15 jan 2014
Hamas movement expressed absolute dismay at the statements attributed to Egyptian security and diplomatic figures that Cairo would work on liquidating Hamas movement. Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, described in a press release on Wednesday such statements as “very serious”.
He added that the statements represented the first official Egyptian admission of involvement in the Palestinian internal affairs and in destroying resistance forces in Gaza.
Abu Zuhri said that destroying resistance was a mere “illusion” and the Arab parties involved in such a scheme should rather mobilize their potentials against the Israeli occupation.
Four Egyptian security officials and two prominent diplomats said that Cairo would cooperate with Fatah faction to destroy Hamas movement in Gaza Strip and would back any chaos in the Gaza Strip.
He added that the statements represented the first official Egyptian admission of involvement in the Palestinian internal affairs and in destroying resistance forces in Gaza.
Abu Zuhri said that destroying resistance was a mere “illusion” and the Arab parties involved in such a scheme should rather mobilize their potentials against the Israeli occupation.
Four Egyptian security officials and two prominent diplomats said that Cairo would cooperate with Fatah faction to destroy Hamas movement in Gaza Strip and would back any chaos in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas movement condemned the campaign of mass arrests by Fatah's security services in the West Bank, which targeted university students, leaders and journalists. The movement said that while the Palestinian government in Gaza is showing high flexibility in dealing with Fatah leaders and institutions, the security services in the West Bank continued their targeting of Hamas affiliates.
It pointed out that the PA's security services have recently kidnapped the student at an-Najah University Mahmoud Asida from the village of Tal and dozens of Hamas supporters in the West Bank, and shot liberated captive Osman Qawasmi from al-Khalil.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum held in a press statement on Wednesday Fatah movement, and particularly Abu Mazen, full responsibility for all the arrests and attacks, and the failure of all initiatives submitted by Hamas in order to achieve reconciliation.
He said "This vicious attack on Hamas is coinciding with the occupation abuses against its supporters and the resistance leaders in the West Bank. This represents a serious indicator and proves the security coordination between the PA and the Israeli occupation."
The movement reiterated that all this frenzied campaigns will not deter it from moving forward along the path of resistance and from defending the people and constants.
It also called on the citizens in the West Bank to protect and support the resistance fighters and leaders.
It pointed out that the PA's security services have recently kidnapped the student at an-Najah University Mahmoud Asida from the village of Tal and dozens of Hamas supporters in the West Bank, and shot liberated captive Osman Qawasmi from al-Khalil.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum held in a press statement on Wednesday Fatah movement, and particularly Abu Mazen, full responsibility for all the arrests and attacks, and the failure of all initiatives submitted by Hamas in order to achieve reconciliation.
He said "This vicious attack on Hamas is coinciding with the occupation abuses against its supporters and the resistance leaders in the West Bank. This represents a serious indicator and proves the security coordination between the PA and the Israeli occupation."
The movement reiterated that all this frenzied campaigns will not deter it from moving forward along the path of resistance and from defending the people and constants.
It also called on the citizens in the West Bank to protect and support the resistance fighters and leaders.
Palestinian Premier Ismail Haneyya met on Tuesday South African Ambassador to Palestine Maka Lima at the Council of Ministers headquarters in Gaza. Haneyya thanked the ambassador for his visit and for South Africa's strong support for the Palestinian cause, expressing his appreciation for the South African solidarity delegations to Gaza.
He pointed to the close ties and good relationship between Palestine and South Africa, and called for developing those relations.
Haneyya briefed the ambassador on the Israeli violations against the Palestinian people and properties, mainly the Israeli Judaization policy and settlement construction and brutal practices against Palestinian prisoners.
On the other hand, Haneyya met the former and current presidents of the International Red Cross mission in Palestine, where he discussed the Palestinian detainees' difficult conditions particularly the hunger strikers and isolated detainees.
He stressed the need to intensify efforts in support of the prisoners' issue in Israeli jails, especially the hunger strikers and those who are held in solitary confinement and prevented from family visits referring in particular Dirar Abu Sisi.
For his part, Juan-Pedro Schaerer, President of the Red Cross mission to Palestine, praised the Palestinian government's cooperation with the mission.
He pointed to the Red Cross mission's important role in resolving many of the core issues in the besieged Strip, especially waste water, health crisis, and prisoners’ issue.
He pointed to the close ties and good relationship between Palestine and South Africa, and called for developing those relations.
Haneyya briefed the ambassador on the Israeli violations against the Palestinian people and properties, mainly the Israeli Judaization policy and settlement construction and brutal practices against Palestinian prisoners.
On the other hand, Haneyya met the former and current presidents of the International Red Cross mission in Palestine, where he discussed the Palestinian detainees' difficult conditions particularly the hunger strikers and isolated detainees.
He stressed the need to intensify efforts in support of the prisoners' issue in Israeli jails, especially the hunger strikers and those who are held in solitary confinement and prevented from family visits referring in particular Dirar Abu Sisi.
For his part, Juan-Pedro Schaerer, President of the Red Cross mission to Palestine, praised the Palestinian government's cooperation with the mission.
He pointed to the Red Cross mission's important role in resolving many of the core issues in the besieged Strip, especially waste water, health crisis, and prisoners’ issue.
14 jan 2014
Setting beside the fire , seeking warmth in the dark cold winter nights, Abu Rami,43, thinks of all that he has been suffering and wonders if his two daughter and the son whom he left in Jerusalem are feeling warm.
Aref Abu Yousef, who is called Abu Rami , a father of five sons and two daughters was born in Nusseirat camp in Gaza. In 1980s , he travelled to the West Bank and worked as a painter in Jerusalem.
He sat sadly recounting that happy times he spent with his beautiful Jerusalemite wife, two daughters and a son. He said Israeli occupation authorities intensified , in that time, their repressive measures against Jerusalem residents. They launched a mass manhunt under security pretexts in which I was arrested.
Heartbreaking , he said " I spent three years in Israeli prisons where I suffered all kinds of torment. Israel prison service kept transferring me from Beersheba to Ramle prisons and in the end they expelled me to Gaza.
When I returned to Gaza I was distracted , I went to one of my friends in Khan Youns who found me a room to live in. I did my best to bring my wife and three children to Gaza but all my efforts went in vain.
sighing for his children ," they are in their twenties nowadays."
He rented an old house and married another wife and begot five sons and two daughters. He ekes out a living working day and night as a painter, even though he could barely meet his family needs.
One day while I was on my work I fell down the scaffold and had my arm broken and hurt my chine, since then I did not work. "Even a house, I do not own," he explained.
After that accident he could no more pay the rent of the very old house in which his family live. Even the words could not describe that house, the walls are damped with peeling paint, joists are rotting and ceiling is falling .
His wife's family allocated him an en suit room in their house to live in with his family in Khuza'a town southern Gaza strip.
During the Israeli " Cast Lead" operation against Gaza in 2009, the Israeli air forces bombed his wife's family house after forcing them out . They became displaced again.
He explained that the harsh economic life conditions forced him to work in the border tunnels between Gaza and Egypt for three years . I was at death door for three times while I was working underground , in the last accident the rescuers saved my life miraculously as I was covered completely with earth.
He lost his sole source of income after the military coup in Egypt which destroyed all the lifeline tunnels between the besieged Gaza and Egypt.
Aref Abu Yousef, who is called Abu Rami , a father of five sons and two daughters was born in Nusseirat camp in Gaza. In 1980s , he travelled to the West Bank and worked as a painter in Jerusalem.
He sat sadly recounting that happy times he spent with his beautiful Jerusalemite wife, two daughters and a son. He said Israeli occupation authorities intensified , in that time, their repressive measures against Jerusalem residents. They launched a mass manhunt under security pretexts in which I was arrested.
Heartbreaking , he said " I spent three years in Israeli prisons where I suffered all kinds of torment. Israel prison service kept transferring me from Beersheba to Ramle prisons and in the end they expelled me to Gaza.
When I returned to Gaza I was distracted , I went to one of my friends in Khan Youns who found me a room to live in. I did my best to bring my wife and three children to Gaza but all my efforts went in vain.
sighing for his children ," they are in their twenties nowadays."
He rented an old house and married another wife and begot five sons and two daughters. He ekes out a living working day and night as a painter, even though he could barely meet his family needs.
One day while I was on my work I fell down the scaffold and had my arm broken and hurt my chine, since then I did not work. "Even a house, I do not own," he explained.
After that accident he could no more pay the rent of the very old house in which his family live. Even the words could not describe that house, the walls are damped with peeling paint, joists are rotting and ceiling is falling .
His wife's family allocated him an en suit room in their house to live in with his family in Khuza'a town southern Gaza strip.
During the Israeli " Cast Lead" operation against Gaza in 2009, the Israeli air forces bombed his wife's family house after forcing them out . They became displaced again.
He explained that the harsh economic life conditions forced him to work in the border tunnels between Gaza and Egypt for three years . I was at death door for three times while I was working underground , in the last accident the rescuers saved my life miraculously as I was covered completely with earth.
He lost his sole source of income after the military coup in Egypt which destroyed all the lifeline tunnels between the besieged Gaza and Egypt.
13 jan 2014
The former PLO ambassador to Yemen, Muhammad Amin Ahmad Nimir al-Nasr, passed away in Amman on Monday, Fatah announced in a statement.
Al-Nasr was the brother of late PLO field commander Abu Ali Iyad. He served as a PLO representative in Tanzania and later became ambassador to Yemen.
He will be buried on Monday and Fatah will hold a three-day wake in the West Bank to receive condolences.
Al-Nasr died of natural causes.
Al-Nasr was the brother of late PLO field commander Abu Ali Iyad. He served as a PLO representative in Tanzania and later became ambassador to Yemen.
He will be buried on Monday and Fatah will hold a three-day wake in the West Bank to receive condolences.
Al-Nasr died of natural causes.
Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Al-Hamadallah praised the British Government's efforts in supporting the Palestinian Government politically and economically, through the implementation of projects in various sectors mainly education, health and infrastructure.
During a meeting that was held in Ramallah Sunday with the new British consul in Jerusalem Alastair Mcphail, Al-Hamdallah discussed new means to enhance cooperation between the two governments.
He also discussed the economical challenges facing the Palestinian Government such as the unemployment.
"The biggest challenge for us now is to reach the independent Palestinian State, based on democracy, transparency, respect for human rights and freedom of expression," said Al-Hamdallah
Al-Hamdallah also discussed the latest developments that have been reached with a British company to allow drilling for gas in Gaza Strip in the year 2017.
During a meeting that was held in Ramallah Sunday with the new British consul in Jerusalem Alastair Mcphail, Al-Hamdallah discussed new means to enhance cooperation between the two governments.
He also discussed the economical challenges facing the Palestinian Government such as the unemployment.
"The biggest challenge for us now is to reach the independent Palestinian State, based on democracy, transparency, respect for human rights and freedom of expression," said Al-Hamdallah
Al-Hamdallah also discussed the latest developments that have been reached with a British company to allow drilling for gas in Gaza Strip in the year 2017.
12 jan 2014
Hamas movement expressed its readiness "to implement all previous agreements reached with the Fatah movement concerning the reconciliation." Hamas spokesman Hossam Badran told the Jordanian al-Sabil newspaper: "We are ready for reconciliation and implementation of all the previous agreements. We are waiting a response from our brothers in Fatah, despite the negative signs that have appeared, most recently the wave of arrests against Hamas members in Nablus."
He pointed out that the recent steps of Prime Minister Ismail Haneyya confirm Hamas's keenness to achieve unity and to end the division.
Haneyya has announced earlier an initiative to release prisoners from Fatah movement.
Badran said that the obstacles which prevent the implementation of the reconciliation still exist, most notably the ongoing negotiation and the continuation of security coordination with the Israeli occupation.
Separately, the Hamas leader stressed his movement and most of the people's rejection to the initiative of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
Meanwhile, PA security services in the West Bank arrested two Hamas affiliates and summoned five others for investigation.
The Preventive Security Service continued to detain seven Hamas supporters from the town of Aqraba in Nablus.
In Qalqilya, it arrested a liberated prisoner, and continued to detain another who was arrested two weeks ago.
The PSS has also summoned in al-Khalil a student at al-Khalil University and the representative of the Islamic bloc at Bethlehem University. Both are liberated prisoners.
In Ramallah, the PA's apparatus kidnapped a citizen from the town of Koper, after confiscating his car, and summoned the writer and journalist Mohammed Qiq for investigation.
For its part, the intelligence service in Salfit summoned two Palestinians for investigation, one of them the activist and the freed captive Abdullah Shatat.
He pointed out that the recent steps of Prime Minister Ismail Haneyya confirm Hamas's keenness to achieve unity and to end the division.
Haneyya has announced earlier an initiative to release prisoners from Fatah movement.
Badran said that the obstacles which prevent the implementation of the reconciliation still exist, most notably the ongoing negotiation and the continuation of security coordination with the Israeli occupation.
Separately, the Hamas leader stressed his movement and most of the people's rejection to the initiative of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
Meanwhile, PA security services in the West Bank arrested two Hamas affiliates and summoned five others for investigation.
The Preventive Security Service continued to detain seven Hamas supporters from the town of Aqraba in Nablus.
In Qalqilya, it arrested a liberated prisoner, and continued to detain another who was arrested two weeks ago.
The PSS has also summoned in al-Khalil a student at al-Khalil University and the representative of the Islamic bloc at Bethlehem University. Both are liberated prisoners.
In Ramallah, the PA's apparatus kidnapped a citizen from the town of Koper, after confiscating his car, and summoned the writer and journalist Mohammed Qiq for investigation.
For its part, the intelligence service in Salfit summoned two Palestinians for investigation, one of them the activist and the freed captive Abdullah Shatat.
The Palestinian government in Gaza warned that some influential people from Fatah faction are trying to sabotage every effort to achieve the inter-Palestinian reconciliation. Hamas's spokesman Taher Al-Nunu stated in a press release that the recent arrest of the Hamas committee members who were responsible for organizing its anniversary in Nablus city and later the brother of martyr Yehya Ayyash on the anniversary of his assassination had sent clear signals that there is an influential group of people from Fatah working on aborting all renewed efforts to revive the national reconciliation.
"This group has embarked on releasing remarks against the reconciliation since the first moment the Palestinian premier Ismail Haneyya announced his steps to create a conciliatory atmosphere, and later these arrests took place, which has clearly pointed to the party that wants to torpedo the reconciliation," Nunu said.
"We will not allow a group who has taken advantage of the division and whose interests are associated with the occupation to persist in destroying every effort aimed at reviving the reconciliation and ending the division, and we will continue to make efforts as declared by the premier in order to make 2014 a year for the achievement of the reconciliation," he added.
"This group has embarked on releasing remarks against the reconciliation since the first moment the Palestinian premier Ismail Haneyya announced his steps to create a conciliatory atmosphere, and later these arrests took place, which has clearly pointed to the party that wants to torpedo the reconciliation," Nunu said.
"We will not allow a group who has taken advantage of the division and whose interests are associated with the occupation to persist in destroying every effort aimed at reviving the reconciliation and ending the division, and we will continue to make efforts as declared by the premier in order to make 2014 a year for the achievement of the reconciliation," he added.
11 jan 2014
Frank Barat is an activist based in Belgium and is one of the former coordinators of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine. He recently conducted an interview with Richard Falk for "The Wall has Ears: Conversations for Palestine."
Richard Falk is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Palestinian human rights and an American professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University.
I wanted to ask you about this article that you recently wrote on your blog, Nelson Mandela's inspiration. You mentioned that you met him 15 years ago in South Africa.
What impression did he leave on you and what does, in your opinion, his death means for South Africa and the rest of the world?
I was fortunate to have the opportunity to meet Nelson Mandela. He was asked to greet a commission on the future of the oceans of which I was a member. The vice chair of this commission was Kader Asmal, who had been a member of Mandela's first cabinet and was also one of the authors of the South Africa constitution and a close friend of mine as well. He asked me if I could prepare some remarks for Mandela to welcome this commission, which I did.
Mandela used my text pretty much as I had written it. After the presentation, which was in the South African parliament, he came and talked to me and then to each of the members of the commission. I was very impressed in the sense that he was able to say something to each person from these 40 countries that was specific to their national situations.
As I tried to express in my blog, he had this quality of moral radiance, a sense of authenticity and a spiritual grounding that gave him a particular presence that was strong and unforgettable. His death has been an opportunity to take some account on what his life has meant and how it bore on so many issues, including the Palestinians, a facet that I am particularly interested in.
It is important to rescue the real Mandela from the one the liberal media has tried to project, which is one of reconciliation and nonviolence. Both of these characteristics were descriptive of his efforts to find a way to end South Africa apartheid without a bloody struggle but it should also be realized that he never really renounced the idea of violence if it seemed a necessary instrument for achieving liberation from a structure of oppression.
His main priority was what works in response to a particular condition of oppression. His release from prison was itself an effective demonstration that the global anti-apartheid campaign had forced the South African Afrikaner elite to re-calculate their interests and priorities. It was in that setting that he made this effort to find a solution to the conflict that would end political apartheid.
It was to some extent a Faustian bargain because the situation of the mass of Africans has not improved economically or socially since the transformation of the constitutional system, so not surprisingly, there is some resentment about the way in which the conflict was ended, among portions of the South African population.
The legacy is complicated by the fact that his successors as leaders did not really take on the job of creating a just society.
There is no question that it is a post apartheid society in a political sense but it still represents a society in which the white minority and an emergent tiny black elite dominate the economy and the mass of the people are still enduring many of the deprivations that were associated with apartheid itself.
Richard Falk is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Palestinian human rights and an American professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University.
I wanted to ask you about this article that you recently wrote on your blog, Nelson Mandela's inspiration. You mentioned that you met him 15 years ago in South Africa.
What impression did he leave on you and what does, in your opinion, his death means for South Africa and the rest of the world?
I was fortunate to have the opportunity to meet Nelson Mandela. He was asked to greet a commission on the future of the oceans of which I was a member. The vice chair of this commission was Kader Asmal, who had been a member of Mandela's first cabinet and was also one of the authors of the South Africa constitution and a close friend of mine as well. He asked me if I could prepare some remarks for Mandela to welcome this commission, which I did.
Mandela used my text pretty much as I had written it. After the presentation, which was in the South African parliament, he came and talked to me and then to each of the members of the commission. I was very impressed in the sense that he was able to say something to each person from these 40 countries that was specific to their national situations.
As I tried to express in my blog, he had this quality of moral radiance, a sense of authenticity and a spiritual grounding that gave him a particular presence that was strong and unforgettable. His death has been an opportunity to take some account on what his life has meant and how it bore on so many issues, including the Palestinians, a facet that I am particularly interested in.
It is important to rescue the real Mandela from the one the liberal media has tried to project, which is one of reconciliation and nonviolence. Both of these characteristics were descriptive of his efforts to find a way to end South Africa apartheid without a bloody struggle but it should also be realized that he never really renounced the idea of violence if it seemed a necessary instrument for achieving liberation from a structure of oppression.
His main priority was what works in response to a particular condition of oppression. His release from prison was itself an effective demonstration that the global anti-apartheid campaign had forced the South African Afrikaner elite to re-calculate their interests and priorities. It was in that setting that he made this effort to find a solution to the conflict that would end political apartheid.
It was to some extent a Faustian bargain because the situation of the mass of Africans has not improved economically or socially since the transformation of the constitutional system, so not surprisingly, there is some resentment about the way in which the conflict was ended, among portions of the South African population.
The legacy is complicated by the fact that his successors as leaders did not really take on the job of creating a just society.
There is no question that it is a post apartheid society in a political sense but it still represents a society in which the white minority and an emergent tiny black elite dominate the economy and the mass of the people are still enduring many of the deprivations that were associated with apartheid itself.
You talked about the role of violence in emancipatory struggles for freedom. What does international law says about this?
As in many areas of international law, it can be interpreted from different perspectives. Still, there did emerge especially in the 1970s and 80s a general international law consensus that armed struggle in the course of national liberation from a colonial regime was a legitimate use of force.
It did not mean that all types of violence were legitimate and legal. It had to be violence directed towards an appropriate target.
International law never offered a way of sanitizing terrorist forms of actions directed at innocent civilians or protected targets such as hospitals or churches. Of course in many of the liberation struggles the violent instruments used did include random acts intending to disrupt colonial occupation and rule.
"The Battle of Algiers," the famous film, shows acts of resistance including throwing bombs in a crowded cafe in Algiers. In this historical process, those that sided with the anti-colonial struggle have accepted such indiscriminate violence as justified in some circumstances of oppressive rule.
Defensive terrorism was also justified against the Nazi occupation of various European countries during WWII. Even those that uphold the legality of violence in wars of liberation do not go as far as to legitimize violence per se. Only violence against appropriate targets can claim the mantle of international law.
In 2001, you had to answer this question in the context of the Palestinian struggle during your term as the United Nation High Commissioner for Human Rights. What was your answer, or your findings at that time?
Again, one has to acknowledge that international law is not clear on this subject. There is no authoritative treaty or customary rule of international law or judicial determination that would resolve that question in a definitive way.
What I suggested was in a way similar to what I have been saying about Mandela's view of violence and the relation of violence to wars of national liberation. An oppressed and embattled people possess what amounts to a right to self-defense; it not only governments that can invoke such a right.
When there is an oppressive set of circumstances there is an implicit right of self-defense or resistance on the part of a society. Such a right is limited to the use of violence against those who are associated with the oppressive structure.
This right has not been codified or authoritatively endorsed as states control the lawmaking process. Nevertheless, it seems to me that such a right is expressive of the living law of international society in relation to the collective rights of people.
Why do you think is this question about violence always asked to the oppressed, them being African Americans, Indian Americans, Palestinians, when actually most of the violence is perpetrated by the oppressor, being the US or Israel in this case?
I think it goes back to the notion of the modern state. The modern state, by many conventional definitions enjoys a monopoly over legitimate use of violence. Therefore, those that are not state actors and that resort to violence have to overcome a presumption of immorality and illegality attached to their behavior.
The state has the obligation to maintain social order, establishing a political environment in which violence is used only to maintain the established order. I think that distinction is very important in explaining popular media presentations of these conflicts. The terminology of terrorism is used usually only with reference to anti-state violence.
State violence is usually sanitized in various ways. Those of us that are not happy with this kind of discriminatory use of language speak about state terrorism.
But it's a relatively unusual discourse about the nature of permissible and impermissible violence. Therefore it is important not to fall into that kind of statist trap by regarding state violence as presumptively legitimate and anti-state violence as presumptively illegitimate.
What role can international law really play to bring peace and justice around the world? Some Palestinians tend to laugh when you say that international law is on their side, because for them international law is responsible for what has happened to them.
Well, an adequate answer is more complicated than can be given here. There is no doubt in my mind that on the main unresolved issues, whether it is the settlements, the status of Jerusalem, the borders, the right to resources and land or the right of the refugees, international law properly understood and applied is unambiguously on the Palestinian side.
Such an interpretation of the relevance of international law has been repeatedly endorsed and upheld by the main organs of the UN, especially the General Assembly. It also was reinforced in large measure by the International Court for Justice in its advisory opinion dealing with the separation wall back that was issued in 2004.
At the same time it is understandable that the Palestinians feel disillusioned. International law and UN authorities are on their side but their situation is getting worse and worse. Israelis enjoy impunity for their crimes.
So it would appear that international law and the UN authorities being on their side has provided a kind of cover that has enabled the behavioral unlawfulness to actually work against them. That disparity accounts for the perception.
What I think is forgotten -- and has been the burden of my own recent thinking -- is that in the current phase of the Palestinian struggle and national movement, there has been a shift of tactics away from a primary reliance on armed struggle, in the direction of waging a world wide campaign to discredit the Israeli occupation and general approach to the conflict. In other words an effective social mobilization of global civil society has taken place in recent years, including the sessions of the Russell Tribunal.
It's all part of a process that I call "waging a legitimacy war." Such an outlook makes international law very important because where it is persuasive and does affect behavior over time is on the level of people and societies. The perception helps mobilizes people around the idea that the Palestinians have been acutely victimized by unjust policies and unjust structures.
If you look at the historical trend since the end of WWII, the side in a conflict that wins the legitimacy war, has generally prevailed politically. Although not without a high cost paid in lives lost and the scale of destruction. But in war after war and struggles between regimes and societies, it's not the stronger side militarily that has prevailed but rather the side that has the superior soft power instruments of conflict resolution at its disposal.
All the anti-colonial wars, the liberation of the East European societies from the regimes that they were under Soviet hegemonic control, the South African anti-apartheid campaign are examples of such a trend, as is the Indian liberation from British power; all these conflicts were won by the side that was decisively weaker from a realist hard power perspective. This was also dramatically the case in the Vietnam War in which the US won every battle yet lost the war.
One has to ask, what happens to make that happen?
One of the things that happens is that the side that is weaker militarily can prevail if it can gain the heights of legal and moral discourse, changes the balance of forces in a way that is very effective at the end of the conflict and produces results that are unexpected and difficult to explain.
The Afghans have a saying: "You have the watches, we have the time." That distinction between the technology and the people with unlimited time at their disposal is explanatory. That people have the ability to liberate their own country represents a decisive feature of the decolonizing and post-colonial political atmosphere.
Such a reality was not true during the colonial period where a small quantum of militarily superiority could be transformed into political control. The national mobilization of societies and the sense of people power really altered this sense of the balance of forces. Further, I am claiming that part of what mobilizes people power is having international law, UN authority, and international moral persuasion as sources of an equalizing soft power.
As in many areas of international law, it can be interpreted from different perspectives. Still, there did emerge especially in the 1970s and 80s a general international law consensus that armed struggle in the course of national liberation from a colonial regime was a legitimate use of force.
It did not mean that all types of violence were legitimate and legal. It had to be violence directed towards an appropriate target.
International law never offered a way of sanitizing terrorist forms of actions directed at innocent civilians or protected targets such as hospitals or churches. Of course in many of the liberation struggles the violent instruments used did include random acts intending to disrupt colonial occupation and rule.
"The Battle of Algiers," the famous film, shows acts of resistance including throwing bombs in a crowded cafe in Algiers. In this historical process, those that sided with the anti-colonial struggle have accepted such indiscriminate violence as justified in some circumstances of oppressive rule.
Defensive terrorism was also justified against the Nazi occupation of various European countries during WWII. Even those that uphold the legality of violence in wars of liberation do not go as far as to legitimize violence per se. Only violence against appropriate targets can claim the mantle of international law.
In 2001, you had to answer this question in the context of the Palestinian struggle during your term as the United Nation High Commissioner for Human Rights. What was your answer, or your findings at that time?
Again, one has to acknowledge that international law is not clear on this subject. There is no authoritative treaty or customary rule of international law or judicial determination that would resolve that question in a definitive way.
What I suggested was in a way similar to what I have been saying about Mandela's view of violence and the relation of violence to wars of national liberation. An oppressed and embattled people possess what amounts to a right to self-defense; it not only governments that can invoke such a right.
When there is an oppressive set of circumstances there is an implicit right of self-defense or resistance on the part of a society. Such a right is limited to the use of violence against those who are associated with the oppressive structure.
This right has not been codified or authoritatively endorsed as states control the lawmaking process. Nevertheless, it seems to me that such a right is expressive of the living law of international society in relation to the collective rights of people.
Why do you think is this question about violence always asked to the oppressed, them being African Americans, Indian Americans, Palestinians, when actually most of the violence is perpetrated by the oppressor, being the US or Israel in this case?
I think it goes back to the notion of the modern state. The modern state, by many conventional definitions enjoys a monopoly over legitimate use of violence. Therefore, those that are not state actors and that resort to violence have to overcome a presumption of immorality and illegality attached to their behavior.
The state has the obligation to maintain social order, establishing a political environment in which violence is used only to maintain the established order. I think that distinction is very important in explaining popular media presentations of these conflicts. The terminology of terrorism is used usually only with reference to anti-state violence.
State violence is usually sanitized in various ways. Those of us that are not happy with this kind of discriminatory use of language speak about state terrorism.
But it's a relatively unusual discourse about the nature of permissible and impermissible violence. Therefore it is important not to fall into that kind of statist trap by regarding state violence as presumptively legitimate and anti-state violence as presumptively illegitimate.
What role can international law really play to bring peace and justice around the world? Some Palestinians tend to laugh when you say that international law is on their side, because for them international law is responsible for what has happened to them.
Well, an adequate answer is more complicated than can be given here. There is no doubt in my mind that on the main unresolved issues, whether it is the settlements, the status of Jerusalem, the borders, the right to resources and land or the right of the refugees, international law properly understood and applied is unambiguously on the Palestinian side.
Such an interpretation of the relevance of international law has been repeatedly endorsed and upheld by the main organs of the UN, especially the General Assembly. It also was reinforced in large measure by the International Court for Justice in its advisory opinion dealing with the separation wall back that was issued in 2004.
At the same time it is understandable that the Palestinians feel disillusioned. International law and UN authorities are on their side but their situation is getting worse and worse. Israelis enjoy impunity for their crimes.
So it would appear that international law and the UN authorities being on their side has provided a kind of cover that has enabled the behavioral unlawfulness to actually work against them. That disparity accounts for the perception.
What I think is forgotten -- and has been the burden of my own recent thinking -- is that in the current phase of the Palestinian struggle and national movement, there has been a shift of tactics away from a primary reliance on armed struggle, in the direction of waging a world wide campaign to discredit the Israeli occupation and general approach to the conflict. In other words an effective social mobilization of global civil society has taken place in recent years, including the sessions of the Russell Tribunal.
It's all part of a process that I call "waging a legitimacy war." Such an outlook makes international law very important because where it is persuasive and does affect behavior over time is on the level of people and societies. The perception helps mobilizes people around the idea that the Palestinians have been acutely victimized by unjust policies and unjust structures.
If you look at the historical trend since the end of WWII, the side in a conflict that wins the legitimacy war, has generally prevailed politically. Although not without a high cost paid in lives lost and the scale of destruction. But in war after war and struggles between regimes and societies, it's not the stronger side militarily that has prevailed but rather the side that has the superior soft power instruments of conflict resolution at its disposal.
All the anti-colonial wars, the liberation of the East European societies from the regimes that they were under Soviet hegemonic control, the South African anti-apartheid campaign are examples of such a trend, as is the Indian liberation from British power; all these conflicts were won by the side that was decisively weaker from a realist hard power perspective. This was also dramatically the case in the Vietnam War in which the US won every battle yet lost the war.
One has to ask, what happens to make that happen?
One of the things that happens is that the side that is weaker militarily can prevail if it can gain the heights of legal and moral discourse, changes the balance of forces in a way that is very effective at the end of the conflict and produces results that are unexpected and difficult to explain.
The Afghans have a saying: "You have the watches, we have the time." That distinction between the technology and the people with unlimited time at their disposal is explanatory. That people have the ability to liberate their own country represents a decisive feature of the decolonizing and post-colonial political atmosphere.
Such a reality was not true during the colonial period where a small quantum of militarily superiority could be transformed into political control. The national mobilization of societies and the sense of people power really altered this sense of the balance of forces. Further, I am claiming that part of what mobilizes people power is having international law, UN authority, and international moral persuasion as sources of an equalizing soft power.
Israel has now been occupying part of Palestine for more than 65 years. Can we still call this today, legally, an occupation? And if we can't, what name should we give it?
It's an important question. I've argued in my role as UN Special Rapporteur that any occupation that lasts longer than 5 years enters a different phase of relationship between the occupying power and the occupied people and that we need a different kind of legal framework to address such a reality.
The Geneva Conventions were implicitly designed for temporary occupations, circumstances lasting 5 years or less. In the specifics of the Israeli occupation it has become increasingly misleading to use language of occupation. It is definitely more descriptive to talk about creeping annexation or a policy of permanent occupation. Such altered language signals the unwillingness of Israel to withdraw from the territory or to show respect for the character of the society as it existed when it was initially occupied.
The whole settlement phenomenon is dramatically inconsistent with any idea that this is temporary situation or that Israel contemplates ever fully withdrawing and complying with UN resolution 242 that was passed in 1967 and called for complete withdrawal and reminded Israel and the world that one of the underlying principle upon which the UN Charter [PDF] rests is the non-acquisition of territorial rights by conquest or by the use of force.
So the failure to implement resolution 242 is a sign of the failure of the UN to be able to impose the kind of obligations that it had itself expressed as a core element of a just and peaceful world.
John Dugard, your predecessor, was part of a team that wrote a report in 2009 [PDF], in which he called what was happening in the West Bank "apartheid." What do you make about this concept that is (being) used more and more in various campaigns around the world?
I think "apartheid" is more descriptive than any other way of talking about the current situation. Each context of subjugation of a people has its own originality. There is a kind of temptation on the part of critics of those who invoke the idea of apartheid to say that it's not like what existed in South Africa, it's not based on race, there are differences.
But if you look more closely you see that in certain respects its worse than South African apartheid. For instance, South Africa never constructed settler-only roads. They did not ever create such a pervasive structure of discrimination as the one that exists in the West Bank. The dual legal structure is very expressive of an ethnically based form of domination that deprives the Palestinians of rights while it endows the unlawful Israeli settlers with the full panoply of civic rights as inscribed in Israeli law as applicable to Jewish nationals.
The Palestinians don't even have the right to have rights on one side, and the Israelis that are present in the Occupied Territories in a manner that the International Court of Justice almost by a unanimous opinion said was unlawful, have this full legal protection under the rule of law that prevails in Israel for Jewish Israelis.
On October 27, a campaign called "Free Marwan Barghouti and all political prisoners" was launched in Cape Town, South Africa. How important are the political prisoners and their releases in the context of Israel/Palestine?
Barghouti's importance cannot be exaggerated. As I said in the Mandela post on my blog, if the Israeli leadership decides at some point that they want a just and peaceful future for both peoples they might signal such a change of heart that by releasing Barghouti from prison.
In that sense the importance of the release of Mandela was not so much that he was suddenly and unexpectedly given his political freedom, but rather that he was given freedom because the Afrikaners changed their mind radically as to how they wanted to pursue their own security. The whole thrust of what I call a legitimacy war is to make the Israelis change their mind as to what would bring them security and fulfill their own aspirations.
Therefore a campaign to free Barghouti will at least help concentrate the Israeli mind on what is at stake by keeping him in prison. Whether he should be considered a political prisoner or not is itself a question I do not have enough knowledge to answer. He certainly has acted like one. The charges brought against him are charges associated with violent crimes. On the other hand, his actual role seems to have been as the main architect of the Second Intifada, not as someone who perpetrated particular acts of violence that were the basis of his indictment and conviction.
So whether he should reasonably be treated as a political prisoner is something that needs to be explored in greater detail and if that is the basis of the campaign for his release, then the argument should be made in the strongest way as possible.
It's an important question. I've argued in my role as UN Special Rapporteur that any occupation that lasts longer than 5 years enters a different phase of relationship between the occupying power and the occupied people and that we need a different kind of legal framework to address such a reality.
The Geneva Conventions were implicitly designed for temporary occupations, circumstances lasting 5 years or less. In the specifics of the Israeli occupation it has become increasingly misleading to use language of occupation. It is definitely more descriptive to talk about creeping annexation or a policy of permanent occupation. Such altered language signals the unwillingness of Israel to withdraw from the territory or to show respect for the character of the society as it existed when it was initially occupied.
The whole settlement phenomenon is dramatically inconsistent with any idea that this is temporary situation or that Israel contemplates ever fully withdrawing and complying with UN resolution 242 that was passed in 1967 and called for complete withdrawal and reminded Israel and the world that one of the underlying principle upon which the UN Charter [PDF] rests is the non-acquisition of territorial rights by conquest or by the use of force.
So the failure to implement resolution 242 is a sign of the failure of the UN to be able to impose the kind of obligations that it had itself expressed as a core element of a just and peaceful world.
John Dugard, your predecessor, was part of a team that wrote a report in 2009 [PDF], in which he called what was happening in the West Bank "apartheid." What do you make about this concept that is (being) used more and more in various campaigns around the world?
I think "apartheid" is more descriptive than any other way of talking about the current situation. Each context of subjugation of a people has its own originality. There is a kind of temptation on the part of critics of those who invoke the idea of apartheid to say that it's not like what existed in South Africa, it's not based on race, there are differences.
But if you look more closely you see that in certain respects its worse than South African apartheid. For instance, South Africa never constructed settler-only roads. They did not ever create such a pervasive structure of discrimination as the one that exists in the West Bank. The dual legal structure is very expressive of an ethnically based form of domination that deprives the Palestinians of rights while it endows the unlawful Israeli settlers with the full panoply of civic rights as inscribed in Israeli law as applicable to Jewish nationals.
The Palestinians don't even have the right to have rights on one side, and the Israelis that are present in the Occupied Territories in a manner that the International Court of Justice almost by a unanimous opinion said was unlawful, have this full legal protection under the rule of law that prevails in Israel for Jewish Israelis.
On October 27, a campaign called "Free Marwan Barghouti and all political prisoners" was launched in Cape Town, South Africa. How important are the political prisoners and their releases in the context of Israel/Palestine?
Barghouti's importance cannot be exaggerated. As I said in the Mandela post on my blog, if the Israeli leadership decides at some point that they want a just and peaceful future for both peoples they might signal such a change of heart that by releasing Barghouti from prison.
In that sense the importance of the release of Mandela was not so much that he was suddenly and unexpectedly given his political freedom, but rather that he was given freedom because the Afrikaners changed their mind radically as to how they wanted to pursue their own security. The whole thrust of what I call a legitimacy war is to make the Israelis change their mind as to what would bring them security and fulfill their own aspirations.
Therefore a campaign to free Barghouti will at least help concentrate the Israeli mind on what is at stake by keeping him in prison. Whether he should be considered a political prisoner or not is itself a question I do not have enough knowledge to answer. He certainly has acted like one. The charges brought against him are charges associated with violent crimes. On the other hand, his actual role seems to have been as the main architect of the Second Intifada, not as someone who perpetrated particular acts of violence that were the basis of his indictment and conviction.
So whether he should reasonably be treated as a political prisoner is something that needs to be explored in greater detail and if that is the basis of the campaign for his release, then the argument should be made in the strongest way as possible.
You were appointed in 2008 as UN special rapporteur to Israel/Palestine. If you had to sum it up, what would you say about this role of yours during this period?
What I have been saying when I have been ask this question recently is to say that I am very happy that I was given the opportunity to do this for the past six years despite all the problems involved but I am also happy for selfish and personal reasons that my term is coming to an end and I will be able to resume a more normal life.
Of course, I will remain engaged with the Palestinian movement to the extent of my abilities and in light of opportunities to contribute to the goal of a just peace. I think I learned a lot about both the complexities of the Palestinian struggle and the difficulties of working within a politically contested terrain. I also learned about the strengths and weaknesses of the UN as a political bureaucracy. There is great unevenness in the ability and motivation of the personnel.
One of my problems was to be burdened with inadequate staff backup that made my own performance problematic. There are some advantages in this position being unpaid and undertaken in a voluntary spirit. The great benefit of such a status is to be politically independent. I discovered that even the UN Secretary General is of course free to criticize, even irresponsibly and in a hurtful manner, but still he lacks the authority on his own initiative to dismiss or punish me in any way. Only the Human Rights Council itself could do this.
The burden of the work and doing the job in an effective and responsible way does require competent and loyal staff support. When that's not forthcoming, it is very difficult and frustrating to try to do the job. In the last years this problem has happily disappeared and I have been fortunate to have excellent staff back up and I think this has led to the position have a greater impact and is reflected in the quality of the reports and the utility of their recommendations. The job calls not only for semi-annual reports but also involves dealing with specific and frequent challenges that arise.
At present, the emergency in Gaza that has been generated by the change in political atmosphere in Egypt, which has put unbearable pressure on the people living in Gaza, is illustrative. It has been difficult for years for the people entrapped in Gaza, but now you can only describe Gaza as a place of habitation fit only for the wretched of the earth.
The international community fails terribly by being silent in the face of a situation. Only the Turkish government has made a financial contribution to ease some of the problems but it is very minor input if compared to the scale of the problem. You may recall the very self-righteous invocation of the so-called "responsibility to protect" norm in relation to Libya back in 2011 which was manipulated geopolitically at the time to create the basis for a military intervention that was not only humanitarian, but clearly was intended to change the political structure of Libya in a way that misled the governments who states in the Security Council that were opposed such a policy.
In Gaza, there exists a situation in which the humanitarian case for some kind of international emergency relief seems overwhelming and yet there is complete silence on the relevance on the R2P (Right-to-Protect) diplomacy. It suggests two things. One is the primacy of geopolitics in the way in which the UN crafts responses to various claims for assistance based on humanitarian necessity.
There are pervasive double standards in the practice of the UN and a great deal of moral hypocrisy on the part of the liberal democracies that talk one way when their foreign policy pushes them towards an interventionist posture and talk a very different way when they do not want to do anything. This is true even when the underlying circumstances are more or less similar. The other is that the extent of humanitarian necessity is not very relevant in explaining the pattern of geopolitical action and inaction.
What does normal life means for Richard Falk? What's next?
We will see! I think I will try to take more time to do some writing and will hopefully be able to reflect on these experiences. I hope that my successor as Special Rapporteur has less trials and tribulations than I had but also does a better job than I did because I do think this is such an important position. It is sadly only truly independent voice that the Palestinians have within the UN system.
This position of Special Rapporteur, partly because it is an unpaid and not subject to the discipline imposed on UN civil servants, has gained in influence and stature during the last decade. It offers an individual the opportunity to help the Palestinians in their struggle merely by being truthful. It also allows one to promote a just outcome for this conflict that has lasted far too long and has victimized the Palestinian people living under occupation, as refugees, and in exile, dispersed around the world for far too long.
This Palestinian ordeal represents a great failure of the international community and it should be remembered that unlike all the other liberation struggles against various types of colonial rule the U.N has more unfulfilled responsibility for this one that any other one. The issue was dumped in the UN's lap by the League of Nations and then by the British in the form of abandoning their role as the mandatory power. It was the UN that decreed in 1947 a partition plan that was adopted by a commission that never consulted the wishes of the Palestinian people or the residents of historic Palestine.
In recent years, the road map and U.S political leaders continues to claim the prerogative to tell the world what was good for the Palestinians and in all these contexts the actual experience has been a downhill one for peace and justice. Against such a background, the international community bears a huge responsibility to overcome this record of failure, however belatedly.
When people complain as they very frequently do that the UN and the Human Rights Council spend too much time on the Palestinian issues compared to other issues around the world, my response is that it does not spend enough time, that it has failed to follow through in a way that is effective in bringing peace and justice to the peoples of Palestine, and until it does, it has no ethical or basis for not trying its utmost to do so.
Interview originally published on "The Wall has Ears: Conversations for Palestine" on Jan. 8, 2014.
What I have been saying when I have been ask this question recently is to say that I am very happy that I was given the opportunity to do this for the past six years despite all the problems involved but I am also happy for selfish and personal reasons that my term is coming to an end and I will be able to resume a more normal life.
Of course, I will remain engaged with the Palestinian movement to the extent of my abilities and in light of opportunities to contribute to the goal of a just peace. I think I learned a lot about both the complexities of the Palestinian struggle and the difficulties of working within a politically contested terrain. I also learned about the strengths and weaknesses of the UN as a political bureaucracy. There is great unevenness in the ability and motivation of the personnel.
One of my problems was to be burdened with inadequate staff backup that made my own performance problematic. There are some advantages in this position being unpaid and undertaken in a voluntary spirit. The great benefit of such a status is to be politically independent. I discovered that even the UN Secretary General is of course free to criticize, even irresponsibly and in a hurtful manner, but still he lacks the authority on his own initiative to dismiss or punish me in any way. Only the Human Rights Council itself could do this.
The burden of the work and doing the job in an effective and responsible way does require competent and loyal staff support. When that's not forthcoming, it is very difficult and frustrating to try to do the job. In the last years this problem has happily disappeared and I have been fortunate to have excellent staff back up and I think this has led to the position have a greater impact and is reflected in the quality of the reports and the utility of their recommendations. The job calls not only for semi-annual reports but also involves dealing with specific and frequent challenges that arise.
At present, the emergency in Gaza that has been generated by the change in political atmosphere in Egypt, which has put unbearable pressure on the people living in Gaza, is illustrative. It has been difficult for years for the people entrapped in Gaza, but now you can only describe Gaza as a place of habitation fit only for the wretched of the earth.
The international community fails terribly by being silent in the face of a situation. Only the Turkish government has made a financial contribution to ease some of the problems but it is very minor input if compared to the scale of the problem. You may recall the very self-righteous invocation of the so-called "responsibility to protect" norm in relation to Libya back in 2011 which was manipulated geopolitically at the time to create the basis for a military intervention that was not only humanitarian, but clearly was intended to change the political structure of Libya in a way that misled the governments who states in the Security Council that were opposed such a policy.
In Gaza, there exists a situation in which the humanitarian case for some kind of international emergency relief seems overwhelming and yet there is complete silence on the relevance on the R2P (Right-to-Protect) diplomacy. It suggests two things. One is the primacy of geopolitics in the way in which the UN crafts responses to various claims for assistance based on humanitarian necessity.
There are pervasive double standards in the practice of the UN and a great deal of moral hypocrisy on the part of the liberal democracies that talk one way when their foreign policy pushes them towards an interventionist posture and talk a very different way when they do not want to do anything. This is true even when the underlying circumstances are more or less similar. The other is that the extent of humanitarian necessity is not very relevant in explaining the pattern of geopolitical action and inaction.
What does normal life means for Richard Falk? What's next?
We will see! I think I will try to take more time to do some writing and will hopefully be able to reflect on these experiences. I hope that my successor as Special Rapporteur has less trials and tribulations than I had but also does a better job than I did because I do think this is such an important position. It is sadly only truly independent voice that the Palestinians have within the UN system.
This position of Special Rapporteur, partly because it is an unpaid and not subject to the discipline imposed on UN civil servants, has gained in influence and stature during the last decade. It offers an individual the opportunity to help the Palestinians in their struggle merely by being truthful. It also allows one to promote a just outcome for this conflict that has lasted far too long and has victimized the Palestinian people living under occupation, as refugees, and in exile, dispersed around the world for far too long.
This Palestinian ordeal represents a great failure of the international community and it should be remembered that unlike all the other liberation struggles against various types of colonial rule the U.N has more unfulfilled responsibility for this one that any other one. The issue was dumped in the UN's lap by the League of Nations and then by the British in the form of abandoning their role as the mandatory power. It was the UN that decreed in 1947 a partition plan that was adopted by a commission that never consulted the wishes of the Palestinian people or the residents of historic Palestine.
In recent years, the road map and U.S political leaders continues to claim the prerogative to tell the world what was good for the Palestinians and in all these contexts the actual experience has been a downhill one for peace and justice. Against such a background, the international community bears a huge responsibility to overcome this record of failure, however belatedly.
When people complain as they very frequently do that the UN and the Human Rights Council spend too much time on the Palestinian issues compared to other issues around the world, my response is that it does not spend enough time, that it has failed to follow through in a way that is effective in bringing peace and justice to the peoples of Palestine, and until it does, it has no ethical or basis for not trying its utmost to do so.
Interview originally published on "The Wall has Ears: Conversations for Palestine" on Jan. 8, 2014.
By Khalid Amayreh in Occupied Palestine
Fatah, the de facto "ruling party" of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah, never stops blaming Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic liberation movement, for the continuation of the 7-year rift between the two groups.
In fact, listening to statements by Fatah leaders and spokespersons, one would get the impression that Hamas, not Israel, is the ultimate enemy and tormentor of the Palestinian people.
But the problem goes further beyond rhetoric. Fatah has effectively been siding with every conceivable foe of Islam, from the murderous regime of Bashar el-Assad to the equally murderous and treacherous Egyptian junta headed by Abdul Fatah al-Sisi.
And in both cases, Fatah has been completely oblivious of the decidedly criminal acts committed, with utter vindictiveness and callousness, against the Palestinian people.
Needless to say, the crimes against humanity perpetrated by the two nefarious regimes didn't stop at slaughtering their own people. Thousands of Palestinians have been murdered by the sectarian soldiers of Bashar el-Assad.
It is estimated that between 1800-2000 Palestinian refugees have been murdered at the hands of the Nuseiri gang and it's Iranian, Iraqi and Lebanese Shiite allies.
Now, we are told the refugees at the Yarmouk refugee camp are being starved to death due to the adamant refusal of Assad's forces to allow food supplies to reach the besieged camp.
Similarly, the Zionist puppet junta in Cairo has been launching a witch-hunt campaign against Palestinians in general and Hamas in particular. This is done so clumsily that every conceivable problem facing Egypt since King Farouk is being blamed on Hamas and the Palestinians.
In fact, every day, we are affronted with a fresh dose of brash lies disseminated by the Egyptian media against the Palestinians. It is hard to imagine a more mendacious media under the sun.
This absurdity overwhelming the Egyptian scene is undoubtedly an expression of the political and moral bankruptcy engulfing the coup-makers. It never occurred to them that the rope of lie is short (a lie has short legs) no matter how long it might seem to be.
None the less, we see that Fatah has been building a "working relationship" with these liars and murderers. Fatah's share in this unholy and unethical relationship goes further than inciting the Egyptian coup-makers against Hamas. It also includes the dissemination of deliberately concocted disinformation for the purpose of besmirching Hamas's image and getting the Islamic group implicated in the quagmire of the Egyptian scene.
And, to be sure, Fatah has not always been unsuccessful in its insidious efforts as the Egyptian coup makers never lost an opportunity to tighten the noose on the Gaza Strip by perfecting the already hermetic blockade on the coastal enclave.
Sweeping arrests in West Bank
In recent days and weeks, the PA security agencies arrested dozens of Islamic college students from the Najah and Bir Zeit universities. The sweeping arrests came in the aftermath of the release by Hamas authorities in Gaza of a large number of detained Fatah activists accused of trying to destabilize the Islamic movement's rule.
The gesture was followed by a warm telephone conversation between Ismael Haniya, Gaza's elected Prime Minister, and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. During the brief conversation, the former reportedly told the latter that the gesture was made in order to expedite and promote national reconciliation.
None the less, there seem to be certain influential elements within the Ramallah regime that are hell-bent on foiling and thwarting every prospect for reconciliation between the two camps. These elements are likely to be within the security agencies which are inculcated with hatred against Hamas.
Unfortunately, these elements don't put the interest of the Palestinian people and their just cause at the top of their priorities. The ultimate priority of these people seems to keep receiving hefty salaries from the Americans and to keep receiving certificates of good conduct from the Israelis.
In the final analysis, the main raison d'etre of these security agencies is to serve Israeli security interests. It would be dishonest to deny this obvious fact.
Another point. There is a widespread feeling among many Palestinians that the Ramallah leadership cannot really conduct so-called "peace talks" with Israel and get close to Hamas at the same time. This is a kind of an absolute oxymoron that has repeatedly proven itself.
The truth of the matter is that a strong Hamas is a great and indispensable asset for the Palestinian negotiator.
At the very least, the opposition provided by Hamas and other Palestinian factions to any deviation by the PA from Palestinian national constants can be used- and must be used- by the PA to refuse Israeli dictates and promote Palestinian demands.
It is really sad and lamentable that instead of utilizing this important factor, namely the Islamist opposition in Occupied Palestine, to enhance and strengthen the negotiating position of the PA, we see some Fatah spokesmen incite against Hamas.
I believe Fatah should reconsider this vacuous and stupid modus operandi on its part. It is disastrous for our cause and our people.
Khalid Amayreh is an American educated journalist living in occupied Palestine.
Fatah, the de facto "ruling party" of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah, never stops blaming Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic liberation movement, for the continuation of the 7-year rift between the two groups.
In fact, listening to statements by Fatah leaders and spokespersons, one would get the impression that Hamas, not Israel, is the ultimate enemy and tormentor of the Palestinian people.
But the problem goes further beyond rhetoric. Fatah has effectively been siding with every conceivable foe of Islam, from the murderous regime of Bashar el-Assad to the equally murderous and treacherous Egyptian junta headed by Abdul Fatah al-Sisi.
And in both cases, Fatah has been completely oblivious of the decidedly criminal acts committed, with utter vindictiveness and callousness, against the Palestinian people.
Needless to say, the crimes against humanity perpetrated by the two nefarious regimes didn't stop at slaughtering their own people. Thousands of Palestinians have been murdered by the sectarian soldiers of Bashar el-Assad.
It is estimated that between 1800-2000 Palestinian refugees have been murdered at the hands of the Nuseiri gang and it's Iranian, Iraqi and Lebanese Shiite allies.
Now, we are told the refugees at the Yarmouk refugee camp are being starved to death due to the adamant refusal of Assad's forces to allow food supplies to reach the besieged camp.
Similarly, the Zionist puppet junta in Cairo has been launching a witch-hunt campaign against Palestinians in general and Hamas in particular. This is done so clumsily that every conceivable problem facing Egypt since King Farouk is being blamed on Hamas and the Palestinians.
In fact, every day, we are affronted with a fresh dose of brash lies disseminated by the Egyptian media against the Palestinians. It is hard to imagine a more mendacious media under the sun.
This absurdity overwhelming the Egyptian scene is undoubtedly an expression of the political and moral bankruptcy engulfing the coup-makers. It never occurred to them that the rope of lie is short (a lie has short legs) no matter how long it might seem to be.
None the less, we see that Fatah has been building a "working relationship" with these liars and murderers. Fatah's share in this unholy and unethical relationship goes further than inciting the Egyptian coup-makers against Hamas. It also includes the dissemination of deliberately concocted disinformation for the purpose of besmirching Hamas's image and getting the Islamic group implicated in the quagmire of the Egyptian scene.
And, to be sure, Fatah has not always been unsuccessful in its insidious efforts as the Egyptian coup makers never lost an opportunity to tighten the noose on the Gaza Strip by perfecting the already hermetic blockade on the coastal enclave.
Sweeping arrests in West Bank
In recent days and weeks, the PA security agencies arrested dozens of Islamic college students from the Najah and Bir Zeit universities. The sweeping arrests came in the aftermath of the release by Hamas authorities in Gaza of a large number of detained Fatah activists accused of trying to destabilize the Islamic movement's rule.
The gesture was followed by a warm telephone conversation between Ismael Haniya, Gaza's elected Prime Minister, and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. During the brief conversation, the former reportedly told the latter that the gesture was made in order to expedite and promote national reconciliation.
None the less, there seem to be certain influential elements within the Ramallah regime that are hell-bent on foiling and thwarting every prospect for reconciliation between the two camps. These elements are likely to be within the security agencies which are inculcated with hatred against Hamas.
Unfortunately, these elements don't put the interest of the Palestinian people and their just cause at the top of their priorities. The ultimate priority of these people seems to keep receiving hefty salaries from the Americans and to keep receiving certificates of good conduct from the Israelis.
In the final analysis, the main raison d'etre of these security agencies is to serve Israeli security interests. It would be dishonest to deny this obvious fact.
Another point. There is a widespread feeling among many Palestinians that the Ramallah leadership cannot really conduct so-called "peace talks" with Israel and get close to Hamas at the same time. This is a kind of an absolute oxymoron that has repeatedly proven itself.
The truth of the matter is that a strong Hamas is a great and indispensable asset for the Palestinian negotiator.
At the very least, the opposition provided by Hamas and other Palestinian factions to any deviation by the PA from Palestinian national constants can be used- and must be used- by the PA to refuse Israeli dictates and promote Palestinian demands.
It is really sad and lamentable that instead of utilizing this important factor, namely the Islamist opposition in Occupied Palestine, to enhance and strengthen the negotiating position of the PA, we see some Fatah spokesmen incite against Hamas.
I believe Fatah should reconsider this vacuous and stupid modus operandi on its part. It is disastrous for our cause and our people.
Khalid Amayreh is an American educated journalist living in occupied Palestine.
A Palestinian chief prosecutor and a senior police officer concluded a study trip to Norway to further improve cooperation between the two institutions in dealing with child victims and witnesses of domestic violence, a press release by the European Union's police support group, EUPOL COPPS, said on Friday. The aim of the three-day visit, which was coordinated and supported by EUPOL COPPS, is to become more familiar with best international practices on dealing with victims of child abuse, gender-based violence, interviewing witnesses and enhancing investigative skills, it said.
The head of Family Protection Unit of the Palestinian Civil Police (PCP) in Hebron and the Chief Prosecutor of Nablus were briefed by their Norwegian counterparts on best practices on how to deal with victims of domestic violence.
They received a presentation on the Norwegian witness protection program including risk assessment, on child interviewing methodologies and visited the 'Children's House' where child interviews are conducted. They also paid a visit to Oslo Police District, the National Police Directorate and the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The study trip, part of EUPOL COPPS plan to support the institutional development of the PCP and The Prosecution Office, will be followed by two training courses which will take place in January and in spring 2014 to enhance investigative skills in the police and prosecution, said the press release.
The head of Family Protection Unit of the Palestinian Civil Police (PCP) in Hebron and the Chief Prosecutor of Nablus were briefed by their Norwegian counterparts on best practices on how to deal with victims of domestic violence.
They received a presentation on the Norwegian witness protection program including risk assessment, on child interviewing methodologies and visited the 'Children's House' where child interviews are conducted. They also paid a visit to Oslo Police District, the National Police Directorate and the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The study trip, part of EUPOL COPPS plan to support the institutional development of the PCP and The Prosecution Office, will be followed by two training courses which will take place in January and in spring 2014 to enhance investigative skills in the police and prosecution, said the press release.
