Issue no 130 by Palestinian Weekly Report

Issue No : 130 21th APRIL 2015

Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia

Issue No : 130 21th APRIL 2015

Read in This Issue

FEATURED STORY

Palestinian wedding in jail

‹Empty words›: Donors fail to deliver pledged Gaza aid

P 17 Israeli Insider

P 15

Yarmouk shows up the treatment of Palestinians across the Arab world Lieberman conditions ‹eliminating Hamas› to join govt

Articles & analyses P 23 UN asks Israel to unlock Palestine tax funds

P 12 Who wins if Washington loses in the Middle East?

Israeli courts convict hundreds of Palestinian children

Malaysia & Palestinian cause

P 25

Activities in Malaysia to commemorate Palestinian prisoner’s day 2

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CONTENTS

Issue No : 130 21th APRIL 2015

FEATURED STORY ‹Empty words›: Donors fail to deliver pledged Gaza aid

News of Palestine Christian graveyard vandalized in Israel Palestinian wedding in jail Israel razes Palestinians houses near Ramla UN asks Israel to unlock Palestine tax funds South African companies boycott G4S over links to Israeli prisons Youngest Palestinian prisoner describes devastating detention experience Israeli courts convict hundreds of Palestinian children Israeli army detains 32 Palestinians in W. Bank

6 7 8 9 10 11 12 14

Isreal Insider Lieberman conditions ‹eliminating Hamas› to join govt 13th Aqsa Child festival as colourfully as butterfly Yarmouk shows up the treatment of Palestinians across the Arab world ‹Jerusalem needs UNESCO›s intervention› Palestinian prisoners Facts & Numbers “Info graphic”

15 16 17 18 19

REPORTS Remembering the thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails

Articles & Analyses Who wins if Washington loses in the Middle East? Malaysia & Palestinian cause

Activities in Malaysia to commemorate Palestinian prisoner’s day

Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia

Issue No : 130 21th APRIL 2015

Featured Story

‹Empty words›: Donors fail to deliver pledged Gaza aid

Countries have given just 26.8 percent of $3.5bn promised for rebuilding Gaza after the 2014 war, report ﬁnds. Just a quarter of the $3.5bn in aid pledged to rebuild Gaza in the wake of last summer’s devastating war has been delivered, according to a new report. The report from the Association of International Development Agencies, released on Monday, found that only 26.8 percent ($945m) of the money pledged by donors at the Cairo 4

conference six months ago has been released, and reconstruction and recovery have barely started in the besieged coastal enclave. “The promising speeches at the donor conference have turned into empty words,” said Winnie Byanyima, executive director of Oxfam, which was among the report’s signatories. “There has been little rebuilding, no permanent ceaseﬁre agreement and no plan to end the blockade. The international community is walking with eyes wide open into the next avoidable conﬂict, by upholding the status quo they themselves said must change.” Operation Protective Edge, the 2014 Israeli assault on Gaza that spanned nearly two months, resulted in the deaths of 2,132 Palestinians and 71 Israelis, according to data from aid agencies.

Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia

Issue No : 130 21th APRIL 2015 More than 10,000 homes were destroyed in the war, and thousands more were severely damaged. An estimated 17,500 families remain homeless.

ing blockade of the Gaza Strip.

After Israel and armed Palestinian groups agreed on a ceaseﬁre, international donors met in Cairo in October 2014, where more than $5bn in aid was pledged. Of this, $3.5bn was earmarked for Gaza, while the rest was intended to provide support for the Palestinian government in general, including programmes in the West Bank.

“The people who lost their houses are losing their privacy, their dignity and their patience... The fear of the future has become a dominant feeling for the majority of people in Gaza,” she told Al Jazeera.

The report notes that while some damaged buildings in Gaza have been repaired, almost no large-scale reconstruction projects have started, and no permanent housing has been rebuilt. Some international donors have been hesitant to disburse their reconstruction pledges due to the tense relationship between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, who have bickered over control of Gaza’s border crossings. The plethora of other crises in the region, which also require donor attention, has further stalled the delivery of aid, the report noted. “The paradox is that the lack of reconstruction is exacerbating the potential for conﬂict,” the report stated. “By refraining from releasing funds due to fear of political instability in Gaza, donors are entrenching divides that heighten instability.” The report contains a number of recommendations, including for all parties to immediately resume negotiations for a long-term ceaseﬁre, for donors to make good on their Cairo conference pledges, and for Israel to lift its ongo-

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Fikr Shalltoot - the Gaza director of Medical Aid for Palestinians, which was among the 46 signatories to the report - noted that the situation on the ground in Gaza has become dire.

-----------Mouin Rabbani, a Middle East analyst who specialises in the Israel-Palestine conﬂict, said that absent international aid, the Gaza Strip will remain unable to provide for the basic needs of its residents. “Israel, the West, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority have transformed the Gaza Strip into an isolated, blockaded and entirely aiddependent territory,” Rabbani told Al Jazeera, noting the ongoing siege of Gaza is of graver concern than the failure of donors to deliver promised aid. “The Gaza Strip is in urgent need of both humanitarian and reconstruction assistance, but it is important to recall that this remains a fundamentally political rather than developmental challenge,” he said. “As such, the most urgent Palestinian priority has been, and remains, national reconciliation and the reconstruction of a coherent, dynamic, credible and effective national movement.”

4 April 2015, Reuters

Issue No : 130 21th APRIL 2015

News of Palestine

Christian graveyard vandalized in Israel

The police did not say who was behind the attack but in recent years there have been a spate of hate crimes targeting Christian churches and cemeteries, according to timeslive news. A Catholic Church ofﬁcial in Israel says a Christian cemetery has been desecrated, with graves damaged and crosses smashed, Some people have smashed gravestones at a Maronite Christian cemetery in a village near Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, Israeli police said on Wednesday. Police opened an investigation after receiving a report about damage to a number of graves at the Christian cemetery in Kufr Birim, spokeswoman Luba Samri said, indicating that the tombstones were “broken and displaced.” There are some 11,400 Maronite Catholics living in Israel. The police did not say who was behind the attack, but recent years have shown a spate of hate crimes targeting Christian churches and cemeteries, with the perpetrators believed to be Jewish extremists.

World Bulletin 6

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Issue No : 130 21th APRIL 2015

Palestinian wedding in jail Gazan Reem prepares to marry her fiance who was slapped with three life sentences and an additional 30 years of imprisonment. Reem Abu Wahdan, a Palestinian woman, will wear her white wedding dress on July 27 – even though her husband-to-be will not be there to share the joy of the moment. Reem, 18, will visit her mother-inlaw in the occupied West Bank on cupation is a source of pride. that day to marry a man who is be“I just want to give him the message that imprisonment hind bars inside an Israeli jail. will not last forever,” Reem said. “Hope and determinaWhile the husband-to-be will not be tion can do anything.” there – on that day or for many more days to come – but Reem never- On July 27, after officially documenting her marriage to Mahmoud, Reem will attend a wedding ceremony, even theless feels extremely proud. though the groom will not be present. “This is the least I can do for a man who sacrificed his entire life behind The following day, Mahmoud’s mother will visit him in jail bars for the Palestinian cause,” to give him the engagement ring, upon which Reem’s name is engraved. Reem told The Anadolu Agency. The last time Reem saw her husband-to-be, Mahmoud, in person, was in 2002, when she was only five years old.

-On tenterhooksReem says she cannot wait for the marriage to be ofﬁcially documented so she can visit Mahmoud in prison after obtaining permission from the Israeli authorities.

A short time later, he was locked up She says she is ready to wait for him until he serves out by Israel for allegedly planning to his sentence. carry out attacks on Israeli targets. “I will wait for him until he is free and victorious,” she He was slapped with three life sen- declared. tences and an additional 30 years She voices hope that Mahmoud will be included in a fuof imprisonment. ture prisoner swap between Palestinian resistance fac-Ray of hopetions and Israel. When Mahmoud’s mother ap- Reem’s father voices similar sentiments, stressing that proached Reem to make a mar- imprisonment does not last forever. riage proposal on behalf of her jailed son, the 18-year-old Gaza “My daughter and I are happy because we managed to make my nephew [Mahmoud] happy in prison,” the faStrip resident was overjoyed. ther said. For her, being engaged to a symbol of the Palestinian resistance against Israel’s decades-long oc03 April 2015 World Bulletin

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Issue No : 130 21th APRIL 2015

Israel razes Palestinians houses near Ramla

“The Israelis think that by demolishing our homes and displacing our families they can force us to leave. They are wrong.” Israeli bulldozers on Wednesday demolished three Arab-owned houses in the central city of Ramla on the pretext that they had been built illegally, local ofﬁcials have said. “Bulldozers backed by Israeli security forces stormed Dahmash village and surrounded the houses before leveling them,” Arafat Ismail, head of the Dahmash village council, told. “The village has remained tense since the withdrawal of Israeli police,” he added. Salem Assaf, the owner of one of the demolished houses, told that the structures had provided shelter for dozens of people who were now homeless. “At least 30 people, including 15 children, are now without homes,” he said. “The Israelis think that by demolishing our homes and displacing our families they can force us to leave,” said Assaf. “They are wrong.” He added: “We will stay no matter what happens.” Dahmash is home to at least 700 Palestinians who were displaced from their ancestral homes in historical Palestine after the creation of Israel in 1948. They now carry Israeli citizenship.

15 April 2015 World Bulletin

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Issue No : 130 21th APRIL 2015

UN asks Israel to unlock Palestine tax funds

The United Nations has called on Israel to unlock millions of dollars in taxes owed to the Palestinian Authority that were withheld after it decided to join the International Criminal Court. A senior UN ofﬁcial told the UN Security Council on Thursday that the freeze of about $127m, imposed on January 3, was in violation of the Oslo peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. “We call on Israel to immediately resume the transfer of tax revenues,” said UN Assistant Secretary-General Jens Anders Toyberg-Frandzen. Meanwhile, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, asked Arab foreign ministers gathered in Cairo to provide a “safety net” of $100m a month to cover tax revenues withheld by Israel. During the Cairo meeting, Abbas also called for the formation of a committee to launch a new bid seeking a UN Security Council resolution on ending the Israeli occupation, a month after the council rejected a similar initiative. The failed Arab-backed resolution set the end of 2017 as the deadline for a full Israeli withdrawal that would pave the way for Palestinian statehood. The United States and Australia voted against the resolution, but China, France and Russia were among eight countries that backed it, leaving it just one vote short of the nine required for adoption. The outcome spared the US from resorting to its veto, a move that could have undermined its standing in the Arab world at a time when Washington is leading a campaign against rebels in Iraq and Syria.

Source: Agencies

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Issue No : 130 21th APRIL 2015

South African companies boycott G4S over links to Israeli prisons

As many as 20 South African companies, including manufacturers and chain stores, have ended their security contracts with G4S in protest at the company’s links to Israeli prisons and detention centres. The news was announced by the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Speaking at a meeting at the Embassy of Palestine in Pretoria on Thursday, a spokesperson for the BDS movement said that the move comes as the Palestinians are commemorating Prisoner Day and Israel escalates its crimes against prisoners and detainees in its jails. The spokesperson pointed out that G4S has ignored repeated calls to stop providing Israeli prisons with security technology and services. The movement applauded South African solidarity committees and their peaceful efforts which led to this achievement and has caused the British security company to lose nearly 7 million Rands a year. The Bill Gates Foundation ended a $200 million contract with G4S in June last year following pressure from South African solidarity committees. Renowned former political prisoner Ahmad Kathrada welcomed the South African companies’ decision and called for the expansion of the international solidarity campaign to help release Palestinian prisoners, including women and children. The Embassy of Palestine in Pretoria described the move as an “important message” which the Israeli occupation must consider very carefully and learn from South Africans’ experience and history. A joint appeal between the embassy, the Ahmad Kathrada Foundation and the BDS movement will be launched to commemorate Palestinian Prisoner Day.

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Issue No : 130 21th APRIL 2015

Youngest Palestinian prisoner describes devastating detention experience

The Israeli authorities released their youngest Palestinian prisoner on Tuesday. Khalid Sheikh, aged just 15, had been detained for nearly four months, Anadolu Agency has reported. Describing the experience of his detention, the youngster accused Israel of not respecting children. “The [Israelis] attacked me with riﬂe butts on the head and insulted me during the investigation,” he said. “Although I suffer from anaemia, they did not give me any medical help, apart from some painkillers.” He added that it was a “tough” investigation. “I was insulted and beaten and held in shackles for hours in a small cell.” This did not scare him. “This is the [Israeli] occupation. It will not scare us.” Khalid’s father Hussam said that his son’s release from prison was “the most beautiful moment of my life”, but expressed his sadness that the 15 year-old had to go through what was clearly a terrible ordeal. “This will have left negative effects on him and our family,” he pointed out. “This is the real face of Israel, it violates rights and freedoms.” He called for greater solidarity with the prisoners until they are released. The Israeli army arrested Khalid on 24 December, and sentenced him to four months in prison with a ﬁne equivalent to $500. He was found guilty of throwing stones at military vehicles enforcing Israel’s brutal occupation near his home.

MEMO

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Issue No : 130 21th APRIL 2015

Israeli courts convict hundreds of Palestinian children

Courts have come under heavy criticism for harsh judicial measures against Palestinian minors accused of stone-throwing. When Israeli soldiers detained Hussam al-Sheikh’s 15-year-old son Khaled on Christmas Day last year, he expected to pay a ﬁne and bring the boy home within a few hours. “A few weeks earlier, some young boys from our village were arrested for allegedly throwing stones,” Sheikh told Al Jazeera. “They all came home the next morning after their parents paid a small ﬁne.” Accused of throwing stones, Khaled was arrested near the Israeli separation wall in Beit Anan, a village near Sheikh in the occupied West Bank. Yet, upon arriving at the police station at the Binyamina settlement where the boy was being held, Hussam learned 12

that his son would not be allowed to go home with him anytime soon. “When we got to the police station, he had been beaten up and there was blood on his face,” Sheikh told Al Jazeera. “After ﬁve court hearings, he was sentenced to four months in prison. How does a 50-year-old man sit on a bench and decide the fate of little children?” The Israeli military court that sentenced Khaled also ﬁned his parents 2,000 Israeli shekels ($510) - a costly amount on top of the lawyer and court fees the Sheikh family already had to pay. Palestinians tried in Israeli military courts are convicted at a rate of more than 99 percent, according to a 2011 military document leaked to the Israeli daily Haaretz. “Why is this necessary?” Sheikh asked. “Can you seriously tell me that these kids throwing stones at a concrete wall pose a threat to their state? Or to their soldiers in armoured jeeps?” Israeli, Palestinian and international rights groups have decried Israel’s practise of arresting Palestinian children. According to a recent reportby Military Court Watch, a group that monitors Israel’s detention of children, 182 of the more than 5,600 Palestinians detained in Israeli jails were children as of the end of February.

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Issue No : 130 21th APRIL 2015 The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) announced in a December report that in 2014, Israel detained 1,266 Palestinian children below the age of 15 in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Since 2000, the report added, more than 10,000 Palestinian children have been detained by Israeli forces.

in Hebrew, despite the fact that most do not speak the language, a recent DCI-Palestine report noted. An Israeli military spokesperson did not reply to Al Jazeera’s multiple requests for comment on these allegations.

According to a study published last month by UNICEF, the United Nations programme focusing on children, Palestinian children are regularly subjected to verbal abuse and intimidation, strip-searched Israel recently prompted widespread and not “adequately notified of their legal rights, in criticism for its 45-day imprisonment particular the right to counsel and the right to remain of Malak al-Khatib, a 14-year-old girl silent”. who returned home in the central West Bank village of Beitin on February 13. In November 2014, ministers in Israeli Prime MinisLike Khaled al-Sheikh, she had been ter Benjamin Netanyahu’s government threw their accused of throwing stones, and was weight behind a bill that could impose sentences of up to 20 years in prison for Palestinians in East prosecuted in an Israeli military court. Jerusalem who throw rocks at Israeli vehicles. “IsBrad Parker, an attorney and interna- rael is acting firmly against terrorists, rock-throwers, tional advocacy officer for Defence for against firebomb throwers and against those who Children International - Palestine Sec- use fireworks,” Netanyahu said at the time. tion (DCI-Palestine), said that Khatib and Sheikh were among the more than “A terrorist is a terrorist,” then-Justice Minister Tzipi 700 Palestinian children sentenced in Livni, considered a centre-left politician, declared. “It makes no difference what weapon he uses.” Israeli military courts every year. “Ill treatment of Palestinian children in Though the bill has yet to pass in the Knesset, Isthe Israeli military detention system is rael’s parliament, human rights groups say it will diswidespread and systematic, as nearly proportionately affect Palestinian children, who are three out of four kids experience some involved in the majority of stone-throwing cases. form of physical violence during arrest, “We know that most children are arrested for partransfer or interrogation,” Parker told Al ticipation in demonstrations or throwing stones, so Jazeera, citing DCI-Palestine’s statis- this new legislation can be seen as directly targeting tics. children and youth,” said Randa Kamal, an advoIn most cases, Parker added, parents cacy officer for Addameer, a Ramallah-based group are not notified of their children’s arrest that monitors Israel’s arrests of Palestinians. for 24 to 48 hours, and the children do Meanwhile, back in their West Bank home, the not see their parents or a lawyer until Sheikh family is worried for Khaled’s health. He sufthey stand before a judge in an Israeli fers from anaemia, a blood condition that requires military court. “Despite the fact that in- him to take medicine three times a day - but Sheikh ternational law and international juvenile said he has not been able to speak to his son since justice standards include a prohibition his arrest. on compelling a person from testifying against themselves or confessing guilt, “He looked very ill when we saw him in court,” he this is commonplace in the Israeli mili- recalled. “We have no way of knowing whether he has been given the medicine and treatment that he tary detention system,” he continued. needs. We are very worried about his health.” Yet, in more than one-quarter of juvenile arrests of Palestinians in 2014, children Source: Al Jazeera were coerced into signing confessions

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Issue No : 130 21th APRIL 2015

Israeli army detains 32 Palestinians in W. Bank

The military, on Twitter, said the detained Palestinians are suspected of involvement in “rioting and acts of terror against [Israeli] civilians and security forces in the West Bank.” Israeli army troops detained 32 Palestinians in overnight raids in the West Bank, the army said on Wednesday. “The detainees have been referred to questioning,” the army added. The Israeli army has not speciﬁed the area where the arrests took place, nor has it revealed the names of the suspects.

However, the Israeli radio said that at least 29 Palestinians were detained in the West Bank province of Nablus, describing them as “Hamas fighters.” Yet, eyewitnesses told The Anadolu Agency that among the detainees in Nablus were a journalist, a woman, and two university professors. “The woman is the wife of a former Palestinian prisoner who had been released from Israeli jail and the journalist is Amin Abu Warda, head of the independent Asdaa news service,” one eyewitness told The Anadolu Agency. Israeli forces sporadically raid Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank and detains local Palestinians, claiming the latter are “wanted” by Israeli security agencies. Over 6.500 Palestinians are currently languishing in prisons throughout Israel, according to official Palestinian figures.

Source: World Bulletin

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Issue No : 130 21th APRIL 2015

Israeli insider

Lieberman conditions ‹eliminating Hamas› to join govt

Speaking to the Israeli radio, Lieberman who served as the Foreign Minister in the past government of Benjamin Netanyahu, said that “broad lines” of the next government would be the main factor for his party to decide whether it would join the party. Leader of right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party Avigdor Lieberman has set the condition that the upcoming Israeli government would work towards the elimination of Hamas so that his party would join the government. Speaking to the Israeli radio, Lieberman, who served as the Foreign Minister in the past government of Benjamin Netanyahu, said that “broad lines” of the next government would be the main factor for his party to decide whether it would join the party. Among those desired broad lines, he said, are the elimination of Hamas and abolishment of taxes on consumer products. He went on to assert that he would not join the government if Netanyahu sought a coalition

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government with the center-left Zionist Union, made up of Isaac Herzog’s Labor party and Tzipi Livni’s Hatnuah party. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin late last month ofﬁcially assigned Netanyahu, leader of the rightwing Likud Party, with forming Israel’s next government. Netanyahu’s Likud Party won 30 seats in last week’s Knesset (parliament) election, while its closest rival, the Zionist Union Party, won 24 seats only. Hamas, for its part, said it was unfazed by Lieberman’s remarks. “The remarks are an evidence of the failure of Israeli leaders,” senior Hamas member Ismail Radwan told. “Hamas cannot be broken,” he added. “Lieberman should examine the losses Hamas inﬂicted upon the Israeli army in last year’s Gaza war. Hamas would never be eliminated due to the popular support it enjoys,” he added.

Source: World Bulletin |

Issue No : 130 21th APRIL 2015

13th Aqsa Child festival as colourfully as butterfly

Hundreds of Palestinian children from different Palestinian areas participated in the activities of the 13th Aqsa Child festival that started Saturday morning in the courtyards of the Aqsa Mosque Hundreds of Palestinian children participated in the event and its activities, especially the drawing contest.

The festival started with a drawing contest, where children embarked on drawing the landmarks of the Aqsa Mosque compound. Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, head of the Supreme Islamic Council in Jerusalem, said in a statement that they have to keep their future generations attached to the Aqsa Mosque. According to Palestinian artist Yousuf al-Rajbi, who participated in the festival, pointed out that the Israeli police prevented the entry of many drawing tools to the Aqsa Mosque. The festival, for organizers part, is intended to strengthen the Palestinian childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bond with the Aqsa Mosque and to send a strong message to the Israeli occupation that its measures and violations will never succeed in detaching the Palestinians from their Aqsa Mosque.

Source: World Bulletin 16

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Issue No : 130 21th APRIL 2015

Yarmouk shows up the treatment of Palestinians across the Arab world I wish to stress the sheer despair experienced by Palestinians trapped in the hellhole of Yarmouk, in Syria, abandoned by the world at large (Report, 13 April). That the neighbouring countries around them do not react is hardly surprising: the treatment of Palestinians across the Arab world has been and continues to be appalling. In Lebanon, they have no access to health or education, are barred from at least 25 professions, have no rights to buy property or even circulate freely within the country. This is true apartheid. A This callous indifference to Yarmouk (and to every horriﬁc camp in milder version of this is prac- Lebanon, Jordan or Syria where Palestinians continue to suffer) can only serve to bolster and encourage Islamic State in its bloody war of tised in Jordan. expansion in the Middle East. With yet another disaster befalling the world’s most Carol Mann blighted population, where Director of Women in War, Paris are the vocal, chest-thumping supporters of Palestine? Can they only march, pro- • The plight of Palestinian civilians in Yarmouk is shameful. But to lay test, boycott when it comes the blame at the door of “an Arab regime” elides other responsibilito Israel and keep quiet ties. The Yarmouk refugee camp has existed since 1957 and been when the Arab world threat- hosted by the Ba’ath regime since 1963. It has become a war zone only since Gulf sheikdoms, supported by the west, sought to overthrow ens them? the regime by sponsoring armed militias – some of which have used However humiliating and Yarmouk as a base. despicable, the level of existence even in the occupied Yes, the Assad regime shows a ﬂagrant disregard for civilian lives and territories is vastly superior infrastructure in its conduct of the war, but the west and its allies also to that of Palestinians any- need to step down from their role, drop their preposterous precondition where in the Arab world, with for “negotiations” (basically, Bashar al-Assad’s surrender), and end the exception, until recently, this disastrous war. of Syria, and Iraq before the Peter McKenna United Nations sanctions in Liverpool 1990.

Source: The Guardian

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Issue No : 130 21th APRIL 2015

‹Jerusalem needs UNESCO›s intervention›

The Palestinian governor of Jerusalem has warned against the repercussions of what Israel is doing at AlAqsa Mosque, pointing to Israeli attempts to turn the Tankaziya School, located inside the mosque, into a synagogue. In an interview with Radio Mawteni yesterday, Adnan Al-Husayni said: “The Israeli occupation’s government is attacking monuments and history. Therefore, the United Nations Organisation for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) must intervene to stop the destruction of this historic building that dates back to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.” 18

“For two years, the occupation government has been preparing for a programme and various projects in the vicinity of the AlAqsa Mosque, including an additional building on the surface of the Tankaziya School. There is also a possibility that they intend to demolish some parts so as to build one of the largest synagogues that have been recently built in the Old City,” he added. Al-Husayni noted that the Tankaziya School is located on the right side when one is heading towards the Al-Aqsa Mosque’s entrance from the Al-Selsela Gate. It had been renowned for Sharia studies since the Mamluk Era. After 1967, Israel seized it. The school directly overlooks the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque. “Al-Aqsa Mosque is an Islamic Waqf [endowment],” Al-Husayni said, “and as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is responsible for the Islamic Waqf, it will surely have a stance regarding the dangerous work carried out by the Israeli government.” He stressed that the heritage and the people of Jerusalem need international protection.

Source: MEMO

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Issue No : 130 21th APRIL 2015

Palestinian prisoners Facts & Numbers â&#x20AC;&#x153;Info graphicâ&#x20AC;?

Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia

Issue No : 130 21th APRIL 2015

Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia

Issue No : 130 21th APRIL 2015

REPORT

Remembering the thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails

In 1974, the Palestinian National Council decided that 17 April every year as the national day of Palestinian prisoners. This day honours their sacriﬁces, and is an occasion to express solidarity with their families and support them in their suffering and the torture they have endured in Israeli detention centres and prisons. Every year since then Prisoners Day is commemorated in several forms, including national rallies and various other activities over several days.

The choice of 17 April for this national day is not tied to any speciﬁc historical event that is related to the [prisoners] movement, according to the director of the statistics department of the ofﬁcial Prisoners & Ex- Prisoners Affairs Authority Abdul Nasser Farwaneh. Israel’s gulag archapelago “Around 6,500 Palestinian detainees are still languishing in 22 prisons and detention centres under the Israeli occupation, including 480 prisoners convicted to life sentences, 25 female prisoners of whom two are minors, 200 minor children under 18, 480 in administrative detention, 14 members of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Legislative Council (PLC) and one PNA cabinet minister,” Farwaneh told al-Araby. Around 1,500 Palestinian prisoners suffer from various diseases, including 85 who are in a very critical condition. About 30 of the prisoners were detained before the PLO and the Israeli occupation signed the Oslo accord in 1993, according to Farwaneh. Farwaneh, himself an ex-prisoner, who founded Palestine behind bars online, noted that 206 prisoners have died as martyrs in the prisons of the occupation since 1967, including 71 martyrs who died under direct torture, 54 as the result of medical negligence, seven who were shot dead inside prisons and 74 who were extra-judicially killed and

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liquidated immediately after their arrest. Moreover, scores of ex-prisoners died shortly after their release because of diseases they caught while in prison. There are 16 Palestinian prisoners still in detention arrested more than a quarter of a century ago. The occupation authorities rearrested 85 ex-prisoners who were freed in the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange deal in 2011, Farwaneh said, noting that the arrest and targeting of Palestinian children has escalated during the past four years as some 3800 children were arrested during this period. The PLO Prisoners’ Affairs Authority said that since the beginning of al-Aqsa Intifada (uprising) on 28 September 2000, 85,000 arrests have been recorded, including more than 10,000 children under 18, 1,200 Palestinian women and more than 65 Palestine Legislative Council members and former cabinet ministers. The occupation authorities issued approximately 24 thousand orders for administrative detention including both new arrests and renewals of old arrests. Palestinian prisoners live an extremely severe and difficult living and life conditions while being exposed to a long list of violations, including arrest, torture and worsening health conditions, in addition to medical negligence, deprivation from family visits, blackmail, poor nutrition and punitive financial fines imposed on the prisoners, according to the Prisoners’ Affairs Authority. |

Issue No : 130 21th APRIL 2015 The director of the Palestinian Centre for Prisoners Studies, ex-prisoner Ra’fat Hamdouneh, said the Israeli treatment of the prisoners’ issue is moving toward more extremism and a desire for revenge. He cited the statements of the Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman who is preparing to present a bill to the new Knesset that would sentence prisoners to capital punishment. Speaking to al-Araby al-Jadeed, Hamdouneh added: “The member of Knesset Danny Danon has called recently for the application of the Shalit law to Palestinian detainees in the prisons and to tighten the screws on them in prison cells by all methods and means, which indicates the extent of extremism the treatment of prisoners has reached.”

broadcasts are conﬁned to Hebrew channels, he said. The days of Palestinian prisoners are measured by the size of the popular participation and the ofﬁcial and factional attention paid to their cause. The prisoners take care to follow up on this day [ie. Palestinian Prisoners’ Day] via whatever is available on television or radio to measure the size of support for their cause.

Abu Naeem said the national prisoners’ movement was targeted by an ugly Israeli campaign carried out by the IPS, which aims at liquidating them with a green light from the top of the political pyramid and the Israeli government. He condemned the Arab silence and the international default vis-a-vis the daily crimes to which the prisoners are exposed to in their Hamdouneh noted that what is going on currently in Is- prisons. raeli officialdom was an official case of incitement to take Similarly, the spokesman of the Waed Captive and revenge on the prisoners inside prisons. He confirmed Liberators Society Abdullah Qandil told al-Araby that that the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) takes onboard the there are more than 480 Palestinian prisoners in adincitement broadcast by the political leadership against ministrative detention who have been inside Israeli the prisoners and punishes them accordingly. He noted prisons for years now, without being charged or tried that the IPS has recently reinforced widely the measures in court. of naked inspection and solitary confinement against Palestinian prisoners. Prisoners in Israeli prisons are Qandil confirmed the policy of administrative detensuffering from bad nutrition, let alone subjecting them to tion to which the occupation has resorted extensively medical experiments by the prison doctors, Hamdouneh in the West Bank aims at pressuring Palestinian prisoners, despite the fact that this type of arrest contraindicated. venes the rights stipulated by the Geneva convenThe director of the Palestinian Centre for Prisoners Stud- tions. He explained that many times the occupation ies indicated that 200 Palestinian children inside Israeli released several detainees for days or for a number of prisons are suffering from the Israeli measures against hours after the expiry of their administrative detention the prisoners, in addition to the difficult conditions in only to re-arrest them abruptly. which the Palestinian female prisoners live and more than 1,500 prisoners who suffer from chronic diseases. There was also no international monitoring of Israeli prisons, he added. Qandil noted the rate of administrative detention has had risen noticably between 2013 and 2015. In 2013 Separately, the head of the Ex-Prisoners Association in there were only 200 male and female prisoners in IsGaza, Tawfiq Abu Naeem, told al-Araby al-Jadeed that raeli prisons. This number increased hugely in 2014 the IPS for many years has practiced and continues to and 2015, he said. practice all methods, forms and tools of torture and mal- The Waed spokesman said there should be serious treatment of prisoners. The details of the suffering and stances by international institutions as represented by difficulties of the daily life of the prisoners are beyond the United Nations and the European Union against description, he added. the policy that Israel is implementing against the prisNo holds barred

Abu Naeem, himself a freed prisoner, referred to what oners. He called for action by the Arab League to raise Palestinian prisoners are exposed to inside Israeli prison the level of awareness for the issues of the prisoners cells. He mentioned the surprise inspections, the denial in Israeli prisons and their suffering. of visits and conﬁscation of food and personal possesSource: al-Araby sions, in addition to being deprived of news. Now the 22

Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia

Issue No : 130 21th APRIL 2015

Articles & Analyses

Who wins if Washington loses in the Middle East?

While the United States remains the lead western player in several major Middle East conﬂicts, a change is quietly taking place in the international arena.

Diplomats observing the P5+1 negotiations with Iran in Lausanne noticed a much more independent role for France than in previous rounds, as it demanded a tougher position on the monitoring of the Iranian nuclear programme. France is also set to take a lead role in pushing for a comprehensive UN Security Council resolution. France’s increased visibility is part of a much wider European push for a more active foreign policy, especially regarding its southern Mediterranean neighbours. The destabilisation of the Middle East has a direct effect on Europe, with a huge increase in migrants reaching the northern shores of the Mediterranean. Erosion of US inﬂuence But the increase in European involvement in the Middle East is largely the result of the erosion of Washington’s inﬂuence, due in large part to Obama’s foreign policy doctrine. US President Barack Obama

Daoud Kuttab campaigned on a non-interventionist policy and has largely ended the US military presence in Iraq, while also downsizing the military footprint in Afghanistan.

ercise a unified foreign policy (despite the loud voices in Congress), Europe at times speaks in contradictions when it comes to its foreign policy. Although a lot of effort has While the US is trying to re- been made in Brussels to unify gain some of its influence lost these voices, the fact remains due to the rise of ISIL and oth- that as sovereign member er radical groups, the contrac- states of the European Union, each nation has an indepention of US power is evident. dent voice. This difference is It is too early to estimate how most evident when it comes the expanding European to Palestine. Diplomatic rerole in the Middle East will lations between European be translated on the ground. member states and Palestine Europe is home to the big- vary from full recognition and gest trade partners for most exchange of ambassadors to countries in the region, but non-recognition and low-level for years it has been unable diplomatic missions. to translate this financial role When the European Union’s into political influence. headquarters in Brussels is Unlike the US executive unable to whip all the counbranch, which is able to ex- tries into a single stance, it of-

Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia

Issue No : 130 21th APRIL 2015 ten allows for some member states - especially among the larger and founding members - to take a lead role.

el’s military, he notably didn’t demonstrate political support of its continued occupation and refusal to implement the two-state solution.

Emerging French role France’s attempts to pass a Security Council resolution on Palestine will be the greatest test yet of this new Frenchled European role. If France is able to get the tacit agreement of the Palestinians and Israelis, as well as avoid a US veto, it would indicate that this new role is beginning to work out.

Change in the future?

It is difficult to imagine the US forfeiting its role in attempting to resolve the PalestinianIsraeli conflict, due to the influence of the Israel lobby in Washington and throughout the US.

The success of this new move will depend in large part on Washington and Tel Aviv. Many fear that the US will continue to play politics in this region and might try to link its role - especially regarding its Security Council veto - to how Netanyahu and company behave in the crucial coming months before the signing of the Iran agreement, let alone how Congress will react.

But the high-stakes ObamaNetanyahu disagreement could very well produce the moment in which Washington could symbolically wash its hands of being Israel’s political shield, while continuing to be its military and strategic ally. Obama made this position clear in his lengthy interview with New York Times columnist Tom Friedman, reiterating the unwavering US position in defending Israel’s security. Leading Israeli columnist Nahum Barnea has also noted that the White House is willing to seriously upgrade a mutual defence agreement and guarantee the military advantage of Israel over its neighbours. While Obama supports Isra24

A stepped-up European role in the Middle East, with France taking the lead in attempting to revitalise the PalestinianIsraeli peace process on the basis of recognising the Palestinian state, will be welcomed in many capitals - not just in the region, but around the world.

Palestinians watching this nail-biting international game feel again that they are the weakest link.

Palestinians watching this nail-biting international game feel again that they are the weakest link. They might, possibly, beneﬁt from the various disagreements between the parties, but it is clear that they are not able to have much of an inﬂuence on how the game is being played out - especially with the US continuing to play the key role in the region. A pivot of geopolitical leadership from the US to Europe may prove to be much more appealing to the Palestinians - and their cause.

Source: Al Jazeera

Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia

Issue No : 130 21th APRIL 2015

Malaysia & Palestinian cause

Activities in Malaysia to commemorate Palestinian prisonerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s day

Tens of Malaysians and international residents have gathered in Kuala lumpor to express solidarity with Palestinians in Israeli prisons in conjunction with prisoner day. AwďŹ Rasmi who led one of the gatherings at the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) called concerned authorities to liberate prisoners. Rasmi stressed the deep-rooted relationship between Malaysia and Palestine. It is noteworthy to mention that Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia (PCOM) along with local NGOs announced a launch of week of solidarity with Palestinian prisoners.

Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia

Issue No : 130 21th APRIL 2015

Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia