Issue no 44

Issue No: 44 22nd May, 2013


Read in this report:

Jerusalem committee warns of Israeli

Judaization schemes (P.3)

Jerusalem committee warns of Israeli

Judaization schemes (P.4)

Israel cancels UNESCO mission to

Jerusalem (P.5) Israel seeks to legalise four settlement

outposts in the West Bank (P.5)

Administrative detainees to start a hunger

strike at the beginning of June (P.6)

Reporter: Israeli forces arrest fishermen

(P.7)


CONTENTS

NEWS OF PALESTINE

Meshaal renews rejection of a two-state solution ...................................................................... 4

Jerusalem committee warns of Israeli Judaization schemes ...................................................... 4

Israel cancels UNESCO mission to Jerusalem .......................................................................... 5

Israel seeks to legalise four settlement outposts in the West Bank............................................ 6

Administrative detainees to start a hunger strike at the beginning of June ............................... 6

Reporter: Israeli forces arrest fishermen .................................................................................... 7

ARTICLES & ANALYSES

Israel's dirty little secret: the 'internally displaced persons' it continues to deny basic rights ... 8


Meshaal renews rejection of a two-state solution

16/05/2013

Khaled Mashaal, head of the political bureau

of Hamas movement, confirmed his

movement's adherence to resistance in

confronting the occupation and liberating

Palestine.

Meshaal's remarks came during an exclusive

interview with the American Foreign Policy

magazine, through which he stressed on

Hamas's rejection of the two-state solution and

criticized the recent visit of U.S. Secretary of

State John Kerry.

Khaled Meshaal said that Hamas will continue

the armed struggle as an option to liberate the

land, while Fatah movement has chosen to

continue its diplomatic efforts.

Meshaal renewed Hamas's rejection of a two-

state solution, stressing that his movement is

not against the Israelis because they hold a

different belief, but it struggles against the

occupation of its land.

"Palestinians are suffering from the settlement.

They are suffering in the detention camps and

in the prisons of the occupation," Meshaal said

"[We aim] to stop the suffering of our people

in Jerusalem as they are suffering from the

judaization of the city ... We want real peace

that would regain the rights of our people."

Source: PIC

___________________________________________________________________________

Jerusalem committee warns of Israeli Judaization schemes

20/05/2013

The Global March to Jerusalem (GMJ)

National Committee warned of the Israeli

endeavors to Judaize both, the Islamic and the

Christian holy places.

The committee called, during a meeting at the

PLC headquarters, to activate the political,

legal, financial, and media support for

Jerusalem's steadfastness. It also called for

mass participation in the GMJ that marks the

46th anniversary of the occupation of the

eastern part of Jerusalem and al-Aqsa mosque.

Massive marches will be organized in the

Gaza strip towards Jerusalem or the nearest

point possible to it in Beit Hanoun in the

northern Gaza Strip.

Head of the Global March to Jerusalem (GMJ)

National Committee, Prof. Ahmed Abu

Halabiya, stated that supporting Jerusalem and

Palestine is an Islamic duty, calling for a

coherent strategy for the support of Jerusalem

and Palestinian fundamentals.

He called for wide Arab, Islamic and

international participation in the GMJ in

solidarity with al-Aqsa mosque.

NEWS OF PALESTINE


Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia (PCOM) 5

The march was launched to emphasize the

Arab and Islamic character of the holy city and

al-Aqsa mosque and to thwart the Israeli

schemes to control Jerusalem, he pointed.

The International Executive Committee of the

Global March to Jerusalem announced this

year’s March to take place across the globe on

Friday 7 June 2013. This date coincides with

the 46th anniversary of the occupation of the

eastern part of the Holy City, which is home to

the al-Aqsa Mosque, the Church of the Holy

Sepulcher and other sacred sites.

Source: PIC

___________________________________________________________________________

Israel cancels UNESCO mission to Jerusalem

20/05/2013

Israeli authorities announced on Monday that

they had cancelled the UNESCO mission due

to visit the old city of Jerusalem because the

Palestinian Authority had failed to keep the

mission away from politics, media sources

reported.

Israeli radio, broadcasting in Hebrew, reported

from sources in the Israeli foreign ministry

that the decision was taken after the

Palestinian side retracted previous pledges that

the issue was not to be politicised.

"They drew a picture of the UNESCO mission

as if it was an international investigation

committee," Israeli foreign ministry sources

said.

"Palestinian foreign minister, Riad al-Maliki,

recently said they considered the mission a

"commission of inquiry," the sources said, and

that they "would discuss political issues with

the mission."

According to the Telegraph, the Israeli official

said that the Palestinians are also pushing for

the delegation to visit the Al-Aqsa Mosque,

"which is revered as Judaism's most sacred

place."

Israel agreed on the UNESCO mission, which

was due to visit the Holy city today [Monday],

in exchange for the Palestinian Authority and

the Arabic group withdrawing draft resolutions

to be filed with the international organisation.

Last month, Israeli radio revealed a

Palestinian-Jordanian agreement with Israel to

withdraw the resolution in exchange for Israel

granting permission to the UNESCO

delegation. The agreement was brokered by

the US.

Source: MEMO



Israel seeks to legalise four settlement outposts in the West Bank

17/05/2013

Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now said

on Thursday that the Netanyahu government

wants to give retroactive approval to four

unauthorized West Bank settlement outposts

already slated for demolition.

Haaretz newspaper reported that "in a

document submitted to the High Court of

Justice on Tuesday, the state said that it will

act to legalize four West Bank outposts for

which a delimitation order was issued in

2003."

The government's move, added the peace

movement, encourages settlers in their

illegality safe in the knowledge that their

outposts will be "legalised" retrospectively.

"They can thus continue to establish facts on

the ground, which harms the chances for

peace."

The outposts to be turned into "legalised"

settlements are Ma'ale Rehavam to the east of

Bethlehem; Haroeh north of Ramallah; Givat

Assaf to the east of Ramallah; and Mitzpe

Lachish south west of Hebron.

Source: Agencies

___________________________________________________________________________

Administrative detainees to start a hunger strike at the beginning

of June

17/05/2013

The Palestinian administrative prisoners in

Israeli jails decided to launch an open-ended

hunger strike at the beginning of the month of

June.

Sources in the captive movement inside the

Negev prison said that the administrative

detainees decided to go on an open-ended

hunger strike after two weeks; to demand their

release, and a stop to the persistent policy of

extending their detention without setting a date

for their release.

The sources told Quds Press on Thursday that

the prisoners are demanding to stop the policy

of administrative detention under which the

Palestinians are detained without specific

charges or trial.

According to Palestinian human rights data,

there are 218 Palestinian detainees held under

the Israeli administrative detention, mainly in

the prisons of the Negev, Ofer, Megiddo and

Hadarim.

Meanwhile, prisoner Ayman Abu Daoud, from

al-Khalil, has continued on Thursday his open

hunger strike for the 32nd day, in rejection of

the continuation of his detention.



Ayman's family said that its son continues to

refuse meals in rejection of the occupation's

attempt to issue a decision obliging him to

continue his previous sentence of 36 years

imprisonment, and from which he had already

served seven years.

The Israeli occupation forces re-arrested Abu

Dawoud in February 2012. He announced an

open-ended hunger strike on April 14.

Source: PIC

___________________________________________________________________________

Reporter: Israeli forces arrest fishermen

21/05/2013

Israeli forces detained two Palestinian

fishermen off the coast of Beit Lahiya in the

northern Gaza Strip, a Ma'an correspondent

said. Mahmoud and Khaled Zayed were taken

to an unknown location and their boat was

confiscated.

In a related context, Israeli gunships opened

their automatic gun machines on the

Palestinian fishermen along the Gaza coast in

the early morning of Monday.

Witnesses said that the shooting towards the

Palestinian fishing boats had started before

dawn and continued until morning. No

casualties have been reported.

The Israeli navy had been repeatedly shooting

at the Palestinian fishermen along the Gaza

Sea. The fishermen said they were trying to

frighten them in order to prevent them from

staying in the sea long enough to fish.

Source: Ma’an + Agencies



Israel's dirty little secret: the 'internally displaced persons' it

continues to deny basic rights

By: Dr. Daud Abdullah*

Inevitably, the 65th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba -

Catastrophe - was overshadowed by calls to exercise refugees'

right of return. Although the vast majority of Palestinians live in

forced exile and the focus tends to dwell on their plight, there is

now an estimated 370,000 'internally displaced persons' (IDPs)

within the “Israeli state”. They are also denied the right to return

to their homes and villages. No Nakba anniversary can pass

without remembering them.

Unlike their compatriots in the wider Diaspora, the displaced

Palestinians in Israel enjoy little international assistance and far

less protection. Ever since the United Nations Relief and Works

Agency (UNRWA) stopped providing services for them in

1952, they have remained refugees in their own land and

second-class citizens in the state established around them.

From the very first, Israel never intended to

accord equal rights to the 150,000 Palestinians

who remained on their land as 750,000 of their

compatriots were being driven into exile,

despite an undertaking given in its 'declaration

of independence' to 'uphold the full social and

political equality of all its citizens, without

distinction of religion, race or sex'. The

Palestinians have always been regarded as a

'fifth column' and a threat to the security of the

state. As such, they were subjected to military

rule from 1948 until 1966.

Under Israeli law, the IDPs are present in so

far as they are obliged to pay taxes but absent

in terms of their rights to employment, health

care, water and education. They were assigned

the absurd legal designation, unique to Israel,

of 'present-absentees'.

With no regard for their rights to ownership,

the state has used its Absentee Property Law

of 1950 to confiscate some 97 per cent of

Palestinian land, leaving 1.5 million

Palestinian 'citizens' access to the remaining

three per cent. These are either administered

by the state or allocated to Zionist institutions

such as the Jewish National Fund (JNF) for the

exclusive use of Jews. Priority is given

routinely to American Jews, followed by

Europeans, Russians and others in that order.

While Palestinian villages which pre-date the

state of Israel are denied basic services, newly-

established Jewish settlements are granted

them unconditionally. In 1992, the

International Court of Justice in The Hague

ruled that the Palestinian villages should be

connected to the Israeli national water system.

That has still not been done.

On another level, the Regulation and

Construction Law prohibits Palestinians from

repairing let alone building their homes on

land which Israel classifies as 'agricultural

land' or 'closed military zones'. Their villages,

mostly in the Negev and the Galilee, are

'unrecognised' by the state and, therefore, by

definition 'illegal'. The underlying purpose of

all these classifications by Israel is to force its

Palestinians citizens to leave; it is, in other

words, ethnic cleansing by stealth.

ARTICLES & ANALYSIS



If Palestinian homes in the West Bank,

including Ramallah, are destroyed with

impunity on the pretext that they have no

proper licence, one can only imagine what is

done to the 'unrecognised villages' in what

Israel regards as its sovereign territory. Using

the Emergency Laws inherited from the

British Mandatory government, officials often

post notices on homes earmarked for

demolition, which are thereafter destroyed

within forty-eight hours.

In the Negev, the Legal Centre for Arab

Minority Rights in Israel - Adalah - reported

the destruction of 2,200 homes and the forced

displacement of more than 14,000 people

between 2008 and 2011. In these villages

women and children die in childbirth because

they have no access to basic medical care of a

kind accessible by Jewish immigrants the

moment they land at Tel Aviv airport.

Nevertheless, the fact that Palestinians in

Israel marked this year's Nakba anniversary

across the country demonstrates that after 65

years Israel has failed to erase their sense of

identity and link to their land. Nor has it

succeeded with its discriminatory laws to

break the bonds between them and the rest of

the Palestinian people; in fact, this has grown

stronger. They all, to this day, share the

common aspiration to return to their homes.

After all the sacrifices they have made over

the past 65 years it is inconceivable that the

displaced Palestinians in Israel will submit to

further ethnic cleansing.

The problem of the IDPs in Israel differs only

marginally from that of the refugees in the

Diaspora. Without doubt, they all share the

common experience of dispossession and

dislocation but because the IDPs didn't cross

international borders they have no access to

humanitarian aid from the UNHCR or

UNRWA. Though initially recognised and

served by UNRWA, that came to an abrupt

end in 1952 when Israel assumed

responsibility for them not, it transpired, in

order to provide for all of its citizens. Quite

simply, and very cynically, the Israeli

government wanted to divert attention from

their officially-sanctioned maltreatment of its

Palestinian citizens and prevent them from

having access to international legal protection.

The full story of the IDPs in Israel is yet to be

told. After 65 years their dream of return

remains unfulfilled. Like the generation who

were forcibly evicted in 1948 they also have a

right to return to their homes. Their living,

striving and dying over the past six decades

were all with this objective in mind. Israel may

delay it for some time but cannot prevent it in

the long-term, because no people in history

have ever accepted completely the loss of their

homeland. The Palestinians' day will come,

with or without the approval of the Israeli

government.

* Daud A. Abdullah is the current Deputy Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain. He has

been senior researcher at the London-based Palestinian Return Centre and editor of the Return

Review, which has recently been replaced with the Journal of Palestinian Refugees Studies.



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Issue no 44