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Everyday in Palestine we address economic and social conditions, physical restrictions, and political contests that challenge both the present and the future as we attempt to build a viable and independent Palestinian state.
Related: Obama can let Palestinians seek state recognition at the UN
These difficulties are well-known to the Palestinian people and those around the world. But another challenge that we must face, far less frequently discussed in the context of Palestine, is climate change. This is not only for Palestine but for the whole of the Middle East.
Officially, Israel considers the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem as part of its "undivided and eternal" capital.
But in practice, there's been an erosion of Israeli sovereignty on Jerusalem's eastern outskirts in recent months as the Palestinian Authority (PA) steps up a quiet campaign to fill a vacuum of municipal services – building new schools, filling potholes, and maintaining public order.
Israeli police officers evicted a Palestinian family from their home in a predominantly Arab neighborhood of East Jerusalem on Tuesday morning, and a group of Jewish settlers moved into the property at night.
The episode struck one of the more sensitive nerves in the Israeli-Palestinian relationship at a time of increasing tension and as the Obama administration is working to restart stalled peace negotiations. Such evictions have drawn international condemnation in the past.
A new measure potentially requiring Israel to receive public approval before surrendering land in any Middle East peace deal came under fire Tuesday for setting a legal precedent that could undermine the government and further complicate negotiations.
In a struggle for Palestinian statehood in which every acre of land is a precious commodity, should selling West Bank property to an Israeli -- something viewed by many Palestinians as treason -- be punishable by death?
That’s the question now facing the Palestinian Authority and the budding Palestinian courts system as they attempt to rebuff the rising trend of Israeli buyers, often right-wing settler groups, offering exorbitant prices for West Bank land in an effort to strengthen Israel’s claim on the occupied territory.
Israeli police on Wednesday razed a Palestinian house in occupied East Jerusalem, shortly before the owner arrived home with a court order halting the demolition.
Scores of police and a single bulldozer were involved in the operation, which leveled the small house in the Al-Tur neighbourhood near the Mount of Olives.
House owner Abed Zablah, a father of five, showed Agence France-Presse a letter issued early Wednesday by the Jerusalem District Court ordering a halt to the demolition.
But by the time he got home with the letter, the house was already flattened, he said.
President Mahmoud Abbas opened the new headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Ramallah on Tuesday, but said it was temporary and would be moved to Jerusalem.
The president recalled visiting the PLO headquarters in Jerusalem in 1964, and said the body would return to the city "one day."
The PLO often faced difficulties as the sole legal representative of Palestinians to the international community, Abbas said.
The Gaza government said Wednesday it is willing to reverse a decision to bar seven Fatah officials from leaving the Gaza Strip if Fatah-allied security forces release a Hamas member arrested in the West Bank city of Nablus.
The seven members of Fatah's Revolutionary Council prevented by Hamas security forces from leaving through the Erez crossing point on Tuesday.
The path to Middle East peace, already strewn with an array of daunting obstacles, has now got one more hurdle to overcome.
Israel's right-leaning coalition government this week passed a law that will probably force a referendum on any peace deal that involves withdrawing from land annexed by Israel, including East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, captured from Syria.
Palestinians and Syrians have howled in protest, saying that Israel was obliged by international law to return land seized in a 1967 war and had no right to put the matter to a public vote.
If there is ever to be Middle East peace, here's a knot that must somehow be undone.
Hundreds of thousands of Israelis who have moved to sprawling Jewish areas in east Jerusalem believe they are ordinary residents of their capital who will never be asked to vacate their homes. It's a sentiment shared by most of their countrymen and affirmed by lawmakers who voted this week to limit a government's ability to ever pull out.
For years, right-wing circles have tried to derail diplomatic steps taken by Israeli governments by, among other things, drafting laws that predicate territorial concession upon an absolute Knesset majority or a referendum. On Monday the government joined forces with the most right-wing parliament ever witnessed in the history of the state, for the purpose of handcuffing the political leadership's moves in the peace process.
The Givati Brigade soldiers who were tried and convicted of risking the life of a non-combatant Palestinian child are entitled to feel like victims. But why shouldn't they feel patriotic pride? Their conviction essentially handed the post of chief of staff to Yoav Galant and bestowed legal immunity on political figures, in particular Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak.
Security forces on Wednesday razed Palestinian fences and water installations built unlawfully in the Nahal Kane Nature Reserve located in the West Bank. A tent encampment and three pigsties illegally built by Palestinians were demolished on Tuesday night.
Civil Administration personnel also razed an illegally paved road in a nature reserve situated in Israeli-controlled territory. The paving of the road was funded by Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
Deputy FM responds to Norwegian petition by 100 arts, cultural figures accusing Israeli educational institutions of apartheid, “playing a key role in the occupation"; country's former PM condemns move.
Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon on Wednesday condemned a petition against Israel which was signed by one hundred famous Norwegians.
The Obama administration is close to reaching a new agreement with Israel that would freeze settlement construction in the West Bank for a further, nonrenewable, three months. Once negotiations resume, regardless of the outcome, it will be necessary for the administration to replace Middle East envoy George Mitchell, who led the negotiations for the past two years to no avail.
Palestinian political figures, said to be frustrated with the pace and trajectory of peace talks with Israel, have increasingly made noises about taking matters into their own hands and unilaterally declaring a Palestinian state. In practical terms, this means implementing Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's plan for Palestinian independence first unveiled in August 2009.
Ishmael Khaldi does not deny the difficult conditions of the Bedouin communities living in Israel’s southern desert, the most impoverished group in Israel.
A Bedouin from the north of the country, Khaldi said that he donated 250 shekels — about $70 — to the residents of Al-Arakib, the unrecognized Bedouin village in the Negev that the Israeli government has demolished half a dozen times in recent months. “For the kids without shelter, now that winter is coming,” he said.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat has stated to Asharq Al-Awsat that the Palestinians have yet to be given any details related to the US-Israeli agreement pertaining to the resumption of the negotiations. Meanwhile, reliable sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that in return for the guarantees offered to Israel, the Americans might offer the Palestinians guarantees related to support, the establishment of the state and its borders, and the status of Jerusalem.
Links:
[1] http://www.americantaskforce.org/print/16469
[2] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printmail/16469
[3] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printpdf/16469
[4] http://www.americantaskforce.org/rss/wpr
[5] http://www.americantaskforce.org/world_press_roundup/20101124t000000
[6] http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2010/1122/Palestinians-other-fight-in-the-Middle-East-for-green-development
[7] http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2010/1123/Palestinian-officials-fund-schools-fill-potholes-in-E.-Jerusalem.-Are-they-building-a-state
[8] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/24/world/middleeast/24mideast.html?_r=2&ref=middleeast
[9] http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-israel-land-law-20101124,0,238072.story
[10] http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2010/11/palestinian-courts-scuffle-over-land-sale-to-israelis.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+BabylonBeyond+(Babylon+%26+Beyond+Blog)
[11] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=335512
[12] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=335322
[13] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=335485
[14] http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE6AN087.htm
[15] http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/israel-stakes-out-lonely-position-on-jerusalem-1070878.html
[16] http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/israel-s-leaders-have-handcuffed-themselves-to-the-extreme-right-1.326492
[17] http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/idf-generals-not-just-soldiers-must-answer-questions-on-human-shields-1.326495
[18] http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3989277,00.html
[19] http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=196588
[20] http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=196500
[21] http://www.jewishideasdaily.com/content/module/2010/11/24/main-feature/1/declaring-palestinian-statehood/r&jtahome
[22] http://www.forward.com/articles/133327/
[23] http://www.aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=1&id=23146
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