes of the occupation. (http://maannews.net/arb/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=660055)
ISRAELI PRESIDENT THREATENS RESIDENTS OF THE GAZA STRIP WITH HALTING ASSISTANCE
Israeli President Shimon Peres warned the residents of the Gaza Strip yesterday that aid would be halted if attacks continue against Israel. “If the people of the Gaza Strip want calm, they must adhere to calm as well. If the attacks against us continue, they will suffer tenfold,” he said. he said the people of Gaza were ‘playing with fire” and that Israel would preserve its security no matter what. “The Gaza Strip is not under occupation,” Peres said, “and cannot live without external aid, but the assistance will stop if innocent civilians continue to be killed in operations originating from Gaza.”(http://maannews.net/arb/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=660039)
CONTACTS WITH EGYPT TO HALT ISRAELI ESCALATION AGAINST GAZA; GOVERNMENTS CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL INTERVENTION
The Hamas government in Gaza said last night that contacts were being held with Egypt to halt Israel’s escalation against Gaza. Government spokesperson Ihab Ghussein said on his Facebook page that Israel ‘should not be interested in escalating against the resistance, which is ready to respond immediately to its aggression.” Ghussein also said his government was holding contacts with ‘our brothers in Egypt to put them in the picture and to exert efforts to contain the situation.” (http://qudsnet.com/news/View/260949/اتصالات-مع-مصر-لوقف-التصعيد-الاسرائيلي-في-غزة/)
Meanwhile, West Bank government spokesperson Ihab Bseiso condemned the Israeli raids on Gaza and called for immediate international intervention to halt the escalation. He said the government had begun to make contacts with international parties to intervene and force Israel to halt is raids on Gaza.
Chief negotiator Saeb Erekat meanwhile said that the Israeli government ‘proved today to the entire world that its war on innocent civilians is what is on its agenda, not peace.” (Al Quds)
SETTLER INJURED BY STONES NEAR AZZUN AND POLICEMAN RUN OVER IN ESSAWIYEH; SHOTS FIRED AT SETTLERS NEAR RAMALLAH
Israeli sources said yesterday that an Israeli policeman was run over by a Palestinian motorist at the entrance to Essawiyeh in Jerusalem, sustaining light injuries. The passengers in the car were all arrested.
In related news, a Jewish settler was wounded when his car was hit by stones near the town of Azzun in Qalqilya. According to the Hebrew-language website Yedioth Ahranoth, Israeli military forces are combing the area searching for the perpetrator. Hebrew-language sources also said last night that armed elements opened fire at an Israeli military jeep near the Gush Etzion settlement bloc south of Bethlehem. According to Israel’s Channel 7’s website, the shooting came from a passing car, but did not cause any injuries. (http://www.alquds.com/news/article/view/id/479768)
In related news, Israel’s Channel 2 said last night that Palestinian gunmen opened fire on settlers’ cars near the settlement of Bet El near Ramallah. An Israeli army patrol was also shot at north of Hebron last night, according to the same source, with no reported injuries. (Al Hayat Al Jadida)
RAMALLAH: 14 BEDOUIN FAMILIES SPEND THE NIGHT IN THE OPEN AFTER THEIR TENTS ARE DEMOLISHED
14 Palestinian Bedouin families from the Abu Yehya clan were forced to spend the night in the cold with only the remains of their demolished tents to shelter them after Israeli occupation forces demolished their abodes. Abu Yehha, the clan head, said his entire family was comprised of 50 members, mostly children. He said they had lived in a quasi-house at the top of a hill for the past 20 years. “We are Bedouin and we have grown accustomed to life‘s cruelty,” Abu Yehya said. “But the occupation’s cruelty is much harsher than the chill of this night. Earlier yesterday morning, Israeli army forces came to the hilltop, near the villages of Ras Karkar and Deir Ammmar, west of Ramallah, turning the abodes into ruin in a matter of minutes. Israel informed the Bedouin that their homes were on Area C land, where construction is prohibited, warning them that if they try to build them again, they would only be demolished again. (http://www.alquds.com/news/article/view/id/479741)
DURING CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS IN BETHLEHEM, THE PRESIDENT: THERE WILL COME A TIME WHEN PALESTINE WILL BE AN INDEPENDENT STATE
During his reception in Bethlehem for Christmas mass, President Mahmoud Abbas said that ‘on this joyous day, we call on God to bring us to independence and an independent Palestinian state; also to achieve unity between the West Bank and Gaza, until, God willing, we go back to being on unified state.” He continued: “There will come a time when Palestine will be an independent state.” He continued: “We are in the city of peace, in Bethlehem, and I want it to remain a city of peace – peace will come very soon,” Abbas said. (Al Quds)
KERRY AND HIS TEAM PUTTING THE FINAL TOUCHES ON A FINAL FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT TO BE PRESENTED IN THE MIDDLE OF JANUARY
According to sources from Al Quds newspaper last night, US Secretary John Kerry is preparing to visit the Palestinian territories and Israel on January 10 with a broad team of American experts who have participated in Palestinian-Israeli talks since President Clinton’s time in office. According to the sources, the team is working to put the final touches on the broad guidelines for a final solution that would address the final status issues and try to coerce the Palestinians and Israelis into accepting the American vision of a solution. The source, who asked to remain unnamed, said the team had been working nonstop since Kerry’s last visit and now had all the details and perhaps a copy of every dunam of land and every settlement, street and checkpoint in the West Bank. He said the team understood that the Palestinians and Israelis have not sat face to face in weeks and that the Americans are shuttling between them, but added that the truth is, everyone knows the nature of the agreement. ‘What we are seeing now is each side trying to score as many concessions from the other as possible.” the source said a framework agreement ‘was within reach’ but that Kerry was not convinced that they could reach a peace deal in one go and hence a framework agreement and transitional agreements. (Al Quds)
ISRAEL ARMY RADIO: KERRY’S IDEAS RESPOND TO ALL OF ISRAEL’S SECURITY DEMANDS
Israeli army radio yesterday uncovered some of the details of Kerry’s security plan, including full Israeli control over the border with Jordan and unmanned reconnaissance planes flying over the West Bank. The army radio website said Kerry’s plan had responded to all of Israel’s security demands in regards to the border with Jordan and the Valley. Even when the radio said the plan stipulated the evacuation of all settlements in the Jordan Valley, deputy Israeli foreign minister Zeev Elkin said Israel ‘would not agree to evacuate residential areas in the Valley.”
Moreover, Israeli reports say Netanyahu called for the release of Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard as a condition for any progress in the peace process. Israel’s Channel 2 said Netanyahu would exchange Pollard’s release for Israel signing the US’s framework agreement with the Palestinians (Al Ayyam)
PATRIARCH TWAL: REMAINING IN THE HOLY LAND IS A DIVINE CALL
Latin Patriarch in Jerusalem and the Holy Land said last night during midnight mass that “our presence in the holy land is a divine call, a blessing and a privilege for all of us.” In his speech during Christmas mass in Bethlehem, attended by President Abbas, Twal addressed the president, telling him: “We pray for you to achieve your mission and for the Palestinian people to return to unity and seeking peace. WE ask God to grant you the wisdom and courage to achieve that.” He said everyone in the holy land was living under difficult conditions, Christians included and which prompts serious questions about the future of their existence on this land. Twal said that they were searching for this response in their faith, but knows that the answer is not emigration or secluding themselves. “The solution is for us to stay here, to live here, to die here. Our land is holy and it is our duty to remain on it.”(http://qudsnet.com/news/View/260967/البطريرك-طوال-بقانا-في-الأرض-المقدسة-دعوة-إلهية/)
ISRAEL: CONFIRMATIONS FOR THE RELEASE OF THE THIRD BATCH OF PRISONERS
An Israeli source confirmed last night that Israel intended to commit to the agreements it reached ahead of the start of the negotiations, including the release of the third group of prisoners next week. As for settlement expansion, Israel radio quoted the source saying that “Israel will not accept any restrictions on building behind the Green Line”. In the same context, Israeli daily ‘Israel Today” said Israeli PM Netanyahu plans to ask the United States to extend the negotiations with the Palestinians for a year, “for fear that they will be torpedoed because of the differences on pending issues.” (Al Quds)
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Headlines
*Maariv publishes names of prisoners slated for release next week (Al Hayat Al Jadida)
*President: our prisoners will be released sequentially until prisons are empty of them (Al Hayat Al Jadida)
*Opinion poll: 59% of citizens believe Israel is responsible for Arafat’s poisoning (Al Hayat Al Jadida)
*Child west of Ramallah dies after being run over (Al Hayat Al Jadida)
*Israel monitoring western ‘jihadists’ in Syria, concerned about their return to their home countries (Al Hayat Al Jadida)
*Al Ayyam congratulates those celebrating Christmas (Al Ayyam)
*Cold front caused serious damage to the border security fence (Al Ayyam)
*Israel studying its next moves and preparing to confront escalation in Gaza (Al Ayyam)
*Erekat: Israel’s agenda is war, not peace (Al Ayyam)
*Facebook….the unknown Israeli soldier to infiltrate the Palestinians (Al Quds)
*Today is Christmas: Merry Christmas to all (Al Quds)
*The President: emptying prisons and freeing prisoners is the basis of a comprehensive peace in the region (Al Quds)
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Front Page Photos
Al- Quds:Bethlehem: President Abbas, Vera Papon, Catherine Ashton, Tayeb Abdel Rahim, Rami Hamdallah, Riyad Malki and Jordanian FM Nasser Joudeh, during midnight mass
Al-Ayyam:1) Patriarch Fouad Twal leads mass in the Nativity Church; 2) Relative of the child martyr kissing her at the hospital in Deir Al Balah; 3) Egyptians survey destruction of the suicide bomb site in Al Mansura, north of Cairo
Al Hayat Al Jadida:1) Body of martyr child Hala Abu Sbeikha in a Beit Lahyia Hospital; 2) President Abbas during Christmas dinner in Bethlehem; 3) Egyptians walk in funerals of victims of the bombing yesterday
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Voice of Palestine News
Gaza Strip:Things have calmed down from last night’s Israeli air raids on various areas. The child, 3-year old Hala Abu Sbeikha and 14 injured. As for the alleged martyr in Beit Lahyia, hospital sources announced that he did not actually die but is in very critical condition and is in the Shifa Hospital in the ICU. Hala’s mother was injured along with two of her brothers. Two are in very serious condition.
As for the borders, Israel announced that the Karem Abu Salem crossing would be closed until further notice due to the killing of the Israeli worker. The Rafah crossing will be reopened for the second day in a row for humanitarian purposes.
Inside 1948 borders:
What do you make of the continuous Israeli threats against Gaza?
There is a shift in Israel’s rhetoric – their statements are very harsh now – calm will be met with calm and violence with violence, etc. Other Israeli officials are using the same tone, believing that Israel’s response should be decisive and immediate. The raids were not only by air, they also sent down marines in some areas. This shows that Israel is considering all military options. But I think that Israel is not interested in larger intervention in Gaza. That is why we are now also hearing voices within these circles calling for ‘containing’ the situation.
But the defense minister called on settlements near the border to move away and go into shelters
No there is no huge change. there is a semblance of war, but even when they fire a missile, Israel always calls on its citizens to go into the shelters. But there has not been any official order to go into the shelters. It has been left to the settlement councils to decide whether to go or not.
Jerusalem: Israel’s attack on Gaza has had repercussions in Jerusalem. This morning there were tight Israeli measures taken at main crossings into Jerusalem and cars were closely searched. As for the incident that happened in Essawiyeh last night – a policemen was run over by a Palestinian car – the men involved are being held – Mohammed Elayan and Walid Darwish, 18 and 19 years old. The police claim the young men did not follow orders to stop and hit one of the policemen, slightly injuring him. They will be brought to court today.
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Voice of Palestine Interviews
**Sheikh Nafez Azzam, Islamic Jihad leader, on the attack on Gaza
Q: How are you following up on this new Israeli aggression on Gaza?
This escalation is nothing new; it is not the first and it will not be the last. Israel does not wish any good on the Palestinians, so it tries from time to time to show its strength and reassure its people that it is still very present. At the same time, Israel wants to continue its attacks on the Palestinians to cause chaos and confusion among them.
*What kind of contacts are among the factions in case there is an escalation?
There is coordination between the factions, but not enough. However, no doubt, if the escalation broadens, all of the Palestinian people will confront it. This is any people’s right to defend itself from aggression.
*Have there been any contacts with Egypt?
So far, there have not been any.
*How prepared are the factions?
Regardless of the Palestinians’ capabilities, it is a duty that all Palestinians stand in the face of any Israeli aggression. True, the Palestinians don’t have what the Israelis have, but this does not intimidate the people. They are defending their rights and insist on getting them. Israel knows this, they have tried it before and they got very painful results.
Q: Israel says quiet will be met with quiet, even though it strikes from time to time. Is this acceptable?
Of course not. We say we are committed to the truce agreement as much as Israel shows its commitment to it. But if Israel attacks Gaza, it is our right to defend itself.
**Salah Khawajeh, coordinator for the anti-settlement and wall committee, on the demolition of Bedouin tents yesterday near Ramallah
Q: What can you tell us about these demolitions?
This is part of Israel’s plan to isolate and evict Palestinians from their land, which is around Palestinian villages. They want to isolate Bedouins and farmers first of all, but in this case, because of the settlement expansion – the settlement of Nelly in particular – they need more land. this is a settlement that had no more than 100 settlers in the first intifada. This number has risen to more than 1,500 and it has expanded to the peripheries of the villages around it. It cannot expand further without evicting the Palestinians and these Bedouin communities. Israel also threatened them that they would be killed if they tried to come back and build again. This is a measure that is taking place against Bedouin communities all over the country. We as Palestinians must strengthen and promote their presence, especially now that they are on the forefront of Israel’s plans.
Q: Will the popular committees take any measures after this demolition to help the Bedouin?
Part of our activities are not only reactions but to take initiative, such like the Bab Al Shams initiative. We think the priority of activists in 2014 is to step things up in Area C. We are planning for qualitative actions in these areas. Legally, there are several parties following up these issues. But Palestinians usually find the demolition orders thrown in the land somewhere, often too late, and so by the time the legal process starts, it is after the demolition itself.
**PLO Executive Committee Secretary Yasser Abed Rabbo, on political developments
Q: What do you make of this new Israeli aggression on Gaza?
This escalation comes after a long period of calm and marks the beginning of a new phase by Israel, which is to spread tension in Gaza and across Palestine. We must make sure we don’t fall into this trap, that includes all parties in Gaza. Neither should we think that being dragged into this trap and into a cycle of actions and reactions could attract attention to Gaza and the siege. Some people think this. It only helps Israel with its plans.
Q: We have heard that Washington has accepted Israel’s reservations regarding full control over the border with Jordan. Have you been informed of this officially?
No. Anyway, the United States does not have the right to decide where our borders should be or allow the Israeli occupier to take part of our land. This land is the national land of the Palestinians and no one has the right to give away any of it. We have not heard of this at all, but if this actually does happen, it is a very dangerous thing and will undermine all peace efforts. And the Palestinians will reject it completely.
Q: We also heard there may be a framework agreement next month and that the period for negotiations could be extended for longer than nine months. Would you agree to this?
We already said more than once that there is no need for a so-called framework agreement. This would only give Israel everything it wants at the expense of Palestinian land. What we want is an implementable agreement, not just general phrases and promises, which give Israel control over Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley, etc.
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More Headlines
Public opinion poll: 59% of citizens believe Israel is responsible for poisoning Arafat
According to a public opinion poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for political and survey research, the majority of Palestinians believe their leader Yasser Arafat was poisoned to death by Israel. The poll also showed a setback in Hamas’ popularity compared to Fatah. While 59% said they believed that Israel was responsible for Arafat’s poisoning, 21% said they believed it was a Palestinian or joint Palestinian-Israeli job (Al Hayat Al Jadida)
Cold front caused serious damage to the border security fence
Sources from Palestinian factions told Al Ayyam yesterday that the Israeli worker killed at the border in Gaza was doing maintenance work on the separation fence, which had suffered huge holes from the snowstorm. The sources said the maintenance work included the installation of cameras, electronic devices, and roads, which had been incapacitated from the storm, in addition to military sits and tunnels that were also damaged. (Al Ayyam)
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Arab Press
Famous for the past, Bethlehem needs help now
National Editorial
On this day each year, the world’s attention focuses on Bethlehem, the small town important to all three Abrahamic religions for being the city of David, the birthplace of Jesus and the site of Rachel’s tomb. But more recently the town has found itself with a less beneficial notoriety as the symbol of Palestinian aspirations being strangled by encroaching Israeli settlements and the isolating effects of Israeli military checkpoints and the separation barrier. For an economy heavily reliant on faith-based tourism and a nominal 10-minute drive from Jerusalem, the result is to hamper Bethlehem from coming close to meeting its potential.
From tomorrow, the attention on the town will fade again for another year. However the world’s focus should remain on it, because the problems afflicting it are emblematic of the problems faced by Palestinians generally and will need to be resolved if there is ever to be a just resolution with the Israelis.
Any successful society needs a burgeoning middle class, but this is the sector of Bethlehem that has been hardest hit by the restrictions on freedom. The result has been a steady emigration from the town, mostly by Palestinian Christians who seek an easier life in other countries. At one point during the late Ottoman era, Bethlehem was 90 per cent Christian but now two thirds of its residents are Muslim, following an exodus of Christians as the town became the scene of some of the fiercest fighting during the second intifada.
The situation ought to have been improving, with the Palestinian Authority announcing that an Italian heritage restoration company had been awarded the job of restoring part of the Church of the Nativity, which since the 4th century has been located at the reputed site of Jesus’s birth and which is the oldest church still in daily use.
But only €2 million (Dh10m) has been raised of the estimated €15 million needed to restore the entire structure. Although visitor numbers are slowly rising, most are tourists who stay in hotels in Israel and who visit briefly by bus and put little back into the local economy. For most of the year, many of the 3,700 hotel rooms in Bethlehem remain empty.
The people of Bethlehem deserve better than just an annual day in the spotlight, focusing on an event thousands of years ago, when there is such desperate need for improvement right now.(http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/editorial/famous-for-the-past-bethlehem-needs-help-now)
Palestinians united?
Palestinians say new strategies must emerge to strengthen the struggle for their rights.
Al Jazeera Debate
For many, the Palestinian national movement is in crisis.
Palestinian-Israeli "peace negotiations" are failing, while Israel's construction of West Bank settlements continues to eat up Palestinian land. In Ramallah, the political legitimacy of Mahmoud Abbas' Palestinian Authority government is exhausted. Divisions between Palestinian political factions complicate efforts to find a unified, national strategy.
Major questions over the future of the Palestinian struggle persist.
The second annual conference of research centers in the Arab world was held from December 7-9 in Doha under the theme "The Palestinian Cause and the Future of the Palestinian National Movement".
Al Jazeera asked conference participants to answer this question: In the face of many challenges, what strategy should the Palestinian national movement take in the future?
Salma Karmi-Ayyoub: Criminal barrister in London, former head of international litigation project at Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq
From my legal-human rights perspective, whatever political solution we advocate, the concept of rights has to be incorporated into the language of our advocacy.
Universal jurisdiction cases [are] the tail-end of a whole load of legal initiatives, such as in the United Nations, membership in international bodies, [International Criminal Court]… all of these legal initiatives have to become central to our strategy for achieving national liberation. The legal tools are there, we just have to make use of them.
The battle that goes on, on the diplomatic level, between Palestinians and Israelis is to do with legitimacy: We must continue to make the case that our cause is moral and that our claims for national liberation are valid. We have international law on our side. The more we ground our demands in the concept of our inalienable rights, the more legitimate is our struggle.
A lot of [Palestinians] on the ground, and [Palestinians] in the Diaspora, I believe, have become less concerned with the idea that there has to be a two-state solution, or what exactly the political model is going to be to resolve the conflict. I think we're now more concerned with the realisation of our rights, and we recognise that we have to go back to the basic principles: That we are a colonised nation that deserves to achieve true national liberation and self-determination.
Afif Safieh: Palestinian diplomat and Palestinian Authority's roving ambassador for special missions
We are a people of 12 million. This demographic dispersion is the symptom of our tragedy and our ordeal, but it can be a source of political empowerment if we strategise correctly.
Today, we should create a very sophisticated network of interaction between the different components of the Palestinian people. It should have been done years ago, but it's better late than never… It has to become a sophisticated network of interactions between the different components of Palestinian society: the 1.5 million Palestinians within Israel, the 4.5 million in West Bank and Gaza… and the 6 million or beyond Palestinians scattered over the four corners of the world.
We have to find a way of inviting in - and it has been done - Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which are movements that were created in the last 20 years, so were not there at the beginning of the [Palestinian Liberation Organisation]. We have to incorporate them because they are players in the Palestinian political [and] sociological arena.
Work is being done [towards this], but unfortunately too slow. It's important because we want to have that body, the PLO, be all-inclusive. It's the political umbrella. It's our address, so we need to incorporate Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Up until now, we seem to have been condemned to either have unity of the different factions, but no strategy, or to have a strategy but at the expense of unity. We should aim at having unity and a strategy, hence the need for an intensive, political, intellectual, strategic discussion.
Diana Buttu: Palestinian lawyer, legal advisor to the Palestinian negotiating team from 2000-2005
If we're talking about what the future of the Palestinian national movement is, it's this idea of bringing it back to basics, focusing more again on [Palestinians] as a people in all of the various places in which they currently reside, all of the problems that they face, and not falling into the fragmentation that the Israelis have set up for us.
In my opinion, I think one of the things that has been most absent for the past 20 years is the idea of developing a legal strategy: a legal strategy that challenges Israel, a legal strategy that brings into play all Palestinians and a legal strategy that has at its core this idea of upholding Palestinian rights rather than compromising them.
One of the problems that I feel has happened over the past 20 years is that there's been this real rush to focus on negotiations. And in the rush to focus on negotiations, at its core is this idea of compromise. What I think has been missing is this idea of focusing on decolonisation. And the reason I think this is important is because in the rush to focus on compromise, the compromise issue takes attention away from what Israel is really about and it puts us and the Israelis as though we're somehow on par, as though this is just a simple dispute.
Focusing on decolonisation brings it back to basics and begins to demand from Israel and from the international community that we not separate out Israel's actions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip from those inside [the state], but that we view this as an entire process of Israel trying to actually get rid of Palestinians and take their land.
Alaa Tartir: Palestinian youth activist, Program Director of Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network
A paradigm shift that is happening over the last few years is actually the youth movement. A major feature of this youth movement is [that] it really does not have borders. Over the last three years, we see a new link between all Palestinians: between the Palestinians in [Israel], between the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, and even outside.
That feature is a major source of optimism. Of course here we are not talking about big numbers and big quantities or masses in the streets, but what we are talking about is a great quality.
If we look at historical evidence from all over the world, the change happened from a small group of highly qualified, and committed and dedicated people. It all starts with a small group. This is exactly what's happening at the moment.
I'm not saying that there will be a revolution tomorrow, but I'm saying that the seeds for a proper change [are] already taking place. Me as a Palestinian youth myself, when I see this link between the different localities of the Palestinians, it brings hope.
Dr Nadim Rouhana: Director General of Mada al-Carmel: The Arab Center for Applied Social Research in Haifa
We are in a transitional period, and transitional periods have some vagueness, but they have some potential too.
[Palestinian citizens of Israel] have the feeling that it's impossible to achieve equality within a state that sees itself as the state of the Jewish people, and they are connecting what's happening to them with what's happening in the West Bank and Gaza. It's not a matter of identity anymore because they regained their identity as Palestinians. It's a matter of awareness.
And the awareness now is: This Zionist project is having an impact on all parts of the Palestinian people, and we are part of that people who is on the receiving side of the project. This is a different awareness, [a] different consciousness, and I think it's getting stronger and stronger within the Palestinian communities.
Many Palestinians in the West Bank now are saying: You Palestinians inside Israel are going to be leading the project. I think this is too ambitious. I think what Palestinians in Israel want, and what they can do, is take part in re-defining the project. If they do that from their position inside Israel, that means that they will be contributing to uniting the Palestinian people - we are one people; uniting the Palestinian geography - we are one geography; and uniting the Palestinian national movement because the national movement until recently did not see the Palestinians in Israel as part of their constituency.
So by being part of defining the project, they are imposing this on the Palestinian thinking and Palestinian national movement and that by itself is revolutionary. I think it would be a revolutionary change in the Palestinian consciousness.(http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/12/palestinians-united-20131211115330406754.html)
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Opinions
There is no room for pressuring the Palestinians
Al Quds Editorial
The possible pressure that the United States may exert on the Palestinians during negotiations between them and Israel will be in vain. They will not bring about any chance in the Palestinians’ unwavering stances regarding the issues under negotiation, first and foremost, the need to reach a comprehensive agreement and a timeframe for its implementation.
There is no room for change in the Palestinian position, because the Palestinians have already offered all possible concessions before. They have proven record flexibility in positively responding to Arab and international proposals and initiatives, which Israel has, in the least, showed reservations over or has completely rejected like in most cases.
The basis of the Palestinians’ positions is international references of legitimacy. These have won the approval of world nations including the US, and clearly stipulate a full Israeli withdrawal from lands occupied in 1967, the text of which can be found in Security Council resolutions 22 and 338. The just peace which these references called for, cannot be achieved as long as Israel occupies even one inch of Palestinian land – unless there is a land swap of equal size and value for land indie the Green Line based on mutual agreement.
Hence, the Palestinian insistence on adhering to the 1967 borders as a basis for negotiations and for the evacuation from Palestinian land is an obvious conclusion, not a precondition. The lands which the Palestinians are demanding a withdrawal from is occupied land according to international law. They are not dispute lands, like Israel likes to claim in line with its settlement and expansionist polices.
Jerusalem is a city that was occupied along with its surroundings, from the West Bank in 1967. Therefore, the two abovementioned Security Council resolutions apply to this city just as much as they apply to the West Bank. There is nothing to support any dealing with this issue in a different way, according to Israeli claims.
In principle, settlements are rejected and condemned internationally and considered a huge impediment to peace. It is inconceivable that Palestinians should coexist with settlements or ‘accept’ their presence, which is an obstacle to contiguity and connection between the lands of the future Palestinian state.
As for the issue of refugees and their right to return to their homes or receive compensation for whoever does not wish to practice this right, this is a timeless right. Also, no Palestinian official at any level can concede this right or compromise over it.
It is enough that the PLO has already recognized Israel’s right to exist within the pre-1976 borders on 78% of the historical Palestine. This recognition in itself is the biggest and most painful concession in Palestinian contemporary history. So, in this case, there is nothing the Palestinians could possibly concede or relinquish. This is a fact that all international parties, including the United States, must realize and always keep into consideration. (Al Quds)
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