21 aug 2017
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has come under fire from Palestinians and Israeli alike after it announced it was sending medical supplies to Venezuela, amid accusations that the Ramallah-based government is responsible for creating the worst medications crisis the besieged Gaza Strip has seen in years through recent debilitating budget cuts.
Upon an order from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, three truck-loads of medical supplies were sent to Venezuela, which Minister of Foreign Affairs Riad al-Malki said was an effort to “repay what it can for what the Venezuelan government has presented to the Palestinian people,” citing the donation of 15 million dollars that was used to construct an eye hospital in the Ramallah-area.
The aid delivery faced a wide backlash from Palestinians on social media, fueling anti-PA sentiment that has mounted in recent months due to a number of policies seen as a deliberate attempt to send the impoverished Gaza Strip further into a humanitarian catastrophe -- by slashing funding for Israeli fuel, medicine, and salaries for civil servants and former prisoners -- in order to wrest control of the territory from rival faction Hamas.
As the PA has restricted medicine deliveries to Gaza, it has also allegedly drastically reduced the number of permits it grants to Palestinians in the blockaded coastal enclave to get life-saving medical treatment abroad.
A recent public opinion poll showed that 62 percent of the Palestinian public want Abbas to resign, and also documented widespread public rejection the cuts to salaries and Israeli-supplied fuel in Gaza.
Despite this, Abbas has doubled down on his policies against the Gaza Strip, and threatened further repressive measures should Hamas not unconditionally abide by the PA’s demands to resolve the decade-long intra-Palestinian conflict.
The aid delivery to Venezuela also drew ire as it required PA coordination with Israel to ship from Israel’s Ashdod port. This comes as Abbas has also claimed to have upheld a freeze on all coordination with Israel, including its controversial security coordination -- another primary source of anti-PA anger among Palestinians.
“While the health services has collapsed in Gaza (sic), Palestinian President Abbas has decided to send medical assistance from Ashdod to Venezuela,” the Twitter account for the Mavi Marmara, the Turkish-flagged ship that took part in the aid flotilla to Gaza in 2010, admonished on Monday.
Ahmed Jarrar, a freelance journalist in Gaza wrote on Facebook: "Venezuela is in our head, and helping them is a duty, but cutting the aid to Gaza and sending it to Venezuela -- the same aid that was given to help Palestinians -- it's not logical and completely mad."
Meanwhile, Yoav Mordechai, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), responsible for enforcing Israeli policies in the occupied Palestinian territory, quipped on Facebook: “We draw the Palestinian Authority’s attention to the fact that traveling from Ramallah to Gaza is only one hour, while the distance between Venezuela and Ramallah is more than 10,000 kilometers.”
However, despite Israel’s best efforts to wash its hands of the ever worsening crisis in Gaza, with multiple officials describing it as an internal Palestinian issue between the Fatah-led PA and Hamas, rights groups -- while acknowledging the PA's role in exacerbating the humanitarian situation -- have insisted that Israeli siege bears the brunt of responsibility for what the UN has described as an “unlivable” environment.
Israeli NGO B’Tselem has blamed the blockade for putting Gaza “in the throes of a humanitarian disaster,” adding that Israel was “consigning (Gaza’s) residents to living in abject poverty under practically inhuman conditions unparalleled in the modern world.”
“This is not some sort of natural disaster,” B’Tselem added. “Had that been the case, Israel would have likely sent in a humanitarian aid mission. Instead, the reality in Gaza is the result of Israel’s handiwork, achieved by its decade-long implementation of a brutal policy.”
Upon an order from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, three truck-loads of medical supplies were sent to Venezuela, which Minister of Foreign Affairs Riad al-Malki said was an effort to “repay what it can for what the Venezuelan government has presented to the Palestinian people,” citing the donation of 15 million dollars that was used to construct an eye hospital in the Ramallah-area.
The aid delivery faced a wide backlash from Palestinians on social media, fueling anti-PA sentiment that has mounted in recent months due to a number of policies seen as a deliberate attempt to send the impoverished Gaza Strip further into a humanitarian catastrophe -- by slashing funding for Israeli fuel, medicine, and salaries for civil servants and former prisoners -- in order to wrest control of the territory from rival faction Hamas.
As the PA has restricted medicine deliveries to Gaza, it has also allegedly drastically reduced the number of permits it grants to Palestinians in the blockaded coastal enclave to get life-saving medical treatment abroad.
A recent public opinion poll showed that 62 percent of the Palestinian public want Abbas to resign, and also documented widespread public rejection the cuts to salaries and Israeli-supplied fuel in Gaza.
Despite this, Abbas has doubled down on his policies against the Gaza Strip, and threatened further repressive measures should Hamas not unconditionally abide by the PA’s demands to resolve the decade-long intra-Palestinian conflict.
The aid delivery to Venezuela also drew ire as it required PA coordination with Israel to ship from Israel’s Ashdod port. This comes as Abbas has also claimed to have upheld a freeze on all coordination with Israel, including its controversial security coordination -- another primary source of anti-PA anger among Palestinians.
“While the health services has collapsed in Gaza (sic), Palestinian President Abbas has decided to send medical assistance from Ashdod to Venezuela,” the Twitter account for the Mavi Marmara, the Turkish-flagged ship that took part in the aid flotilla to Gaza in 2010, admonished on Monday.
Ahmed Jarrar, a freelance journalist in Gaza wrote on Facebook: "Venezuela is in our head, and helping them is a duty, but cutting the aid to Gaza and sending it to Venezuela -- the same aid that was given to help Palestinians -- it's not logical and completely mad."
Meanwhile, Yoav Mordechai, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), responsible for enforcing Israeli policies in the occupied Palestinian territory, quipped on Facebook: “We draw the Palestinian Authority’s attention to the fact that traveling from Ramallah to Gaza is only one hour, while the distance between Venezuela and Ramallah is more than 10,000 kilometers.”
However, despite Israel’s best efforts to wash its hands of the ever worsening crisis in Gaza, with multiple officials describing it as an internal Palestinian issue between the Fatah-led PA and Hamas, rights groups -- while acknowledging the PA's role in exacerbating the humanitarian situation -- have insisted that Israeli siege bears the brunt of responsibility for what the UN has described as an “unlivable” environment.
Israeli NGO B’Tselem has blamed the blockade for putting Gaza “in the throes of a humanitarian disaster,” adding that Israel was “consigning (Gaza’s) residents to living in abject poverty under practically inhuman conditions unparalleled in the modern world.”
“This is not some sort of natural disaster,” B’Tselem added. “Had that been the case, Israel would have likely sent in a humanitarian aid mission. Instead, the reality in Gaza is the result of Israel’s handiwork, achieved by its decade-long implementation of a brutal policy.”
20 aug 2017
Border police officers stand in front of Palestinians as they wait to cross from Qalandiya checkpoint outside Ramallah, West Bank, into Jerusalem.
Most of the circumstances that made the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ripe for resolution — or at least made the peace process attractive to both parties — have all but disappeared over the past decade.
Many Israelis were likely happy to read The New Yorker article titled “The End of This Road: The Decline of the Palestinian National Movement” earlier this month. The piece is of particular interest due to where it was published — the liberal elite’s most prominent magazine, which generally champions the Zionist Left and the American-backed two-state solution.
The identity of its authors is also noteworthy: Ahmad Samih Khalidi was involved in Israeli-Palestinian talks for years; Hussein Agha is a close associate of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who was charged with holding secret talks with Yitzhak Molcho — Netanyahu’s chief envoy to the negotiations — and Obama’s former Middle East envoy Dennis Ross in the run-up to John Kerry’s peace initiative in 2013.
For the same reason we should also take the authors’ main argument, according to which Abbas is the last remaining Palestinian who can sign a final-status agreement, with a grain of salt. Yet the headline is not misleading, and it joins a long list of publications that rightfully declare the end of the Oslo peace process.
Over the past decade, most of the circumstances that made the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ripe for resolution — or at least made the peace process attractive to both parties — have all but disappeared. The process began with the Madrid Conference at the end of the First Intifada, the Palestinian uprising that subverted and upended Israel’s mechanisms of control in the occupied territories at the time, which meant that Israel was suddenly faced with managing a hostile population. Meanwhile, as the Cold War came to an end, the United States was the sole remaining superpower to which the rest of the world wanted to get closer. The peace process promised Israel a thaw in relations with the Third World, an economic leap, and an end to the Arab boycott. Meanwhile, the then-exiled PLO was facing a crisis and feared the emergence of an alternative leadership developing in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Twenty-five years later, Israel has grown stronger, including with regards to its influence over internal American politics. The low-hanging fruit of the peace process have already been picked. It is convenient for the Israeli Right, which loves to criticize Oslo, to forget the positive effect the accords had on Israel’s position in the world — its improved relations with Europe, China, and the United States, and the ensuing economic upswing. Other unharvested fruit, such as the prospect of total normalization with the Arab world, seem far less attractive following the Arab Spring.
Today Israel is perceived as a Middle East superpower. The United States, on the other hand, is buckling under the weight of crisis after crisis, as well as a weak and dysfunctional government. Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, can do everything in his power when he flies into the region later this month — a final-status agreement won’t come of it.
The decline of nationalism
The Palestinian Authority is no longer a “state in the making,” as it was viewed by Palestinians in the years after the Oslo Accords were signed. Instead, it has become a part of the Israeli regime, used to manage the population in the West Bank, and Gaza to a certain degree. Agha and Khalidi rightfully point out that the PA’s most effective tool — or perhaps its only effective tool — is its security apparatus, which has long been Palestinian only in name. Today, the Palestinian security forces have become an integral part of Israel’s rule in the occupied territories, whose main function is to protect Israelis — as opposed to Palestinians — while ensuring the survival of the PA.
Just as Yitzhak Rabin foresaw, the Palestinian Authority has been far more effective at maintaining the occupation regime than Israel ever was. This is another reason we need not take too seriously the Israeli government’s intermittent threats against the PA. Such threats serve everyone involved: they allow both the Israeli and Palestinian leadership to speak to their respective publics in a discourse framed by nationalism. In practice, Israel’s interest is ensuring a strong, effective Palestinian Authority; the PA, for its part, is entirely dependent on Israel for its existence.
But the most interesting argument put forth by Agha and Khalidi comes at the end of their article:
A national movement requires genuine mass engagement in a political vision and a working project that cuts across boundaries of region, clan, and class, and a defined and acknowledged leadership with the legitimacy and representative standing that empowers it to act in its people’s name. This no longer holds for Fatah, the P.A., or the P.L.O.
Be that as it may, the Palestinians may need to acknowledge that yesteryear’s conventional nationalism and ‘national liberation’ are no longer the best currency for political mobilization and expression in today’s world, and that they need to adapt their struggle and aspirations to new global realities. […] Because nationalism itself has changed, Palestinians need to search for new means of expressing their political identity and hopes in ways that do not and cannot replicate the past.
Palestinians aren’t going anywhere
Nothing better exemplifies the decline of nationalism as a force for mass engagement than the fact that the two Palestinian dictatorships, in the West Bank and Gaza, prioritize their survival and the survival of the elites that run them over the interests of their people.
In short-term, the dissolution of the Palestinian issue into a multitude of problems — the siege on Gaza, the occupation of the West Bank, political prisoners, East Jerusalem, the fate of refugees — is of great relief to Israel. As long as these issues come up separately it is relatively easier to respond to them, and the potential for a general uprising — with which Israel has had a difficult time contending — is small. But Israel’s real challenge is not Palestinian nationalism, it is the Palestinians themselves. And they aren’t going anywhere.
The Israeli right wing’s policies are premised on an inherent contradiction: on the one hand, policies that strengthen Israel’s grip on the West Bank and Jerusalem and broaden its oversight over Palestinian citizens of Israel increase the integration of Jews and Palestinians. On the other hand, the Israeli Right also encourages and engineers separation between Jews and Palestinians by building walls, obstacles, segregated roads, discriminatory policies, segregated communities, etc. In effect, these contradictory policies are effectively turning up the heat inside a pressure cooker.
The existence of a Palestinian national movement with a clear leadership meant that Israel had a clear somebody with whom it could either fight or negotiate. As the short-lived “knife intifada” demonstrated, we are entering a far more complex era — never mind the cultural and national-identity disintegration Israel is undergoing.
This article was first published in Hebrew on Local Call. Read it here.
Before you go...A lot of work goes into creating articles like the one you just read. And while we don’t do this for the money, even our model of non-profit, independent journalism has bills to pay.
+972 Magazine is owned by our bloggers and journalists, who are driven by passion and dedication to the causes we cover. But we still need to pay for editing, photography, translation, web design and servers, legal services, and more.
As an independent journalism outlet we aren’t beholden to any outside interests. In order to safeguard that independence voice, we are proud to count you, our readers, as our most important supporters. If each of our readers becomes a supporter of our work, +972 Magazine will remain a strong, independent, and sustainable force helping drive the discourse on Israel/Palestine in the right direction.
Most of the circumstances that made the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ripe for resolution — or at least made the peace process attractive to both parties — have all but disappeared over the past decade.
Many Israelis were likely happy to read The New Yorker article titled “The End of This Road: The Decline of the Palestinian National Movement” earlier this month. The piece is of particular interest due to where it was published — the liberal elite’s most prominent magazine, which generally champions the Zionist Left and the American-backed two-state solution.
The identity of its authors is also noteworthy: Ahmad Samih Khalidi was involved in Israeli-Palestinian talks for years; Hussein Agha is a close associate of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who was charged with holding secret talks with Yitzhak Molcho — Netanyahu’s chief envoy to the negotiations — and Obama’s former Middle East envoy Dennis Ross in the run-up to John Kerry’s peace initiative in 2013.
For the same reason we should also take the authors’ main argument, according to which Abbas is the last remaining Palestinian who can sign a final-status agreement, with a grain of salt. Yet the headline is not misleading, and it joins a long list of publications that rightfully declare the end of the Oslo peace process.
Over the past decade, most of the circumstances that made the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ripe for resolution — or at least made the peace process attractive to both parties — have all but disappeared. The process began with the Madrid Conference at the end of the First Intifada, the Palestinian uprising that subverted and upended Israel’s mechanisms of control in the occupied territories at the time, which meant that Israel was suddenly faced with managing a hostile population. Meanwhile, as the Cold War came to an end, the United States was the sole remaining superpower to which the rest of the world wanted to get closer. The peace process promised Israel a thaw in relations with the Third World, an economic leap, and an end to the Arab boycott. Meanwhile, the then-exiled PLO was facing a crisis and feared the emergence of an alternative leadership developing in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Twenty-five years later, Israel has grown stronger, including with regards to its influence over internal American politics. The low-hanging fruit of the peace process have already been picked. It is convenient for the Israeli Right, which loves to criticize Oslo, to forget the positive effect the accords had on Israel’s position in the world — its improved relations with Europe, China, and the United States, and the ensuing economic upswing. Other unharvested fruit, such as the prospect of total normalization with the Arab world, seem far less attractive following the Arab Spring.
Today Israel is perceived as a Middle East superpower. The United States, on the other hand, is buckling under the weight of crisis after crisis, as well as a weak and dysfunctional government. Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, can do everything in his power when he flies into the region later this month — a final-status agreement won’t come of it.
The decline of nationalism
The Palestinian Authority is no longer a “state in the making,” as it was viewed by Palestinians in the years after the Oslo Accords were signed. Instead, it has become a part of the Israeli regime, used to manage the population in the West Bank, and Gaza to a certain degree. Agha and Khalidi rightfully point out that the PA’s most effective tool — or perhaps its only effective tool — is its security apparatus, which has long been Palestinian only in name. Today, the Palestinian security forces have become an integral part of Israel’s rule in the occupied territories, whose main function is to protect Israelis — as opposed to Palestinians — while ensuring the survival of the PA.
Just as Yitzhak Rabin foresaw, the Palestinian Authority has been far more effective at maintaining the occupation regime than Israel ever was. This is another reason we need not take too seriously the Israeli government’s intermittent threats against the PA. Such threats serve everyone involved: they allow both the Israeli and Palestinian leadership to speak to their respective publics in a discourse framed by nationalism. In practice, Israel’s interest is ensuring a strong, effective Palestinian Authority; the PA, for its part, is entirely dependent on Israel for its existence.
But the most interesting argument put forth by Agha and Khalidi comes at the end of their article:
A national movement requires genuine mass engagement in a political vision and a working project that cuts across boundaries of region, clan, and class, and a defined and acknowledged leadership with the legitimacy and representative standing that empowers it to act in its people’s name. This no longer holds for Fatah, the P.A., or the P.L.O.
Be that as it may, the Palestinians may need to acknowledge that yesteryear’s conventional nationalism and ‘national liberation’ are no longer the best currency for political mobilization and expression in today’s world, and that they need to adapt their struggle and aspirations to new global realities. […] Because nationalism itself has changed, Palestinians need to search for new means of expressing their political identity and hopes in ways that do not and cannot replicate the past.
Palestinians aren’t going anywhere
Nothing better exemplifies the decline of nationalism as a force for mass engagement than the fact that the two Palestinian dictatorships, in the West Bank and Gaza, prioritize their survival and the survival of the elites that run them over the interests of their people.
In short-term, the dissolution of the Palestinian issue into a multitude of problems — the siege on Gaza, the occupation of the West Bank, political prisoners, East Jerusalem, the fate of refugees — is of great relief to Israel. As long as these issues come up separately it is relatively easier to respond to them, and the potential for a general uprising — with which Israel has had a difficult time contending — is small. But Israel’s real challenge is not Palestinian nationalism, it is the Palestinians themselves. And they aren’t going anywhere.
The Israeli right wing’s policies are premised on an inherent contradiction: on the one hand, policies that strengthen Israel’s grip on the West Bank and Jerusalem and broaden its oversight over Palestinian citizens of Israel increase the integration of Jews and Palestinians. On the other hand, the Israeli Right also encourages and engineers separation between Jews and Palestinians by building walls, obstacles, segregated roads, discriminatory policies, segregated communities, etc. In effect, these contradictory policies are effectively turning up the heat inside a pressure cooker.
The existence of a Palestinian national movement with a clear leadership meant that Israel had a clear somebody with whom it could either fight or negotiate. As the short-lived “knife intifada” demonstrated, we are entering a far more complex era — never mind the cultural and national-identity disintegration Israel is undergoing.
This article was first published in Hebrew on Local Call. Read it here.
Before you go...A lot of work goes into creating articles like the one you just read. And while we don’t do this for the money, even our model of non-profit, independent journalism has bills to pay.
+972 Magazine is owned by our bloggers and journalists, who are driven by passion and dedication to the causes we cover. But we still need to pay for editing, photography, translation, web design and servers, legal services, and more.
As an independent journalism outlet we aren’t beholden to any outside interests. In order to safeguard that independence voice, we are proud to count you, our readers, as our most important supporters. If each of our readers becomes a supporter of our work, +972 Magazine will remain a strong, independent, and sustainable force helping drive the discourse on Israel/Palestine in the right direction.
Al-Ahrar Movement said on Sunday that the meeting held between the Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas and the Israeli left-wing Meretz party is a stab in the back of the Palestinian people.
In a press statement on Sunday, the Movement described the meeting as a blatant disregard for the suffering of the Palestinian people and an attempt to "whitewash the image of the Israeli occupation" rather than prosecuting its leaders at international courts.
Al-Ahrar stressed that Abbas's reception of the Israeli delegation while launching a campaign of unjust measures against the Gaza Strip is a "national crime" and a "disrespect for the national consensus which rejects such normalization meetings".
The Palestinian official news agency reported on Sunday that Abbas received a delegation from Meretz party headed by Zehava Gal-On at the presidential headquarters in Ramallah.
In a press statement on Sunday, the Movement described the meeting as a blatant disregard for the suffering of the Palestinian people and an attempt to "whitewash the image of the Israeli occupation" rather than prosecuting its leaders at international courts.
Al-Ahrar stressed that Abbas's reception of the Israeli delegation while launching a campaign of unjust measures against the Gaza Strip is a "national crime" and a "disrespect for the national consensus which rejects such normalization meetings".
The Palestinian official news agency reported on Sunday that Abbas received a delegation from Meretz party headed by Zehava Gal-On at the presidential headquarters in Ramallah.
The Arab Organization for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR) has warned of an Israeli plan to kill Sheikh Raed Salah, Islamic Movement chief in 1948 Occupied Palestine (Israel).
AOHR said in statement that the crackdowns against Sheikh Salah and the mistreatment he has been subjected to in Israeli lock-ups reflect the inherent sadism entrenched in the Israeli government and its extreme dislike of Salah’s anti-occupation activism.
AOHR called for providing Sheikh Salah with psycho-physical protection.
The organization said it has just found out that senior Israeli officers had threatened to execute Salah and to make the world believe he died in natural circumstances.
The threats were launched in an attempt to gag Sheikh Salah, who has long stood up for holy al-Aqsa Mosque.
An Israeli court ruled for extending Salah’s detention until August 21.
Sheikh Salah told the jury that he has been subjected to verbal and physical assaults by the Israeli wardens and held the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, responsible for the upshots of such a preplanned intimidation.
AOHR said in statement that the crackdowns against Sheikh Salah and the mistreatment he has been subjected to in Israeli lock-ups reflect the inherent sadism entrenched in the Israeli government and its extreme dislike of Salah’s anti-occupation activism.
AOHR called for providing Sheikh Salah with psycho-physical protection.
The organization said it has just found out that senior Israeli officers had threatened to execute Salah and to make the world believe he died in natural circumstances.
The threats were launched in an attempt to gag Sheikh Salah, who has long stood up for holy al-Aqsa Mosque.
An Israeli court ruled for extending Salah’s detention until August 21.
Sheikh Salah told the jury that he has been subjected to verbal and physical assaults by the Israeli wardens and held the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, responsible for the upshots of such a preplanned intimidation.
Mohamed Tahssin al-Bazm 28
A Palestinian youth was pronounced dead in the Swedish metropolitan city Stockholm late on Saturday evening.
Speaking with PIC, informed sources said 28-year-old Mohamed Tahssin al-Bazm, from the blockaded Gaza Strip, was fatally gunned down by anonymous attackers.
According to Swedish news outlets, efforts have been underway to identify the criminals.
The circumstances and reasons for the murder remain shrouded in mystery.
A PIC news correspondent, who reached out to the casualty’s family in the blockaded Gaza Strip, said no details have been unraveled by his relatives, who said they have no idea why Mohamed was killed in Sweden.
The victim, who was an ex-prisoners in Israeli jails, has reportedly lived in Sweden with his family for 10 years.
The Hebrew news website Walla said that the victim was killed with two bullets in the head and neck.
A Palestinian youth was pronounced dead in the Swedish metropolitan city Stockholm late on Saturday evening.
Speaking with PIC, informed sources said 28-year-old Mohamed Tahssin al-Bazm, from the blockaded Gaza Strip, was fatally gunned down by anonymous attackers.
According to Swedish news outlets, efforts have been underway to identify the criminals.
The circumstances and reasons for the murder remain shrouded in mystery.
A PIC news correspondent, who reached out to the casualty’s family in the blockaded Gaza Strip, said no details have been unraveled by his relatives, who said they have no idea why Mohamed was killed in Sweden.
The victim, who was an ex-prisoners in Israeli jails, has reportedly lived in Sweden with his family for 10 years.
The Hebrew news website Walla said that the victim was killed with two bullets in the head and neck.
16 aug 2017
Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas has threatened to impose more sanctions against the besieged Gaza Strip, with no regard for the impacts of his decisions on the lives of the population.
During his meeting on Tuesday with Fatah cadres in the West Bank, Abbas said he would escalate his measures against Gaza, describing his steps as a clear signal for Hamas to necessarily backtrack on its actions.
He said that Hamas in Gaza should dissolve its administrative committee, enable the government of Rami al-Hamdallah to operate freely, and accept the holding of general elections in order to avoid further sanctions.
Hamas, however, already announced its readiness to renounce the administrative committee immediately if the government in Ramallah agreed to assume its responsibilities fully in Gaza.
A few months ago, Abbas decided, as part of several punitive measures against Gaza, to shrink salaries for civil servants, deprive patients of receiving treatment abroad, reduce the power supply, and cut off medical supplies.
During his meeting on Tuesday with Fatah cadres in the West Bank, Abbas said he would escalate his measures against Gaza, describing his steps as a clear signal for Hamas to necessarily backtrack on its actions.
He said that Hamas in Gaza should dissolve its administrative committee, enable the government of Rami al-Hamdallah to operate freely, and accept the holding of general elections in order to avoid further sanctions.
Hamas, however, already announced its readiness to renounce the administrative committee immediately if the government in Ramallah agreed to assume its responsibilities fully in Gaza.
A few months ago, Abbas decided, as part of several punitive measures against Gaza, to shrink salaries for civil servants, deprive patients of receiving treatment abroad, reduce the power supply, and cut off medical supplies.
9 aug 2017
A Palestinian citizen was found dead on Wednesday in Nablus’s southern town of Hawara, in the northern occupied West Bank.
50-year-old Mohamed Moussa Oudeh was fatally stabbed with a sharp object in his chest in an automobile repair shop on the access road to Hawara. The perpetrators remain anonymous.
The casualty was found bleeding on the ground. An ambulance transferred him to Rafidia Hospital.
Palestinian policemen showed up at the scene and launched an immediate probe into the crime.
50-year-old Mohamed Moussa Oudeh was fatally stabbed with a sharp object in his chest in an automobile repair shop on the access road to Hawara. The perpetrators remain anonymous.
The casualty was found bleeding on the ground. An ambulance transferred him to Rafidia Hospital.
Palestinian policemen showed up at the scene and launched an immediate probe into the crime.
A Palestinian worker from Qalqilya, in the northern occupied West Bank, was found injured in Kafr Kasem, in 1948 Occupied Palestine, late on Tuesday evening.
Palestinian worker Hani Youssef al-Sheikh, aged 26, was shot and injured by anonymous gunmen in front of a café in Kafr Kasem.
The worker sustained injuries in his limbs and stomach and was transferred to a hospital in 1948 Occupied Palestine for urgent treatment.
Palestinian worker Hani Youssef al-Sheikh, aged 26, was shot and injured by anonymous gunmen in front of a café in Kafr Kasem.
The worker sustained injuries in his limbs and stomach and was transferred to a hospital in 1948 Occupied Palestine for urgent treatment.
5 aug 2017
The Hamas Movement has strongly denounced Palestinian Authority (PA) chief Mahmoud Abbas for threatening to take further punitive measures against the population in the embattled Gaza Strip.
“This means that he insists on adopting the policy of separating the West Bank from the Gaza Strip and flouting all the efforts to achieve national reconciliation," spokesman for Hamas Hazem Qasem stated in a press release on Saturday.
“The [Palestinian] Authority deprives the Gaza Strip of money paid in taxes by its population and collected by the occupation at the crossings before transferring it to the Authority,” spokesman Qasem said.
"The steps taken by the PA chief have had catastrophic repercussions on the life in the Gaza Strip and led to the death of patients. Such steps have increasingly intersected with the goals of the Israeli blockade,” he added.
The spokesman warned that Abbas’s punitive measures against Gaza would weaken the internal front in the face of Israel’s violations.
Gaza has suffered recently from acute living and humanitarian crises after Abbas deprived its population of medical treatment abroad, suspended its medical supplies, imposed heavy taxes on its fuel needs to generate electricity, asked Israel to reduce electricity provided through its cross-border power lines, lowered the salaries paid to civil servants and gave others early retirement.
“This means that he insists on adopting the policy of separating the West Bank from the Gaza Strip and flouting all the efforts to achieve national reconciliation," spokesman for Hamas Hazem Qasem stated in a press release on Saturday.
“The [Palestinian] Authority deprives the Gaza Strip of money paid in taxes by its population and collected by the occupation at the crossings before transferring it to the Authority,” spokesman Qasem said.
"The steps taken by the PA chief have had catastrophic repercussions on the life in the Gaza Strip and led to the death of patients. Such steps have increasingly intersected with the goals of the Israeli blockade,” he added.
The spokesman warned that Abbas’s punitive measures against Gaza would weaken the internal front in the face of Israel’s violations.
Gaza has suffered recently from acute living and humanitarian crises after Abbas deprived its population of medical treatment abroad, suspended its medical supplies, imposed heavy taxes on its fuel needs to generate electricity, asked Israel to reduce electricity provided through its cross-border power lines, lowered the salaries paid to civil servants and gave others early retirement.
A drone flying from the Gaza Strip fell in 1948 Occupied Palestine on Saturday, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) said.
The IOF said, “The drone, which it described as a multicopter, was infiltrating Israeli airspace”.
Yedioth Ahronoth Hebrew newspaper quoted the IOF as saying that the drone was picked up by the Israeli army and taken for further examination.
“It was not immediately clear who sent the drone and for what purpose, or how it fell. The Hamas group had in the past said that it possesses unmanned aerial vehicles”, the newspaper added.
Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas Movement, disclosed in 2014 that a drone was launched from Gaza over Israeli Army Ministry in 1948 Occupied Palestine during the Israeli aggression on the besieged coastal enclave in 2014.
The IOF said, “The drone, which it described as a multicopter, was infiltrating Israeli airspace”.
Yedioth Ahronoth Hebrew newspaper quoted the IOF as saying that the drone was picked up by the Israeli army and taken for further examination.
“It was not immediately clear who sent the drone and for what purpose, or how it fell. The Hamas group had in the past said that it possesses unmanned aerial vehicles”, the newspaper added.
Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas Movement, disclosed in 2014 that a drone was launched from Gaza over Israeli Army Ministry in 1948 Occupied Palestine during the Israeli aggression on the besieged coastal enclave in 2014.
3 aug 2017
Palestinian ex-prisoners who have had their salaries suspended by the Palestinian Authority (PA) have undergone medical check-ups on Thursday.
Palestinian ex-prisoners who have maintained a sit-in in Ramallah for 46 days after the PA, chaired by Mahmoud Abbas, cut their only sources of income, had gone through medical checks carried out by a medical delegation, in partnership with the Independent Commission for Human Rights.
A sit-in has been staged by Palestinian ex-prisoners and their families for 46 days in Duar al-Sa’a in Ramallah to protest the PA’s cut of their livelihoods. An open-ended hunger strike has also been declared for the sixth day running.
The strike over the salary crisis has gone viral, drawing nationwide protests and garnering support from all national factions and human rights institutions.
Palestinian ex-prisoners who have maintained a sit-in in Ramallah for 46 days after the PA, chaired by Mahmoud Abbas, cut their only sources of income, had gone through medical checks carried out by a medical delegation, in partnership with the Independent Commission for Human Rights.
A sit-in has been staged by Palestinian ex-prisoners and their families for 46 days in Duar al-Sa’a in Ramallah to protest the PA’s cut of their livelihoods. An open-ended hunger strike has also been declared for the sixth day running.
The strike over the salary crisis has gone viral, drawing nationwide protests and garnering support from all national factions and human rights institutions.
Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails announced their intent to step up protest moves on Thursday so as to speak up against the suspension of their salaries by the Palestinian Authority (PA).
Palestinians behind Israeli prison bars called for a mass participation in a press conference expected to be held at 12:30 a.m. on Thursday in Ramallah near Yasser Arafat Square to publicly announce the protest moves.
A sit-in has been staged by Palestinian ex-prisoners and their families for 46 days in Duar al-Sa’a in Ramallah to protest the PA’s cut of their only sources of income. An open-ended hunger strike has also been declared for the fifth day running.
The strike over the salary crisis has gone viral, drawing nationwide protests and garnering support from all national factions.
Palestinians behind Israeli prison bars called for a mass participation in a press conference expected to be held at 12:30 a.m. on Thursday in Ramallah near Yasser Arafat Square to publicly announce the protest moves.
A sit-in has been staged by Palestinian ex-prisoners and their families for 46 days in Duar al-Sa’a in Ramallah to protest the PA’s cut of their only sources of income. An open-ended hunger strike has also been declared for the fifth day running.
The strike over the salary crisis has gone viral, drawing nationwide protests and garnering support from all national factions.
2 aug 2017
At the behest of the attorney general, the Israeli high court of justice on Tuesday postponed its hearing on a petition filed by international human rights groups demanding an end to Israel’s reduction of electricity supply to the beleaguered Gaza Strip.
Lawyer Khaled Dusouqee, who filed the petition on behalf of French and Swedish human rights groups, stated that the Israeli attorney general submitted a request asking for postponing the hearing to give the government some time to discuss the issue and provide a response.
Dusouqee added that the court judge adjourned the hearing for two weeks and demanded the Israeli government to respond to the complaint filed by the organizations before the end of this period, otherwise he would issue a final judgment on the case.
Israel decided last June to reduce the amount of electricity supply to Gaza at the request of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah.
Accordingly, electricity provided for Gaza through Israel’s cross-border power lines have been decreased from 120 to 48 megawatts.
Lawyer Khaled Dusouqee, who filed the petition on behalf of French and Swedish human rights groups, stated that the Israeli attorney general submitted a request asking for postponing the hearing to give the government some time to discuss the issue and provide a response.
Dusouqee added that the court judge adjourned the hearing for two weeks and demanded the Israeli government to respond to the complaint filed by the organizations before the end of this period, otherwise he would issue a final judgment on the case.
Israel decided last June to reduce the amount of electricity supply to Gaza at the request of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah.
Accordingly, electricity provided for Gaza through Israel’s cross-border power lines have been decreased from 120 to 48 megawatts.