JULY 2003

Tuesday July 8, 2003

4 Palestinians Wounded, 9 Detained in Occupied Territory

RAMALLAH - At least four Palestinians were wounded by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) gunfire in the occupied Palestinian territory; Palestinian medical and security sources said Monday.

IOF troops opened fire at residential neighborhoods in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, wounding three Palestinians, including two teenagers, medics said.

Two were identified as Murad Abu Zayed, 16, and Yousef al-Hems, 17.

IOF bulldozers also razed agricultural land in al-Qasas area, near the Gaza Strip borderline with Egypt, witnesses said.

Meanwhile, a 16-year-old Palestinian was wounded when IOF troops raided the northern West Bank town of Tulkarem Wendsday afternoon, medical sources confirmed.

Amin al-Qarout was shot in the leg by IOF soldiers in the town’s western neighborhood, witnesses said.

Earlier on Sunday, Five Palestinians were detained by IOF in different parts of the occupied Palestinian territory.

In the northern West Bank town of Qalqilia, IOF soldiers detained a Palestinian as he was trying to access an Israeli military checkpoint at the eastern entrance of the town through a Palestinian medical ambulance so as to reach hospital for surgery.

He was identified as, Baha Amin, 22.

In Nablus, another Palestinian was detained by IOF, witnesses said. Moaiyad al-Hait was detained west of the city, witnesses added.

In the southern West Bank city of Hebron, Nour al-Din and Basel al-Qawasmi were detained after IOF stormed their houses, east of the city.

In Gaza Strip, another Palestinian was detained by Israeli occupation soldiers near al Matahen junction, Palestinian security sources said.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Palestinian citizens gathered in Tulkarem and held a demonstration calling for the immediate of release of Palestinian detainees in the Israeli prisons.

The demonstrators gathered in front of the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Tulkarem and demanded that International human rights organizations intervene to release the “prisoners of freedom” in Israeli jails.

The Palestinian Ministry of Detainees’ Affairs revealed Monday that there are 286 Palestinian children and 76 women among 8000 detainees in IOF prisons.

After meeting Israeli Justice Minister Yosef Lapid in occupied east Jerusalem Monday, the Palestinian minister of detainees’ affairs, Hisham Abdal Raziq, warned, “If the decision (on prisoners) won't be changed it will affect the peace process for the worse.”

Meanwhile, Palestinian Minister of Cabinet Affairs Yasser Abed Rabbo called for saving the lives of thousands of Palestinian detainees following Israel’s decision to free only 350 detainees from its jails.

“The number of detainees who will be released represent a mere 5% of incarcerated Palestinians, whose number exceeds 6,000,” the minister said in an open letter to the international and Arab human rights groups and the diplomatic corps to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).

The minister criticized the Israeli classification of Palestinian detainees according to their political affiliations to determine their release, and called for the release of all detainees from Israeli jails.

“The issue of prisoners and detainees Is an essential issue that should be solved on the basis of freeing all detainees from Israeli jails,” Abed Rabbo stressed.

-[Palestine Media Center (http://www.palestine-pmc.com/).] Published at the (http://www.palestine-pmc.com/)

Monday July 7, 2003

Segregation Wall Completely Isolates Palestinian Villages

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM - The residents of Nazlat Abu Nar, Nazlat Isa, and Baqa al-Sharqiya in the northern West Bank, say they have become completely cut off and isolated from the rest of the West Bank because of the segregation wall, which Israel is building east of the green line.

Before the wall was built, one could see clearly from one village to the other. “Now it’s impossible,” said Jawdat Ketana, 55, head of the Nazlat Abu Nar village council.

“It will be a major inconvenience for anyone wanting to visit their family or go to hospital and many Palestinians doubt they will be given freedom of movement through the checkpoints”, the village official told AFP.

But the most serious consequence of the wall for thousands of Palestinian families is without doubt the loss of their farmland and natural resources.

This northwest expanse of the West Bank has been particularly blessed by fertile ground, which has yielded olives, fruit and vegetables in abundance.

But the Israeli occupation army has expropriated and razed thousands of hectares (acres), including some of the most fertile land in the region, during the wall building.

Moreover, thousands of Palestinians now find themselves living on one side of the wall with their fields on the other.

Ketana, who like all the inhabitants of Nazlat Abu Nar is dependent on farming, says he has lost 0.8 hectares (two acres), representing two thirds of his land, as a result of the wall. Now he is left with just a few fields.

Abdullah, who works with his five sons, fears that there will be nothing left.

“It leaves a question mark over our whole future,” he said.

“This year has been the most difficult we have ever known.”

All the families in the village were becoming increasingly dependent on aid from international or Palestinian organizations to make ends meet, Abdullah added.

“They are strangling us. The people can no longer breathe,” he said.

He added that has no doubt that “this wall will replace the green line” and become the de facto border between Israel and a future Palestinian state.

Israel began building the segregation wall in June 2002.

The Palestine National Authority (PNA) has repeatedly slammed the wall as another Israeli step aimed at creating a new status quo (by annexing more Palestinian land) in the occupied Palestinian territory and destroying the “roadmap”—a peace blueprint for solving the Mideast conflict put forward by the diplomatic “Quartet” of negotiators from the US, EU, Russia and the UN.

The 600-km long, 8-meter high wall, which has already annexed thousands of dunums of Palestine’s most fertile agricultural land, would render about 95,000 Palestinians on the “wrong” side of the wall, totally isolated from the majority of Palestinians living on the other side of the barrier, a study by the EU, US, World Bank and International Monetary Fund has revealed.

US Raise Objection to the Wall During Rice Visit

Last month, Condoleezza Rice, the US national security adviser, has raised objections to the wall with Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon during a visit to Israel and the occupied territory.

According to the Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot, Rice told Sharon that the construction of the wall was seen by Palestinians as the precursor to the border of a future Palestinian state.

“The route of the security fence that you are building... arouses our deep concern,” Yediot quoted Rice as saying. “I propose that you reconsider the route where the fence passes.”

American and Israeli officials said Sharon rebuffed Rice’s comments.

US administration officials said that Rice’s position illustrates the US new willingness to prod Israel and to get involved in the minutiae of the negotiations, the New York Times said.

A senior US official said that in fact more pressure on Israel to stop construction of the wall is certain in coming weeks. “The very fact that Rice raised the issue of the fence with Sharon is significant,” said an administration official. “We will be back on this issue if things don't improve.”

Administration officials also said that the exchange between Rice and Sharon also shows a decision to direct more pressure on Israel from both the White House and the State Department.

-[Palestine Media Center (http://www.palestine-pmc.com/).] Published at the (http://www.palestine-pmc.com/)

Sunday July 6, 2003

Palestinian Christians Are Integral Part of the Struggle For Freedom

By Sherri Muzher,
For Palestine Chronicle

"You mean, there are Palestinian Christians?” I am often asked, incredulously and with a renewed sense of interest in the Middle East.

I understand the confusion. All Arabs are Muslims and all Muslims are Arabs – isn’t that the popular belief? So it’s not surprising that many view the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict as Muslims versus Jews.

Unfortunately, there are those who strategically exploit this lack of knowledge for political gain or to realize “prophecy,” like Christian Conservative Gary Bauer who organized a letter of warning President Bush.

Twenty-two evangelical leaders stated in the May 19 letter that any attempt to be “evenhanded” between Israel and the Palestinians would be “morally reprehensible.” A few weeks ago, the Rev. Pat Robertson accused President Bush of imperiling Israel with Road Map, citing the Bible “which speaks very harshly of those who divide the ‘Promised Land.’”

How many potential Americans believe this? “There are 70 million of us” the Reverend Jerry Falwell explained to CBS’s Bob Simon on June 8, 2003 in a segment called ‘Zion’s Christian Soldiers.’ ”If there’s one thing that brings us together quickly, it’s whenever we begin to detect our government becoming a little anti-Israel.”

Falwell certainly proved his allegiance to Israel when he promised Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu in 1998 that he and others would mobilize evangelical churches to oppose steps involving territorial concessions to the Palestinians. Palestinian evangelical pastors and theologians later responded to Falwell in a February1, 1998 letter, “Our task of sharing the love of Christ in this region is becoming increasingly difficult as our brothers and sisters in the West openly express sentiments and endorse policies that produce greater injustice and aggression against Palestinian Christians and Muslims.

Ultimately, Falwell can’t speak for all evangelical Christians but many believe the Bible promised the Jews the entire Holy Land, including the Occupied Territories. And some evangelicals also believe the second coming of Christ is contingent upon the full return of Jews to Jerusalem.

However, the fact that Palestinian Christians are united with Muslims in the goal for liberation proves that the conflict isn’t so much religious as it is nationalistic and human. Palestinian Christians have been among the most fervent players in the battle against Israeli occupation. Consider spokeswoman, Hanan Ashrawi; the award-winning literary critic, Edward Said; Jerusalem Latin Patriarchate Michel Sabbah; Melkite Reverend/Author Elias Chacour.

The reality is that 15% of the world’s Palestinians are Christian. Palestinian Christians, also referred to as “the living stones” for being having been witness to Jesus and the Resurrection, are a vibrant community who has experienced suffering no less than Palestinian Muslims. From the bloody Crusades to the Dispossession of Palestine’s inhabitants in 1948, discrimination has never known religion.

In the latest uprising for freedom, Palestinian Christians have not only been killed, but many others have been maimed for life by Israeli bullets. Christians have also suffered under the inhumane siege by not being able to leave their towns, go to their jobs, seek medical care and attend schools. Among the hardest hit by Israeli F-16 bombardment is the Palestinian Christian city of Beit Jala. And few Palestinian Christians will ever forget Palestinian altar boy Johnny Thalgieh who was killed by Israeli gunfire at Manger Square in Bethlehem. Cars flattened indiscriminately by Israeli Merkava tanks and blown out windows as well as containment of the populations have left the Palestinian Christian population reeling at the Israeli government.

I can understand the PR value for Israelis in ignoring Palestinian Christians from the Middle East equation. With the unfair vilification of Islam, who would Western public opinion favor? But those who insist on painting this conflict in religious terms are fooling themselves if they think my relatives desire freedom any less than Muslims.

And while evangelical leaders who warned President Bush not to be “even-handed” in peace negotiations believe they are speeding up the Second Coming of Christ, it was Christ who said, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God."

Which is it?

Sherri Muzher, JD in Intl. Law is a Media Analyst and Writer. She is based in Mason, Michigan and contributes regularly to the Palestine Chronicle

Thursday July 3, 2003

Palestinian PM Warns He Will Jail Violators of Truce

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Any failure by Israel to release Palestinian detainees would pose the single biggest threat to the success of the ceasefire and the US-sponsored “roadmap” peace plan and any Israeli assassinations of Palestinian anti-Israeli occupation activists would destroy the truce, Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) said.

“If we wait for three months without any release of the prisoners, the ceasefire will break down. If they assassinate anybody ... it will collapse,” Abbas told Reuters on Wednesday.

He urged Israel to release all Palestinian detainees held in Israeli jails, whose total he put at about 8,000. Sharon has signaled his readiness to consider releasing some detainees.

However, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) on Wednesday resumed its assassination policy.

An IOF undercover unit sneaked into the northern West Bank town of Qalqilya and assassinated activist Mahmud Shawar, 32, and wounded another Palestinian in the raid, only hours after Abbas’ interview with Reuters.

In compliance with Palestinian obligations to the “roadmap,” Abbas pledged to jail violators of the Hudna (truce) announced by Palestinian factions and blessed by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

Asked if he would punish people who violated the truce, Abbas told Reuters in his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah: “We will crack down on them.”

“I think the Palestinian people will accept this because the Palestinian people accepted the truce and they are keen to keep it ... So from now on anybody, any faction, any party which violates it -- we will put them in prison.”

Asked if a crackdown could spark intra-Palestinian violence, Abbas replied: “It is risky, yes, but we will do our best to avoid any confrontation with our people. Because if we do it, it could come to civil war and finish all our people’s hopes.”

Abbas also stressed the importance of resuming soon Palestinian-Israeli talks on final status issues.

Abu Mazen said he had informally proposed to Washington that the two sides should soon start discussing thorny issues that have long prevented a final peace agreement.

Such issues include the future of Jerusalem and the right of Palestinian refugees to return to homes they were forced to flee after Israel’s creation in 1948, in what was British Mandate Palestine.

Moreover, Abbas told Reuters that the US-sponsored Camp David peace talks in July 2000 had foundered because too little time was allowed to iron out the most difficult issues of the decades-long conflict.

He suggested talks on such “final status” issues must begin as soon as possible, in parallel with the initial stages of the “roadmap,” to allow agreement by 2005 when the plan envisages Palestinian statehood in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Reuters reported.

Ahead of his third meeting with his Israeli counterpart Ariel Sharon in Jerusalem Tuesday, PM Abbas in a statement stressed that “the just peace” which “resolves the all the final status issues” was and remains the basic goal of the Palestinian people.

The “just peace” sought by the Palestinian people “is the peace we want and for which we will exert all efforts, the peace which satisfies the generations, resolves all the final status issues, and realizes the Palestinian national rights, including the creation of the independent state of Palestine,” Abbas said.

-[Palestine Media Center (http://www.palestine-pmc.com/).] Published at the (http://www.palestine-pmc.com/)

Bush Thanks Abbas For 'No Nonsense' Approach to Terrorism

WASHINGTON (VOA) US President Bush called Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas Thursday and thanked him for what he called Mr. Abbas's "no-nonsense" approach to dealing with terror and violence.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer says that during the 10 minute phone call, the president expressed appreciation for the arrest of a Palestinian wanted for an attack on Israel.

It was not clear what arrest he was referring to, but a website connected to the group Hamas says Palestinian security agencies have arrested two fighters from another group, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. The website says the fighters were accused of firing mortar shells on a Gaza Strip Jewish settlement Wednesday, wounding four settlers. Speaking to reporters in northern Gaza, Abbas condemned that attack and Monday's killing of a foreign worker in the West Bank as "acts of terror."

The five-day old cease-fire between Palestinian militant groups and Israel appeared shaky Thursday amid violations on both sides. Israeli troops shot and killed a leader of al-Aqsa in the West Bank town of Qalqiliya early Thursday. Members of al-Aqsa later threatened to abandon the cease-fire in announcement shouted over loudspeakers in the West Bank.

The Israeli military also briefly closed a main road in the Gaza Strip in response to the attack on the Jewish settlement Wednesday. The road was reopened to Palestinians for the first time in more than two years on Monday, when Israeli forces handed over control of the area to the Palestinian Authority. Meanwhile, Israel has set free a senior Palestinian security officer who is close to Palestinian security chief Mohammed Dahlan. Dahlan had reportedly demanded the release of the officer, Suleiman Abu Matlak, to help him restore order in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli forces arrested Matlak two months ago on charges that helped organize an attack on bus near a Gaza Strip Jewish settlement in November 2000. An Israeli military court released him Thursday, on the grounds that prosecutors did not provide sufficient evidence against him.

Some information for this report provided by AP and AFP.

Wednesday July 2, 2003

Arafat Condemns Israeli Decision to Allow Non-Muslims into Al-Aqsa

RAMALLAH - Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has condemned Israel’s latest decision to allow non-Muslims into Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, calling it an Israeli “conspiracy.”

Following a meeting with Saudi Prince Turki Ibn Talal Ibn Abdel Aziz, who was visiting the Palestinian leader at his battered Ramallah compound, Arafat said the Israeli decision was “a conspiracy the [Israeli authorities] fabricated last month under the pretext that the visitors are tourists.”

“There is not one tourist among them,” he added. “They are extremists, who want to tarnish the sanctity of Al-Haram Al-Sharif.”

Officials from the Waqf—the Islamic trust running the site—banned Jews and other non-Muslims from visiting the site shortly after the current conflict erupted. However, on Monday, Israeli officials confirmed that police had actually escorted groups of Jews and tourists into the site, despite Palestinian opposition.

For his turn, Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) criticized the Israeli decision, saying it is “a provocative position, which takes us back to past provocations that were totally unjustified” in a clear reference to Ariel Sharon’s visit to AL-Aqsa on September 28, 2000.

The Intifada for independence from the 36-year-old Israeli occupation erupted on that day, after, Ariel Sharon, now the Israeli premier, made a provocative visit, heavily guarded by occupation troops and police, causing clashes, which rendered 6 Palestinians dead that day.

Israel occupied east Jerusalem, where Al-Haram lies, in the June 1967 war but turned administration of the mosque area back to the Islamic Trust (Waqf) shortly afterward.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian leadership warned in a statement carried by the official WAFA news agency “this decision puts at risk the Christian and Muslim holy sites.”

“We call on the international community to stop this provocative action which risks sparking an explosion,” stressed the leadership, which comprises the PNA’s cabinet and the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

AFP said that a day earlier, Israel’s army radio reported visits by about 20 groups. Permission came from Sharon, Internal Security Minister Tzahi Hanegbi and the police, the report said.

In the meantime, the Islamic Waqf has decided to close all entrances to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, in a bid to stop Jewish extremists and settlers from entering.

Adnan Al-Husseini, head of the Waqf, said the “new-old” Israeli decision to allow non-Muslims into the compound was “provocative and dangerous,” warning that it could escalate the ongoing conflict further.

Al-Husseini also stressed that the Islamic trust was not informed of the Israeli decision as the Israeli authorities had previously claimed and refuted allegations that those who were allowed into the compound were tourists.

“Those who are entering the compound are settlers and extremist Jews who wish to gain control of the compound.”

-[Palestine Media Center (http://www.palestine-pmc.com/).] Published at the (http://www.palestine-pmc.com/)

Israel Withdraws From Bethlehem, Keeps Closure on the Holy City

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM - The Israeli occupation army began withdrawing its troops from the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem Wednesday following an agreement reached between the two sides earlier this week.

The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) will leave the city but the siege will continue to be imposed on it.

Bethlehem’s Mayor Hanna Nasser, who has watched Israel pull back its troops from the city before, only to return after a small period of time, said he hoped Wednesday’s withdrawal would be more serious than its predecessor.

“I can do nothing except to be optimistic, because I see no alternative for the two peoples other than to live together,” Nasser told Israeli TV.

However, Nasser said Israel should turn over to Palestinians confiscated and annexed areas of the Governorate and remove the segregation wall separating the holy city from Jerusalem.

Israel has decided to annex vast areas of Palestinian land near Bethlehem to build a wall that would in effect isolate these areas from the southern West Bank city.

The land that will be isolated from the rest of Bethlehem by the so-called “security wall” covers about 1,000 acres (4,000 dunams), city officials said.

The area seized is near the Bilal Ibn Rabah Mosque, also known to Jews as Rachel’s Tomb—a holy site scared to both Muslims and Jews—on the northern edge of Bethlehem.

US Deeply Concerned

The segregation wall Israel is building east of the Green Line has created a diplomatic confrontation between the US and the Jewish state following American criticism that the wall will hinder application of the “roadmap.”

The wall was sharply criticized by US President Bush’s national security adviser Condoleezza Rice during talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

According to the Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot, Rice told Sharon on Sunday that the construction of the wall was seen by the Palestinians as the precursor to the border of a future Palestinian state.

“The route of the security fence that you are building... arouses our deep concern,” Yediot quoted Rice as saying. “I propose that you reconsider the route where the fence passes.”

Jamal Jumaal, coordinator of Pengon, a Palestinian environmental NGO network, said he was encouraged by Rice’s comments on the fence, but expressed fears that the presence of the wall and the Jewish settlements would drastically reduce the territory on which the Palestinians could build a state.

“It's a colonial wall,” he argued. “Ninety-one percent of the settlements will be annexed to Israel by this wall,” he warned. “They are now working day and night, because they want, as much as they can, to put facts on the ground.”

Abbas, Sharon Meet in Jerusalem

The withdrawal from Bethlehem follows a joint meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday. The two premiers discussed further steps toward ending the bloodshed, sources close to the meeting said.

Sharon and Abbas agreed to set up four committees to work on implementing the “roadmap,” which calls for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in 2005.

The two sides agreed to set up joint committees on four subjects: Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails, trade, security and incitement.

“We can do this together and the conditions now are promising to make further progress,” a Palestinian official quoted Abbas as telling Sharon. Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Amr said Sharon and Abbas would meet again next week.

In a joint press conference, held before the meeting, Abbas said that through dialogue, the two sides could put the past behind them.

“Every day that passes without an agreement is a lost opportunity. Every person killed is a tragedy,” he said.

“So enough killing, enough tragedy, enough pain. Let's move forward with courage to the future we all deserve,” he said.

Still, Abbas voiced optimism in his meeting with Sharon that the cease-fire would hold if Israel refrained from taking action that would increase tension.

Israeli Withdrawal From Palestinian Cities Within Six Weeks

Before the meeting in Jerusalem, Abbas said he believed the IOF would withdraw from all occupied Palestinian cities in the West Bank within six weeks.

“I expect Israel will complete the withdrawal (from all reoccupied Palestinian areas) within a month or a month and a half,” he told a meeting of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) in Ramallah.

“Now we are looking to see how Israel will return to the borders of September 28, 2000 because it is an important step that is in the roadmap,” Abbas said, referring to the date when the Palestinian intifada, or uprising against occupation, broke out.

He said the timeframe was important because the Palestinian security apparatus did not currently have the ability to cope with an immediate takeover of security responsibility for the entire West Bank.

“(At the moment) we do not have the ability and we need to create the ability very fast. We need it to carry out this program,” he said.

Meanwhile, President Yasser Arafat said Palestinian security forces had arrested the gunman responsible for the shooting death of a Bulgarian construction worker in the northern West Bank.

“The person who did it has been arrested,” Arafat told reporters here following a meeting with a Saudi official.

He did not give further details.

-[Palestine Media Center (http://www.palestine-pmc.com/).] Published at the (http://www.palestine-pmc.com/)

Tuesday July 1, 2003