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The Palestinian Authority cabinet decided on Tuesday to hold local elections on July 9, in what will be the first time voters have gone to the polls since 2006.
It will mark the second attempt to hold a municipal vote, after July 17, 2010 elections were called off only weeks before they were scheduled to take place.
"The cabinet decided during its meeting today to hold local elections on Saturday, July 9, and charged the elections committee with making the necessary preparations," PA spokesman Ghassan Khatib said, reading from an official statement.
International pressure must be brought to bear on Israeli settlers in the West Bank to halt their use of violence and constant harassment of Palestinians, premier Salam Fayyad said Monday.
Speaking with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Navi Pillary, who is on an official visit to Palestine, Fayyad blamed the Israeli government for "terrorist acts" committed by settlers, and cited the shooting deaths of two teens in January.
As one of several sites identified by Palestinian officials for protection and preservation, Hebron's Old City residents - via the municipality - have put together a proposal to UNESCO to have the city recognized as a World Heritage site.
The move was announced a week after an initiative from PA officials and Bethlehem groups petitioning for the same status for the Old City there.
Municipal officials said the recognition of the Old City as a heritage site would strengthen residents, "against the Judiazation" of the city by settler groups and "the Israeli expansion policy."
The street demonstrations roiling the Arab world have riveted and moved many Americans, who have visions of democracy sweeping through northern Africa and the Middle East. As I write this, Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s president, has announced he will not stand for re-election, as has Yemen’s longtime ruler, Ali Abdullah Saleh. Tunisia’s ruler fled, and the nation has a new government; King Abdullah of Jordan replaced his own cabinet and now has a prime minister who promises reform. There are even stirrings in Syria.
Finally, I can put the rumors to rest: The land of Zion isn't merely an abstraction, it's an actual country.
I am in Israel — my first time — to cover the Herzliya Conference, the country's premier national security forum. (Full disclosure: My trip, as well as that of several journalists, was underwritten by the Emergency Committee for Israel, which seeks "to educate the public about the serious challenges to Israel's security." But the views here are my own.)
Israel's prime minister is warning that peace treaties can be canceled, hinting at his concern over the turmoil in Egypt over anti-government protests.
Benjamin Netanyahu said peace is not necessarily permanent. He said, "It can be unraveled from without; it can be unraveled from within."
He did not mention Egypt by name in a speech Monday before European Parliament members, but he has expressed concern about a takeover by Islamic radicals who might cancel the Israel-Egypt peace treaty signed in 1979.
"Palestine's private sector is thirsty for an infusion of cash and managed expansion," said Bashar Masri, whose Ramallah-based holding company Massar International invests in real estate and financial and investment services.
The Siraj Palestine Fund would unleash "the latent potential of Palestinian SMEs by promoting technological advancement, job creation and addressing the acute shortage of equity capital", a statement said.
The fund had raised over $60 million and was expected to reach $80 million in the next few months.
Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Trinidad Jimenez visited Hebron on Tuesday as part of a two-day tour of Israel and the Palestinian territories.
In Hebron, Jimenez met with representatives of the divided city 's Palestinian and Israeli residents. It is Jimenez' first visit to Israel and Palestinian territories since taking office two months ago.
Spain and Germany are backing a housing project for Palestinians being constructed near the Tomb of the Patriarchs.
The Islamic Hamas movement Tuesday rejected the Palestinian government's decision to hold municipal elections in the territories in July.
"Hamas rejects any decision from the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) to hold the elections under the current circumstances," Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, told Xinhua, referring to political split between Gaza and the West Bank.
On Tuesday, the Palestinian government led by Salam Fayyad announced the decision to hold municipal elections in the Palestinian territories in July, including the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
A Palestinian worker was moderately injured on Monday after being shot by Israeli soldiers near the borders between northern Gaza Strip and Israel, witnesses and medics said.
A Gaza worker in his mid twenties was shot by Israeli soldiers as he was collecting gravels with other workers, Adham Abu Selmeya, spokesman of emergency and ambulance service in the health ministry of the deposed Hamas government, told Xinhua.
The worker was sent to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City for medical treatment, said Abu Selmeya, adding that the worker is in moderate health condition.
The upheaval in Egypt is sowing anxiety in Israel. President Hosni Mubarak's government adhered strictly to the peace treaty, functioned as a stabilizing force in the region and supported expanding the circle of peace agreements to the Palestinians and neighboring states. The eight Israeli prime ministers who served over the course of Mubarak's 30-year reign could depend on him for strategic support, even when they waged wars on other fronts and deepened the occupation and the settlement enterprise.
Settlers in Hebron received visiting Spanish foreign minister on Tuesday morning with derogatory cries, calling her a "Nazi" and "anti-Semite" because of her initial refusal to meet with settler leaders of the city.
Some two thousand demonstrators showed their support Tuesday morning for Rabbi Dov Lior, the head rabbi of Kiryat Arba, who is wanted by the police for endorsing the controversial book "Torat Hamelech," which justifies killing non-Jews.
Rabbi Lior addressed the crowd at the Kiryat Arba demonstration, saying that "a couple of months ago, two Talmudic scholars from Yizhar published a book on the status of Jews and non-Jews. Racism refers to one nation wishing to enslave another, and this is not our intent."
The Color Red rocket alert system was sounded Tuesday morning in Gaza vicinity communities, followed by a loud blast caused by a mortar shell which exploded in a parking lot in the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council.
The mortar shell, fired from the northern Gaza Strip, damaged one car. A second mortar landed in a nearby field and damaged a hose. There were no reports of injuries.
About three hours later, the Color Red alert system was activated once again and two more explosions were heard in the area. There were no reports of injuries.
Embittered and emboldened Bedouin tribesmen have turned the northern Sinai Peninsula into a lawless and violent frontier between Israel and Egypt.
Security sources said that the Bedouin have also forged links with radical Hamas operatives who have escaped from Egyptian jails or slipped through the border from the Gaza Strip.
Despite reports of an increased Egyptian troop presence, the local security forces have been severely degraded, increasingly attacked and in some cases overwhelmed. Most of the details of the chaos have gone unreported.
Gaza is facing acute fuel shortages as a result of the unrest in neighbouring Egypt, which has caused supplies of petrol and diesel smuggled through tunnels to almost dry up.
Although some fuel is imported into the Gaza Strip from Israel, it costs three times as much as diesel and petrol smuggled in from Egypt. Gazans depend on diesel for generators during power cuts of about eight hours a day.
Long queues of cars, motorcycles and people on foot carrying containers have formed at gas stations. Smuggled construction materials and Egyptian cigarettes are also in short supply.
I have, since childhood, been hearing about an invisible thing called the Israeli conspiracy.
Since its inception in 2003, the American Task Force on Palestine, where I am a senior research fellow, has been trying to help lay the groundwork for an American alliance for a two-state solution. Such an alliance would bring Jewish-American supporters of Israel and their allies, and Arab-American supporters of Palestine and their allies, together to pursue the mutual interests of both peoples – and of course of the United States itself – in a stable peace agreement.
Links:
[1] http://www.americantaskforce.org/print/17418
[2] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printmail/17418
[3] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printpdf/17418
[4] http://www.americantaskforce.org/rss/wpr
[5] http://www.americantaskforce.org/world_press_roundup/20110208t000000
[6] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=358098
[7] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=357960
[8] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=357506
[9] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/magazine/13Israel-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&ref=middleeast
[10] http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-0208-goldberg-israel-20110208,0,2439664.column
[11] http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/israeli-prime-minister-says-peace-can-come-apart-1238565.html
[12] http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/08/palestinians-fund-idUSLDE7171CV20110208
[13] http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-02/08/c_13723173.htm
[14] http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-02/08/c_13723158.htm
[15] http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-02/08/c_13722016.htm
[16] http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/netanyahu-must-advance-peace-if-he-wants-a-stable-mideast-1.341939
[17] http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/settlers-in-hebron-receive-spanish-fm-with-calls-of-nazi-anti-semite-1.342018
[18] http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/wanted-kiryat-arba-rabbi-tells-supporters-i-m-not-racist-1.342002
[19] http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4025521,00.html
[20] http://www.themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=31324
[21] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/08/egypt-unrest-cuts-gaza-fuel
[22] http://arabnews.com/opinion/article253715.ece
[23] http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=238513
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