Alquds issue 81 hi re

Issu3 no 81, WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

6 FEB 2016

Report

Untold Stories

Ex-prisoner reveals tragedies of female captives in Israeli jails

Report

Israel Advances Settlement Plans Despite International Outcry

LEARNING HOW TO DREAM

q&a

Q&A: Jailed Palestinian man to be ‹either free or dead›

Report

analysis

Israeli government approves mixed Jewish prayer area at Buraq Wall

Reflections on Palestinian strategy

Issue No 81 // 6 FEB , 2016

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Report

Ex-prisoner reveals tragedies of female captives in Israeli jails

Fatima Al-Zak

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uring the cold spells every winter, the freed prisoner Fatima Al-Zak sadly remembers the female prisoners in the Israeli jails who had never been warm during that cold season. Fatima had endured the freezing cold in the Israeli dungeons for more than 6 years, which led her to suffer from chronic diseases. Difficult conditions Captive Fatima told the PIC reporter that she lived six bitter years in prison, during which she experienced the wrench of the throes of childbirth, while she was tied up. She was deprived of the most basic human rights. She said that «the suffering of the female prisoners is very difficult, especially when they are pregnant or have a baby.»

She added: «When I feel cold, I find myself crying on the conditions of male and female prisoners; I experienced myself the suffering of imprisonment in all its details, the suffering increases in the winter; where prisoners don›t have the simplest things to keep them warm». She pointed out that the extreme cold in captivity 2 |

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caused her peripheral neuropathy; a disease in the nerves that raises the sense of pain, especially in winter. She said that female prisoners are not provided with enough or warm blankets, and are prevented from getting winter clothing, which increase their suffering. She noted that despite the freezing cold in the Israeli prisons, female prisoners share their covers and clothes with the new captives. She stressed that the conditions of the female prisoners need serious intervention at all levels; as they are deprived of the most basic human rights.

No life Fatima went further recalling the prison suffering saying: «We were eight prisoners in a small room which had only a very small window blocked by iron bars, so we were deprived of sunlight, and there was no heating; which made the room like a refrigerator.» She pointed out that female prisoners are deprived of good food and warm drinks. She added: «The Israeli Prison Service (IPS) was providing eight prisoners with only two tomatoes, though, my mate prisoners

used to give me their share of the tomatoes because I was pregnant, and in need of adequate nutrition. « She charged the prison administration with deliberately broke into the rooms for inspection especially in the extreme cold, which increased their suffering. Physical Pain She pointed out that the female prisoners were deprived of medicine and there was no female gynecologist to treat them, which aggravated their heath conditions.

She noted that she was not provided with good food after giving birth, but her prison mates were offering her their food so that she could breastfeed her child, Yusuf.

She explained that she used recitation of the holy Quran and praying in the treatment of her child when he got sick, because there was no pediatrician, and there was no care for children, instead they were treated by the IPS as prisoners. Fatima was released on 30-9-2009 in an agreement to release 20 Palestinian female prisoners in exchange for information about the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was a captive with the Palestinian resistance at the time.

Issue No 81 // 6 FEB , 2016

Untold Stories

GROWING UP IN GAZA:

LEARNING HOW TO DREAM F

or 11-year-old Waed Yasin, a Palestinian refugee from Gaza Strip, life has never been simple.

Waed has witnessed three wars in the past seven years and knows that every portion of food or item of clothing must be shared evenly between her and her nine siblings.

When it comes to school, Waed knows she cannot expect her family to provide the necessary school books or stationery. The Waed Yasin worsening economic situation in Gaza means the young student cannot remember when her father working hard at school this semester. last had paid employment.

In August last year, Waed’s life “Receiving stationery is very imwas thrown upside down when portant for me. Because my faher family’s simple home was ther has no income, we could not destroyed during the 50-days of buy school stationery, so I was hostilities. Today, the family re- obliged to use used writing pads lies on UNRWA to meet all food, from last semester before I got the health and education needs, and UNRWA stationery,” she said. has been forced to live with their Approximately 240,000 Palesgrandmother in an over-crowded tine refugee students attending house.

UNRWA schools across the Gaza But while Waed confronts hard- Strip have received start-ofships on a daily basis, she remains semester stationery kits that inthankful for the opportunities she clude eight Arabic writing pads, has. With her wooden school desk two English writing pads and one at Asma Elem Co-Ed school in drawing pad. All schools were Gaza City piled high with shiny also equipped with new cleaning new notepads delivered by the material, some furniture and ofUNRWA Department of Educa- fice supplies to maximize learntion as part of its annual statio- ing opportunities.

schooling and education remain key priorities for UNRWA as part of its wider commitment to helping refugees achieve their full potential in human development.

Zahra Abu Olba, Waed’s school principal, said most of her students are from poor families and without the UNRWA stationery donation, most would have gone without. “Parents kept asking for stationery as they cannot afford to buy any,” said Zahra.

Like many children attending UNRWA schools in Gaza, Waed has big dreams for her future and already realizes that education will play a key part in helping her achieve them. “I wish we could all live in peace. I want to study hard and become a doctor in the future nery assistance, the eager student Ensuring that refugee children to treat patients and the poor,” she said she was looking forward to in Gaza have access to quality said.

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q&a

Q&A: Jailed Palestinian man to be ‹either free or dead›

Fayha Shalash says her husband›s case is ‹an issue of dignity, and this is the story of every Palestinian› [Ylenia Gostoli/Al Jazeera]

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ura, occupied West Bank - Palestinian journalist Mohammed al-Qiq has been on hunger strike for more than two months to protest against his detention without charge or trial.

Qiq, a reporter for the Saudi-owned TV channel Almajd and a father of two, is one of 660 Palestinians being held in administrative detention - the highest number since 2008, according to data released in December. Under international law, administrative detention is only permissible as a last resort and in cases of an immediate threat.

The Israeli Supreme Court heard a petition this week asking for Qiq’s release, but the court postponed making a decision, saying that it would continue to follow his health condition. Last July, Israel passed a law allowing the force-feeding of prisoners on hunger strike, which met strong opposition from the Israeli medical community. Al-Qiq was not force-fed, but he was given liquids intravenously without his consent until his lawyer intervened As Qiq’s condition at the HaEmek Medical Centre in Afula, Israel, continued to deteriorate, Al Jazeera spoke with his wife, Fayha Shalash, 28, a journalist, in his West Bank hometown of Dura, where friends and family gathered over the weekend in support.

Al Jazeera: How did you find out the worst. Later, we found out Mohammed had started a hun- he had been psychologically and ger strike? physically tortured.

Fayha Shalash: He was arrested He was interrogated for 25 days on November 21. Around 15 sol- and was only allowed to see his diers came to the house and con- lawyer on day 20.On December fiscated phones and his laptop. 3, he was taken to a court to exAfter five days, we discovered tend his detention. He was still that he was being kept at al-Jal- not allowed to talk to a lawyer ame military detention and inter- and told a judge he had started a rogation centre in the north of the hunger strike on November 25, West Bank. I knew from my work while still under interrogation, to as a journalist that this is one of protest at the conditions of his de4 |

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tention. That’s how we found out.

Al Jazeera: What did you learn about his interrogation?

Shalash: They kept him tied to a chair and blindfolded. He was cursed at, screamed at, spat at.

They threatened to sexually assault him and stop him from having children.

During his interrogation, he was accused of media incitement, and given two options - either he conIssue No 81 // 6 FEB , 2016

oned journalists - the majority in administrative detention. There is a lot of public support for him, and it will only increase should anything happen to him His condition is very bad. He is doing the Irish hunger strike and refuses medical checks and supplements. The longest time anyone has survived such a strike is 67 days.

He asked that we accept the outcome of his hunger strike, even his death. He said, “I either live free or I die in dignity.”

Al Jazeera: Are you 100 percent behind that statement?

fessed, or he would spend seven years in administrative detention.

But that’s against his ethics, and if he confessed to that, it would be a problem for the rest of his life for his work as a journalist ...

When he refused to confess to the accusation [of media incitement], they started using the fact that he used to belong to Hamas. He was already arrested and charged for his political activity eight years ago.

Al Jazeera: Has he been arrested by the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the past, as well as by Israel?

Shalash: He was arrested twice by the PA, each time for a month, and three times by Israel. The last was in 2008, when he was sentenced to 16 months for being the head of a student block at Birzeit University.

All three times, he was charged for supporting the students in what Israel deems illegal acts. He was given charges and served his time in prison. But this time, he feels this is an unlawful arrest.

There are no charges against him, no real reason for his detention.

Al Jazeera: Have you been able Issue No 81 // 6 FEB , 2016

to communicate with him or see him?

Shalash: The last time I saw him was in the military Jeep on the day of his arrest. We asked for permits to visit him through the Red Cross, but his father, brothers and myself were all rejected.

I communicate with him through his lawyers.

Al Jazeera: Do you feel there’s enough support from the public, the PA and international institutions?

Shalash: In the last week, when his medical condition worsened, we got in touch with all sorts of leaders and organisations. We received a phone call from the prime minister’s office and [President Mahmoud Abbas] issued a statement about Mohammed’s condition. But we are demanding more pressure and action on their part. There isn’t any negotiation at the moment.

The issue of hunger strikes for Palestinians is a very important battle. It’s a real confrontation with the occupation. There are hundreds of administrative detainees, and at least 18 impris-

Shalash: I support him fully, and adopt his point of view. We don’t like hunger and we don’t like death, but it becomes an issue of dignity, and this is the story of every Palestinian. He signed a paper where he refuses any medical treatment, even if he loses consciousness. His decision is very clear: either free or dead, not in between.

He isn’t just fighting a personal battle. He sent a message to Palestinian journalists from prison, saying that freedom is not something given to you by your position or authority. It comes from your stance. His refusal of administrative detention - this is how he is taking a stance.

Despite the pressure, he made sure to send me a birthday gift - a hair straightener I asked for a year ago. He always supports me; he encouraged me to study for a master’s degree.

The Israeli occupation tries to remove this beautiful image of him as a human being. They try to show that we like to live this horrific life. But what Mohammed is doing is actually the greatest example that we love life and freedom, and that we’d like to live like everybody else.

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Report

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Israel Advances Settlement Plans Despite International Outcry By: Killian Redden

n defiance of mounting international criticism, Israel has started to formally approve a burst of new settler housing construction across the occupied Palestinian territory.

Israeli media reported Tuesday that Israel’s Civil Administration had approved a further 153 settler units in settlements across the West Bank last week.

The approval reportedly came through for 65 homes in the settlements of Etz Efraim and Rachelim in Nablus, 28 apartments in Carmel in the South Hebron Hills, and another 60 in Alon Shvut in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc south of Bethlehem.

A spokesperson for Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) declined to comment, but Israeli daily Haaretz said the plans effectively put an end to an “informal construction freeze” that had lasted about 18 months.

A bulldozer is seen next to a new housing construction site in the Israeli settlement of Har Homa in East Jerusalem on March 19, 2014.

hu’s government.”

Peace Now is still compiling data for last year, but estimates so far suggest that 2015 saw at least as much settlement construction as 2013, even if less than in 2014 -“a unique year when they almost doubled construction,” Ofran said.

While the Israeli government has not approved as many new homes in the settlements over the past year and a half, work has gone Hagit Ofran, spokesperson for Is- ahead on buildings whose conraeli advocacy group and settle- struction was approved earlier. ment watchdog Peace Now, told She said that even if there were Ma’an that while approval for to be a complete halt to new apnew homes in Israel’s settlements provals, these earlier ones -- in may have slowed over the last some cases dating back 20 years year and a half, construction had -- could allow for the construccontinued more or less unabated. tion of as many as 10,000 new “They try to say there is a freeze homes in settlements across the while on the ground construction occupied Palestinian territory.

is continuing,” she said. “What This was quite aside from the we see is the policy of Netanya- fact that settlers could also build 6 |

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homes without official authorization only to have them approved “retroactively,” she said.

Mounting criticism There are now some 550,000 Israelis living in Jewish-only settlements across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem in contravention of international law.

According to Israeli rights group B’Tselem, this population lives in 125 settlements recognized by the Israeli state and about 100 outposts that do not have official authorization but enjoy “support and assistance from government ministries.”

B’Tselem believes “the existence of settlements leads to violations of many of the human rights of Palestinians, including the rights to property, equality, an adequate standard of living and freedom of movement.”

Issue No 81 // 6 FEB , 2016

The Israeli West Bank settlement of Efrat on September 1, 2014.

The recent approval of settler homes comes against the backdrop of a rising tide of international condemnation of Israel’s policies in the occupied Palestinian territory, particularly state support for settlements.

UN Secretary-General Ban Kimoon told the Security Council on Tuesday that he was “deeply troubled” by the reports on the latest series of approvals.

“Continued settlement activities are an affront to the Palestinian people and to the international community,” he said. “They rightly raise fundamental questions about Israel’s commitment to a two-state solution.”

The EU Commission in Jerusalem and Ramallah said Wednesday that they were still investigating the reports, but the EU Council last week declared: “Settlements are illegal under international law, constitute an obstacle to peace, and threaten to make a two-state solution impossible.”

In recent weeks, the US has also used unusually strong language to condemn Israel’s settlement policies, with US Ambassador

Issue No 81 // 6 FEB , 2016

to Israel Dan Shapiro saying last week that the US was “concerned and perplexed” by Israel’s support for the settlements.

dreds of new settler homes.

She attributed this largely to the stalled peace process. “When you don’t have any peace talks, attention on (settlement) construction is much higher,” she said.

However, she also acknowledged the possibility Israel may simply be reacting to recent weeks of harsh international criticism by an act of retaliation.

She recalled earlier US-backed peace talks, when she said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu matched apparent concessions to the Palestinians -- such as high-profile prison releases -- with the announcement of hun-

She said that continued support for Israel’s settlements was distancing the possibility of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. “This policy is dangerous for Israel,” she said. “They’re destroying Israel.”

“The focus of the world was on the peace talks,” Ofran said -- the issue of settlements went largely In December, US Secretary of ignored.

State John Kerry also said sup- However, she said it was not iniport for settlers was one of sev- tially clear what had changed in eral policies “imperiling” the recent weeks that had allowed for viability of a two-state solution, the approval of dozens of new adding that it raised “honest settler homes. questions about Israel’s longShe suggested mounting interterm intentions.” national pressure on Israel may have caused Israel’s planning au‘Dangerous for Israel’ thorities to feel they must act now Ofran said that while settlement before it becomes more difficult. construction has not slowed over She said that it may be that the the past 18 months, the Israeli Israeli authorities were simply state had until recently shied taking advantage of the final year away from giving vocal support of Barack Obama’s presidency, to the approval of new building when US repercussions would be unlikely. plans.

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analysis

Reflections on Palestinian strategy T

By: Amal Ahmad

his analysis was originally published by Al-Shabaka, an independent non-profit organization whose mission is to educate and foster public debate on Palestinian human rights and selfdetermination within the framework of international law.

Amal Ahmad is an Al-Shabaka Policy Member and Palestinian economic researcher. Amal interned at the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute in Ramallah before completing a Master’s degree in development economics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. Her work focuses on fiscal and monetary relations between Israel and Palestine; she is also interested in the political economy of development in the broader Middle East.

egy Group and Masarat, for example. Yet it is vital that Palestinians strategize with or without the political factions within and outside the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): Without a clear and agreed strategy, some of the tools and tactics being adThe Palestinian people began the opted risk draining energies and New Year facing a bleak political proving ineffective or producing situation, with a weak and com- unwanted results. promised leadership, a geograph- Advancing strategic analysis ically and administratively fragSound strategic thinking rests mented people, and a civil society on an accurate assessment of the increasingly marked by individuexisting political environment, alism and loss of political anchor. including the opportunities and The state-building project that challenges both internally and promised so much in the 1980s externally. For Palestinians, it is and 1990s is fast losing adherparticularly vital to accurately ents – a recent poll revealed that assess the strategies of the Isnearly two-thirds of Palestinians raeli state because it is the stronno longer believe it is practical ger party that largely defines the even though 137 countries now scope and direction of the conrecognize Palestine. Yet little has flict. It can be argued that a main emerged by way of an alternative reason Oslo was a political disaspolitical goal that enjoys popular ter was because Palestinian leadsupport. ers, incompetent and desperate This commentary argues that for a solution, took at face value the current political weakness of Israel’s professed interest in the the Palestinian people derives in creation of a Palestinian state large part from the absence of and worked towards that political strategic thinking, despite some goal. This miscalculation and the organized efforts in this regard concessions that followed have including by the Palestine Strat- proven catastrophic for the bar8 |

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gaining power of Palestinians, for their unity, and for their ability to formulate a cohesive national strategy.

It is past time to recognize that Palestinians are in a no-state solution in which Israel hopes to contain them for as long as it takes to achieve its ultimate vision. That vision is one of different (and greater) rights for Jews versus non-Jews, with a Jewish majority in the land under its direct control. The Israeli strategy for the fulfillment of its vision has been largely consistent since it occupied the Palestinian territory in 1967: To contain Palestinians by rejecting final status arrangements, whether Palestinian sovereignty in two states or equal rights in a single bi-national state.

I have argued previously that the de facto customs union imposed

by Israel on the Palestinians is a concrete illustration of Israel’s intention to maintain this no-state solution. Palestinian actions, resistance, and any future negotiations should be informed by this reality.

Given that Israel’s strategy is predicated upon fulfilling rights for Jewish Israelis and settlers Issue No 81 // 6 FEB , 2016

and limiting them for Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinians in the occupied territories, then a Palestinian rights-based strategy could be particularly effective in exposing and challenging Israel’s plans. In such a strategy the Palestinian political goal would shift from statehood, an unrealized project that obfuscates Israel’s strategy on the ground, to a struggle for human rights -- political, civil, economic, social, and cultural. Palestinian rights may be achieved in a number of national arrangements, one or two states or a confederation.

Besides confronting the Israeli national project at its core, a Palestinian rights-based strategy offers several distinct advantages.

It provides a set of guiding principles for the struggle; it narrows the differences between Palestinians in the occupied territories and within Israel; and it resonates with an international discourse on rights and anti-racism that is very difficult to dismiss, helping to forge strong alliances in support of the struggle.

Any successful strategy must not only accurately assess Israel’s motives and identify the weak Issue No 81 // 6 FEB , 2016

points in its armor; it must also garner consensus in the Palestinian community. This is a difficult challenge, in part because of the fragmentation of the Palestinian people but also because of the deep attachment to the idea of a Palestinian nation state despite the unrealized two-state solution.

It is therefore important to try to reconcile a politically sound strategy with Palestinian nationalist sentiment to the extent possible.

Arguments for a rights-based approach, for example, may need to emphasize that relinquishing the focus on statehood does not mean relinquishing ties to the land and to examine the ways in which the narrow conflation of nationhood with statehood can be transcended.

Adopting tactics for results The fastest, safest, and most efficient way to promote a national strategy is through a more representative -- and effective -- political system. In the absence of prospects for effective and noncompromised leadership within the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT) or for the Palestinian people at large, this becomes a

difficult task. In the interim, Palestinians can draw on some of the tools developed by existing institutions and networks in Palestinian and global civil society to advance strategic thinking and action, with the hope that steps in the right direction will hasten or complement the formation of a new leadership.

The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement remains the most powerful civic tool for framing the Palestinian struggle in the language of rights and for challenging Israel’s repression on the basis of apartheid. BDS is well known for the costs it regularly exacts on the occupation, but the movement’s far greater importance lies in the philosophy and the vision it provides. It offers a discourse that many Palestinians can relate to, that the world can empathize with, and that does not get stuck in the labyrinthine discussion of solutions and endgames. It also goes straight to the heart of Israel’s vision for the region; Netanyahu was not being dramatic when he dubbed the BDS movement a “strategic threat” to the Israeli national project given its WWW.ALQUDSMALAYSIA.ORG

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racist and colonial-settler form.

Even though the BDS campaign faces limitations within the occupied territories due to the OPT’s structural dependency on the Israeli economy, the fact that the language of rights is becoming more mainstream is an encouraging sign. Adopting the discourse of BDS and launching BDS campaigns on campuses and in local councils, business boards and other institutions is a concrete step to helping Palestinians resist apartheid and move closer to realizing human rights.

Palestinians can also capitalize on existing legal frameworks that directly address human rights and the rule of law. Legal tools already available to the Palestinian people include the International Court of Justice’s 2004 advisory opinion on the Separation Wall, which reinforces the international consensus that settlements are illegal under international law.

Such tools can be leveraged to point out to third states that their involvement with Israel compromises their legal authority and to demand that these states uphold international law by suspending trade or treaties with Israel so long as it maintains its apartheid regime. Palestine’s membership of the International Criminal Court may also offer tools to challenge Israel’s human rights violations, but it is important to be realistic and to continue to marshal international support.

Within the OPT, cycles of confrontation with the occupier also help to break the monopoly over politics held by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and may help to hasten and legitimize the search for alternative strategies. The recurrent waves of anger redefine the relationship of Palestinians to the Israeli state as one of conflict rather than “understanding” and

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often openly call for a cancelation of the Oslo Accords. While, as noted in a recent Al-Shabaka roundtable, the ability of these waves to achieve political goals is very limited due to weak organizational capacity as well as to backlash from the PA and Israel, they still provide a radical discourse shift and serve to unify, if only symbolically, the message of Palestinians.

carries serious risks. It conceals the reality that Israel’s strategy is to make such a state impossible.

It also validates the defunct model of Oslo and undercuts the argument that Israel is responsible for the rights of the population it occupies and oppresses. Other riskladen tactics include mobilizing for elections for the Palestinian National Council, a body that has had limited effectiveness. Nor Crucially, the Palestinian citizens are democratic elections that enof Israel, who have been margin- shrine the rule of undemocratic alized by the PLO and the PA in parties or that occur amid an abthe search for statehood, would sence of a national strategy parstand front and center of a rights- ticularly desirable. based approach. Indeed, this ex- Similarly, the institution-building plicitly underpins their struggle approach adopted in recent years, for justice and equal rights within by which aid is funneled into a Israel. Moreover, their close con- purported state-building project, tact and familiarity with the Is- has proven fragile and unrealraeli state and their accumulated istic. Instead, it must be recogstruggles within it represent a nized that Israel’s current stratmajor source of strategic under- egy of containment prevents not standing that other Palestinians only an independent Palestinian can tap. Some have not only not- state but also a viable Palestinian ed that this is a still underutilized economy. More work is needed source of Palestinian agency but on the ways in which the no-state have even argued that, with the solution keeps the Palestinian formation of the Joint List, the economy dependent, unproducPalestinian people should look to tive, and structurally backward. the Palestinian political parties in At the same time, it remains critiIsrael for leadership. Palestinians cally important to provide jobs in the occupied territories, in ref- for Palestinians not as developugee camps, and in the Diaspora ment under false pretenses but to would do well to more seriously support steadfastness and to keep examine the links they can forge Palestinians in Palestine. with their counterparts “inside” To sum up, the issue is not and to adapt some of those ex- whether certain tools and tactics periences and tactics to their do- are good or bad in principle but mestic environment, where pos- whether they directly confront sible and appropriate. or actively obscure the existing At the same time, and as noted above, the lack of a strategy poses risks in terms of not knowing what type of tools and tactics to avoid. Although recognition of Palestine as a state opened the door to the ICC, rallying for membership as an observer state at the UN or for verbal recognition of statehood by third states

political reality and whether they advance or hinder a specific strategy meant to address that reality.

This brief discussion is offered as a contribution to the process of identifying such a strategy, one that can unite the Palestinian people behind a struggle that effectively challenges Israel’s vision for an apartheid regime.

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Report

Israeli government approves mixed Jewish prayer area at Buraq Wall

The prayer will be created at the area between the southern side of the Western Wall and the Mughrabi Bridge leading to Al-Aqsa mosque.

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the Diaspora Affairs Ministry allocated a total of NIS 25 million from their respective budgets to set up the prayer area and its access paths to the Western Wall, while the Jewish Agency will add NIS 10 million for the project. An additional NIS 10 million are still The prayer will be created at the needed and a solution for that will area between the southern side be found in the coming months. of the Western Wall and the Mu- The new area will not be connectghrabi Bridge leading to Al-Aqsa ed to the existing separate men and mosque. This area is part of Buraq women sections, as it is on a lower wall and the historical Mughrabi level. In addition, because of the neighborhood area. political sensitivity over construcThe project is estimated to cost tion at the site, it is not possible to over NIS 30 million and accord- create contiguity between the difing to government officials, three ferent prayer areas, but the three Likud ministers - Ze’ev Elkin, areas will share an entrance.

ith the vote of 15 in favor and five against, the Israeli occupation government approved on Sunday a long-awaited plan to create a mixed Jewish prayer area at the Western Wall in which both men and women can pray together.

Yariv Levin and Miri Regev - all Prominent Jerusalemite figures refused to allocate funds for the expressed their refusal to the prayer area from their ministries. Israeli project, considering it a The Israeli Prime Minister’s Of- grave violation of Islamic waqf fice, the Finance Ministry and and the Buraq area which is inteIssue No 81 // 6 FEB , 2016

gral part of Al-Aqsa courtyards.

Sheikh Ekrima Sa’id Sabri, the head of the Supreme Islamic Council stressed that the Buraq wall in inspirable part of the Western Wall of Al-Aqsa mosque, and it is known of its Islamic status. He added that the area in front the Buraq wall is an Islamic waqf that was a Mugrabi neighborhood but the Israeli occupation destroyed it.

There is no Jewish antiquities in the site, he added but the Israeli occupation tries to create Israeli status in the site by establishing prayers areas and synagogues.

The legal activist Khaled Zyarqa considered the Israeli government decision a flagrant violation of the Islamic waqf and the Buraq square, and the Israeli occupation has not the right on the sight and its decisions are illegitimate.

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Issue No 81 // 6 FEB , 2016