Issue No : 127 30th March 2015
Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia
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Issue No : 127 30th March 2015
Read in This Issue
P5 FEATURED STORY Israel killed more Palestinians in 2014 than in any other year since 1967
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UNRWA calls for lifting Gaza blockade
P8 “Israeli” court sentences Sheikh Salah to 11 months in jail
Israel Insider
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Israel army forces fear new intifada
P 16 Palestine marathon draws Attention to the right to freedom of movement
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Articles & analyses P 17 School students use sewage channels to reach school
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The mockery that is ‹security for peace›
Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia
CONTENTS
Issue No : 127 30th March 2015
FEATURED STORY UNRWA calls for lifting Gaza blockade
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News of Palestine Israel killed more Palestinians in 2014 than in any other year since 1967 Palestinian dead after falling from Israeli separation wall School students use sewage channels to reach school Israeli court sentences Sheikh Salah to 11 months in jail Hamas seizes spying Israeli electronic insects in Gaza
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Isreal Insider srael army forces fear new intifada UN envoy proposed Gaza-Israel truce, Source Swiss delegation discusses solutions for Gaza employees Israel prevents ex-prisoner from entering West Bank Unity govt meets in Gaza amid public employee protests Israel absent from UN rights agency›s session on Gaza Palestine marathon draws Attention to the right to freedom of movement Articles & Analyses The mockery that is ‹security for peace›
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Issue No : 127 30th March 2015
Featured Story
UNRWA calls for lifting Gaza blockade
During the inauguration of a school in the eastern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, Krahenbuhl said that the blockade on the Gaza Strip was no longer acceptable.
He went on to say that exacerbating unemployment in the Gaza Strip could engender desperation and anger.
Krahenbuhl said the Israeli blockade and delaying the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip following the Israeli offensive were causes for concern.
In October of 2014, donor countries pledged to offer $5.4 billion for the Palestinians in general, including $2.6 billion for the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip.
Krahenbuhl said UNRWA had repeatedly addressed The school is the first to be reconstructed donor countries to honor financial pledges they made in the Gaza Strip following a 51-day Israeli for the Gaza Strip during a reconstruction conference offensive on it in July and August of 2014. in Egyptian capital Cairo.
Israel’s latest offensive on the Gaza Strip left thouThe UN official also called on the interna- sands of Palestinian homes and public facilities either tional community to work together to bring in total or partial ruin. an end to Israel’s siege on Gaza, describ- The blockade has deprived the territory’s 1.9-million ing it as both “illegal” and “illegitimate.” population of most basic needs. He said when he meets official from donor countries, he always tells them that aid offered to the Gaza Strip cannot be suspended. 4
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22 March 2015
World Bulletin
Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia
Issue No : 127 30th March 2015
News of Palestine
Israel killed more Palestinians in 2014 than in any other year since 1967
More than 2,300 Palestinians killed and more than 17,000 injured, according to annual report by UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Israel killed more Palestinian civilians in 2014 than in any other year since the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip began in 1967, a UN report has said. Israel’s activities in the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem resulted in the deaths of 2,314 Palestinians and 17,125 injuries, compared with 39 deaths and 3,964 injuries in 2013, according to the annual report (pdf) by the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The conflict in Gaza in July and August was largely responsible for the dramatic increase in fatalities. It claimed the lives of 2,220 Gazans, of whom 1,492 were civilians, 605 militants and 123 unverified. More than 11,000 people were injured and about 500,000 Palestinians were internally displaced at the height of the conflict. About 100,000 remain so. There was also a sharp rise in fatalities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where 58 Palestinians were killed and 6,028 injured – the highest number of fatalities in incidents involving Israeli forces since 2007 and the highest number of injuries since 2005.
Most of the incidents took place in the second half of the year, following the abduction and murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, which led to daily riots and protests in East Jerusalem. Khdeir, a 16-year-old Palestinian, was kidnapped and killed in July, following the abduction and murder of three Israeli teenagers the previous month. The report, entitled Fragmented Lives, documents an increase in the number of Palestinians injured, incarcerated and displaced, compared with the two previous years. It notes an increase in the Israeli armed forces’ use of live ammunition, which accounted for almost all fatalities and 18% of injuries. Palestinian attacks against Israeli civilians – mostly settlers – and security forces also rose in 2014, with Israeli fatalities increasing from four to 12. Incidents of settler violence resulting in Palestinian casualties and injuries increased, but the number of incidents leading to Palestinian property and land being damaged decreased. The number of Palestinians held in administrative detention by Israeli authorities increased by 24% in 2014, but decreased when it came to children. A monthly average of 185 were held last year compared with 197 in 2013, a decrease of 6%. No children under 14 years old were held in military detention in 2014.
Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia
27 Mar 2015 Source: The guardian |
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Issue No : 127 30th March 2015
Palestinian dead after falling from Israeli separation wall
A Palestinian who was injured after falling while trying to climb over the Israeli separation wall last week died of his wounds on Wednesday. Akram Mahmoud Mohammad Abd al-Hamid Al-Hroub, from Deir Samit village southwest of Hebron, fell off the wall while he was trying to scale it in order to cross into Israel for work. The incident occurred near al-Ram village east of Jerusalem. Following the fall, he was taken to al-Makased hospital in Jerusalem with serious injuries. He subsequently underwent several operations before succumbing to his wounds on Wednesday. His body was taken back to his village, where he was laid to rest on Wednesday afternoon. Around 60,000 Palestinians are employed inside Israel, but only about half of those have proper documentation. An estimated 30,000 Palestinians cross into Israel without any work permits, largely traveling through wilderness areas to avoid the strict Israeli permit regime. Some of these undocumented workers cross in populated areas, however, where they have to scale sections of the wall that reach up to eight meters. Additionally, in many places the wall has large no-go zones on either sides, in addition to Israeli military sniper towers.
Source: Ma’an 27 Mar 2015
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Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia
Issue No : 127 30th March 2015
School students use sewage channels to reach school
- Palestinian students are being forced to cross through sewage channels to reach a high school in western Ramallah district after a settlement road cut off the only other means of access, residents told Ma’an.
Up to 200 students from the villages of al-Tira and Beit Ur al-Fuqa now reach the school using a four kilometer route that runs along the separation wall, where armed settlers, as well as Israeli soldiers, almost daily interrupt their commute. The route passes through sewage channels and regularly takes students up to 40 minutes to reach their school, as the channels are filled with rainwater in the winter and snakes in the summer. Students told Ma’an that Israeli soldiers regularly fire tear-gas canisters at them on their way back. The al-Tira Beit Ur al-Fuqa high school is now enveloped by the Israeli separation wall on three sides at a point where the wall extends more than five kilometers inside the 1949 Armistice Line. The wall separates the villages from the illegal Israeli settlement of Beit Horon as well as an Israeli military training camp. On the school’s fourth side, a road was opened exclusively for settlers going from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. The school principle, Samer Bader, said that when the sewage channels are filled with wastewater in the winter it is particularly difficult for children to reach the school and sometimes they are not able to make the passage at all. Bader also said that security conditions surrounding the school had prevented the administration from developing and maintaining the school properly, meaning that in the winter the students study in classrooms covered in mold. The school has been repeatedly raided by Israeli soldiers during the school year, Bader said, and he believes that Israeli forces are
purposefully obstructing any attempts to develop or improve the school by launching raids whenever such attempts are made. One student, Mumen Faraj, said he now has to leave his home at 6:45 am in order to reach his school by 8:00 am. He said the difficulties faced en route make it difficult for his classmates to focus during class. Another student, Ayman Abd al-Fattah, said that he and his classmates have been repeatedly harassed by Israeli settlers on their way to school. He added that the students are always frightened whenever they see Israeli soldiers while walking to school. The Beit Horon settlement was created in 1977, and in 2006, the separation wall was built to separate the settlement from the school. More than 500,000 Israeli settlers live in settlements across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, in contravention of international law. Israel began building the separation wall in 2002, and the route has been the target of regular demonstrations by border towns whose lad is cut off by its path. Israel has regularly confiscated large plots of Palestinian land in order to build the wall, and when the 435-mile barrier is complete, 85 percent of it will have been built inside the occupied West Bank. In 2004 the International Court of Justice ruled that the separation wall was illegal and “tantamount to annexation.”
Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia
24 Mar 2015
Source: Ma’an |
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Issue No : 127 30th March 2015
Israeli court sentences Sheikh Salah to 11 months in jail
An Israeli court sentenced Sheikh Raed Salah, the leader of the northern branch of the Islamic movement in Israel to 11 months in prison for “inciting violence” during a mosque sermon he gave in 2007. Salah was also handed a suspended three-month jail sentence. The court decided to postpone the implementation of the resolution against Sheikh Salah for 45 days, to provide an opportunity for his lawyers to appeal the decision. Dozens of Salah’s supporters gathered outside the court as the sentence was read out. A number of Israeli right-wing activists were also outside, chanting against Salah but Israeli authorities did not let the right-wingers get near the Palestinians. Tawfiq Mohammed, the media coordinator for the Islamic movement, told the Middle East Eye that the Israeli courts pursued Salah as political prosecution for his activism and the influence he wields. “There is no doubt that the Israeli authorities persecute Sheikh Raed based on political motivations,” Mohammed said. “But this is the price we Palestinians have to pay for challenging Israel.”
al-Fahem. Due to a restraining order that barred him from coming within 150 meters of the Old City, Salah delivered his sermon in Wadi Joz, a neighbourhood just north of the walled city. His visit came against the backdrop of Israel demolishing historical sites around the al-Aqsa Compound, which Muslims consider as the third holiest site. A week earlier on 6 February, Israel had demolished the Magharba Gate Road, which led to the compound. In 2013, he was acquitted of charges inciting to racism but was convicted of incitement of violence, for which he was sentenced 8 months in prison by the Magistrate Court. His lawyers appealed the verdict and the court today upheld the ruling. Salah’s fiery speech was directed at the threat he said Israel posed to the al-Aqsa Mosque.
“The Israeli establishment wants to build a temple that will be used to pray to God. It is so impudent and such a liar,” Salah said in the sermon, according to the indictment. “Someone who wants to build a house of God cannot when our blood is still on his clothing, our blood is still on his doors, our blood is in his food and in his drink. And our Mohammed pointed to how outgoblood goes from one terrorist general to another.” ing Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Lieberman, the head of the ultra-na- Based on those words, he was charged with incitement to violence. tionalist Yisrael Beteinu, called for the Mohammed said that Salah’s lawyers are intending to appeal the beheading of Palestinian citizens who ruling within the prescribed 45 days. were not loyal to the state of Israel. “They will appeal to the district court based on the current verdict,” “What he said did not differ from what he said, “and later, they will ask permission to appeal to the SuDaesh does,” he said, referring to the preme Court against the convictions against Sheikh Raed.” Arabic acronym for the Islamic State. “But of course he did not get indicted Zahi Nujidat, a lawyer and spokesman for the Islamic movement, told media that “Every month, every week, every day Sheikh Raed for violence or racism.” spends in prison is injustice. The real crime is the occupation.” Salah had arrived to Jerusalem on FriSource: MEE 26 March 2015 day 16 February with hundreds of his supporters from his hometown of Umm 8
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Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia
Issue No : 127 30th March 2015
Hamas seizes spying Israeli electronic insects in Gaza Over the past two decades, the number of Israeli settlers in the West Bank has climbed steadily.
The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas have seized electronic insects that were flying the skies of the Gaza Strip, according to Al-Majd, a security website close to Hamas. Al-Majd reports that the devices are used by the Israeli authorities for spying and monitoring the positions and bases of the Palestinian resistance in Gaza. It is also believed they are being used to search for Israeli soldiers reportedly kidnapped during the latest Israeli war on the Gaza Strip. An informed source told Al-Majd that Hamas electronic security units disassembled these insects and found pictures of the soldiers kidnapped during the war stored in their memories. They also revealed that they are being run and monitored via satellites. “The electronic insects are the size of small birds and look as birds from far distances,” the informed source said. “They can easily fly and enter into buildings and other facilities through very small holes and fly easily inside them.” The Israeli military launched a wide-scale offensive against the Gaza Strip last summer which resulted in the deaths of over 2,000 Palestinians. Around 73 Israelis were also killed, including six non-combatants. Two Israeli soldiers are reported to have been kidnapped by Hamas fighters in Gaza during the ground operation. However, the Israeli military have said that they were killed.
24 March 2015 Source: MEMO
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Issue No : 127 30th March 2015
Israeli insider
Israel army forces fear new intifada
Israeli army forces are preparing for a possible violent Palestinian uprising in the occupied West Bank, Israeli media has reported. “The Israeli army is preparing for a possible escalation in the West Bank, both spontaneous and organized,” Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth said Tuesday. The report, which cited senior Israeli army officials, said that a recent Israeli freeze on taxes collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA) could trigger a violent reaction in the West Bank since the PA had imposed budget constraints to shore up the deficit caused by the withheld funds. “According to army officials, growing economic tensions in the Palestinian market in the West Bank has served as a catalyst for riots and even terrorist attacks,” the newspaper reported. Israeli authorities have been withholding tax revenues collected on behalf of the PA for the last three months. The move was taken in retaliation for a recent decision by the PA to apply for membership in several international organizations, including the International Criminal Court. Israel collects, on the PA’s behalf, around $175 million each month in taxes on Palestinian imports and exports. The PA uses this money to pay the salaries of its civil servants. For the past three months, the Palestinian government has only been able to pay 60 percent of public-sector salaries after borrowing from local banks.
24 March 2015
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Source: World Bulletin
Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia
Issue No : 127 30th March 2015
UN envoy proposed Gaza-Israel truce, Source UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Robert Serry has been among figures who proposed a truce between three and five years between the Gaza Strip and Israel, a senior member of Palestinian faction Hamas said Sunday. Hossam Badran added that the proposed truce would be in return for lifting a blockade imposed by Israelon the Gaza Strip since 2007, establishing a seaport for the Palestinian territory and putting an end to pressures on it. “Hamas has not responded to the proposed truce yet,” Badran told The Anadolu Agency. “This is an issue of all the Palestinian people and Hamas cannot solely decide on it,” he added. He noted that Gaza could not accept to solve its problems away from the rest of Palestine. Another senior Hamas member, meanwhile, said some European countries also proposed the truce. “Hamas is still considering this proposal,” Bassim Naim said, noting that none of the main parties to the proposed truce had accepted it yet. Earlier on Sunday, Hamas deputy chief Ismail Haniyeh said that his movement did not mind hammering out a five-year truce with Israel. Haniyeh added that Hamas did not mind this truce, provided that it did not give Israel the chance to control the West Bank, which is already occupied by Israel. “Some international parties have proposed a five-year truce between the resistance in the Gaza Strip and Israel,” Haniyeh said during a meeting with some members of Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian faction, at his home on Sunday. He added that the truce ought also to be approved at a national Palestinian level. Earlier this month, Israel’s “Walla” news website cited documents from western diplomatic sources, which, it said, showed that Hamas had proposed a five-year truce with Israel in return for lifting the ongoing blockade on the Gaza Strip. In August of 2014, Israel signed a cease-fire deal with Palestinian factions following a devastating 51-day military onslaught on the besieged Gaza Strip. The offensive left some 2,160 Palestinians – mostly civilians - dead and more than 11,000 injured, while thousands of homes across the coastal enclave were reduced to rubble.
Sorce: AA
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Issue No : 127 30th March 2015
Swiss delegation discusses solutions for Gaza employees
A Swiss delegation arrived in the Gaza Strip on Monday and discussed a proposal for solving the issue of the Palestinian employees recruited by the Hamas government in Gaza,Anadolu Agency reported. Senior leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) Jamil Mizher said that the Swiss delegation discussed the proposal with five Palestinian factions, including Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad, Popular Front and Democratic Front. The factions’ representatives accepted it as a base for the solution of the problem “if there is a real will”, he said. Mizher said that the Swiss delegation gave “satisfying” answers for several questions posed by the factions. He added that there would be further meetings. Meanwhile, Hamas Spokesman Ismail Ridwan said that although the Swiss delegation provided positive input, there are still many questions that require “detailed answers”. “The Swiss Proposal needs detailed and specialised study,” he told Anadolu Agency. “We hope that this problem is sorted out soon in order to turn the page of suffering of these employees.” Switzerland proposed the solution for the employees in October 2014. The ‘Swiss Proposal’ included a UN-monitored solution. On 11 March, Palestine’s Ambassador to the United Nations Ibrahim Khreisheh said that the PA President Mahmoud Abbas had accepted the proposal.
MEMO
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Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia
Issue No : 127 30th March 2015
Israel prevents ex-prisoner from entering West Bank
Israeli authorities delivered a military order on Friday denying a former Palestinian prisoner from Jerusalem entry to the West Bank for six months. The former prisoner, Salah Hammouri, 29, told Ma’an that Israeli intelligence had summoned him to the Russian Compound police station in Jerusalem and given him a military order preventing him from entering the West Bank so as to maintain “the security and safety of citizens.” The order, which had been signed by the Israeli Major-General Nitzan Alon in the West Bank, took effect on March 24, 2015 and will continue until September 24, 2015. Al-Hammouri was convicted for being a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and planning to assassinate Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. He was released on December 18, 2011 as part of the the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange deal after having spent six years in Israeli jails, and was prevented from travelling and entering the West Bank for three months at that time as well. Around 1,000 Palestinians were released from Israeli prisons in 2011 in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was captured by Hamas in 2006. Israeli forces maintain severe restrictions on Palestinians’ freedom of movement in the occupied Palestinian Territories through a complex combination of checkpoints, roads forbidden to Palestinians but open exclusively to Jewish settlers, and various other physical obstructions. Dissidents against the Israeli occupation are often specifically denied freedom of movement, to the extent that Israeli authorities sometimes forcibly exile political opponents from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip.
MEMO
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Issue No : 127 30th March 2015
Unity govt meets in Gaza amid public employee protests Dozens of Palestinian civil servants protested Thursday in front of the government’s headquarters in the Gaza Strip demanding paychecks they have not received for several months, as Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah finished a rare visit to the coastal enclave. Prime Minister Hamdallah pledged that Palestinian factions would “work fast” to find solutions to issues facing Gaza on Thursday, on the second day of what is only his second visit to Gaza since the formation of a national unity government between Fatah and Hamas in June. As Hamdallah and his accompanying delegation left Gaza Strip on Thursday evening, spokesman Ehab Bseiso emphasized that future solutions discussed during the short trip will be comprehensive, including electricity, employment, and reconstruction. Hamdallah vowed yesterday in Gaza that civilian workers of Hamas’ de facto administration in Gaza would be enlisted to the payroll of the Palestinian Authority. Head of the employees’ union, Muhammad Siyam, said that the union will continue to demand the employees’ rights, adding that a meeting between the employees’ representatives and Hamdallah will be held on Thursday to discuss solutions for the crisis. He pointed out that protests will continue, and called upon Hamdallah not to leave the Gaza Strip without finding a solution to crisis. Employees of the former Hamas-run government in Gaza went on strike in late December 2014 in protest of an announcement that the Palestinian Authority would not guarantee their positions under the new unity government. At the time, the unity government pledged to re-hire tens of thousands of workers laid off seven years ago, potentially threatening the livelihood of some 50,000 people Hamas hired to replace them following the Fatah-Hamas split in 2007. Hamdallah arrived in Gaza Wednesday, when he said that his visit to Gaza was out of devotion to national reconciliation and saying that the Palestinian government “will not accept separating or isolating Gaza.” In a meeting Thursday, several representatives of Palestinian factions met with Hamdallah, each stressing the necessity for unity. Fatah’s spokesperson, Fayiz Abu Aita, said that factions agreed today that Gaza is a part of the geographical and political unity of Palestine. Futhermore, Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas’ spokesperson, said that it has been confirmed to form a committee to discuss certain issues, especially crossings and the employees’ crisis.
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Ma’an
Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia
Issue No : 127 30th March 2015
Israel absent from UN rights agency›s session on Gaza
UN Human Rights Council has launched a special session on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories and the 2014 Gaza conflict, with Israel’s representative for the UN agency not attending.
New York judge Mary McGowan Davis, who has taken over as head of the team, told the council. Schabas denies claims
Canadian international law expert William Schabas resigned as chair of the Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza conflict last month after Israel complained “I note the representative of Israel is he could not be impartial because he had prepared a not present,” said council president legal opinion for the Palestine Liberation Organisation Joachim Ruecher. (PLO) in October 2012. Israel provided no immediate explana- Schabas strongly denied that he was beholden to the tion for not being at the session dedi- PLO but said he was reluctantly stepping down to cated overwhelmingly to discussion of avoid the inquiry into the July-August conflict being its policies and alleged abuses. compromised in any way.
“We will not comment on that,” a Israel’s absence on Monday does not mark the first spokeswoman with the Israeli mission time it has failed to attend the council. in Geneva told the AFP news agency. It cut all ties with the council in March 2012 over its The US was also absent from Monday’s plans to probe how Jewish settlements were harming discussions. Palestinian rights, and did not resume relations until Asked to explain why the US was not late 2013. taking part, a spokesman said only that Monday’s session came after Prime Minister Benjathe US ambassador to the council Keith min Netanyahu’s Likud party scored an election vicHarper was in Washington. tory last week. Monday’s session had originally been scheduled to discuss a probe on the 50-day war in Gaza last year, but the investigators obtained a delay after the head of the team quit.
“The process cannot be rushed,” former
Israel’s war on Gaza ended with a truce between Israel and the occupied territory’s rulers Hamas on August 26 after the deaths of more than 2,140 Palestinians, most of them civilians, and 73 people on the Israeli side, mostly soldiers.
Source: AFP
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Bulletin
11 March 2015
Source:
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World
Issue No : 127 30th March 2015
Palestine marathon draws Attention to the right to freedom of movement Running a marathon in Bethlehem highlights how freedom of movement of Palestinian women, men, girls and boys continues to be severely restricted under Israel’s prolonged military occupation. Marathon runners often “hit a wall” under the physical and emotional strain of the 42-kilometre course. But in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) you literally hit the Wall well before that distance. In the biblical city of Bethlehem, Sana Jamaani is warmed up and ready to run. This isn’t her first race, but she says it is her most important. “We are trying to inspire people to take their own rights,” says organizer “I’m running in the holy land,” Signe Fischer, “and the right of movement is the only right that you can Jamaani smiles. “I’m running physically just claim. You can put on your running shoes and just take it.” in Palestine.” The Palestine Marathon is put on by the Palestine Olympic Committee and More than 3,000 runners the Right to Movement, a nonprofit organization that uses running as a came to the West Bank for the means of activism. They focus their efforts on what they see as one of the Palestine Marathon on Friday. most basic rights: movement. For Jamaani, this isn’t just a Many of the runners are Palestinian, and their movement is limited, Israel race for time. It is a run for says, for security reasons. The marathon course took runners along the recognition. West Bank separation barrier, into the Aida refugee camp, and under guard “It means that you run for towers. peace,” Jamaani says. Nader al-Masri won the marathon. He is from Gaza, and he says he had to Two weeks before this mara- wait five hours at the Erez border crossing to compete. He arrived in Manthon, more than 25,000 run- ger Square at the finish line to a hero’s welcome. ners took part in the Jerusa- “I saw parts of the wall all over. It’s very hard, but I’m still proud of myself as lem Marathon. The race was a Palestinian,” says al-Masri. a celebration of sport in a cityIn its third year, the marathon drew runners from all over the world, pilgrims wide event that drew internaof a sort making a journey to the holy land, not for religion, but for sport. tional attention and competition. The course took runners “It’s an achievement,” said Jamaani after finishing. “Everyone looks for an through old and new Jerusa- achievement in life, and one of them was crossing this line, especially in the lem. They were free to run. Palestine Marathon.” But in Bethlehem, runners say For runners like Jamaani, the marathon is a statement made one step at a they run to be free. Source: Agencies time. 16
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Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia
Issue No : 127 30th March 2015
Articles & Analyses
The mockery that is ‹security for peace› Despite their importance, the Palestinian Authority’s threats to end security coordination with Israel will not mean anything if they are not part of a larger and broader strategy that includes building Palestinian unity and preparing to face the inevitable Israeli and American punishment. However, we cannot be liberated from the grips of this security coordination without being liberated intellectually from the illusion of the “peace process”. Such cooperation with the Israelis includes creating a situation in which the Palestinian people are submissive in order to force them to accept Israel’s control and end all resistance to the occupation. Meanwhile, Israel continues its expansionist policies of seizing more land and displacing the Palestinian people. The goal behind the security coordination is not coordination per se, but ensuring that Israeli security conditions are met. This basically means that the PA is to prevent all resistance operations against Israel and keep protesters away from the military checkpoints and barriers. In other, words, Israel’s
Lamis Andoni security is prioritised over any human, legal or political considerations that might benefit the Palestinian people. This blackmail began with the Oslo Accords, as they include clauses that protect the Palestinian people and their land from the brutality of the Israeli occupation, but do not include any reference to international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the confiscation of land, the displacement of the population, and the transfer of settlers to the occupied territories. In addition to this, Israel refused to commit to any charters or covenants that prohibit torture, murder and perse-
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cution. Since the beginning of the “peace process”, the purpose was to impose Israel’s conditions by means of military superiority and American support instead of international law and UN resolutions. Hence, the agreements, especially their security aspects, have become the main reference for the phased and final status agreements because Israel does not recognise the historical, political or legal rights of the Palestinians. Israel regards the recognition of Palestinian rights to be a threat to its legitimacy. Indeed, Zionism does not recognise the presence of an Arab Palestin-
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Issue No : 127 30th March 2015 ian nation on the land it considers to be the homeland of Jews born in and citizens of countries all over the world. Zionists view the Palestinians merely as an obstacle to the realisation of their state and its expansion. Israel’s demands are based on the basis of “the need to contain the Palestinians” by turning the PLO into an authority with no power or sovereignty but which relieves Israel of the burden of direct contact with the Palestinian population. However, since there are no hindrances to the Israeli army’s regular offensives against local civilians, the Palestinians are sitting ducks and an easy target with no legal or physical protection. The “security coordination” was imposed on the Palestinians as a part of the American-Israeli conditions, which linked the withdrawal of the Israeli army to the condition that the Palestinians commit to the security guarantees. The US Middle East envoy, Dennis Ross, brokered a memorandum emphasising this association with the “fight on terrorism” as part of the Protocol Concerning the Redeployment in Hebron in 1997. The concept of “security for peace”, within which the Palestinians must preserve Israel’s security in order for them to deserve the trust of the occupation forces, also became a condition for implementing the “Road 18
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Map” in 2002. This means that Israel will not withdraw, nor will a Palestinian state be established, without the Palestinians’ commitment to Israel’s security demands.
The “security coordination” was imposed on the Palestinians as a part of the AmericanIsraeli conditions, which linked the withdrawal of the Israeli army to the condition that the Palestinians commit to the security guarantees.
However, the security coordination seems to be a Palestinian need because Israel controls the movement of both people and goods in domestic and foreign travel. This has given Israel the dubious right to prevent Palestinians – including the president - from moving at any time, under the pretext of breaching security guarantees. No coordination; no relative freedom of movement. There are Palestinian concerns that stopping the security coordination would result in collective punishment by Israel that may extend to military raids and assassinations. However, continuing the coordination does nothing more than legitimise the occupation and turn a section of the Palestinian people - the PA and its security forces - into tools enabling the occupation forces by doing their job for them. It is necessary to put an end to the mockery of “security for peace” because under this slogan, the occupation will continue and the Palestinian dream of freedom and independence will slip further and further away.
26 March 2015
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Issue No : 127 30th March 2015
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