OCTOBER 2000
Tuesday October 31, 2000
Monday October 30, 2000
Sunday October 29, 2000
Ben - Eliezer, the Israeli minister of communications unashamedly says to the Jerusalem Post, " Israel can not sit with some one who is murdering our sons. It is not possible, we need an explanation of what is happening here" Our question to Ben -Eliezer, how many of your son shave been murdered? Palestinians can submit to you the names of 160 of our sons who were killed in the last few weeks by your occupation soldiers, and if not satisfied we will submit the names of thousands of Palestinian boys injured by your soldiers. Your government refused to have an international commission of inquiry to investigate the events of the last few weeks and to tell us what is happening here.
An Israeli University Prof. Dan Schueftan says, " The only way to really stop terror is to force the Palestinians to police themselves, and hold the leaders personally accountable for every terror attack that occurs. If a bus blow up, we have to make life hill for Arafat and his gang. Paralyze them, kidnap them, don't let them move, insult them, humiliate them, you have to teach them like you teach dogs- the only way is to rub their faces in it, and in the end they will break. Whatever doesn't work with force, works with more force." This is the kind of mentality Palestinians have been facing since Israel was established. Schueftan describes exactly the way the Israeli occupation authorities have been dealing with the Palestinian people under occupation all along. How can any human being put up with such people?
This is not all, Paul Simon of the CBS American news program interviewed the Israeli commander of the Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank. This Israeli commander told Simon that "he believes that Palestinians send their kids to get killed to make 'good' TV pictures- to get sympathy."
This is an Israeli commander who justifies to the world the killing of Palestinian children, how low can one gets. This is an Epitome of racism, this can only come from a sick mind. Those people mentioned above represent some of the Israeli elite. The only way to describe those people is that the are disgrace to humanity. Our Palestinian people need protection from those, the international community must do what it can to save us from those people. All that our people need is to get red of the Israeli occupation, let them get out from our salt, let them get out from our flesh and blood, just let them go.
Saturday October 28, 2000
Once more the United States of America works to foil the attempt of the UN Security Council to send an international observation force to the Palestinian territories. At a time when the Arab group, the none aligned countries support this Palestinian demand, and at the same time while the overwhelming majority of the world countries are strongly demanding putting an end to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian and Arab territories, the United States chose to express its support to the Israeli aggression and the occupation of the Palestinian territories in flagrant violations of the United Nations resolutions. Not just that, the United States of America is humiliating both the Arab and Muslim nations, the US is challenging and humiliating the will of the international community, the UN and the principles of human rights.
The United States did every thing possible earlier this month to prevent the Security Council from passing a resolution condemning Israel for the excessive use of force against the Palestinian people. And when faced by the international community's rejection, the US made every thing possible to dilute the Security Council resolution, and yet the US did not vote in favor of the resolution but chose to abstain.
The United states is still bent on forcing the UN and the Security Council to stay away from condemning Israeli atrocities against the Palestinian people under the Israeli occupation, and to prevent the UN and the Security Council from taking any measures to protect the Palestinian people, thus allowing the tragic situation in the Palestinian territories to deteriorate further with all the implications inherited in such a deterioration, least of all the inevitable outbreak of war in the Middle East with all of its catastrophic consequences. In view of the very dangerous situation developing in the Middle East, it is incumbent on all world leaders most and foremost, the Arab leaders, Muslim leaders, the EU and the Russian Federation, China, Japan and Canada to inform the United States that they can not stand very longer in waiting and that they will do every thing possible to rescue the peace process in the Middle East, end the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people and work to implement the international legitimacy resolutions namely 242 and 338 leading to ending the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian and Arab territories once and for all.
Wednesday October 25, 2000
The Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and his government did not implement any of the signed agreements since it took office back in May/July 1999. They did not implement the third phase of the withdrawal as agreed by in the Oslo accords, they did not release the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, they did not abide by the international legitimacy resolutions namely 242, 338 and 191 which were the basis upon which the Oslo agreement was signed back in 1993.
The PNA stretched backwards to accommodate the Israeli successive governments excuses for not implementing the signed agreements. President Arafat twice postponed his intention to declare the independent Palestinian state upon the requests of the international community. The Palestinian people absorbed the repeated humiliation, the agony and suffering of the prolonged Israeli occupation of our land. The Israeli government did not stop for even one day its Judiazation of Arab East Jerusalem, they intensified building Jewish settlements in the Palestinian occupied territories.
The Israeli government trained and armed the settlers to their teeth, the Israeli army conducted training and maneuvers to reoccupy Palestinian cities. In short, the Israeli government did everything possible to perpetuate a status quo that serves its long-term objectives designed to suppress, strangle the Palestinian people and to accustom them to perpetual occupation. In the last few months, Barak assisted by the US demanded a Palestinian signature relinquishing sovereignty on the Aqsa Mosque and Arab East Jerusalem to the Jews. Barak assisted by the US administration coerced President Arafat to sign an agreement that go against the United Nations legitimacy resolutions. When he failed in doing that, Barak chose to try to force his settlement on the Palestinian people and leadership by the use of force.
Over the last three weeks, Barak's occupation forces managed to kill more than 160 Palestinian civilians many of them children, thousands of Palestinians were maimed and injured by Israeli gunfire ranging from heavy machine guns, tank fire and helicopter gunships. The Palestinian territories in its entirety are under siege and continuing closure.
Food and medicine is getting scarce by the day, our economy is deteriorating very fast. People are out of work and most of our children are unable to go to schools, our universities are shut. Students and teachers can not travel from one town to another.
All this is happening while the world community is silence. The EU, the UN and the US administration appear to be hopeless unable to do anything. All our cries to the world to get international forces to protect the Palestinian people fall on deaf ears. An international commission of inquiry to determine who is the responsible party for the current situation in the occupied Palestinian territories and the massacres against our people are being rejected by the Israeli government.
This Israeli government refuses any role for the United Nations to get more involved in order to participate in resolving the Palestinian Israeli conflict. Barak in the last few days announced what he termed a 'time out on the peace process' effectively giving it a deathblow.
Barak also is bent on bringing Eric Sharon to his government. A war cabinet is being formed in Israel. The overall regional situation might get out of hand very soon, and an all out war in the Middle eat could erupt. The EU, the UN and the US should wake up before it is too late. Israel must be made to accept UN resolutions and withdraw its occupation forces and settlers from all the occupied Palestinian territories to the lines of June 4th 1967.
The Palestinian leadership expressed its willingness to reach a peace agreement with Israel on the basis of UN resolutions. It is up to Israel to reciprocate. The international community must make sure that United Nations resolutions are respected and implemented. The world order as we know it could be undermined if the UN does not insist on the respect of its resolutions.
Saturday October 21, 2000
It is clear that the mission of the Arab Summit held in order to take a position vis avis the Israeli brutal aggression against the Palestinian people inside the Palestinian occupied territories is going to be difficult, least of all because the different positions taken by the individual summit members and of course because of the American pressure on Arab heads of state to empty any decision taken by the summit from any real meaning.
May be the Arab Heads of state needs reminding that the threats being made now are not only directed at the Palestinian people only, and that the Aqsa Mosque is not a Palestinian holy place only, may be they need to be reminded that the Palestinian people who have been subjected to agony, suffering and destitution for the last 52 years is part and parcel of the Arab Nation.
The Arab heads of state are advised to study thoroughly the
dangers facing the Palestinian people and the Arab nation and to
search for practical means to support the just Palestinian cause,
and to protect the Muslim and Christian holy places in Arab
Jerusalem.
The Palestinian people has enough statements condemning Israel,
effects of which disappear after few hours. The Palestinian
people need to see real decisions that have practical meaning in
the field against Israel and against its supporter the United
States.
The Arab heads of state must respond to the pulse of the Arab Street, and must respond to the ongoing Palestinian tragedy unfolding in front of their eyes now. The Palestinian people need measures and practical steps that consolidate the Palestinian cause and protect Arab Jerusalem in its entirety.
Arab Jerusalem is the yardstick that will measure the effectiveness of the outcome of this Arab summit. Arab Jerusalem is the heart of the problem upon which peace or war will be determined.
It is utterly unacceptable any more to see the Arab heads of state as mere hopeless witnesses observing what is going on from what appears to them as a safe distance. It is time for the Arab heads of state to rise to the challenge and to tell Israel and the United States that enough is enough, and that they will not remain silent any longer. Any thing short of the establishment of the Palestinian State on the Palestinian land occupied by Israel in the 1967 war and Arab East Jerusalem as its capital will not suffice. The Arab heads of state should not fail this test.
Thursday October 19, 2000
Western leaders and Media in general deal with the events taking place in the occupied Palestinian territories as it is between two equal parties, they equate between the Palestinian people living under the Israeli occupation and Israel the occupation power armed with the most sophisticated American supplied weapons. They equate between the Palestinian people who are struggling to be free from the Israeli occupation and Israel who is using its military might to suppress the Palestinian people and perpetrate the occupation. They equate between the Palestinian ordinary man in the street demonstrating to push the occupation out and the Israeli soldiers armed with gunships and tanks directed at unarmed Palestinian civilians.
On daily basis, the world media and diplomats of the Western nations witness the agony, the suffering, the frustration, the anger of the Palestinian public, and also see for themselves the Palestinian roads, and the Israeli check points strangling the Palestinian population, its economy and its humanity. They see for themselves that nothing has changed since Oslo, the occupation is still in place. The world media particularly the Western media witnessed the Israeli gunships, tanks and gun boats roaming freely in the Palestinian skies and sea waters, shelling Palestinian positions without any bullet fired back on these helicopters and gun boats.
The Western media and journalists know for sure that our universities and schools are shut because students and teachers can not reach their places of study.
The world media diplomats and journalists know for sure that our economic activities in the areas of industry, agriculture and trade have drastically deteriorated, and there are more than 300,000 Palestinian workers out of work.
The World media hardly report on this Palestinian agony and suffering, they are more concerned with focussing on few Palestinian young men carrying some machine guns that hardly have any ammunition. They are cynically using those naïve men to portray the Palestinians as equal to the Israelis.
With a very simple comparison, Israel, the occupation power in the Palestinian territories does not suffer, if any its suffering is negligible compared to ours.
Western media, journalists and diplomats are cheating their people and misleading their audiences. It is time for them to show the picture as it is, a Palestinian unarmed population confronting a huge military power occupying the Palestinian land with stones.
Wednesday October 18, 2000
Before Ariel Sharon's incursion into the Aqsa Mosque, Palestinian anger and frustrations were put on hold. Sharon's incursion and years of prolonged useless negotiations culminating with Sharon's and the Israeli government attack on the Aqsa Mosque ignited those feelings and frustrations into a people's Intifada. Those who called for a Summit to be held at Sharm el- shiekh know for a fact that the situation after the Al-aqsa Intifada will not go back to what it was like before it, and that the events of the last 20 days have opened a new chapter of relations in our area, and that foreign hegemony on Arab policy makers will no longer have a sway.
The brutality and horrific actions of the Israeli occupation forces over the last specific twenty days, and the suffering of our people, the death of more than a hundred Palestinians and the injuries of thousands in addition to the siege imposed on our cities, towns and villages should prove to the world that the Israeli occupation of our land all of our land is still in place and that the 20 % of the historical area of Palestine upon which the Palestinian people want to establish their state upon is still infested with Israeli tanks, machine guns and inhuman occupation. It should prove to the world that Israel never implemented the agreements it has signed and it is using the so called peace process to perpetuate its occupation of our land, all of this happening and the world community setting in silence.
The Sharm el- shiekh agreement even if it was honored by Israel- and this is very much in doubt- will not solve the problem. Taking the clock back to the 28th of September should only make the world realize the extent of Israel's intransigence vis a vis the Palestinian legitimate national rights, Palestinian sovereignty on its land, on its holy places and on Arab east Jerusalem.
It is hoped that all will abide by the Sharm agreement and that Israel will come eventually to its senses, stop its aggression and terminate its occupation of our land thus saving much blood, agony and suffering.
Tuesday October 17, 2000
The ongoing Intifada in the Palestinian territories exposed the real face of Israel and those dark forces supporting the ugly occupation of our land top of which is the United States of America. It is becoming clearer that Israel supported by the US wants to enforce surrender on the Palestinian people in the shape of a peace agreement made to measure for the Israeli size. A so called peace agreement that deprives the Palestinian people from its basic rights to live in an independent state with freedom. Israel wants to cantonize the Palestinian territories and to keep its cancerous Jewish settlements in the Palestinian body, to enable Israel to continue controlling the destiny of the Palestinian people.
The question that the international community and the US in particular must ask itself, what are the Israeli army and Jewish settlers doing in the Palestinian territories? Why are they there in the first place? What are they doing on the gates of Palestinian cities towns and villages? Are the closure and the siege imposed on the Palestinian cities compatible with international legitimacy and human rights conventions? What would the United States do if the situation in the Palestinian territories were reversed? What if the Palestinian army is imposing a siege and a closure on Israeli cities towns and villages like Tel-Aviv, Ramat Gan and Bat yam? What would the US do in such a situation, bearing in mind that this is hypothetical assumption, as the Palestinian people have no army?
It is clear to the US and the world community that the Palestinian people is not attacking Israel and Israelis inside the green line in Israeli proper, what the Palestinian people is doing is to defend its freedom and to push the Israeli occupation out of our land, the Palestinian people have been and still is trying to convince the Israeli people and the world at large that we have just and legitimate rights like any other nation on this earth. In fact the Palestinian people was and still the most generous to the Jewish people as it recognized Israel on 78% of the historical land of Palestine, and only wants to establish its state on 22% of it. The Palestinian people through its leadership have been negotiating with Israel over the last seven years to no avail. Israel hardly implemented any of the signed agreements.
The world community represented by the UN must provide an international force to protect the Palestinian people and to make Israel withdraw its forces to the lines of June 4th 1967. The Palestinian people's aspirations for freedom and dignity and to live in peace free on its land must be achieved. Alternatively, the whole area will be facing the danger of wars, confrontations and the possibility of a new world disorder. Israel can not live in peace if the Palestinians are deprived of their peace. The US and the UN must be made to understand this.
Monday October 16, 2000
In the midst of the Israeli closure and siege imposed on the Palestinian occupied territories and the escalation of Israeli occupation measures particularly Barak's statement against the peace process and his insults and accusations directed at president Arafat, in this midst, a summit with vague objectives is being held in Sharm el-Shiekh.
From the positive point of view, such a summit is being held for the first time with the presence of the UN represented by its Secretary General Kuffi Annan, and the EU represented by its Secretary General Solana. The success of this summit from a Palestinian point of view is for the summit to end the military and economic siege imposed on the Palestinian occupied territories, stopping the threats and accusations leveled against the Palestinian people and leadership and the establishment of an international commission of inquiry to investigate the bloody massacres of Palestinians, and the provocative visit of Sharon to the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The success of the summit will be measured by the extent that it will be able to deal with the continuous occupation of the Palestinian land , and Israel's refusal to implement signed agreements and the implementation of UN Security Council resolutions. Reactivating the peace process and putting it back on track in addition to making Israel respect its commitments and agreements it signed is a major Palestinian demand.
The international community must assume its responsibilities and must conclude that the Palestinian people is the victim, have been subjected to Israeli brutal occupation for 33 years now, and it is time for this occupation to end once and for all.
Sunday October 15, 2000
The cause of occupied Arab East Jerusalem and the Aqsa mosque in particular were the most important issues on the minds and hearts of the Palestinian people when they moved in their most recent Intifada to defend Palestinian, Arab and Muslim holy sites in Arab east Jerusalem. The issue of regaining Palestinian sovereignty on the Aqsa mosque, the old city and all of Arab East Jerusalem was and still is on the mind of the Palestinian people who is determined to achieve its self determination and rights according to international legitimacy resolutions.
It should be noted that the Intifada started again after Sharon, leader of the Likud entered the holy mosque for political reasons to out stage Barak who refused Palestinian sovereignty on the mosque during the Camp David summit. Baraks refusal and Sharon's desecration of the Aqsa mosque were and still are considered a huge obstacle in the face of the peace process and practically sounded the end of the peace process.
It must be clear to all that any summit and any solution that does not ensure complete evacuation of Israeli occupation forces from all the land occupied by Israel in the 1967 war first and foremost from Arab East Jerusalem will not succeed and will not end the conflict in any shape or form.
Saturday October 14, 2000
The Israeli latest escalation and the war being waged against unarmed Palestinian population which if not stooped immediately will almost cause the whole Middle East to go into war should raise the following question, what is next? What are the EU and the United States are waiting for? Is the International community waiting for a catastrophe before it moves?
The United States and Israel must understand that the reason for the deteriorating conditions and the circle of violence engulfing our area is because of the continuing occupation of the Palestinian territories , the deprivation of the Palestinian people from exercising its self determination, and Israel’s refusal to abide by the United Nation’s Security Council Resolutions.
The equation can not be clearer, either the world community assumes its responsibilities or remain silent in which case the whole Middle East will slide into chaos and wars. The world community assuming its responsibilities means that it has to enforce its will and force Israel to implement United Nations resolutions and to stop Israel from continuing occupation of the Palestinian land.
The United States must be made to understand that the Arab and Muslim peoples are sick and tired of its flagrant unconditional support to Israel and its actions in the Palestinian territories, and that if the US wants to regain any of its credibility, it has to stop taking positions hostile to the Arab and Muslim nations and to pressure Israel to end its occupation of the Palestinian land immediately.
The European Union also is responsible and can play a more effective role to save the situation, not only through statements but also through adding its weight to pressure Israel to comply and implement international legitimacy resolutions and to force Israel to stop its continuing aggression against the Palestinian people.
Saving the situation is an international responsibility, and the international community must understand that the Palestinian people is the victim and that it is the responsibility of the Security Council to move immediately and stop the perpetual Israeli aggression on the Palestinian people and land.
Wednesday October 11, 2000
UN Secretary General Kuffi Annan arrived in the region after the Security Council passed a resolution condemning Israel, this resolution which was emptied from any meaning thanks to the US efforts.
This resolution may not have been enough, however Kuffi Annan whom we know is limited in his powers due to the dictates of the US administration and its monopoly powers on the UN still have some responsibility towards implementing Security Council resolutions.
Some say Annan would not have come to the Middle East has it not been for the kidnapping of the three Israeli soldiers, and the United States together with its media organs mobilized all its forces in order to free them. Almost ten days passed while Palestinians were killed by cold blood by Israeli fire, the US and Annan did not move until the Soldiers got kidnapped.
This fact sheds a dark shadow on the ability and capability of the UN to come to the assistance of our people.
As long as the UN revolves around the US whims, nothing much can be expected from it. The UN must do what is necessary to free itself from the US hegemony and assume its proper role to defend justice and humanity in the face of the dark powers trying to curtail its mission.
Sunday October 8, 2000
President Arafat urged the international community to assume full responsibility to confront the Israeli aggregation against the Muslim and Christian holy cites in Jerusalem.
The PNA vehemently rejected an Israeli warning addressed by BM Barak to the Palestinians to end within 48 hours what he termed acts of violence, otherwise, he will unilaterally stop the Middle East peace process.
Palestinian security sources said a state of emergency was declared in all Palestinian security forces today.
Minister of Information and Culture Yasser Abed Rabbo announces yesterday the Palestinians will never surrender to threats made by PM Barak against the Palestinian people.
In a press briefing held in Gaza yesterday, Abed Rabbo accused Barak and his government of escalating tension in the Middle East. He added, If the peace process came to a stop, this will be the sole responsibility of Barak's government and not the Palestinians.
Saturday October 7, 2000
President Arafat said yesterday addressing a rally of hundreds of supporters in Tunis that Arab East Jerusalem must be the capital of the future Palestinian State whether Israel accepted or rejected it.
The PNA criticized the reported Barak and Mofaz's statements in which they said that the current situation may lead to a war.
President Arafat's advisor Nabil Abu Rudainah termed these statements as a threat and a dangerous escalation, the Israeli government alone bears the full resposibility for it.
Presidential Secretary- General Tayeb Abdulraheen said yesterday that our internal front should be solidified and our national unity must remain deep as it was always been.
Secretary-General of Fatah movement in the West Bank Marwan Al Barghothi denied the existence of what is called " Tanzim Weapon". Responding to Israeli accusations of incitement against him, he said, all the weapons in the Palestinian people's hand do not match what exists in one street inside any Israeli settlement.
Thursday October 5, 2000
President Arafat stormed out during the negotiations with Barak and Albright and shouted what are you doing is to perpetuate the humiliation of our people and we will never accept it.
Chief of preventative security in Gaza says, Israel's use of guided missiles, American Apache helicopters and tank salvos will not frighten the Palestinian people, it will increase their determination. Dahaln accuses Barak of trying to impose on the Palestinian people a "peace settlement" on his terms.
Presidential Office Secretary General says, Israel will escalate its massacre against the Palestinian people more than ever before.
The intensity of confrontations on the Palestinian land between the Palestinian people and the Israeli occupation forces is increasing for the seventh consecutive day. Seven Palestinian martyrs have fallen and hundreds injured.
The Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz says, the steel rubber coated bullets used by the Israeli occupation forces against Palestinian demonstrators is of a killer type, Israeli snipers and sharp shooters killed and injured a large number of Palestinians
The Israeli occupation forces are massing more troops on the out skirts of Palestinian cities, towns and refugee camps in the occupied territories and within the green line.
Infra structure water and electricity installations in Bethlehem, and Tulkarm were shelled and destroyed by Israeli tanks.
Sunday October 1, 2000