Nasheman

India's largest selling Urdu weekly, now also in English

You are here: Home / Archives for Palestine

The ancient mosques of Gaza in ruins: How Israel's war endangered Palestine's cultural heritage

by

The damage done to these sites has undermined the territory's social infrastructure. For the residents of Gaza, many of the targeted mosques provided social, educational and health facilities. Photo: Mohammad Asad

The damage done to these sites has undermined the territory’s social infrastructure. For the residents of Gaza, many of the targeted mosques provided social, educational and health facilities. Photo: Mohammad Asad

– by Ahmad Nafi, Middle East Monitor

In the aftermath of Operation Protective Edge, Israel’s 51 day military assault, the Palestinians in Gaza are faced with the huge task of reconstruction. Most of the shattered civilian infrastructure can be replaced, but Palestine’s cultural heritage in Gaza, built over a thousand years and more, has been damaged irrevocably. Many of Gaza’s most ancient sites have been left in ruins by Israel’s attack on the territory. Houses of worship, tombs, charity offices and cemeteries have all been damaged by the shelling, but Gaza’s historic mosques have been the worst affected. Many of these sites date back to the time of the first Islamic caliphs, the Ottoman Empire and the Mamluk Sultanate.

Protective Edge damaged 203 mosques, of which 73 were destroyed completely. Two churches were also damaged, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs. The targeting of mosques by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) in the latest offensive was three times more than in the 2008-2009 attack, the ministry’s report said.

The destruction of Gaza’s ancient mosques has brought the total losses incurred by the religious affairs ministry to an estimated $50 million, said Dr Hassan Al-Saifi, its undersecretary in the Gaza Strip.

“There are a number of ancient mosques that hold memories of the Islamic and Arab history in Gaza,” said Al-Saifi, “and of course, the people are incredibly saddened over the loss of this heritage.” The losses are likely to deny future generations their history as well as the material and economic benefits that might be acquired from these sites.

The most significant of those mosques which were destroyed was the 7th century Al-Omari Mosque in Jabaliya, Gaza’s oldest and largest. Named after the second caliph Umar bin Al-Khattab, it dates back to 649 AD, making it 1,365 years old. It accommodated 2,000 worshippers for the congregational prayers. The portico and minaret were built 500 years ago during the Mamluk period; it was destroyed by Israel on 2 August 2014 and its hallmark minaret and courtyard stands in ruins.

The Great Omari Mosque tells the story of Gaza’s civilisation and cultural history as it is believed to stand on the site of a former Philistine temple and a later 5th Century Byzantine church. It has acted as an important landmark ever since it was built.

Close by, Gaza’s second oldest mosque was also reduced to ruins. Al-Sham’ah Mosque was destroyed on 23 July in Hayy Al-Najjarin in Al-Zaytun Quarter in Gaza’s Old City. It was built 700 years ago, in 1315, by the Mamluk Governor.

Another historic site was razed to the ground on the following day. The Mahkamah Mosque was a fine example of Mamluk architecture located off the main Baghdad Street in the Shuja’iyya neighbourhood. It featured a Mamluk minaret and florally-decorated arch at its entrance and was built in 1455 on the orders of Sayf Al-Din Birdibak Al-Ashrafi, a member of the sultan’s staff. Shuja’iyya neighbourhood experienced some of the most intense shelling of the war in July that resulted in thousands of residents being forced to flee their homes.

The large Omar Ibn Abd al-Aziz Mosque in the Strip’s northern city of Beit Hanoun is a modern building but is a central mosque that serves a large segment of the town. It was destroyed by shelling on 25 August. Other destroyed mosques of cultural significance include the centuries-old Al-Montar Mosque and tomb, hit on 11 July.

Gaza’s only 3 churches also fell victim to the conflict. The Orthodox Church of St Porphyrius is the oldest church in Gaza, dating to the 1150s, in Al-Zaytun Quarter of the Old City. The church’s cemetery was damaged when the area was shelled in July in another attack on Gaza’s rich religious heritage. Gaza Baptist Church received major damage from the shelling of a police station nearby and Gaza’s Latin Church had damage to peripheral buildings owned by the parish.

These sites have historical importance and provided irreplaceable material evidence of Palestinian culture and history. Al-Saifi believes that by destroying mosques, “the occupation was erasing the historical proof and evidence of our presence in Palestine.”

The devastation of hundreds of years of Gaza’s Islamic history would be expected to have done harm to Gaza’s identity, but Al-Saifi insists that Israel could not erase the Palestinian memory and the peoples’ right to exist. “I believe that the Israelis will not succeed in this because to us, mosques are not merely stones, but hold great and holy value to all of the Muslim generations.”

The damage to these irreplaceable landmarks has led Israel to claim that it targeted mosques and civilian buildings used for military purposes, such as the stockpiling of weapons and as meeting points for the fighters of the Qassam Brigades. The IDF alleged that Hamas “cruelly abused mosques by using them for terror activities” in a statement to the Associated Press.

Hamas has denied the accusation and many in Gaza feel that the allegation is an attack on their way of life. “Every citizen in Gaza is proud of these fighters,” Dr Al-Saifi said, “and mosques are completely open places; they do not contain any shelters or secret rooms, they are open houses of worship.” He went on to say that Israel knowingly targets civilian sites. “There is no doubt that the Israeli intelligence agencies have their eyes and ears in Gaza, and they are certain that these are fabrications.”

The damage done to these sites has undermined the territory’s social infrastructure. For the residents of Gaza, many of the targeted mosques provided social, educational and health facilities.

The Palestinians are of the opinion that Israel does not distinguish between military and civilian targets in their aggression against Gaza. Their suspicions appear to be validated by UN OCHA figures released in a recent report. They suggest that at least 80 per cent of those killed were civilians. These figures indicate that Israel has found little difficulty in treating civilian infrastructure as legitimate military targets considering that it has targeted churches and other buildings not accused of being used by Qassam fighters.

Many have noted Israel’s disproportionate use of force in areas that it associates with enemy fighters. It is an army that is used to inflicting widespread devastation on the civilian population, which is supposed to serve as a deterrent.

For Al-Saifi, this strategy is abhorrent: “Honestly, the targeting of mosques on such an unprecedented large-scale reflects the barbaric and brutal nature of the Israeli occupation, and the army’s frustration and sense of failure, as it reached an impasse. It resorted to targeting civilians and places of worship, which have been guaranteed protection and immunity under all international conventions.”

The pursuit of collective punishment is an international war crime and it appears that these violations by Israel have been observed clearly by international institutions. The retiring UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, condemned the operations in Gaza. In a statement to Britain’s Guardian newspaper she said, “There seems to be a strong possibility that international law has been violated.”

In a similar incident, despite being given the coordinates of UNRWA schools they were bombed under the pretext of the presence of missiles. “Even though the Arab and foreign UNRWA spokesperson stressed and confirmed that the occupation’s claims were fabricated,” complained Al-Saifi. The UN has condemned the bombing of these schools and notified the IDF of their locations repeatedly. It was alleged by Israel that mosques and UNRWA schools all facilitated the activities of the Palestinian resistance groups.

Because of this, Al-Saifi has questioned Israel over its accusations of “terror” activities in historic mosques; he believes that the world has seen through Israel’s empty justifications of war crimes. “All of the international community organisations and international observers know that these are lies.”

Indeed, the targeting of religious and cultural sites as civilian sites constitutes a violation of international humanitarian law; it is covered by Article 4 of the Hague Convention of 1954 for the Protection of Cultural Property. Under this convention, all feasible precautions must be taken to avoid damage of cultural property in cases of war. It is also designated a criminal act under Article 8 of the ICC Statute which stipulates that “intentionally directing attacks against buildings dedicated to religion…[and] historic monuments… constitutes a war crime.”

In recent months, the destruction of historic monuments and houses of worship has usually been associated with radical groups like Islamic State (ISIS) rather than state actors like Israel. In July, ISIS destroyed the mosque of Prophet Younis (Jonah) in Mosul and several Shiite Mosques in Iraq. ISIS’s presence has warranted considerable responses from the international community. Yet Israel’s attack on Gaza’s heritage of the same nature has created little response.

The international community and Israel itself will be reluctant to label the assault on Gaza an act of terror. Domestically, it is believed that Israel’s agenda of eliminating the people of the Gaza Strip in the name of “security” stands above criticism from anyone and everyone. “Israel wanted to give itself an excuse” to commit acts of brutality, claims Al-Saifi.

In Palestine, there has been considerable pressure to get the international community to hold Israel to account for its actions. “The Palestinian Authority,” insists Al-Saifi, “must go to the ICC in The Hague… in order for us to witness the occupation being prosecuted, just as the criminals in Yugoslavia and Bosnia were prosecuted.”

Israel’s occupation is more complex than a Genocide

by

Israel-Genocide

– by Jonathan Cook

Israeli officials were caught in a revealing lie late last month as the country celebrated the Jewish New Year. Shortly after declaring the most popular boy’s name in Israel to be “Yosef”, the interior ministry was forced to concede that the top slot was actually filled by “Mohammed”.

That small deceit coincided with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’s speech at the United Nations. He outraged Israelis by referring to Israel’s slaughter of more than 2,100 Palestinians – most of them civilians – in Gaza over the summer as “genocide”.

Both incidents served as a reminder of the tremendous power of a single word.

Most Israelis are barely able to contemplate the possibility that their Jewish state could be producing more Mohammeds than Moshes. At the same time, and paradoxically, Israel can point to the sheer number of “Mohammeds” to demonstrate that at worst it is eradicating the visibility of a Muslim name, certainly not its bearers.

As distressing as it is, hundreds of dead in Gaza is far from the industrial-scale murder of the Nazi Holocaust.

But the idea that Israel is committing genocide may not be quite as hyperbolic as is assumed. Last month a “jury” featuring international law experts at a people’s court, known as the Russell Tribunal, into Israel’s recent attack on Gaza concluded that Israel was guilty of “incitement to genocide”. The panel argued that Israel’s long-term collective punishment of Palestinians was designed to “inflict conditions of life calculated to bring about the incremental destruction of the Palestinians as a group”.

The tribunal’s language intentionally echoed that of Raphael Lemkin, a Polish Jew and lawyer who after fleeing Nazi Europe succeeded in introducing the term “genocide” into international law.

Lemkin and the UN convention’s drafters understood that genocide did not require death camps; it could also be achieved gradually through intentional and systematic abuse and neglect. Their definition raises troubling questions about Israel’s treatment of Gaza, aside from military attacks. Does, for example, forcing the enclave’s two million inhabitants to depend on acquifers polluted with seawater constitute genocide?

The real problem with Mr Abbas’s use of the term – given that it conflicts with popular notions of genocide – is that it made him an easy target for critics. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, accused the Palestinian leader of “incitement”. The Israeli left, meanwhile, decried his wild and unhelpful exaggeration.

But the critics themselves have contributed more heat than light.

Not only do experts like Richard Falk and John Dugard view Israel’s actions in genocide-like terms, but notable Israeli scholars have done so too. The late Baruch Kimmerling invented a word, “politicide”, to convey more safely the idea of an Israeli genocide against Palestinians.

Israel has nonetheless successfully ring-fenced itself from the critical lexicon applied to comparable situations around the globe.

In conflicts where a mass expulsion of an ethnic or national group occurs, it is rightly identified as ethnic cleansing. In Israel’s case, however, respectable historians still equivocate over the events of 1948, even though more than 80 per cent of Palestinians were forced out by Israel as it established a Jewish state on their homeland.

Similarly with “apartheid”. For decades anyone who used the word about Israel was dismissed as an extremist or anti-Semite. Only in the last few years – and chiefly because of former US president Jimmy Carter – has the word gained a tentative foothold.

Even then, its main use is as a warning rather than a description of Israel’s behaviour: diehard adherents of two states aver that Israel is in danger of becoming an apartheid state at some indefinable moment if it does not separate from the Palestinians.

Instead, we are told to suffice with the label “occupation”. But that implies a temporary state of affairs, a transition before normality is restored – precisely the opposite of what is happening in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, where the occupation is entrenching, morphing and metastasising.

Those guarding the critical lexicon strip us of a terminology to convey the appalling reality faced by Palestinians, not just as individuals but as a national group. In truth, Israel’s strategy incorporates variants of ethnic cleansing, apartheid and genocide.

Observers, including the European Union, concede that Israel continues with incremental ethnic cleansing – though they prefer the more obscure “forcible transfer” – of Palestinians from so-called Area C, nearly two-thirds of the West Bank.

Israel has mastered, too, a sophisticated apartheid – partly veiled by its avoidance of the more visual aspects of segregation associated with South Africa – that grabs resources, just like its famous cousin, for one ethnic-national group, Jews, at the expense of another, Palestinians.

But unlike South African apartheid, whose fixed legal and institutional systems of separation gradually became torpid and unwieldy, Israel’s remains dynamic and responsive. Few observers know, for example, that almost all residential land in Israel is off-limits to Palestinian citizens, enforced through vetting committees recently given sanction by the Israeli courts.

And what to make of a plan just disclosed by the Israeli media indicating that Mr Netanyahu and his allies have been secretly plotting to force many Palestinians into Sinai, with the US arm-twisting the Egyptians into agreement? If true, the bombing campaigns of the past six years may be better understood as softening-up operations before a mass expulsion from Gaza.

Such a policy would certainly satisfy Lemkin’s definition of genocide.

One day doubtless, a historian will coin a word to describe Israel’s unique strategy of incrementally destroying the Palestinian people. Sadly, by then it may be too late to help the Palestinians.

Jonathan Cook is a Nazareth- based journalist and winner of the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. http://www.jonathan-cook.net/

The Voice of Women In Gaza

by

A radio broadcaster sits in the sound booth at NISAA FM radio station, which focuses on women's issues, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, July 9, 2012. (photo by REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman)

A radio broadcaster sits in the sound booth at NISAA FM radio station. (photo by REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman)

A Gaza based women’s radio station was destroyed in the last days of the Israeli war, when the 14 story building housing the studio was brought down as an act of terrorizing the population.

Gaza’s Nisaa FM was located in Basha towers inside an office building in the north of Gaza. The tower was a target for Israeli assault on August 26th, and the whole building, including Nisaa Gaza radio office, collapsed.

The office contained all the equipment, radio studio, computer training lab, the archive and furniture within. They took it upon themselves to not stop running the radio, and started working from a volunteer’s home.

Nisaa FM wants to rebuild its offices, so the channel can return its full potential, be productive and regain its hub for women in the Gaza strip.

We are producing Nisaa FM’s appeal to its well wishers and supporters to come forward to its assistance.

The Voice of Women In Gaza

A group of us, women from across Gaza, have come together in 2013 to form the first online community radio for women in the Gaza Strip. Not only we were proudly taking part in democratizing communications in our country, but we created a platform to share first hand our challenges, our findings and our voice on all fronts. It is a challenge for Arab women to be outspoken, let alone creating a community radio managed by women in Gaza. We helped pass this opportunity forward to the women of our community through a training center dedicated to training women on the use of multi-media. This will give them the chance to participate in the forms of communication, accessing information and the production of high quality material.

We help women of Gaza fully understand their rights; provide them the knowledge and the tools to apply their freedoms on ground depending on themselves, fighting their own injustices, involving their community and reflecting positively on the generations to come.

Our goals are:

  • Recognizing women’s role in communication and media, elevating the media scene for women journalists in Gaza
  • Bringing awareness to public on women’s issues and opinion, especially those living in marginalized areas in Gaza.
  • Women documenting stories of the oppressed within the Gaza community
  • Recruiting men and women to fight for gender equality in Gaza

Appeal

Since our office building has been destroyed, we will need to locate to a different location. At the new location, we will need to rebuild a modest radio studio, purchase equipment and furniture for the radio, training labs, and general office furniture. This includes studio equipment, recording equipment, 10 computers, a generator, and office furniture. We have estimated the amount needed to operate at our original capacity at $18,000.

What you get

For any funding we receive, we are ready to send you special handcrafts made by women of Gaza, which reflects on our culture and heritage.

Other ways you can help

Spread the word about our campaign through your social media networks and any other way you feel that could help us reach our maximum potential!!

To contribute: http://igg.me/p/939422/x

You can reach Nisaa FM at:

qaryamedia@gmail.com

www.nisaagaza.com

https://www.facebook.com/nisaagaza1

'US won’t decide our policies' – Sweden on Palestinian state recognition

by

palestine-resist

– by RT

Washington will not be the one to decide Sweden’s policies, Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström said after the US criticized Stockholm’s plans to officially recognize Palestine as a sovereign state.

“It’s not the US that decides our politics,” Wallström said, adding that the new Swedish authorities expected to “get criticism” after their announcement on Palestinian statehood.

However, the minister stressed that Stockholm “will continue the constructive dialogue with the US to explain our motives and reasons for this,” Aftonbladet newspaper reported.

In his first speech before the country’s parliament on Friday, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven promised that Sweden will “recognize the states of Palestine.”

Margot Wallström, the Swedish foreign minister (Reuters/Srdjan Zivulovic)

READ MORE: Sweden to become first EU country to officially recognize State of Palestine

He added that the conflict with Israel “can only be solved with a two-state solution, negotiated in accordance with international law.”

If the initiative is approved by parliament, Sweden will become the first EU member to recognize Palestine as an independent state.

But Sweden’s plans were not welcomed by the US, Israel’s top ally, which warned the Scandinavians against rushing into things.

“We believe international recognition of a Palestinian state is premature,” US State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said. “We certainly support Palestinian statehood, but it can only come through a negotiated outcome, a resolution of final status issues and mutual recognitions by both parties.”

She added that Israel and Palestine must be the ones “to agree on the terms on how they live in the future two states, living side-by-side.”

The Social Democrats gained power in Sweden during the general election in September, following eight years of conservative rule.

Prime Minister Lofven also promised to adjust Sweden’s foreign policy, which would include the country giving up on its aspirations to join NATO.

The Palestinian Authority is aiming to establish an independent state in the territories of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, with East Jerusalem serving as the capital.

Israel captured both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip during the Six Day War in 1967.

East Jerusalem was later annexed as part of Israel’s indivisible capital, though this move has never been recognized internationally. Israel is also actively building settlements in the West Bank which are considered illegal by the UN.

Israel launched a 50-day military operation in the densely populated Gaza area this summer, which saw over 2,100 Palestinians – mainly civilians – killed and some 18,000 homes destroyed.

Prisoner from Jerusalem deprived of seeing newborn son

by

An image circulated on Facebook shows Nasser Abed Rabbo holding his first-born son, Amir. Once again behind bars, he has yet to meet his son Ali, born in August.

An image circulated on Facebook shows Nasser Abed Rabbo holding his first-born son, Amir. Once again behind bars, he has yet to meet his son Ali, born in August.

– by Budour Youssef Hassan, The Electronic Intifada

Little Amir was sleeping in his mother’s lap. His first birthday had recently been celebrated and he had started walking. His mother was expecting to give birth to another son within a few weeks. Strong winds blew outside but otherwise it had been a quiet night. But not for long.

In the early hours of that morning on 18 June, Amir’s father, Nasser Abed Rabbo, was kidnapped by Israeli soldiers. Masked and heavily armed, the soldiers broke into his family’s home after they had stormed the Sur Baher area of occupied East Jerusalem.

Abed Rabbo had previously spent 24 years behind Israeli bars; he was sentenced by a civilian court to life in prison after being charged with leading an armed resistance cell. His sentence was later commuted to 38 years and he was eventually released as part of a prisoner exchange deal struck between Israel and Hamas in October 2011.

“At 2:55am we saw dozens of masked soldiers approaching our home. They started knocking at the door with their feet and rifles. Nasser knew they had come here for him so he asked me to hide his phone for fear it would be confiscated,” Abed Rabbo’s wife, Fatima, told The Electronic Intifada.

“They dragged Nasser, who was in his pajamas. Nasser resisted and pushed them away from me. I quickly brought him some clothes and shoes to wear,” she added.

“One soldier told me in Arabic, don’t worry, we are just taking him for interrogation and he will return soon. They then handcuffed and blindfolded him. Nasser’s mother, who lives next to us, started screaming. She is 85 and has become all too familiar with such scenes.”

Nasser Abed Rabbo has still not returned home.

Attorney general’s order

Abed Rabbo was one of seven Jerusalemites released under the 2011 agreement who were re-arrested that same night.

The other six are Ismail Hijazi, Adnan Maragha, Alaa Bazian, Jamal Abu Saleh, Rajab al-Tahan and Ibrahim Mishaal.

At the time of his arrest, Maragha’s wife was due to give birth to their first child within two months; meanwhile, Bazian had previously spent thirty years in Israeli jails, losing his sight completely in 1979.

Yehuda Weinstein, Israel’s attorney general, issued a request to re-incarcerate all seven Jerusalemites on 24 June, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.

The Israeli authorities used the disappearance of three Israeli teenagers in the occupied West Bank that month as a pretext to round up hundreds of Palestinians. Prisoners who had been released after the 2011 deal were particularly targeted.

Across Jerusalem and the wider West Bank, 51 Palestinians who had been released under that deal were re-arrested on 18 June.

In total, 131 of the 824 prisoners released to the West Bank (including Jerusalem) as part of the deal have been re-arrested, Haaretz reported on 23 June. Israel has accused these Palestinians of violating the terms of their release and most are awaiting trial in military courts; sixty-one of them face completion of their original sentences, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club.

Palestinians released to Jerusalem following the 2011 deal have been prohibited from traveling elsewhere in the occupied West Bank or abroad. They have been ordered to report monthly to the police station based in the Russian Compound area of Jerusalem.

Secret evidence

On 15 July, a committee appointed by the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, to examine alleged violations of the prisoner exchange deal decided that six of the seven Jerusalemites re-arrested in June should complete their previous life sentences. Only Ibrahim Mishaal was released, according to the Samidoun Prisoners Solidarity Support Network.

Based in Haifa, the committee is headed by a former judge and includes representatives of the Israel Prison Service.

“The committee charged them with returning to ‘terrorist activity,’ membership in terrorist organizations and other violations of the terms of the deal,” said Ramzi Kteilat, the prisoners’ attorney.

“The decision was taken based on secret evidence presented by the public prosecution and intelligence services that neither the lawyers nor the prisoners were allowed access to,” he added.

“How can you possibly repudiate their claims if we don’t even know the exact charges against them or the evidence used against them? This decision is in flagrant violation of the prisoners’ right to due process.”

The six are scheduled to appear for a hearing in Nazareth’s District Court on 2 October. Fatima, Nasser Abed Rabbo’s wife, is awaiting that hearing with trepidation.

“We don’t know what to expect and this is perhaps the worst part about it. Their arrest is purely political and our greatest concern is that the decision of the committee will be upheld,” she said.

“Ibrahim Mishaal’s release gave us a glimmer of hope but it was soon extinguished. I expect Nasser’s release at any moment but I also fear the worse. This unpredictability hurts.”

Despite her anguish, Fatima grinned while recalling a conversation she had with Nasser a few weeks before she gave birth to their new son.

“He called me while in prison, with a mobile phone that was smuggled to the prisoners and later confiscated by the prison guards, and asked, how’s Ali doing? I asked him, who’s Ali? He said he would like to call the baby Ali.”

Ali was born on 3 August, a few hours after Fatima returned from a visit to Nasser in Gilboa prison.

“I started feeling pain when I was visiting him,” she said. He told me, I’m sure you’ll give birth today. I laughed and said that I’m not due until 10 August, but he was right.

“I went into labor when I was on my way back from the prison. My brother was with me, but I desperately wanted Nasser to be with us. He couldn’t be there with me; he couldn’t hold his second child. All we could do is send him pictures of the newborn baby through friends who are visiting the prison.”

Taste of freedom

Nasser was twenty years old when he was arrested in February 1988. Since his release, he had been trying to build a new life.

He had married Fatima, his neighbor, soon afterwards. They had “the best possible honeymoon,” she said.

“We went to Haifa, the occupied Golan, Jaffa … Nasser especially loved Jaffa. One of his cellmates who spent 29 years in Israeli occupation jails is from Jaffa and we regularly visited him after his release.

“He [Nasser] loved spending hours at the beach. Now that he has finally tasted freedom after 24 years of imprisonment, he’s suddenly back to being behind bars, not knowing if and when he’ll be out again.”

Fatima does not expect justice from Israel’s courts. But she is determined not to lose hope. She is finding solace in the mutual support from the mothers and wives of the other prisoners.

“We share so much in common,” she said. “Our partners have all spent more than twenty years in jail, they were released together and re-arrested together. We draw strength from each other.”

Budour Youssef Hassan is a Palestinian anarchist and law graduate based in occupied Jerusalem. She can be followed on Twitter: @Budour48.

Sweden to become first EU country to officially recognize State of Palestine

by

palestine-resist

Sweden’s newly-formed center-left government is set to recognize Palestine as a sovereign state, said Prime Minister Stefan Lofven. If Stockholm proceeds with the move it will be the first EU-member to officially endorse Palestinian statehood.

“The conflict between Israel can only be solved with a two-state solution, negotiated in accordance with international law,” Lofven said in the parliament as he made his first speech as PM on Friday.

The Social democrat leader added that the “two-state solution requires mutual recognition and a will to peaceful co-existence.”

“Sweden will therefore recognize the state of Palestine,” he concluded.

If Stockholm officially proceeds with the motion, it will be the first member of the European Union to recognize Palestinian statehood. Some European countries have already recognized the state of Palestine, however they did so before entering the 28-member bloc.

Ireland and Cyprus have upgraded Palestinian representation in Dublin to full embassy status in recent years joining other European countries such as Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia.

Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Lofven. (Reuters/laudio Bresciani)

In November 2012, the UN General Assembly voted 138 to nine, with 41 abstentions, to change Palestine’s ‘entity’ status to ‘non-member observer state’. Palestinian statehood is mainly opposed by Israel and its key ally the US.

Sweden’s conservative government abstained from vote in the 2012 General Assembly, for which it was criticized by the opposition parties.

In September, Sweden held government elections which resulted in a shift to the left after eight years of conservative rule.

On Friday, Lofven announced his new cabinet, with Green Party spokesperson Asa Romson as his Deputy and Social Democrat Margot Wallström as Foreign Minister.

The new PM promised to change Sweden’s foreign policy adding that Sweden won’t seek membership of NATO, but won’t abstain from action if another country is attacked.

The Palestinian authority is aiming to establish an independent state in the territories of the Gaza strip the West Bank, with the capital in East Jerusalem. However the boundaries of the latter two are not clearly identified.

Israel captured both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as a result of the Six-Day War in the Middle East in 1967. Captured East Jerusalem was later annexed as part of Israel’s indivisible capital, though this move has never been recognized internationally.

Israel has been building settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza and the Golan Heights, which the international community has acknowledged to be illegal and hampering the peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Israeli settlement issue was among the reasons that led to the derailment of the peace talks between the conflicting sides in April. In September, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he would seek a UN Security Council resolution to demand a “firm timetable” to stop Israeli occupation.

Source

Jerusalem Archbishop: Israeli aggression on Al-Aqsa targets Muslims and Christians

by

The Bishop stressed that the continuous Zionist aggression is targeting 'both Muslims and Christians, as well as all formations of the Arab nation'

The Bishop stressed that the continuous Zionist aggression is targeting ‘both Muslims and Christians, as well as all formations of the Arab nation’

– by Middle East Monitor

Archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Church in Jerusalem Atallah Hanna said on Tuesday that the Israeli aggression on Al-Aqsa Mosque is an aggression on both Muslims and Christians, Jordanian newspaper Addustour reported.

In a recorded speech broadcast during a celebration in Jordan entitled “Resistance is the way to liberate land and return” organised to celebrate Gaza’s “victory”, Atallah said: “It was planned that I be with you here, but the Israeli occupation prevented me.”

He added: “Targeting the Gaza Strip means targeting Jerusalem and all the Palestinian lands.” He hailed the Palestinian unity and called for more harmony among Palestinians in order to be able to face the occupation’s policies which are aimed at Judaising Jerusalem and erasing the Palestinian identity.

The Bishop stressed that the continuous Zionist aggression is targeting “both Muslims and Christians, as well as all formations of the Arab nation.”

Atallah reiterated the importance of solidarity with the Gaza Strip, Amman, Jerusalem and all Arab cities, noting that “all wounds are the same and all suffering is the same as long as the aim is the same.”

Imad Momani, head of Al-Zarqa city where the celebration was held, said that the “Gaza Battle” was a “lesson” for the Zionists. Gaza, which represented the “most wonderful legend in the history”, was a “burial” site for the Zionists.

He hailed the Jordanian staff at the Jordanian Field Hospital which was setup in Gaza at the end of the Israeli assault on the Strip in 2008/2009. He also hailed the King of Jordan who asked for the hospital to be setup.

Momani called on all Jordanians to take the Gazans as an example as to how to fight the “monstrous” Israeli occupation.

How to boycott Israel: updated guidelines for academics

by

A Palestinian man inspects a classroom damaged by an Israeli air strike at a school in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, 24 August. (Abed Rahim Khatib / APA images)

A Palestinian man inspects a classroom damaged by an Israeli air strike at a school in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, 24 August. (Abed Rahim Khatib / APA images)

– by Ali Abunimah, Electronic Intifada

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) recently updated its guidelines on how to apply the international academic and cultural boycott of Israel.

This comes at a crucial moment – in the wake of Israel’s latest spasm of horrifying destruction and mass killing in Gaza, and after a period of unprecedented growth in support for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS).

Calls for academic boycott will resonate more than ever particularly in light of Israel’s recent bomb attacks on university facilities in Gaza, its violent raids on universities in the West Bank and the financial and political support Israeli universities have themselves given to the carnage.

Right now, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children in Gaza are not going back to school on time as a direct consequence of the Israeli devastation, while in the West Bank young children face such violence as tear gas fired at them on their way to class.

The school year in Gaza was scheduled to begin on 23 August but has been postponed; Israeli attacks since 7 July killed more than 500 children and injured thousands. In total220 schools were damaged, 22 of which were completely destroyed.

Children will not be able to go back to class until “war-damaged schools” are repaired and “unexploded ordnance” removed, the UN says.

When children do go back to class, learning will certainly be an even bigger challenge due to the fact that virtually the entire child population in Gaza is in need of psychosocial support due to the trauma of Israel’s 51-day bombardment.

Practical guidance

The updated PACBI guidelines are important for two reasons: they provide a practical reference that can be used to decide if a specific activity is boycottable and they can be used to debunk false claims made by opponents of the boycott, for example that the boycott stifles “academic freedom.”

A common false claim is that PACBI has called for a blanket boycott of Israeli individuals or even of Jewish individuals.

But, PACBI states: “Anchored in precepts of international law and universal human rights, the BDS movement, including PACBI, rejects on principle boycotts of individuals based on their identity (such as citizenship, race, gender, or religion) or opinion.”

A person’s activities are boycottable, however, when “an individual is representing the state of Israel or a complicit Israeli institution (such as a dean, rector, or president), or is commissioned/recruited to participate in Israel’s efforts to ‘rebrand’ itself.”

There are other circumstances as well, as the guidelines detail.

The PACBI guidelines “are mainly intended to assist conscientious academics and academic bodies around the world to be in harmony with the Palestinian call for boycott, as a contribution towards upholding international law and furthering the struggle for freedom, justice and equality.”

PACBI urges:

academics, academic associations/unions, and academic – as well as other – institutions around the world, where possible and as relevant, to boycott and/or work towards the cancellation or annulment of events, activities, agreements, or projects involving Israeli academic institutions or that otherwise promote the normalization of Israel in the global academy, whitewash Israel’s violations of international law and Palestinian rights, or violate the BDS guidelines.

Normalization and “fig-leafing”

Many Palestinians reject initiatives that they say constitute “normalization.” But what does this mean? Here is the definition provided by PACBI:

Academic activities and projects involving Palestinians and/or other Arabs on one side and Israelis on the other (whether bi- or multilateral) that are based on the false premise of symmetry/parity between the oppressors and the oppressed or that claim that both colonizers and colonized are equally responsible for the “conflict” are intellectually dishonest and morally reprehensible forms of normalization that ought to be boycotted.

Far from challenging the unjust status quo, such projects contribute to its endurance. Examples include events, projects, or publications that are designed explicitly to bring together Palestinians/Arabs and Israelis so they can present their respective narratives or perspectives, or to work toward reconciliation without addressing the root causes of injustice and the requirements of justice.

The guidelines gives examples of forms of joint activity that are and are not normalization and also warn against “fig-leafing”:

International academics who insist on crossing the BDS “picket line” by pursuing activities with boycottable Israeli institutions and then visiting Palestinian institutions or groups for “balance,” violate the boycott guidelines and contribute to the false perception of symmetry between the colonial oppressor and the colonized. The BNC (including PACBI) rejects this attempt at “fig-leafing” and does not welcome such visits to Palestinian institutions.

PACBI’s updated guidelines for cultural boycott are here.

The full academic boycott guidelines are here.

Israel announces 'unprecedented' land seizure

by

Anti-settlement group says move is “proof that Prime Minister Netanyahu does not aspire for a new ‘Diplomatic Horizon'”

An Israeli soldier looks on during a protest in the village of Al Ma'sara. (Photo: Kelleelund)

An Israeli soldier looks on during a protest in the village of Al Ma’sara. (Photo: kelleelund)

– by Andrea Germanos

Israel announced on Sunday it was seizing 988 acres of land in the West Bank, an amount described as ‘unprecedented’ by a peace organization.

The appropriation is reportedly in retaliation for the kidnapping of three Israeli teens in June.

According to reporting by Haaretz, “The appropriated land belongs to five Palestinian villages in the Bethlehem area: Jaba, Surif, Wadi Fukin, Husan and Nahalin.”

Ma’an News adds:

Part of the lands being confiscated are already home to the illegal Jewish settlement of Gvaot, part of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc.

Local settlers moved into the area and took over Palestinian land with military support more than a decade ago, but have been living in an area technically unrecognized by Israeli authorities despite their armed protection.

Anti-settlement group Peace Now called the land appropriation “unprecedented in its scope since the 1980’s.” A statement by the group continues:

Peace Now views this declaration as proof that Prime Minister Netanyahu does not aspire for a new ‘Diplomatic Horizon’ but rather, he continues to put obstacles to the two state vision and promote a one state solution. Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ya’alon are directly responsible to the declaration, which cannot pass without their approval. By declaring another 4,000 dunams [988 acres] as state land, the Israeli government stabs President Abbas and the moderate Palestinian forces in the back, proving again that violent delivers Israeli concessions while nonviolence results in settlement expansion.

Source

Egypt evicts Rafah residents to create buffer zone

by

Egyptian soldiers stand guard on a mosque's minaret in the Egyptian city of Rafah, Sept. 8, 2013. (Photo: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)

Egyptian soldiers stand guard on a mosque’s minaret in the Egyptian city of Rafah, Sept. 8, 2013. (Photo: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)

– by Al-Monitor

Rafah, Egypt: Concern has spread among residents of the border areas in the northern Sinai Peninsula following the Egyptian army’s planned establishment of a buffer zone on the Egyptian side of Rafah along the border with the Gaza Strip.

The undeclared move prompted local concern that a new reality is being secretly shaped, and that the government has adopted a policy of strategic patience to draw the map of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the expense of the people in Sinai.

The Egyptian army has stated its military operations in Sinai are part of the war on terrorism, yet residents believe the operations are designed to forcibly displace them.

Informed authority sources told Al-Monitor that the army’s plan to establish a buffer zone will take two years to implement and will necessitate the razing of homes located about a kilometer (0.6 miles) inside the Rafah border. The plan also necessitates building a large barrier equipped with surveillance cameras and lights, and deploying ground sensors to abort any Palestinian attempts to dig tunnels or smuggle arms.

An official source explained that several countries seek to achieve stability in the area and will help the Egyptian authorities fund the project. The source refused to name these countries.

On the reasons behind the establishment of the buffer zone, the source said, “Every country has the right to preserve its borders as it deems fit. No country in the world accepts that its rights be violated the way they are violated on the border with the Gaza Strip.”

The source said that homes will be razed to empty the area in preparation for the so-called protection of the national security project. He said the government, not the army, is the authority designated to compensate residents and talk about whether their rights are legitimate.

The source added, “The establishment of a buffer zone on the border is of absolute necessity to preserve Egyptian national security, particularly with the growing plans to export the Palestinian cause to Egyptian territory, away from its natural context. Thus, we cannot be emotional while thinking of the [population] displacement issue.”

A source who is a member of the Sawarka tribe and close to Sinai authorities told Al-Monitor that the border operations — namely, the demolition of houses — are designed to control the area where Hamas is promoting its influence through the tunnels.

Rafah resident Um Ibrahim told Al-Monitor how her family’s house on the Gaza border was blown up. “The army blew up our house, claiming there were tunnels. This is totally untrue. We told them, ‘If there are indeed tunnels, blow us up with the house.’ The officer replied, ‘Relax, all of the houses in [the Egyptian side of] Rafah will be destroyed and razed. Forget about this area and find yourself another place to live in. This is about Egypt’s national security,’” she said.

Um Ibrahim added, “If the area will be used to preserve the security of Egypt, we demand the government provide us a place to live.”

According to residents of the border area, the attempts to displace them began when Hamas came to power in the Gaza Strip. In 2009, ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak attempted to build a separation barrier made of steel in the highly populated border area. Other attempts were made to dig a 10-kilometer (6-mile) stream of water along the Gaza border.

At the time, Egyptian authorities said the steel barrier was designed to preserve national security and halt smuggling operations through the tunnels. Mubarak’s buffer zone was never completed following local objections broadcast in the Egyptian media, the escalation in the Gaza Strip and Palestinian portrayal of the issue as an Egyptian attempt to tighten the siege on Gaza.

Residents of the Egyptian side of Rafah said that drilling equipment shakes the ground and further cracks the foundations of their houses. Beneath the houses are tunnels, which further weaken the ground, according to Mohammed al-Barahimeh, who lives just a few meters from the border.

He told Al-Monitor, “Since 2009, the successive Egyptian authorities have tried to create a buffer zone between Egypt and Gaza at our expense and without compensation and without even providing us another place to live.”

Barahimeh said, “Mubarak failed to displace us, as we managed to express our real suffering to the public. But today, harsh plans are being implemented to displace us, while the Egyptian public opinion is being deluded with the pretext of the war on terrorism. The Egyptian people believe that the army’s actions are part of the war on terrorism.”

Authorities under Mubarak were not the only ones working to displace border residents. The Sinai residents were shocked when the Ministry of Defense under the rule of ousted President Mohammed Morsi passed a December 2012 decision, Decree No. 203, prohibiting the right to own, rent or build property located within 5 kilometers (3 miles) of the border. Sinai residents largely rejected the decision, viewing it as an attempt to halt life in the area, according to local resident Mohammed al-Manei.

Manei told Al-Monitor that it has become more difficult to stand against the army’s decisions. The army has chosen the right time to build the buffer zone. Public opinion has been mobilized against Rafah, the tunnels and Gaza, with the army linking them to the war on terrorism.

Sinai novelist Massaad Abu-Fajr told Al-Monitor, “The Egyptian government is fighting to preserve its violated border in a different way. Yet, we need to exert pressure on it to develop its means. As for the reason why the people of Sinai are paying the price, some of them did not declare their clear rejection of Hamas.”

He added, “Everything that is taking place in Sinai is the consequence of Hamas keeping its grip over the Gaza Strip, turning Sinai into a corridor for smuggling and a reservoir to store missiles and weapons. The movement is working to expel the state from Sinai by turning our children into smugglers and terrorists, and using Sinai as a place to keep criminal groups out of Gaza.”

If Hamas is ousted, said Abu-Fajr, half of Sinai’s problems will be solved.

With the aggravation of the political situation between the Egyptian and Palestinian sides, the people of Sinai remain victims until further notice.

Source

KNOW US

GET INVOLVED

PROMOTE

Archives