China urges Israel to stop ‘incitement’ to avoid escalation
MEMO | January 16, 2023
China’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Qin Gang, urged Israel on Sunday to stop its “incitement” in order to avoid escalation with the Palestinians, news agencies have reported.
In a joint press conference with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry in Cairo, the Chinese minister called on Israel to “stop incitements and provocations, and to refrain from taking uniliteral actions that could worsen the situation.”
Referring to the recent provocative incursion at Al-Aqsa Mosque by Israel’s far-right Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, Qin Gang reiterated the importance of “maintaining the status quo” in Jerusalem.
He also reiterated China’s longstanding position on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on the “the two-state-solution and the land-for-peace principle.” The international community, he added, should find a “just” solution for the Palestinian people through a return to the negotiation table and resumption of the peace process.
How the EU constructs Israel impunity
By Ramona Wadi | MEMO | January 12, 2023
The EU could have availed itself of an opportunity to hold Israel accountable for its violations but, instead it opted for the lesser value of requesting financial reparation for the structures funded by the bloc in the Occupied West Bank and destroyed by the settler-colonial enterprise. Neither is the EU’s request a novelty, since demanding financial compensation from Israel has happened in the past, without any compliance, of course.
Recent focus on Israel’s planned forced displacement of Palestinians living in Masafer Yatta prompted 24 European Parliament members to contact the European Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarcic, regarding financial reparation. The bottom line is that, while the EU is within its rights to demand financial compensation, the issue at stake – which is the Palestinian people being forcibly displaced by Israel – is nowhere on the EU’s agenda.
Lenarcic’s response, partially quoted by Haaretz, confirms the EU’s repetitive requests for financial compensation and that “the European Union is continuing to work in this regard through a range of diplomatic and political channels”. Of little to no consequence was Lenarcic’s reminding that EU representatives often visit areas in the Occupied West Bank that are slated for demolition, ostensibly “to warn against”. Yet, besides the opportunistic exploitation, keeping tally of EU-funded destroyed dwellings is more a case in point and futile, too. As Lenarcic stated, “The list of possible steps to ensure compensation from Israel for European financing that went down the drain in demolitions has not yet come up for discussion.”
If holding Israel accountable for something as basic as a financial transaction for damages it caused prompts so much caution in the EU’s official statements, it is safe to say that human rights in the EU’s repertoire, when it comes to Israel, descends into still silence. The EU still has not addressed the fact that, without holding Israel accountable for forcibly displacing Palestinians, its humanitarian projects for Palestinians is also financing Israel’s violations. Yet it is precisely what the humanitarian project which the international community imposed upon Palestinians intended. By investing a fragment of humanitarian aid aimed at alleviating the suffering caused by Israel’s colonial existence and violence, the international community can bypass the actual violations which go against international law.
The EU is no exception to this imposed rule. Advocacy by EU representatives does not work to hold Israel accountable but to extend a permanent contract of silence which, in turn, also silences Palestinians. Despite having political means at their disposal, EU representatives prefer playing the amateur activists when it comes to Palestine. Funds for travelling to the Occupied West Bank, after all, form part of the humanitarian project which Palestinians are forced to fit into. In the same way, EU-funded dwellings play a role in the humanitarian project but fail to sustain Palestinian autonomy. The latest purported concern has nothing to do with Palestinians, and is only marginally related to the EU-funded dwellings that Israel routinely destroys. Detracting from Israel’s settler-colonial expansion and the EU’s role in maintaining it, however, is a major part of what the humanitarian paradigm constitutes.
Israel to destroy 58 Palestinian schools
Palestine Information Center – January 6, 2023
RAMALLAH – 58 Palestinian schools are at risk of demolition in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, the Arab Campaign for Education for All revealed.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the campaign expressed deep concern over the Israeli violation of Palestinian children’s right to education.
Israeli authorities issued six demolition or stop-construction orders against six schools over the past year, according to the campaign.
58 other schools, serving 6,550 students, were also notified with demolition, the campaign added.
In this regard, the Arab Campaign for Education for All called on the UN concerned agencies to bear responsibility in confronting Israeli demolition policy against Palestinian schools.
The time has come for international institutions to go beyond condemnation and to move to pressure the Israeli occupation to stop its continuous violations against Palestinian education, the statement reads.
Israel arrested 410 Palestinians for social media activity in 2022, report says
MEMO | January 5, 2023
Israeli occupation authorities arrested 410 Palestinians, including women, children, journalists, activists and community leaders, for expressing their opinion on social media, according to a report by the Palestine Centre for Prisoners Studies (PCPS).
The report, co-authored by the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Prisoners’ Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, Addameer Association for Prisoner Care and Human Rights and the Wadi Hilweh Centre highlighted Israel’s use of a new ‘Vigilance Unit’ to monitor Palestinian social media accounts and issue recommendations to the security authorities to arrest them on the pretext that their opinions and publications call for incitement and violence.
PCPS Director, Riyad Al-Ashqar, said the Israeli courts charged the detainees with “incitement” for simply expressing their opinion on social media, including posting a picture of a martyr or merely mentioning his/her name, or issuing an invitation to protect Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Palestinians have been sentenced to between several months and several years in jail by the occupation’s courts on charges of incitement, while some were being held under administrative detention without charge or trial.
Israeli authorities also forced detainees to sign pledges not to use social media platforms for several months, in addition to issuing financial fines and placing some under house arrest.
Al-Ashqar indicated that over the past few years, the number of Palestinians arrested for using social media platforms has increased from 145 arrests in 2018, to 184 in 2019, 220 in 2020, 390 in 2021, and 410 in 2022.
Israel was never a democracy, so why is the West lamenting the end of a ‘liberal’ state?
MEMO | January 3, 2023
Even before the new Israeli coalition government was officially sworn in last week, angry reactions emerged, not only among Palestinians and other Middle Eastern governments, but also among Israel’s allies in the West. As early as 2 November, top US officials told Axios that the administration of US President Joe Biden is “unlikely to engage with Jewish supremacist politician, Itamar Ben-Gvir”.
In fact, the US government’s apprehensions surpassed Ben-Gvir, who was convicted by Israel’s own courts in 2007 for supporting a terrorist organisation and inciting racism. US Secretary of State Tony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan reportedly “hinted” that Washington will also boycott “other right-wing extremists” in Netanyahu’s government.
However, such concerns looked to be absent from the statement made by the US Ambassador to Israel, Tom Nides, on the following day. Nides explained that he had “congratulated [Netanyahu] on his victory and told him that I look forward to working together to maintain the unbreakable bond” between the two countries. In other words, this “unbreakable bond” is stronger than any public US concern regarding terrorism, extremism, fascism and criminal activities.
Ben-Gvir is not the only convicted criminal in Netanyahu’s government. Aryeh Deri, the leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, was convicted of tax fraud in early 2022 and, in 2000, he served a prison sentence for accepting bribes when he was interior minister. Bezalel Smotrich is another controversial character. His anti-Palestinian racism has dominated his political persona for many years. While Ben-Gvir has been assigned the post of national security minister, Deri has been entrusted with the interior ministry and Smotrich has the ministry of finance.
Palestinians and Arab countries are angry, and rightly so. They understand that the new government is likely to sow the seeds of more violence and chaos. With many of Israel’s sinister politicians in one place, Arabs know that Israel’s illegal annexation of large parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territories is back on the agenda; and that incitement against Palestinians in Occupied East Jerusalem, coupled with raids on Al-Aqsa Mosque, will increase exponentially in the coming weeks and months. Moreover, it is expected that the push for the construction and expansion of illegal settlements is also likely to grow.
These fears are not unfounded. Aside from the very racist and violent statements and actions by Netanyahu and his allies in recent years, the new government has already declared that the Jewish people have “exclusive and inalienable rights to all parts of the Land of Israel”. It is promising to expand settlements, while distancing itself from any commitments to establishing a Palestinian State, or even engaging in any “peace process”.
Palestinians and their Arab allies have been largely consistent in recognising extremism in successive Israeli governments, but what excuse do the US and the West have in failing to acknowledge — or even recognise — that the latest Netanyahu-led government is not only the occupation state’s most extreme administration ever, but also the most rational outcome of the West’s blind support for Israel over many years?
In March 2019, Politico branded Netanyahu as the creator of “the most right-wing government in Israeli history,” a sentiment that was repeated countless times in other western media. This ideological shift was, in fact, recognised by Israel’s own media years earlier. In May 2016, the popular Israeli newspaper Maariv described the Israeli government at the time as the “most right-wing and extremist” in the country’s history. This was, in part, due to the fact that far-right politician Avigdor Lieberman was appointed as defence minister.
The West, then, also expressed concern, warned against the demise of Israel’s supposed liberal democracy, and demanded that it must remain committed to the peace process and the two-state solution. None of that was seen in practise. Instead, the terrifying figures within that government were rebranded as conservatives, centrists or even liberals in the following years.
The same is likely to happen now. In fact, signs of the US’s willingness to accommodate whatever extremist politics Israel produces are already visible. In his statement last week welcoming the new Israeli government, Biden said nothing about the threat of Tel Aviv’s far-right politics to the Middle East. Instead, he opted to highlight the “challenges and threats” posed by the region to Israel. In other words, Ben-Gvir or no Ben-Gvir, unconditional US support for Israel will remain intact.
If history is anything to go by, future violence and incitement in Palestine will also be blamed mostly, if not squarely, on Palestinians. This knee-jerk, pro-Israel attitude has defined the apartheid state’s relationship with the US, regardless of whether Israeli governments are led by extremists or supposed liberals. No matter what, Israel is maintaining its false status as “the only democracy in the Middle East”.
If we are to believe that Israel’s exclusivist and racist “democracy” is in any sense a democracy at all, then we are justified also in believing that Netanyahu’s new government is neither less nor more democratic than the state’s previous governments. And yet, western officials, commentators and even pro-Israel Jewish leaders and organisations in the US have warned against the supposed danger facing Israel’s “liberal democracy” in the run-up to the formation of Netanyahu’s new government.
This is an indirect form of whitewashing, as these views accept that what Israel has practiced since its creation in 1948 until today has been some kind of real democracy; and that Israel remained a democracy even after the passing of the controversial 2018 Nation-State Law, which defines Israel as a Jewish state, completely disregarding the rights of 20 per cent of the country’s citizens who happen to be non-Jews.
It is only a matter of time before Israel’s latest extreme, far-right government is also whitewashed as proof that Israel can strike a balance between being exclusively Jewish and democratic at the same time.
This happened in 2016, when warnings about the rise of far-right extremism in Israel following the Netanyahu-Lieberman pact disappeared quickly, and then vanished altogether. Instead of boycotting that government, in September 2016 the US government finalised its largest ever military aid package to Israel, amounting to $38 billion.
In truth, Israel has not changed much since 1948, either in its own self-definition or in its treatment of Palestinians. Failing to understand this is tantamount to tacit approval of Israel’s racist, violent and colonial policies in Occupied Palestine over the past 75 years. So why is the West lamenting the end of a “liberal” state that has never, in truth, existed?
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Culture of hope: 2022 and the margins of victory in Palestine
By Ramzy Baroud | MEMO | January 1, 2023
Another critical year for Palestine has folded. While 2022 has wrought much of the same in terms of Israeli military occupation and increasing violence, it also introduced new variables to the Palestinian struggle – nationally, regionally and internationally.
Palestine, the War and the Arabs
The Russia-Ukraine War starting in February pressured many political entities, including Palestinians, to take sides or, at least, to declare a position. Though the Palestinian Authority (PA) and various Palestinian political parties insisted on their neutrality, Russia’s deviation from the US-led political paradigm in the Middle East opened up new margins for Palestinians to explore.
On 4 May, a delegation of Hamas leaders met Russian officials in Moscow, and, a few months later, PA leader Mahmoud Abbas defied Washington by holding a meeting with Russian President Vladmir Putin in Astana, Kazakhstan. Despite US anger at Abbas, Washington could do little to retaliate against the Palestinian leadership, considering the delicate geopolitical balances in the Middle East and around the world.
The new political spaces created by global conflict also brought greater cohesion to the Arab position on Palestine, as articulated in a statement by the pan-Arab organization, the Arab League, in Cairo on 29 November. Ahmed Aboul Gheit insisted on the Arab quest for a just peace and praised the ‘Algiers Declaration’ of the previous month. On 12-14 October Palestinian political groups met in Algeria, signed a reconciliation agreement based on ending division through presidential and parliamentary elections.
This was part of a year-long momentum where Arab governments revitalized their position in support of the Palestinians, both financially and politically through funding the Palestinian refugees agency, UNRWA, or supporting Palestine at the United Nations.
On 3 October, Arab representatives at the UN introduced Resolution A/C 1/77 L.2, urging Israel to get rid of its nuclear weapons and to put “all its nuclear facilities under comprehensive International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards.” The Resolution was overwhelmingly approved by the United Nations General Assembly on 28 October.
UN: ‘Deadliest Year’
Though no real action was taken by the UN to punish Israel for its ongoing military occupation and violations of Palestinian rights, several UN initiatives and resolutions continued to demonstrate the centrality of Palestine to the international agenda.
Last August, the ‘UN Experts’ condemned “Israel’s escalating attacks against Palestinian civil society in the occupied West Bank”, stating that these actions amount to severe suppression of human rights defenders and are illegal and unacceptable.”
In October, Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, submitted a report to the UNGA, where she concluded that the realization of the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination requires dismantling the Israeli settler-colonialism and apartheid regime.
On 30 November, the UNGA also adopted a resolution to mark Nakba Day, which commemorates the forced expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their lands in 1948.
Alas, none of these statements altered the violent nature of Israel’s attitude towards Palestinians. On 29 October, the UN Mideast envoy, Tor Wennesland, said that 2022 is on course to be the ‘deadliest year’ for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since the UN started tracking fatalities in 2005.
Israeli Violence and the Lions’ Den
Israel has killed over 200 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza throughout 2022, including 47 children. Only a few of them made headlines in mainstream media. However, the world still showed outrage following the cold blooded murder of famed Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh on 11 May, while she was covering the tragic events in Jenin. Widespread calls for an impartial investigation finally convinced the FBI to open a criminal probe into Abu Akleh’s killing.
The Israeli killing spree was motivated by two reasons: first, the rise of armed resistance in the northern West Bank, and second, Israel’s chaotic political scene.
Continued Israeli attacks on Jenin, Nablus and other West Bank towns and refugee camps resulted in the formation of a new Palestinian armed group known as the Lions’ Den. Unlike other groups, the Nablus-based movement was non-factional, which created new spaces for national unity among all Palestinians, regardless of their political or ideological backgrounds.
The Israeli government quickly retaliated against the Lions’ Den. Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz belittled the group’s appeal on 13 October, announcing “Eventually, we will lay our hands on the terrorists”, estimating their number to be 30 fighters. “We will work out how to reach them and we will eliminate them,” Gantz said. The Israeli assessment has proven untrue as the brigade continued to grow, morphing into other brigades in Jenin, Al-Khalil (Hebron) and other West Bank regions.
The killing of Palestinian fighter Oday Tamimi in a clash near the illegal Jewish settlement of Maale Adumim on 19 October further accentuated the boldness of the new Palestinian generation of resisters. Moreover, the televised execution of Ammar Mufleh in the town of Huwara on 2 December also illustrated Israel’s willingness to flout international law to end the ongoing armed rebellion in occupied Palestine.
The Israeli violence is also directly linked to Tel Aviv’s own political crisis. Though Benjamin Netanyahu was ousted through an unlikely alliance among various Israeli political forces, which was led by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in June 2021, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister is slated for a comeback.
Bennett resigned from his post on 20 June, leaving the leadership to his coalition partner, Yair Lapid. New elections, the fifth in three years, were held on 1 November. This time around, Netanyahu’s rightwing coalition won by a comfortable margin, introducing to Israel’s already extremist government such notorious personalities as Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, known for their violent action and rhetoric against Palestinians.
Though Washington had indicated on 2 November, that it will not be working directly with Ben-Gvir, the US Ambassador to Israel, Thomas Nides, seemed to reverse that position by declaring that “no one hurts the unbreakable ties between Israel and the United States.”
Keeping in mind that the increased violence in the West Bank was a direct result of the militant nature of the Bennet-Lapid government as it laboured to demonstrate its toughness against Palestinian Resistance, the new government is expected to be even more violent, setting the stage for a wider confrontation in both the West Bank and Gaza.
The brief but deadly Israeli war on the besieged Gaza Strip on 5 August resulted in the killing of at least 46 Palestinians and the injuring of at least 360, according to UN estimates. Despite the devastation resulting from the war, it could have been much worse, as not all Palestinian groups took part in the fighting and Israel seemed keen on ending its hostilities before a prolonged conflict resulted in a heavy political price. Netanyahu, too, is likely to resort to war on Gaza, should he need to create a distraction from future political difficulties or to keep his rightwing partners in line.
Culture of Hope
Despite the violence of the Israeli occupation and the hardship of isolation and siege, Palestinian culture continued to flourish with Palestinian artists, filmmakers, athletes, intellectuals and teachers continuing to leave their mark on the cultural scene in Palestine, in the Middle East and worldwide.
In May, Mohammed Hamada, a 20-year-old weightlifter from the Gaza Strip, became the first Palestinian athlete to win gold and bronze medals at the weightlifting world championships held in Heraklion, Greece.
In September, Palestinian-American systems engineer Nujoud Fahoum Merancy was appointed as one of the leaders of the Artemis missions, a program by NASA that aims to fly astronauts to the Moon.
Palestinian Resistance and cultural achievements are constantly boosted by growing international solidarity with Palestine. Thanks to the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), multinational company General Mills announced in June that it is divesting entirely from Israel. This was one of many other achievements credited to the Palestine-led boycott movement, which included other companies, universities and churches.
However, nothing compares to the endless stream of solidarity exhibited by Arab and international football fans in the Qatar World Cup 2022, which started on 30 November. Although the Palestine national football team has not qualified for the world’s most important sports event, the flag of Palestine was the most visible among all other international flags. The iconic Palestinian Kufiyeh was also adorned by thousands of fans including world leaders, dignitaries and celebrities.
2022 was another year of tragedy and hope for the Palestinians. It is this hope, buoyed by numerous little victories, that makes the struggle for Palestinian freedom possible. One wishes that 2023 will be a better year.
UN resolutions on Palestine won’t be implemented as long as Israel enjoys US support: Hamas
Press TV – December 31, 2022
The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has condemned the United States’ unwavering support for Israel, saying United Nations resolutions concerning Palestine will not be implemented as long as Tel Aviv enjoys Washington’s support.
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem made the remarks in a statement on Saturday, after the United Nations General Assembly approved a resolution in favor of Palestinians, according to Arabic-language al-Ahad television network.
“This resolution will add to the long list of international resolutions concerning Palestine, which have never tuned into a practical step to put pressure on the occupying regime even once,” Qassem said.
“As long as the US acts as a partner of the occupying regime and covers up Israeli crimes, all such decisions will remain on paper,” he added.
On Friday, the UNGA adopted a resolution calling on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to give an opinion on the legal consequences of the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israeli “annexation” and the “legal status of the occupation” of Palestinian territories.
The resolution promoted by Palestinians passed by a vote of 87 in favor, 26 against, with 53 abstentions. Russia and China voted in favor of the resolution.
Israel, the US and 24 other members – including the United Kingdom and Germany – voted against the resolution, while France was among the 53 nations that abstained.
The resolution is titled “Israeli practices and settlement activities affecting the rights of the Palestinian people and other Arabs of the occupied territories” and calls on the Hague-based ICJ to “render urgently an advisory opinion” on Israel’s “prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of Palestinian territory.”
It also calls for an investigation into Israeli measures “aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Holy City of al-Quds” and says Israel has adopted “discriminatory legislation and measures.”
The resolution demands the court weigh in on the conflict in accordance with international law and the UN charter.
Palestine’s UN ambassador Riyad Mansour noted that the vote came one day after the swearing-in of a new far-right Israeli cabinet led by hawkish prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which he said promises an expansion of illegal settlements and will accelerate “colonial and racist policies” towards Palestinians.
Earlier this month, Palestinian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Riyad al-Maliki announced that the UN General Assembly has adopted a resolution that affirms the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.
He further called on the international community to work on obliging Israel “to implement international resolutions and guarantee the right of the Palestinian people, as he hailed the resolution.
The General Assembly also adopted five resolutions recently in favor of Palestinians, including the issue of Palestinian refugees.
These decisions are issued every year by the General Assembly, which is consisted of 193 members, and are non-binding.
2022 deadliest year for Palestinians in West Bank since Second Intifada in 2005: Report
Press TV – December 31, 2022
New data has revealed that 2022 has been the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank since the Second Intifada which ended in 2005, with at least 220 people being killed at the hands of Israeli forces across the occupied territories.
According to figures published by the Middle East Eye, Israeli forces shot dead 167 people in the West Bank and East al-Quds, and 53 people in the besieged Gaza Strip, with 48 children being among the total casualties.
The report further noted that in at least five cases, Israeli settlers were suspected of killing Palestinians while the regime’s military is responsible for the overwhelming majority of deaths.
The London-based news website also said the majority of Palestinian casualties were likely unarmed at the time of their death.
In at least 95 cases, Palestinians were shot by Israeli soldiers as bystanders during military raids or while participating in anti-occupation demonstrations.
At least 22 Palestinians were killed after alleged car ramming, shooting or stabbing attacks against Israelis and security forces. In some cases, Palestinians were fatally shot for allegedly “attempting” to carry out such attacks.
Tensions have been running high across the occupied Palestinian territories over the past months.
Incidents of sabotage and violence by settlers against Palestinians and their property have become a daily occurrence throughout the occupied territories, particularly in the West Bank.
However, Israeli authorities rarely prosecute settlers, and the vast majority of the files are closed due to deliberate police failure to investigate them properly.
Moreover, Israeli forces have recently been conducting overnight raids and killings in the northern occupied West Bank, mainly in the cities of Jenin and Nablus, where new groups of Palestinian resistance fighters have been formed.
Meanwhile, the United Nations says Israeli forces killed more Palestinians in the West Bank in 2022 than in any year since the world body began systematically recording fatalities in 2005.
UN experts have held Israel responsible for the recent surge of violence in the occupied Palestinians territories, warning that the brutality could further escalate with the new far-right Israeli cabinet.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Israeli security forces have killed 146 Palestinians in the West Bank and mainly East al-Quds through December 19 of this year, compared with 75 in 2021.
Four more Palestinians were killed by Israeli settlers in the West Bank, OCHA added.
Most of the Palestinians were killed during Israeli military raids and clashes in the West Bank cities of Jenin and Nablus, the UN said, adding that more than half were under the age of 25.
Earlier this month, UN experts condemned Israeli settler violence and excessive use of force by the Israeli military in the West Bank.
“Unless Israeli forces abandon this dominant settler mindset and rightfully treat Palestinians in the occupied territory as protected persons, Israel’s deplorable record in the occupied West Bank will likely deteriorate further in 2023,” they said.
Israeli occupation soldiers and Israeli settlers have noticeably been escalating their attacks against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and other areas, in an attempt to forcibly expel Palestinians from their lands and make way for expanding illegal Jewish-only settlements.
Between 600,000 and 750,000 Israelis occupy over 250 illegal settlements that have been built across the West Bank since the 1967 occupation.
The UN Security Council has in several resolutions condemned the Tel Aviv regime’s settlement projects in the occupied Palestinian lands.
Report: Israel demolished 950 Palestinian homes in 2022
MEMO | December 29, 2022
Israeli occupation forces demolished 950 Palestinian homes and confiscated more than 113,000 dunams (113 square kilometres) of land in 2022 in an effort to expand illegal Jewish-only settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, a Palestinian research centre said.
The Land Research Centre, operating in Palestine, said in its annual report on “Israeli Violations Against Palestinian Land and Housing Rights for 2022” that the Israeli forces have also torched, ravaged, or attacked 18,900 trees, most of them olive trees.
The report noted that 65 of the homes were demolished by their owners under the orders of Israeli occupation forces.
Some 66 wells were also razed in addition to 3,707 dunums (3.7 square kilometres) of land and pastures.
“The Israeli occupation issued 114 new settlement plans on Palestinian lands, and began construction on more than half of them and built about 2,220 new housing units for the settlers,” it added.
The Palestinian centre warned that all these measures confirm that the Israeli government has decided to destroy all agreements and impose new realities on the ground, making the two-state solution impossible to achieve.
Hamas criticises ‘biased’, ‘contradictory’ EU resolution on two-state solution
MEMO | December 29, 2022
The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas issued a statement yesterday criticising the EU over Resolution no. 2949/2022 (RSP), on the prospects for a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.
In a political memorandum, Hamas said the resolution “contained several inaccuracies and contradictions about the Palestinian issue”, noting that it “is heavily biased against the Palestinians’ inherent and legitimate rights to freedom, return and self-determination.”
Among the issues raised with the resolution, the movement said it has sided with the Israeli occupation’s narrative, while ignoring the Palestinian people’s legitimate right to resistance and self-defence.
“Voting against this right is considered a great sin that Europeans have committed, once again. This vote also reflects the double standards with which the European Union deals with issues of peoples and freedoms around the world.”
“In recent months, we have seen the European position on the crisis in Ukraine, and how the Ukrainian resistance was considered legitimate and supported with money and weapons,” the statement said. The resolution, Hamas insists, has disregarded terrorism practised by the Israeli occupation on a daily basis.
The EU resolution was called out over its double standards in regards to its advocating “customised” democracy for the Palestinians and the issue of the participation of resistance factions in free and fair elections, “despite the fact that most of the candidates for the Israeli Knesset have criminal records and terrorist practices and are labeled on terrorist lists in many countries, including Israel itself.”
Hamas acknowledged the resolution’s demand to end the Israeli blockade, imposed on the people of Gaza since 2006 but concluded that the resolution is further proof of “the European bias towards the Israeli occupation and its racist policies” and the EU’s lack of seriousness in pursuing a just and fair solution to the Palestinian cause.
The movement urged the European Parliament to reconsider Resolution 2949 and to correct its position in order to achieve a just solution for the Palestinian people.
Earlier this month, a senior member of Hamas denounced the EU over its silence concerning the complicity of over 700 European financial institutions in supporting illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian lands.
Christmas in Palestine: Then and Now
By James J. Zogby | The Jordan Times | December 28, 2021
The Christmas story as it is told in the West contains timeless elements that have shaped our culture in significant ways. As we tell it, year in and year out, the story conveys to those who listen powerful themes evoking deep feelings.
It is, at its core, the tale of a helpless child born as an outcast whose role became transformative in human history.
Unrecognised at first, the importance of this birth was initially only understood by the lowly of the earth — “the shepherds of the field”. Later “kings from the East” came to pay homage bringing gifts. Their appearance raised the ire of local rulers forcing the baby’s parents to flee in order to save the life of their newborn child.
I want to take a moment to reflect on this story, seeing contemporary realities through its prism.
Two thousand years ago, Palestine was subject to a harsh occupation, much as it is today. In some ways, though, the conditions back then allowed the residents of occupied Palestine greater mobility than the current inhabitants of that land.
As we are told in the bible story, Joseph had to take his expectant wife from Nazareth, where they were living, to Bethlehem, their ancestral village, in order to fulfill a requirement imposed by the authorities to register as part of a nationwide census. Today, of course, all of that would be impossible.
In the first place, no Palestinian originally from Bethlehem could ever have moved to Nazareth. The occupation and closure of the West Bank makes that sort of movement impossible. Furthermore, Israeli law prohibits an Arab from Nazareth from marrying a Bethlehemite and bringing their spouse across the Green Line to live with them in Israel.
Additionally, while thousands of Palestinians in Bethlehem, both Muslim and Christian, can see Jerusalem from their homes, they cannot go to the Holy City to pray. And Arab Christians from Jerusalem, likewise, cannot easily go the Christmas services in Bethlehem to pray alongside their co-religionists at the seasonal event.
Bethlehem of old was overcrowded and under siege. Today, as well, the city itself is being strangled, hemmed in by settlements that have confiscated the town’s ancestral lands to make way for a 30-foot barrier wall and massive Jewish-only housing colonies that cut the Arab residents off from nearby Jerusalem. The constriction of growth and the lack of economic opportunity have forced Bethlehemites to flee in search of jobs and freedom, with tens of thousands of them and their descendants now living in the US and the Americas. They can return to visit Bethlehem with difficulty but are not permitted by the occupation authorities to take up permanent residency in the town of their origins.
While the kings of old, we are told, were able to travel from afar bearing gifts to honour the newborn child, one can only imagine the difficulties they would encounter today dealing with Israeli soldiers at the Allenby Bridge. Having personally endured their interrogations, I can hear the kings answering hours of questions, such as “Where are you from?” “Who are your parents, grandparents?” “Why are you here?” Who are you visiting?” “What are these gifts for?” The questioning is reminiscent of Herod’s interrogation of the biblical visitors. In today’s Israel/Palestine, it is doubtful whether those hapless “kings from the East” would have gained entry.
That Joseph, Mary and Jesus were able to flee to Egypt to escape Herod’s vengeful wrath was possible back then. Today, that option is unlikely. The barrier/wall that encapsulates the West Bank, the hundreds of checkpoints, and the closure of Gaza would make such a life-saving flight impossible.
Finally, as I reflect on the birth of Jesus, I cannot help but think of the almost 400 babies who will be born, this very day, to Palestinian parents in the West Bank and Gaza. I think as well of the number of those who will perish at birth because of inadequate medical services. (Some babies have been put at fatal risk at checkpoints, because Israeli soldiers would not permit their delivering mothers to pass.) And I think of Mary, 2000 years ago, and am grateful that, despite all she endured, there were no checkpoints blocking her way to Bethlehem.
Our traditions tell us that Mary’s joy at the birth of her son was tempered by foresight. She knew her child would grow and endure great suffering. Likewise, the joy that Palestinian parents experience when greeting new life these days must, no doubt, be accompanied by similar concerns. Not only must they question how they will provide for their new child, but they must face down their fears of bringing up a son or daughter under occupation, with its dangers and hardships. From the violence, pressures and humiliation encountered daily by Palestinians in the West Bank at the hands of the Israeli military and settlers, to the grinding poverty and despair facing those trapped in Gaza, life under hostile foreign rule can drain joy out of even the most blessed events.
There is a traditional Christmas carol that asks the question “What child is this?” — the answer, of course, being “Jesus, the son of Mary”. But given the universal message conveyed by the Christmas story we also understand that the child is for us, a reminder of our responsibility to care for the helpless and the unrecognised. And so, when we think of the vulnerable children born today not only in Palestine, but those born anywhere where life is at risk (including here at home), we are not to ask: “What child is this?” — because we know that they are ours — to acknowledge and protect, like the shepherds and kings, enabling all of these children to grow, receive health care, and be educated so that they can grow and help change our world. Because all these children are ours, we have a responsibility to protect and care for them.
James J. Zogby is a president of Arab American Institute.
Copyright © James J. Zogby, The Jordan Times, 2022
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