Issue No : 80
Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia
3rd February, 2014
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3rd February, 2014
Issue No : 80
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Israeli official: Israel and the West dependent on Al-Sisi
Hamas warned of getting along with Kerry’s peace plan
Hamas denies endorsing the two-state solution FEATURED STORY
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Gaza Gov’t demands rectification and apology from Egyptian paper
Hamas: We do not interfere in countries affairs
P10 The demise of the two-state solution ARTICLE
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Jerusalem mayor supports racist candidate for chief rabbi post 2 |
Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia
Issue No : 80
3rd February, 2014
CONTENTS News of Palestine
Hamas denies endorsing the two-state solution Israeli official: Israel and the West dependent on Al-Sisi Hamas: We do not interfere in countries affairs Shin Bet chief: Israel›s ability to deter enemies is strong, Arab busy with themselves 85 Palestinian refugees die of starvation in besieged Yarmouk camp 6 Palestinians killed in January, 383 arrested Israeli scheme to build on Buraq Wall area Palestinian Hackers Break into 15 Israeli Army Ministry Computers
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Israel Insider
Jerusalem mayor supports racist candidate for chief rabbi post
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Articles & Analyses
Palestinian refugees will determine the future of the Middle East
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3rd February, 2014
Issue No : 80
News of Palestine
Hamas warned of getting along with Kerry’s peace plan
Hamas denies endorsing the two-state solution
28/1/2014 The Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas has denied the claims by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) that the movement endorses the twostate solution. An official in the movement said on Monday that, “Abbas’s frequent statements that Hamas has mandated him to negotiate the establishment of a future Palestinian state on the borders of 1967 requires us to explain this issue to the Palestinian people.” The official cited one example of when Abu Mazen told Israel’s Yedioth Ahronothnewspaper that: “There is a formal written agreement between us and Hamas where the movement agrees to engage in peace talks with Israel aimed at establishing 4 |
a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders. The movement has also agreed to adopt peaceful popular resistance.” Contrary to this statement, the official clarified that: “Hamas did not mandate Mr Abbas or anyone else to agree to the two-state solution. Hamas affirms its stated position that it will never accept this solution or waiver an inch of Palestinian land.” He further explained that: “In 2006, the Palestinian political parties signed a national reconciliation agreement on common issues, including to establish the future Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, to have Jerusalem as its capital and to allow the Palestinian refugees to return to their homes without recognising Israel or its legitimacy on Palestinian land, in contrast to what
the PLO agreed to in the Oslo accords. All forms of resistance against Israel will continue; mainly armed resistance, which we believe is the only viable method to achieve the Palestinian peoples’ aspirations to liberate their land and to allow the refugees back to their lands. The movement stands firmly behind its stance.” Meanwhile, Member of Hamas’ political bureau Ezzat Al-Resheq warned of the gravity of the peace plan proposed by US secretary of state John Kerry and described it as extremely detrimental to the Palestinian cause. In a press release on Saturday, Resheq said that Kerry’s solutions are biased in favor of the Israeli occupation and is aimed at destroying the Palestinian
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Issue No : 80 cause entirely and quietly. The Hamas official called on the Palestinian negotiator not to get along with Kerry’s plan or succumb to its ideas, stressing that the US administration has never been a trustworthy mediator in the peace process.
3rd February, 2014
Israeli official: Israel and the West dependent on Al-Sisi
He also deplored the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Palestine liberation organization (PLO) for not clearly rejecting Kerry’s intended framework agreement that would lead to serious concessions on the Palestinian rights and constants. Resheq made his remarks in response to what had been disclosed on Friday by Yaser Abed Rabbo, the secretary-general of the PLO’s executive committee, about Kerry’s peace plan. Abed Rabbo had told the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper that Kerry’s plan stipulates that the Palestinians must recognize Israel as a state for Jews and accept a small part of east Jerusalem as a capital for Palestine, and that the issue of the refugees must be addressed according to former US president Bill Clinton’s vision. According to Kerry’s plan, Israel would keep all major settlement blocs under its control, rent the other settlements from the PA and control crossings and airspace, Abed Rabbo explained. He added that the plan demands the presence of joint military forces from the US, Israel, Jordan and Palestine at some border areas and gives Israel the right to launch security raids and pursuits in the future Palestinian state.
28/1/2014 Former Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer revealed on Monday evening that Israel is encouraging Egyptian Defence Minister Abdul-Fattah Al-Sisi to run for the presidency, even though the occupation authorities are also afraid of his failure later on. Speaking to Israeli radio, Ben-Eliezer explained that: «AlSisi›s nomination for president could be a reflexive arrow. If he fails as a president, then the current regime that ousted the Muslim Brotherhood would be dissolved.» According to Ben-Eliezer, the danger of the current regime›s failure is «the return of the Muslim Brotherhood in control of Egypt, stronger and more determined than before.» He added that this would be «bad news for Israel and the West». Ben-Eliezer is one of the most senior Israeli politicians who publicly celebrated the July 2013 military coup that deposed Egypt›s democratically elected government headed by the Muslim Brotherhood.
Source: Agencies
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Source: MEMO | 5
3rd February, 2014
Issue No : 80
Gaza Gov’t demands rectification and apology from Egyptian paper
Hamas: We do not interfere in countries affairs
30/1/2014
“The besieged Gaza would not destabilize the constancy of a country that is considered its strategic depth and the sole crossing for it to the world” Reshq pointed out.
The Islamic Resistance Movement “HAMAS” called on Arab countries to form a neutral fact-finding mission, under the auspices of the Arab League and Organization of He added, “fabricating crises Islamic Cooperation, on the through indictment and inciteEgyptian allegations against it. ments deepens the suffering and The movement said in a state- pain of people trapped for more ment by Ezzat al-Reshq, a than eight years.” member of Hamas politburo, “Hamas stressed repeatedly that it never ever interferes in the Egyptian affairs before or after the uprising, adding that the stability in Egypt is its concern.”
In a related context, the Palestinian government in the Gaza Strip demanded a statement of rectification and apology from the editor-in-chief of the Egyptian daily “Al-Akhbar” for the publication of false accusations against the
assassinated leader Ahmed alJa’abri of messing up Egyptian internal security. The media advisor of the Palestinian Prime Minister Taher al-Nono said in a statement posted on his facebook page ”a well-known paper such as “AlAkhbar” should not slip up to this level.” The Egyptian paper published, on Tuesday on its main page, news accusing Ahmed alJa’abri, who was assassinated by Israeli occupation in 2012, of leading a group of terrorists to mess up Egyptian internal security.
Source: Agencies 6 |
Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia
Issue No : 80
3rd February, 2014
Shin Bet chief: Israel›s ability to deter enemies is strong, Arab busy with themselves
is no question that there is a decrease in such An Israeli military inelegance official said on threats but they have not given up,” he said. Wednesday that “Israel’s ability to deter enemies Regarding Egypt, Kochavi proclaimed “any reis strong, but on the other hand, terror is still a treat of the Muslim Brotherhood in the region is challenge,” significant for Israel.”
27/1/2014
“We call this period in time the “Era of Fire”, in During the last few days, Israeli war criminals relight of the amount of missiles and rockets we peatedly threatened the Gaza Strip with a military face as a constant threat,” JPost quoted the of- action. ficial Aviv Kochavi . Dozens of Gazans have been reported injured and Speaking of the challenges to guarding the bor- killed since the ceasefire agreement following Isders of the Israeli occupation, he said that “neigh- rael’s November 2012 aggression, which left over bouring countries have little interest in war,” 171 Palestinians, including 102 civilians, killed “The countries around us are busy with them- and hundreds injured. selves; they have less funds to start a war. There
Source: ALRAY
Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia
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3rd February, 2014
Issue No : 80
391 Palestinian refugees are detained in Syria
85 Palestinian refugees die of starvation in besieged Yarmouk camp
29/1/2014 The action group for Palestinians in Syria said that 85 Palestinians died of starvation in the Yarmouk refugee camp, south of Damascus, until Wednesday. The group, which monitors and documents daily field events of Palestinian refugees in Syria, said that 39 of those died over the past two weeks. It pointed out that Yarmouk refugee camp has been under siege for 200 days. The siege has led to famine in the camp after foodstuffs and medicines ran out of stock, the group said, adding that children and elderly people are the most affected of this siege. The group said that the number of Palestinian victims in the Syrian armed conflict that started almost three years ago had exceeded two thousands. On the other hand, according to statistics collected by the action group, there are a total of 391 Palestinian prisoners in Syria, 355 of them are detained by the Syrian regime. It affirmed that most of the Palestinian detainees in Syria are young men, noting that among those detainees are Palestinian journalists and relief activists. The group also said that it had documented the death of 137 Palestinians under torture in Syria, the vast majority of them were killed inside jails belonging to the Syrian regime.
Source: Agencies 8 |
Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia
Issue No : 80
3rd February, 2014
6 Palestinians killed in January, 383 arrested 1/2/2014 The Ahrar center for prisoner studies and human rights said that Israeli occupation forces killed six Palestinians and arrested 383 others in January 2014. The center said in its monthly report on Saturday that the six victims fell in Gaza and the West Bank. It pointed out that five of them were killed in Gaza while the sixth was Mohammed Mubarak from Jalazoun refugee camp, who was killed a few days ago west of Ramallah.
Source: PIC
Israeli scheme to build on Buraq Wall area
30/1/2014 The Israeli District Committee for Planning and Construction in Jerusalem held a crucial session on Wednesday to discuss an old scheme to establish building along the outskirts of Buraq Wall(Western Wall). According to the scheme, the building will be built on an archaeological sites along with parts of Buraq Wall area which will be lotted for offic-
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es and halls of the so-called “Wall Legacy Fund”. The scheme was approved by the Israeli municipality and the committee in 2010. It was supported by mayor of the municipality Nir Barakat, but infuriated the Jewish quarter, archeologists and engineers as the construction will be on the ruins of historic excavations, Maariv Daily Newspaper reported. Source: ALRAY | 9
3rd February, 2014
Issue No : 80
Palestinian Hackers Break into 15 Israeli Army Ministry Computers 27/1/2014
Hackers broke into an Israeli army ministry computer via an email attachment tainted with malicious software that looked like it had been sent by the country’s Shin Bet secret security service, an Israeli cyber security firm said on Sunday. Aviv Raff, chief technology officer at Seculert, said the hackers earlier this month temporarily took over 15 computers, one of them belonging to Israel’s Civil Administration that monitors Palestinians in Israelioccupied territory. Raff told Reuters that Palestinians were suspected to be behind the cyber attack, citing similarities to a cyber assault on Israeli computers waged more than a year ago from a server in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. While the latest attack was conducted from a server in the United States, experts noticed writing and composition similarities with the earlier attack, he said. Securlet had not determined what the hackers did after the initial infection with “Xtreme RAT” software, Raff said. “All we know is at least one computer at the Israeli Civil Administration was in Source: PNN control of the attackers; what they did we don’t know.”.
Israel Insider
Jerusalem mayor supports racist candidate for chief rabbi post
29/1/2014
The mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, has announced his support for Shmuel Eliyahu, currently the chief rabbi of Safed, as chief rabbi of Jerusalem. Eliyahu is well known for his radical views against the Palestinians. He promotes prohibiting Jews from leasing or selling properties to Palestinian students in Safed and even demanded that the city’s Jewish community expel the students from the city. Eliyahu’s racist statements prompted Israel’s attorney general to investigate him on charges of incitement, but the police only interrogated him briefly before closing the case. However, the charges did hinder his subsequent attempt to campaign for the post of Sephardi chief rabbi of Israel. Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported that Barkat enjoys very close ties to Eliyahu’s family, especially his father Mordechai Eliyahu, who is the former Sephardi chief rabbi of Israel. During Jerusalem’s last mayoral elections, Mordechai’s widow openly supported Barkat and his aide for office. Barkat has repeatedly stated that he wants a “Zionist rabbi” for the chief rabbi post in Jerusalem.
Source: MEMO 10 |
Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia
Issue No : 80
3rd February, 2014
Articles & Analyses
The demise of the two-state solution By: Dr Fayez Rasheed Even if the Palestinians agree to implement all of Israel’s preconditions for the peace talks, the Israeli government will surely invent new and even more ridiculous terms to delay yet further the establishment of a viable state of Palestine. This is not surprising given that the then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said, before his assassination by a Jewish extremist, that he wished that he could wake up one day to find that the sea has swallowed Gaza. His successor Benjamin Netanyahu has since added, “If only the Palestinians would disappear from the face of the earth.” That is the prevailing attitude which frames Israel’s approach to the negotiations. The Israelis do not want the Palestinians to have an independent state, even if this state has nothing more than the facade of self-governance. Israel does not even want the Palestinians to have an independent entity, so how would they ever allow them to have a state, about which the Israelis are extremely sensitive? That is why they continue to create difficult preconditions in an attempt to prolong the “peace process” and delay the establishment of a Palestinian state which, they believe, would be detrimental to Israel’s survival and lead to its eventual demise, even if it is demilitarised and lacks complete sovereignty. For this reason, Israel has deemed Jerusalem to be the “undivided and eternal capital
of Israel” and it also rejects completely the Palestinian refugees’ right of return. When the proposal was made by the then President Bill Clinton to allow a limited return of refugees through family reunification, which has been adopted recently by US Secretary of State John Kerry, it was rejected by the Israelis. Furthermore, Israel has proposed a land swap of an area known as the Triangle, home to the majority of Palestinians living in Israel, for large settlement blocs in the West Bank. Israel is well aware that most of its Palestinian citizens would reject this proposal and that the Palestinian Authority would not accept it under any circumstances because it would mean that Palestinians agree to transfer fellow Palestinians from their homes.
The latest condition imposed by Israel is to keep troops in the Jordan Valley, which is the border between the West Bank and the Hashemite Kingdom. Netanyahu’s government has rejected Secretary Kerry’s proposal that American or international troops could be based in this area to allay security fears; this suggests that Israel will be able to enter Palestinian territory whenever it sees fit. This is not fiction, nor is it a “what if” scenario. We saw how Ariel Sharon justified his invasion of the Palestinian Territories in 2002; Israel will not need any excuse to reoccupy any Palestinian territory which may become part of the new state. In other words, if Israel leaves Palestine through the front door, it will find a way back in Israel has a list of the settlement through the window. blocs (all illegal under inter- Land issues aside, Israel also national law) which it intends insists on Palestinian recognito annex under any agreement tion of it as “the Jewish state”. with the Palestinians. Netanyahu Acceptance of the false Israeli has told Kerry of this. The four narrative about this would blocs in question house a total of threaten, by necessity, the se400,000 settlers. curity of the Palestinians in
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Issue No : 80
Although they were meant to be dealt with in the so-called “final status talks” dictated by the Oslo Accords, the Israelis are bent on killing-off the negotiations be refusing to compromise on two critical issues: the status of Jerusalem and the refugees’ legal right of return to their land. According to Israeli law, any current or future head of state or government official is prohibited from discussing or negotiating these two issues without the approval of the Knesset (parliament). Due to the changing nature of Israeli politics, as it heads further towards political extremism, this more or less means that, as things stand, these issues will never be on the table for discussion. Israel annexed Jerusalem in 1967, illegally, and since this date it has refused to broach this subject in any talks; it remains off-limits, regardless of what was agreed in Oslo. If the Knesset refuses to move on this issue, it is
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quite possible that it will become impossible to discuss and Israel’s adamant refusal to talk about the very nature of a two-state solution will lead to the demise of the peace process. Furthermore, Israel’s insistence on preserving the “Jewishness of the state” makes it impossible for Israel to be a truly democratic state. It could be Jewish or it could be democratic; it could not be both.
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Israel; hence, the scenario of Palestinians having to approve the transfer of other Palestinians from their land. Palestinians must also accept that Palestine is the Jews’ historic homeland and that Palestine “was a land without a people for a people without a land”, with no Arab or Islamic history.
Palestinians and Arabs are still calling for a two-state solution, ignoring the obvious impossibility of this being realised
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The demise of the two-state solution has not happened by chance; it was the result of many of the factors mentioned above. These make it impossible to establish a contiguous and integrated Palestinian state because settlement expansion continues to confiscate Palestinian land under the pretext of Israeli security, the government’s main excuse for not allowing the establishment of an independent and viable Palestine. Bizarrely, despite this, Palestinians and Arabs are still calling for a two-state solution, ignoring the obvious impossibility of this being realised. The two-state solution has become nothing more than an illusion. The Palestinians need to move on and not be bound by the intractable current situation.
This is a translation by MEMO of the Arabic text published by Al Quds newspaper on 29 January, 2014
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Issue No : 80
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