Issue no 59

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Issue No : 59 2th September, 2013

Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia | 1


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Read In This Report

PA security forces kill young manduring campaign in Askar refugee

camp

Jerusalemite institutions warn of es-tablishing Jewish Synagogue in Buraq

P 7

P 9

Hamas rejects the implementa-tion of Israeli curricula in Jeru-

salem schoolsAbbas forfeits Palestinian right to land and memory

By:

Ramona Wadi

Israelis kill 4 Palestiniansin Qalandiya and Jenin

P 5 Erekat meets Livni after Qalandia killings

P 6

Egyptian naval police open fire at fishermen off the Gaza

coast

P 7Fatah rejectsHamas offer

to participate in Gaza government

P 6

P 4

P 8

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CONTENTS

News of Palestine

Articles & Analyses

Abbas forfeits Palestinian right to land and memory 9

Israelis kill 4 Palestinians in Qalandiya and Jenin 4

Erekat meets Livni after Qalandia killings 5

PA security forces kill young man during campaign in Askar refugee camp 6

Fatah rejects Hamas offer to participate in Gaza government 6

Egyptian naval police open fire at fishermen off the Gaza coast 7

Jerusalemite institutions warn of establishing Jewish Synagogue in Buraq 7

Hamas rejects the implementation of Israeli curricula in Jerusalem schools 8

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News of Palestine

31/08/2013Israeli occupation forces killed three Palestin-ians and injured 15 others during a pre-dawn raid on Monday in Qalandiya refugee camp north of occupied Jerusalem. Local medical sources said that Roubine Fares, aged 35, and Younis Jah-jouh, 22, were killed immediately, while Jehad Aslan, 20, was pronounced dead on arrival at a Palestinian hospital in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah. Six of the men wounded sus-tained serious injuries during the incident.Eyewitnesses said that Israeli occupation sol-diers and undercover forces killed the two men «intentionally» at the scene of the attack. They were shot with live ammunition «at very close range», the witnesses claimed.The Minister of Religious Endowments in the Gaza government, Ismail Radwan, condemned these latest killings of Palestinians by the Israe-lis. «This is part of the ongoing Israeli crack-down on the will of the Palestinian people,» he said. Radwan blamed «security cooperation» be-tween the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah and the Israeli occupation for what he described as a «massacre». He accused the PA of passing in-formation to the Israelis which led them to enter a Palestinian neighbourhood to kill and detain civilians.Violent clashes broke out between Palestinian young men and Israeli soldiers in Al-Khalil city on Wednesday evening, a day after a deadly at-tack in Qalandiya refugee camp sparked wide-spread outrage in the occupied West Bank.

The events took place in the vicinity of the Ibra-himi Mosque, Al-Aroub refugee camp and differ-ent neighborhoods of the Old City of Al-Khalil. The clashes kept raging until a late hour after midnight, especially after the attacking Israeli soldiers persisted in their suppression.On the other hand, a Palestinian teenager was pronounced dead on Saturday of wounds he had sustained during an attack by Israeli troops on the Jenin refugee camp ten days ago.Karim Sobhi Abu Sbeih, 17-year-old, succumbed to his wounds after conducting several surgeries at the Arab Specialist Hospital in Nablus, medical sources said. The sources added that Abu Sbeih was seriously injured in his abdomen after an Is-raeli military force stormed the refugee camp and fired randomly at the residents.

Source: Agencies

Israelis kill 4 Palestiniansin Qalandiya and Jenin

The incidents triggered clashes in west Bank

tack in Qalandiya refugee camp sparked wide-spread outrage in the occupied West Bank.

Palestinian Cultural

Organization Malaysia

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27/08/2013

According to Maariv newspaper, the Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations resumed yes-terday evening despite the killing of three Palestinians in the Qalandiya refugee camp, north of Jerusalem. The paper confirmed that the Palestinian chief negotiator, Saeb Er-ekat, met his counterpart Tzipi Livni as scheduled. Reports of the talks resuming con-tradict statements by high-ranking Palestinians who had said yesterday that the P.A. was halting the peace parley in protest of the Qalandia killings.

However following the Palestinian announcement, the United States State Department also confirmed that the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations would resume as scheduled.

Source: MEMO

Erekat meets Livni after Qalandia killings

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PA security forces kill young man

during campaign in Askar refugee camp

28/08/2013The Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces cold-bloodedly killed a young man named Amjad Awda during a violent cam-paign in Askar refugee camp to the east of Nablus city on Tuesday evening.

Eyewitnesses told the Palestinian informa-tion center (PIC) that a large number of PA security forces from different agencies stormed the refugee camp at the pretext of looking for illegal weapons.

They added that the PA security forces randomly fired live bullets at a group of young men after they threw them with stones, which led to the killing of Amjad Awda with a bullet in his head during his presence outside his upholstery shop on the main street.

The killing of the young man triggered vi-olent clashes between young men and PA troops near Rafidiya hospital and other ar-eas in Nablus.

Source: PIC

27/08/2013Fatah has rejected an offer from Hamas to participate in the gov-ernment of the Gaza Strip. The offer was made by Prime Min-ister Ismail Haniyeh. In response, Fatah said that it is considering «painful decisions» against Hamas rule.

Speaking to journalists in Ramallah, Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmad said, «Haniyeh›s offer is a repu-diation of strategic unity agreements.» He refused to get involved in talks about confederation as an exit strategy for the internal Palestinian division.

Mr Haniyeh made his call for Palestinian factions to be part of the expansion of the Hamas-led gov-ernment last Wednesday. «We open our arms to all for the expansions [of representation] in the gov-ernment, not because we fear anything but because it is based on looking to the future with hope.»

While a number of factions accepted the call and regard it as a plus point for Hamas in terms of reconciliation, Al-Ahmad noted, «Fatah has not yet setup any certain plan for dealing with Hamas.» He criticised the positive response of the other factions, saying that Fatah is looking at «painful» choices to end the division.

Insisting that Fatah is serious about reconciliation, Al-Ahmad rejected any connection between ending the division and the peace talks with the Israelis.

Source: MEMO

Fatah rejectsHamas offer

to participate in Gaza government

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30/08/2013Egyptian naval police arrested five Palestinian fishermen and shot and injured two others off the Gaza coast on Friday, while working near the Egypt-Gazan borders.

Head of the Palestinian Fishermen’s Syndicate, Nizar Ayyash, stated that an Egyptian navy boat attacked a number of Palestinian fishing boats while sailing west of the southern Gaza border town of Rafah but close to Egyptian waters .

Ayyash added that the five fishermen, from Ra-fah in the southern Gaza Strip, were detained af-ter the confiscation of their fishing boat.

He further stated that the Egyptian navy also opened fire at several Palestinian fishing boats, wounding two identified as Ismael Wael Al-Bardaweel in his arm and Ibrahim Abdullah An-Najjar in his foot.

For his part, Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, has condemned the Egyptian navy for shooting at a group of Palestinian fishermen.

Abu Zuhri said in a press release on Friday that the act was “unjustified”, and called on the Egyp-tian authorities to release those arrested during the attack.

Source: Agencies

Egyptian naval police open fire at fishermen off the Gaza

coastJerusalemite institutions warn of establishing Jewish Syna-

gogue in Buraq Square

Hamas condemned the shooting Sheikh Salah urges the Palestin-ians to march to Aqsa Mosque

29/08/2013Islamic Jerusalemite institutions have warned of the Israeli scheme to establish a Jewish synagogue in the Buraq square in al-Aqsa mosque as part of the Jewish Sharansky plan backed by Netanyahu.

In a joint statement, the Head of the Awqaf Coun-cil Sheikh Abdel Azim Salhab, the Mufti of Jeru-salem, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein, and Sheikh Dr. Ikrima Sabri, head of the Supreme Islamic Council, stated that the Israeli authorities work at changing the Islamic character of the Buraq wall that was set as an Islamic Waqf by international resolutions after Buraq revolution in 1929.

The occupation authorities seek to destroy the Islamic civilization in the Umayyad palaces in total violation to international laws and norms, which prevent any attempt to make changes in Jerusalem as an occupied city that is officially included on the List of World Heritage in danger.

Meanwhile, Sheikh Ra›ed Salah, the head of the Islamic Movement in the 1948 occupied lands, called on the Palestinian natives in Jerusalem and the green line areas to march to the Aqsa Mosque next Wednesday to defend it against declared Jew-ish intentions to violate its sanctity on that day.

Sheikh Salah made his remarks in a khutba (ser-mon) he delivered last Friday in a mosque in Kafr Qara village to the southeast of Haifa city.

He said that there is a lot of talk going around among the Jewish communities about their in-tention to desecrate in their thousands the Aqsa Mosque next Wednesday, urging all Palestinians who are able to arrive at the Mosque to march to it and participate in its protection with their presence.

Source: Agencies

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29/08/2013

The Islamic Resistance Move-ment “Hamas” has affirmed its firm rejection to the implementa-tion of the Israeli curricula in five Palestinian schools in Jerusalem and called them to retreat imme-diately.

In a press released on Thursday (29/08), Hamas has considered this step “a dangerous act that serves the Israeli occupation’s agenda for obliterating the Arabic and Islamic identity of the Pales-tinians, falsifying the religious, historical and geographic facts and attaching the new Palestinian generation to the Zionist thought”.

Hamas has also called the principals of these schools to retreat from this step im-mediately and called on the concerned associations to pressure these schools and boycott them till they retreat from this act.

Among the concerns Palestinian teach-ers have about the materials are maps purporting to depict the state of Israel which include the West Bank and iden-tify Palestinian territory by Jewish Bib-lical names.

Hamas rejects the implementation of Israeli curricula in Jerusalem schools

It also includes history lessons about the destruction of a Jewish temple in Jerusalem, which the texts separately identify as the capital of Israel.

Another section depicts a conversation between three Arab students who praise Israel›s development of Pales-tinian cities and decide to sing the Israeli national anthem.

Other points of concern include a photograph of the sepa-ration wall along with a caption identifying it as Israel›s «security fence,» and another referring to Israel as a bas-tion of human rights and democracy.

Source: Agencies

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By: Ramona Wadi *

Diplomacy and submission have been propelled to promi-nence with Mahmoud Abbas’s recent concession to Israel. Al-legedly speaking on behalf of Palestinians, Abbas declared that the Palestinian Authority would agree to an epilogue to the “conflict” if a just agree-ment was offered. In return, he added, the Palestinian Author-ity would ensure a renunciation of the right for Palestinians to return to Jaffa, Acre and Hai-fa. The declaration prompted Hamas and other Palestinian factions to call for a collec-tive refutation by the people who have, once again, been regarded as mere spectators in a process which is guaranteed to deepen the divide between the oppressed and the occupi-er. The PA has now clearly af-firmed its support for the exis-tence of the Israeli occupation by, illegally, waiving refugees’ right of return.

According to Israeli media,

Both statements portray a se-quence of betrayal and degen-eration of Palestinian right to land and memory. What was previously regarded as an ir-responsible and submissive statement uttered by a leader relinquishing his right to re-turn has now expanded into a treacherous framework encom-passing Palestinians who have, for decades, resolutely chal-lenged Israel’s colonial poli-cies. The language used serves to highlight the divide between the internationally-recognised Palestinian representatives, the Palestinian people and the Palestinian political represen-tation and resistance embodied by Hamas. Palestinian memory has been relegated to an alter-

Abbas said, “You have a com-mitment from the Palestinian people, and also from the leader-ship, that if we are offered a just agreement, we will sign a peace deal that will put an end to the conflict and to future demands from the Palestinian side. We will not demand in the future to return to Jaffa, Acre or Haifa.”

Abbas’s statement echoes a pre-vious personal forfeiting of the right to return made during an interview with Israel’s Channel 2 in November 2012: “I visited Safed once before... It’s my right to see it but not to live there...I am a refugee, but I am living in Ramallah. I believe that the West Bank and Gaza is Palestine and the other parts are Israel.” The acknowledgement went beyond recognition of the occupation; void of any semblance of indig-nation it expressed acquiescence and validated decades of oppres-sion against Palestinians who as-sert the centrality of the right to return in relation to reclaiming land and memory.

Articles & Analyses

Abbas forfeits Palestinian right to land and memory

By: Ramona Wadi *

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For decades P a l e s t i n i a n s have struggled against various forms of en-forced oblivion required by Is-rael as a means of safeguarding the illegal state.

native, a struggle fragmented by different experiences of life under occupation.

Abbas seems to differentiate continuously between Palestin-ians in the Occupied Territories, Palestinians in Gaza and dis-placed Palestinians, making the possibility of a Palestinian state not only practically unsustain-able due to Israel’s expansion but also due to the inability to construct Palestinian identity through a recognition of col-lective experience, including the necessity of resistance. The foundations of the Zionist state were built upon the fabrication of a barren land in order to im-pose the alleged absence of the indigenous Palestinian popula-tion. Palestinians are now bat-tling distinguishable forces cul-minating into the slide towards oblivion: Zionist historical in-terpretation, the compliance of the PA to Zionist appropriation of land and memory, Abbas’s relinquishing of rights granted by international law, as well as the indifference of the PA regarding the land and people under its supposed protection. The battle for memory also oc-curs within different realms: the struggle against the enforced historical absence of the illegal-ly usurped nation and the strug-gle against Abbas’s misrepre-

sentation of Palestinians. The concession to Israel authorises further destruction of Palestin-ian identity, degenerating from a struggle against forgetting into a struggle in favour of in-difference which is clearly de-marcated in the use of language depicting the occupation and its systematic oppression of Pales-tinians as a “conflict” between equally powerful adversaries.

Within this spectrum, the alien-ation of the PA merges into conventional expectation and comfort relished by the inter-national community, which indulges it into an intentional reinvention of Palestinian ob-jectives. As the PA aligns it-self with the oppressive enti-ties involved in the alleged peace negotiations and adopts their use of language to justify the illegal occupation, Abbas has elucidated a detachment from his own history and ex-periences, projecting the same detachment onto Palestinians and their struggle for land and memory. For decades Palestin-ians have struggled against var-ious forms of enforced oblivion required by Israel as a means of safeguarding the illegal state. The recent statements allude to a leader who has compromised his loyalty towards the people by bargaining with issues cen-

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tral to the construction of Pales-tinian nationhood and state.

The indifference expressed by Abbas strengthens Israeli appropriation of Palestinian memory. Since the Nakba mas-sacres, Zionist strategy has cen-tred upon asserting the colonial ideology in order to appropri-ate the existence of Palestin-ians as well as their collective memory. Israeli dispossession of land, the destruction of his-toric Palestine and reinvention of the land served to assert a dominating narrative. Indiffer-ence can also be seen in light of the mass grave discovery in Jaffa last May. The discovery, central to Palestinian memory concerning the Zionists’ “Plan Dalet”, is now mired within a proposal to renounce the right to return, thus also limiting the Palestinian right and historical obligation to move beyond the absence of the disappeared in order to establish a truth which extends beyond a commemora-tion of the atrocities and chal-lenges the stereotypical Israeli narrative regarded as authentic by Zionists and their allies.

Abbas’s relinquishment of the right also legitimised the usur-pation of Palestinian rights in defiance of international law. Israel’s refusal to abide by UN

Resolution 194, due the diffi-culties for the “Jewish state” should Jews diminish to a de-mographic minority, has now been upheld, in total disre-spect for displaced Palestin-ians, by a leader who should have been focusing upon the preservation of memory issues crucial to the establishment of Palestinian nationhood. Israel has been awarded a multitude of concessions by the interna-tional community, notably un-deserved impunity in reward for decades of international law violations. Abbas’s dec-laration consolidates his po-litical affirmation for the exis-tence of the state of Israel and his willingness to safeguard an illegal entity which should be dismantled in order for Pal-estinians to achieve a proper independence instead of bar-gaining for futile symbolic concessionary gestures.

* Ramona Wadi is an indepen-dent researcher, writer and book reviewer focusing on Pal-estine, international relations and revolutionary philosophy. She writes regularly for Middle East Monitor and her work has been published in various out-lets, including academic publi-cations

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Since the Nakba massacres, Zion-ist strategy has centred upon as-serting the colo-nial ideology in order to appropri-ate the existence of Palestinians as well as their col-lective memory.

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Issue no 59