Tag Archives: Palestine

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Oscar-nominated documentaries capture history

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The Oscar-nominated features “5 Broken Cameras” and “How to Survive a Plague” represent documentaries in the truest, purest form of the word: They capture a spark, a moment in history, and they make us feel as if we were there, too.

Both films were shot by regular people who happened to be witnessing an uprising. They’re by amateur photographers who had the foresight to record everything — long before such a practice became the norm with the advent of the iPhone and YouTube — from the mundane moments of their daily lives to scenes of violence, upheaval, death and eventually some sort of victory.

They’re very different films from very different directors on very different topics. “5 Broken Cameras” is a collaboration between Palestinian farmer Emad Burnat and Israeli director Guy Davidi featuring years of footage Burnat shot in his occupied village of Bil’in, a place that became a sort of symbol for nonviolent resistance. Each of the five cameras was destroyed in the midst of protests or gunfire; one still has a bullet lodged in the lens. But it also includes daily events in the life of this husband and father of four; he actually bought the first camera in 2005 for the reason so many parents do, to record the first smiles and steps of his youngest son, Gibreel.

“Plague” is a collection of archival footage from the late 1980s and early ’90s, as members of the New York-based AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) fought to find a cure for the disease as it quickly spread and claimed millions of lives. Director David France, who was in the middle of many of these boisterous planning meetings and theatrical demonstrations, culled through thousands of hours of footage from about two dozen different sources.

Both films were shot by regular people who happened to be witnessing an uprising. They’re by amateur photographers who had the foresight to record everything — long before such a practice became the norm with the advent of the iPhone and YouTube — from the mundane moments of their daily lives to scenes of violence, upheaval, death and eventually some sort of victory.

Burnat said he’d always intended to make a movie, but initially figured it would be something private to show to family and friends. He felt it was his responsibility to depict the fight for territory through his own eyes.

“Many films were made about Palestine and the subject but the story was being told by people …read more
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UN panel finds Israeli settlements violate rights

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The United Nations’ first report on Israel‘s overall settlement policy describes it as a “creeping annexation” of territory that clearly violates the human rights of Palestinians, and calls for Israel to immediately stop further such construction.

The report’s conclusions, revealed Thursday, are not legally binding, but they further inflame tensions between the U.N. Human Rights Council and Israel, and between Israel and the Palestinians. Israeli officials immediately denounced the report, while Palestinians pointed to it as “proof of Israel‘s policy of ethnic cleansing” and its desire to undermine the possibility of a Palestinian state.

The Palestinians also hinted that they could use the report as a basis for legal action toward a war crimes prosecution.

In its report to the 47-nation council, a panel of investigators said Israel is violating international humanitarian law under the Fourth Geneva Convention, one of the treaties that establish the ground rules for what is considered humane during wartime.

This was the first thematic report on Israel‘s settlements with an historical look at the government‘s policy since 1967, U.N. officials said. Previous U.N. reports have taken a look at Israeli settlement policy only through the lens of a specific event, such as the 2009 war in the Gaza Strip, when Israel launched an offensive in response to months of rocket fire by the ruling Hamas militant group.

The Israeli government persists in building settlements in occupied territories claimed by Palestinians for a future state, including east Jerusalem and the West Bank, “despite all the pertinent United Nations resolutions declaring that the existence of the settlements is illegal and calling for their cessation,” the report said.

The settlements are “a mesh of construction and infrastructure leading to a creeping annexation that prevents the establishment of a contiguous and viable Palestinian State and undermines the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination,” the report concludes.

More than 500,000 Israelis already live in settlements that dot the West Bank and ring east Jerusalem, the Palestinians’ hoped-for capital. Israel annexed east Jerusalem, with its Palestinian population, immediately after capturing the territory from Jordan in 1967 and has built housing developments for Jews there, but the annexation has not been recognized internationally.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry accused the council of taking a systematically one-sided and biased approach towards Israel, with the report being merely “another unfortunate reminder” of that bias.

“The only way to resolve all pending issues between Israel and the Palestinians, including the settlements issue, is through direct negotiations without pre-conditions,” the ministry said. “Counterproductive measures — such as the report before us — will only hamper efforts to find a sustainable solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.”

French judge Christine Chanet, who led the panel, said Israel never cooperated with the probe, which the council ordered last March.

Because it was not authorized to investigate within Israel, Chanet said, the panel had to travel to Jordan to interview more than 50 people who spoke of the impact of the settlements, such as violence by Jewish settlers, confiscation of land and damage to olive trees that help support Palestinian families. The report also references legal opinions, other reports and a number of articles in the Israeli press.

Another panel member, Pakistani lawyer Asma Jahangir, said the settlements “seriously impinge on the self-determination of the Palestinian people,” an offense under international humanitarian law.

At a news conference, Chanet called the report “a kind of weapon for the Palestinians” if they want to take their grievances before The Hague-based International Criminal Court.

The Palestine Liberation Organization appeared to suggest it might seek such action, in a statement that called the report’s legal framework a clear indictment of Israeli policy and practice.

“All the Israeli settlement activities are illegal and considered to be war crimes according to the International Criminal Court‘s Rome Statute as well as the Fourth Geneva Convention. This means that Israel is liable to prosecution,” said PLO executive committee member Hanan Ashrawi. The settlements, she added, are “clearly a form of forced transfer and a proof of Israel‘s policy of ethnic cleansing.”

In November, the U.N. General Assembly recognized a state of Palestine in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in a vote that was largely symbolic but infuriated Israel. In December, the Palestinians accused Israel of planning more “war crimes” by expanding settlements.

The Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council was set up in 2006 to replace a 60-year-old commission that was widely discredited as a forum dominated by nations with poor rights records. The United States finally joined the council in 2009, and U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said earlier this month that while all countries should appear for their review “we also consistently registered our opposition to the council’s consistent anti-Israel bias.”

Earlier this week, Israel became the first nation to skip a review of its human rights record by the council without giving a reason. Diplomats agreed to postpone their review until later this year based on Israel‘s request for a deferral.

The council, which could have proceeded with the review or canceled it, said its agreement to defer would set precedent for how to deal with any future cases of “non-cooperation.”

All 193 U.N.-member nations are required to submit to such a review every four years, and council diplomats said they worried that if a nation were let off the hook that could undermine the process.

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Refugees again, Palestinians flee Syria's war

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When Syrian warplanes bombed a Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus last December, Umm Sami rounded up her three sons, shut the windows and locked the doors so they could neither hear nor heed the call to arms by rebels and pro-government gunmen fighting in the streets.

Then she told her sons they were leaving their home in the Yarmouk refugee camp in the Syrian capital for neighboring Lebanon, where they would wait out Syria‘s civil war.

“There will be no more martyrs for Palestine in my family,” the 45-year-old widow said. “This war is a Syrian problem.”

Now safe in Lebanon, Umm Sami and her family have joined thousands of other Palestinian refugees who have found shelter in the country since the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad erupted nearly two years ago. The conflict has left more than 2 million people internally displaced, and pushed 650,000 more to seek refuge abroad.

Umm Sami‘s resolve to keep her sons out of the fight in Syria ties into a deep-rooted sentiment among a generation of Palestinian refugees who say they are fed up with being dragged into the region’s conflicts on a promise of getting their own state.

The Palestinian exodus from Syria has also revived a decades-old debate over the refugees’ right of return to their homes that are now in Israel. That has added another layer of complexity to a conflict already loaded with sectarian and ethnic overtones that have spilled over into neighboring countries, raising fears of a regional war.

Palestinians living in Arab countries — including the half-million refugees in Syria — are descendants of the hundreds of thousands who fled or were driven from their homes in the war that followed Israel‘s creation in 1948. Having scattered across the Middle East since then, Palestinians consistently have found themselves in the middle of the region’s conflicts.

After the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq toppled Saddam Hussein, hundreds of Palestinians were killed as the Sunni and Shiite militias fought for dominance of the country. Iraq‘s Shiite majority saw Saddam, who like most Palestinians was a Sunni Muslim, as a patron of the stateless Palestinians, granting them rights the dictator denied his own citizens because they were of the rival sect.

About 1,000 Palestinians fled the 2004-07 sectarian bloodshed in Baghdad, living in a refugee camp near the Syrian border before being resettled in third countries.

During Lebanon‘s 1975-1990 civil war, Palestinians played a major role, fighting alongside Muslim militiamen against Christian forces.

Umm Sami, who was born in a refugee camp in Lebanon before the war, was twice forced to flee the fighting, most notably in 1982 when her family escaped the Sabra and Chatilla camps during the notorious massacre of Palestinians there by Christian militias.

She would eventually bury her father, two brothers and her husband — all fallen fighters — before leaving for Syria and settling with her four sons in Yarmouk, one of nine Palestinian camps in Syria.

Her youngest son died in a traffic accident while serving in the Palestinian unit of the Syrian army just weeks before the anti-Assad revolt started in March 2011. None of her other sons joined the revolution, she said, because “they don’t want to die.”

Unlike in Lebanon, where Palestinians are cramped into notoriously lawless camps, banned from all but the most menial professions and barred from owning property, Palestinians in Syria are well integrated and enjoy full citizenship rights, except for the right to vote.

But when the uprising against Assad erupted in the southern province of Daraa in March 2011, some Palestinians living in a camp there joined in the peaceful protests. When the fighting spread to the northern city of Aleppo in last summer, some took up arms against the regime.

In Damascus, most stayed on the sidelines, but as the civil war reached Yarmouk late last year, a densely populated residential area just 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the heart of the capital, most residents backed the rebels. Some groups, however, such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, opted to fight alongside Assad’s troops.

Palestinian officials say more than 700 Palestinians have been killed in the Yarmouk fighting. Most of the camp’s 150,000 inhabitants have fled, according to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees. Some of them have found safe haven in areas of Damascus and other Syrian cities, but most have escaped to camps in Lebanon.

“We go from catastrophe to catastrophe, from refugee camp to refugee camp, but at least we are alive,” Umm Sami said in Ein el-Hilweh, Lebanon‘s largest Palestinian refugee camp, near the southern port city of Sidon. She and her sons, who are all in their 20s and university graduates, fled Yarmouk with only the clothes on their backs, leaving behind a two-bedroom apartment and jobs that paid the bills.

Now, they are jobless in Lebanon, officially barred from legal employment, and left to live off help from relatives and handouts from the camp’s mosques.

Ein en-Hilweh normally houses 65,000 people, but since mid-December, when a flood of refugees from Yarmouk started arriving, the population has steadily grown by several hundred a day, putting a further strain on resources.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he asked U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon last month to seek Israeli permission to bring Palestinians caught in Syria‘s civil war to their homeland. Last week, he said that Israel agreed to allow 150,000 Palestinians refugees from Syrian into the West Bank and Gaza — as long as they relinquished the right of return to what is now Israel. Abbas said he refused.

With no end to the Syria conflict in sight, residents of Ein el-Hilweh have started building a camp within a refugee camp for their compatriots escaping the violence across the border.

They’ve converted the camp’s children’s library into housing for dozens of families. Reading rooms, offices, hallways and even bathrooms have been partitioned with makeshift walls, boards and even blankets as families try to carve out space to cook, eat and sleep.

In the library’s front yard, a new structure is being built to house at least 10 more families.

“We do what we can to help and find them a home, because they are not going back to Syria soon,” said Sheik Jamal Khatab, who oversees the registration of refugees and distribution of aid.

The biggest challenge facing the Palestinian refugees, Khatab said, is not to be dragged into the Syrian civil war — on either side. He also warned that the hardship awaiting Palestinians after the war ends will be tougher than the one they have been living as stateless people.

“It’s in our interest not to interfere in this conflict, even though the Syrian regime is a tyrannical regime,” he said. “We are not Syrians, and any side that will win this war will consider us enemies.”

___

Associated Press writers Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, and Sameer N. Yacoub in Baghdad contributed to this report.

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US protests "State of Palestine" placard in UN

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U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice objected Wednesday to the Palestinians’ latest bid to capitalize on their upgraded U.N. status when their foreign minister spoke at Security Council while seated behind a nameplate that read “State of Palestine.”

It was the first Palestinian address to the Security Council since the U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on Nov. 29 to upgrade the Palestinians from U.N. observer to non-voting member state.

Rice said that the United States does not recognize the General Assembly vote in November “as bestowing Palestinian ‘statehood’ or recognition.”

“Only direct negotiations to settle final status issues will lead to this outcome,” Rice said.

“Therefore, in our view, any reference to the ‘State of Palestine‘ in the United Nations, including the use of the term ‘State of Palestine‘ on the placard in the Security Council or the use of the term ‘State of Palestine‘ in the invitation to this meeting or other arrangements for participation in this meeting, do not reflect acquiescence that ‘Palestine‘ is a state,” she added.

The U.N. General Assembly vote to upgrade the Palestinians’ status was important because it gave sweeping international backing to their demands for sovereignty over lands Israel occupied in 1967, including east Jerusalem. But it did not actually grant independence to the 4.3 million Palestinians who live in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

In his speech to the Security Council, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki reiterated the Palestinian position that a two-state solution be based on the pre-1967 borders.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas took another symbolic step to capitalize on the U.N. status two weeks ago, proclaiming that letterhead and signs would bear the name “State of Palestine.”

Robert Serry, the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, told reporters that the nameplate read “state of Palestine” because the U.N. Secretariat “is guided by the membership, which has pronounced itself on this issue” in the November General Assembly vote.

“At the same time, member-states have their rights to reserve their opinion” on U.N. decisions, he said. “That resolution does not diminish the need for negotiations to actually arrive at a two-state solution.”

Israeli U.N. Ambassador Ron Prosor told the council that “the major obstacle to the two-state solution is the Palestinian leadership’s refusal to speak to their own people about the true parameters of a two-state solution.”

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Israel vote presents diplomatic, domestic choices

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WHO IS RUNNING?

Polls indicate about a dozen of 32 parties competing in Tuesday’s election have a chance of winning seats in the 120-member parliament. Most parties fall either into the right-wing-religious or center-left camp, and surveys indicate hard-line and ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties will command a majority.

The three largest parties, according to polls, will be Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s hard-line Likud-Yisrael Beitenu alliance, the centrist Labor and the pro-settlement Jewish Home.

Others include the ultra-Orthodox Shas and two centrist parties, Hatnua and Yesh Atid. Hatnua is the only mainstream faction to make peace with the Palestinians a priority. Yesh Hatid champions middle class concerns but, like Labor, focuses largely on domestic issues.

— WHAT MIGHT ISRAEL’S NEXT GOVERNMENT LOOK LIKE?

If polls prove accurate, Netanyahu would be given the first shot to form a coalition government. He could team up with ideological allies on the right, court centrist parties or try to establish a broad coalition.

— WHAT’S AT STAKE?

The conflict with the Palestinians and their demand for a state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem — lands Israel captured in 1967 — was largely absent from the campaign.

Polls suggest a majority of Israelis support a partition of the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River into two states, but doubt such a deal is possible for now, in part because the Islamic militant Hamas used Gaza, a territory from which Israel withdrew in 2005, as a staging ground for attacks.

Netanyahu said in 2009 that he is willing negotiate the terms of a Palestinian state. But settlement construction in the West Bank resumed after his 10-month partial building freeze failed to restart peace talks.

Netanyahu follows an economic policy based on free market ideas, but his rivals charge it has further widened gaps between rich and poor.

— ISRAEL’S PLACE IN THE WORLD

Israel has become more isolated under Netanyahu. The Israeli leader seems headed toward a confrontation with the U.S., Israel‘s key ally, if he opts for a hard-line government and more settlement building.

In November, the U.N. General Assembly voted 138-9 to recognize a state of Palestine in the lands occupied in 1967, rebuffing Netanyahu’s demand to keep east Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank.

The U.S. voted with Israel at the U.N., but there are signs of increasing displeasure in Washington.

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Video emerges of Egyptian leader Morsi blasting Jews, Zionists in 2010

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As Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi claims he will uphold a peace treaty with Israel, a video has emerged of 2010 speech in which he lashes out at Jews and Zionists.

According to The New York Times, Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, spoke at a rally against the Israeli blockade of Gaza, telling Egyptians to “never forget, brothers, to nurse our children and our grandchildren on hatred for them: for Zionists, for Jews.”

Morsi went on to say Palestine would be freed through resistance, and called President Obama a liar.

The speech was first shown Friday on Egyptian satirist Bassem Youssef‘s television show, according to the paper, and was made after a flareup in 2010 between Israel and Gaza.

A 2010 Morsi television interview also was unearthed last week by the Middle East Media Research Institute, the Times reports.

In it, Morsi called Zionists “bloodsuckers who attack the Palestinians,” and “descendants of apes and pigs.”

Morsi has been regarded as a key figure behind a truce that was forged between Israel and Palestinian militants after both sides exchanged airstrikes for a week in 2012.

The video emerges just days after Morsi expanded the number of Muslim Brotherhood ministers in his Cabinet, VOA News reported. Three of the 10 Egyptian ministers sworn in are members of the Brotherhood movement, increasing the number of Brotherhood Cabinet ministers from five to eight.

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Palestinian premier urges Arabs to pay pledged aid

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The Palestinian prime minister has warned that his government could fail to meet its obligations to its people because of a cash crunch, urging Arab countries to pay up promised aid.

Salam Fayyad met Sunday with Arab League members to discuss ways to raise $100 million in aid they pledged earlier to his Palestinian Authority. The Arab League chief said seven countries have responded favorably, but he did not name them.

Fayyad said his government‘s bid to gain recognition from the U.N. for a state of Palestine in November has so far led only to Israeli punitive measures, including halting monthly transfers of about $100 million in tax funds it collects on behalf of the Palestinians.

Fayyad said the cash shortage could cause the disintegration of the Palestinian Authority.

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Israeli prime minister blocks roads to Palestinian tent site

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu closed roads leading to a strategic West Bank site Saturday night in preparation to evacuate Palestinians who pitched tents there to protest plans to build a Jewish housing project.

Palestinian activists erected tents in the area known as E-1 on Friday saying they wanted to “establish facts on the ground” to stop Israeli construction in the West Bank. The activists were borrowing a phrase and a tactic, usually associated with Jewish settlers, who believe establishing communities means the territory will remain Israeli.

Activists said they want to establish a village in the site, which they are calling Bab Al Shams.

Netanyahu’s office said Saturday night that the state is petitioning the Supreme Court to rescind an earlier injunction blocking the evacuation. In the meantime, he ordered the area declared a closed military zone and shut off access.

Israel announced it is moving forward with the E-1 settlement after the U.N. recognized a de facto state of Palestine in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in November.

Palestinians say E-1 would be a major blow to their statehood aspirations as it blocks east Jerusalem from its West Bank hinterland. Palestinians are demanding these areas, along with Gaza, for their future state.

The construction plans drew unusually sharp criticism from some of Israel‘s staunchest allies including the U.S. who strongly oppose the E- 1 project.

Israeli officials have said actual construction on the project may be years away if it ever gets off the ground, while Israeli critics have questioned whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu actually intends to develop E-1, or is pandering to hard-liners ahead of Israel‘s Jan. 22 election.

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Hamas flagship university grooms Hebrew teachers

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Hamas’ flagship university in Gaza has a new diploma on offer — Hebrew, the official language of its arch-foe Israel.

Gaza’s Hamas rulers say they want to produce qualified teachers as the government gradually introduces Hebrew studies in its high schools. The aim is simple: It wants Palestinians in Gaza to learn their enemy’s language.

“As Jews are occupying our lands, we have to understand their language,” said Education Ministry official Somayia Nakhala.

There are 19 students enrolled in the first one-year Hebrew diploma course offered at the Islamic University in Gaza City, a stronghold of Hamas, the Islamic militant group that has ruled Gaza since 2007. Hamas does not recognize Israel, is officially pledged to its destruction and has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings, rocket strikes and other attacks.

Officials hope graduates will become Hebrew teachers. Hamas has already begun offering Hebrew studies as an elective to ninth graders in 16 schools, and plans to expand the program to dozens of other schools in the coming months.

Israel occupied Gaza for 38 years after capturing it, along with the West Bank and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war. Since withdrawing its settlers and troops from Gaza in 2005, Israel has fought two wars against Hamas and restricts access to the territory by air, land and sea.

The coastal strip still relies on Israeli-run crossings for most consumer goods, and Gaza patients must receive special permits to reach medical care in Israel or the West Bank.

Students need to “understand what’s going on, like wars, medical treatment in Israel, in the West Bank,” said the Education Ministry‘s Nakhala.

There is no shortage of Hebrew speakers in Gaza, at least among older residents. For years, Gaza Palestinians entered Israel to work in restaurants, construction and other menial jobs. Thousands of others learned the language while held in Israeli prisons. In quieter times, many Israelis would come to Gaza to fix their cars, bargain hunt or eat at local restaurants.

But after the outbreak of the first Palestinian uprising in the late 1980s, Israelis stopped coming. After a second uprising erupted in 2000, Israel sharply restricted the entry of Gazans. Since Israel‘s pullout and the subsequent Hamas takeover, direct contact between the sides is virtually nonexistent.

This tortured relationship with Israel was on display during Hebrew class this week at the Islamic University.

Two women, their faces veiled in line with conservative Muslim beliefs, practiced Hebrew in a doctor-patient dialogue. When the conversation turned to the chilly weather, another student described being cold while held in an Israeli prison because he wasn’t given a blanket.

“Saval maspik,” he said in broken Hebrew. “Suffered enough.”

Discussing medical terms, lecturer Kamal Hamdan and a student created a dialogue between Palestinian paramedics and Israeli officials, asking how many people were wounded in an Israeli military incursion into Gaza.

Hamdan noted the similarities between Arabic and Hebrew, which are both Semitic tongues. He pointed at parts of his body, calling out the words.

“Rosh. Ras,” he said, speaking in Hebrew, then Arabic as he pointed at his head. “Af, anf,” he said, gesturing toward his nose, “Re-ot, Ri-a,” he said, speaking the words for lungs.

“The head is ‘rosh’?” a student asked. “Ah!” he exclaimed as it clicked.

“Even if there’s a difference in politics, culture, even if there is an occupation and oppression, the languages resemble each other,” Hamdan told the students.

The conversation even delved gingerly into Zionism, Israeli life and history.

In discussing the Israeli health care provider, “Maccabi,” Hamdan told the students the word referred to ancient Jewish rebels. That led to a discussion of the early Zionist hero Joseph Trumpeldor, who helped bring Jewish immigrants to Palestine and was killed in 1920 while defending a Jewish settlement. Hamdan repeated a phrase attributed to the fighter as he died: “It is good to die for our country.”

Some students said they were studying Hebrew to understand Israeli TV and radio broadcasts, which are easily accessible in Gaza.

Ghada Najjar, 26, described her frustration at not understanding Israeli news broadcasts during the last major round of Israel-Hamas fighting in November. At the time, Israel pounded Gaza from air and sea, while Palestinian militants fired rockets toward cities deep in Israeli territory.

“It’s a weapon, even if it’s not very powerful, to understand,” said the mother of two.

Jihad Abu Salim, 24, said he began studying Hebrew after participating in a four-month coexistence program at New York University.

“I felt it was my duty to learn more about their history, politics and culture,” he said.

Palestinian students in Gaza face unique challenges to learning Hebrew. Because of Israeli restrictions, few will ever practice the language with native speakers.

Contact with Israelis is frowned upon in Gaza, where it angers many residents who have lost loved ones or suffered injuries in fighting.

A small group of Gaza residents, mostly traders and medical officials, regularly enter Israel for business purposes. However, Hamas bristles at other contacts, and the government recently banned Gaza journalists from working for Israeli media. Some Gaza residents who communicate with Israeli friends on email or Skype say they shy away from discussing those relationships with others.

Hostile attitudes have left veteran Hebrew-language teachers treading a careful line. Like most Gaza residents, they view Israel bitterly after years of conflict. But they also have memories of more peaceful times, when they could freely enter Israel to study Hebrew.

Instructor Jamal al-Hadad, 60, railed against what he called linguistic theft, noting the many Arabic words that have been incorporated into modern Hebrew. “Like they stole Palestine, they also stole our words,” al-Hadad said.

But he also proudly showed off a collection of poems he had written in Hebrew, a mix of pro-Palestinian rhymes and odes to love. And he said he objected to the idea he was merely teaching the language of his foes.

“It is the language of our enemies,” he said. “But it is also the language of our neighbors.”

Mixed attitudes are common on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide.

Arabic is supposed to be mandatory in Israeli high schools from 7th to 10th grade, but only about half of them teach it. In most cases, students take it for two years, according to the coexistence group Abraham Fund.

Israeli Arabic language specialists are typically sought for military and intelligence positions, to monitor Arabic media, interrogate Palestinian suspects, handle Palestinian informants or use it during undercover operations.

In Gaza, high schools stopped teaching Hebrew in the mid-1990s, after a Palestinian self-rule government took over civilian affairs. Last year, the Hamas government decided to bring the language back — an acknowledgment that Gazans need the language to deal with Israelis, a people they are intertwined with for the foreseeable future. And while Hebrew had been offered as an elective at several Gaza universities, this is the first diploma to exclusively focus on the language.

Regardless of Hamas’ intentions, teaching Hebrew could open doors of understanding, said Gershon Baskin, an Israeli peace activist.

“It has the potential to change world views,” said Baskin. “Facebook, email, chatting, the whole world is open. You can’t prevent contact if people want contact.”

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

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Palestinian officials avoid clash with Israel over state symbols

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Palestinian officials said Monday they will not rush to issue new passports and ID cards with the emblem “State of Palestine” to avoid confrontation with Israel.

Last week, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas decreed that in official documents “State of Palestine” must replace “Palestinian Authority,” the name of his self-rule government.

His decision came after the U.N. General Assembly recognized a state of Palestine in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in late November, overriding Israeli objections.

Israel says such a state can only be the result of negotiations. However, Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu disagree on the parameters of such talks, which have been frozen for more than four years.

The U.N. recognition has largely been a symbolic victory for the Palestinians, mainly because it affirmed the borders of a future Palestine in territories Israel captured in 1967. Netanyahu has said he is willing to give up some land to a Palestinian state, but not withdraw to the 1967 borders.

The U.N. nod has changed little in the daily lives of Palestinians. Abbas’ Palestinian Authority administers some 38 percent of the West Bank, but Israel maintains overall control of the territory. Abbas has no say in east Jerusalem, annexed by Israel in 1967, or in Gaza, seized by his political rival, the Islamic militant Hamas, in 2007.

The name change decreed by Abbas marked the first practical step in the aftermath of the U.N. bid, but also highlighted Abbas’ limitations.

Hassan Alawi, a deputy interior minister in the Palestinian Authority, said documents and stationery with the new emblem will be ready within two months. But he said all documents Palestinians need in their dealings with Israel, such as passports, ID cards and drivers licenses, will only be changed if there is a further decision by Abbas.

Israeli officials declined comment Monday on whether Israel would refuse to deal with documents bearing the “State of Palestine” logo. However, Alawi said his office was informed by Israeli officials after Abbas’ decree that “they will not deal with any new form of passport or ID.”

Saeb Erekat, a senior Abbas aide, said the new emblem will be used in correspondence with countries that have recognized a state of Palestine.

He suggested that there would be no change in passports or other documents Palestinians need for movement through Israeli crossings.

“As far as the Israelis are concerned, we are not going to overload the wagon of our people by putting state of Palestine on passports,” he said. “They (Israelis) will not allow them to travel.”

Palestinians must pass through Israeli-run crossings to leave the West Bank and also carry an ID card with them at all times or risk arrest if stopped without one at an Israeli military checkpoint inside the territory.

Mark Regev, an Israeli government spokesman, dismissed the name change as insignificant, but declined comment on whether Israel would retaliate in any way.

“We see this as another act that has no practical significance,” he said. “Instead of looking for gimmicks, Palestinians should negotiate with Israel to bring about the end of the conflict. That will lead to a situation of two states for two peoples.”

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Abbas avoids clash with Israel over state symbols

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Palestinian officials say they will not rush to issue new passports and ID cards with the emblem “State of Palestine” to avoid confrontation with Israel.

Last week, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas decreed that in official documents “State of Palestine” must replace “Palestinian Authority,” the name of his self-rule government. His decision came after the U.N. General Assembly recognized a state of Palestine in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in late November, overriding Israeli objections.

Israel says such a state can only be the result of negotiations.

On Monday, Palestinian officials said documents that need to be presented to Israel, such as passports, will not be changed now.

Abbas aide Saeb Erekat says there’s fear of travel problems because Israel is unlikely to recognize passports with a new emblem.

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Palestinians change their name following UN bid

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The Palestinian president has ordered his government to officially change the name of the Palestinian Authority to “State of Palestine.”

The move follows the November decision by the United Nations to upgrade the Palestinians’ status to that of a “non-member observer state.”

President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday that all official Palestinian stamps, stationery and documents will now bear the new name.

A statement from his office said the move was aimed at enhancing Palestinian “sovereignty on the ground” and was a step on the way to “real independence.” Israel still controls most of the West Bank.

Israel objected to the Palestinian statehood bid at the U.N., calling it a unilateral step aimed at bypassing direct peace negotiations. Abbas denied that.

Israel had no comment Sunday.

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AP Interview: Palestinian PM blasts Arab donors

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The Palestinian prime minister is blaming Arab countries that haven’t delivered promised aid for an escalating financial crisis in the Palestinian territories.

Salam Fayyad said in an interview on Sunday that the cash crunch threatens to double the number of Palestinian poor to 50 percent of the population of roughly 4 million.

The crisis worsened late last year, after the Palestinians won U.N. recognition for a state of Palestine. In response, Israel suspended monthly transfers of some $100 million in tax rebates to the Palestinians, one-third of the Palestinian Authority‘s monthly operating costs.

Fayyad said Arab League states have not kept a promise to pay the money Israel withholds. He says the fundamental reason for the financial crisis of recent years is “Arab donors not fulfilling their pledge of support.”

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Fatah party stages first rally in Gaza since 2007

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Leaders of the Palestinian Fatah party led tens of thousands of supporters Friday in a mass rally in the Gaza Strip, the first such gathering for the largely secular party in the territory since the rival Islamist Hamas seized power there in 2007.

The demonstration, which was condoned by Hamas, showed how the long-bitter relations between the rival Palestinian factions have improved since an Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip in November.

While Friday’s rally pointed to the improving ties between Hamas and Fatah, it also served as a reminder of the conflicts within Fatah that continue to dog the movement: Officials cancelled the event halfway through after 20 people were injured due to overcrowding, and shoving matches erupted between separate Fatah factions.

Yahiya Rabah, a top Fatah official in Gaza, said the rally was cancelled “due to the huge number of participants and logistical failures.”

But witnesses said one pushing match was between supporters of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and partisans of former Fatah’s former Gaza security commander Mohammed Dahlan, who was expelled from the party because of conflicts with Abbas.

Another Fatah official, who spoke anonymously because he did not want to embarrass the party, said the rally was cancelled because hundreds of Dahlan supporters jumped up on the stage and clashed with Abbas supporters.

Fatah spokesman Fayez Abu Etta attributed the injuries to overcrowding and the excitement of the rally.

Overnight, throngs had camped out in a downtown Gaza square to ensure themselves a spot for the anniversary commemoration of Fatah’s 1965 founding, and tens of thousands marched early Friday carrying Fatah banners. When the rally began, people stampeded to the stage to try to shake leaders’ hands.

Hamas was not directly involved in the event but allowed it to take place. Top Fatah officials arrived in Gaza for the first time since they were ousted from Gaza by Hamas in 2007.

Abbas, who rules in the West Bank, did not attend the event, but spoke to the crowd via a televised address, telling them that “there is no substitute for national unity.”

Organizers then ended the rally, cancelling the other planned speeches and musical performances.

Hamas has gained new support among Palestinians following eight days of fighting with Israel in November, during which Israel pounded the seaside strip from the air and sea, while Palestinians militants lobbed rockets toward the Israeli cities of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv for the first time.

Following the fighting, relations have thawed somewhat between Hamas and Fatah. Hamas was allowed to hold its first West Bank rallies since the 2007 split in which Hamas seized Gaza and Fatah was left in control of the West Bank. Hamas returned the favor Friday by allowing the Fatah rally.

Senior Fatah official Nabil Shaath said the party received a congratulatory message from Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, who expressed hope that the two factions could reconcile their differences and work together as joint representatives of the Palestinian people.

“This festival will be like a wedding celebration for Palestine, Jerusalem, the prisoners, the refugees and all the Palestinians,” Shaath said.

Reconciliation between the two factions, however, is still far from a done deal. Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal, considered more pragmatic than Hamas’ Gaza-based hardline leaders, forged a reconciliation agreement with Abbas in 2011.

But the Gaza-based leadership, unsupportive of the deal, has held up implementing it. Fatah enjoys Western support and has been pressured not to forge a unity agreement with the militant Hamas – facing a potential cutback in foreign aid if it does. Hamas has carried out hundreds of deadly attacks against Israeli citizens and is regarded by the U.S. and Israel as a terrorist organization.

Fadwa Taleb, 46, who worked as a police officer during the previous rule of Fatah, gathered at the rally with her family. “We feel like birds freed from our cage today,” Taleb said. “We are happy and feel powerful again.”

A Gaza security official said a Fatah-linked former aide to the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died of a heart attack in the square overnight, saying he was shocked by the large crowd that was allowed to gather.

In the West Bank, Palestinian President Abbas signed a presidential decree changing the name of the Palestinian Authority to the “State of Palestine,” following the Palestinians’ upgraded status at the United Nations as a non-member observer state.

According to the decree, reported by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa Thursday night, all stamps, signs, and official letterhead will be changed to bear the new name.

It is the first concrete, albeit symbolic, step the Palestinians have taken following the November decision by the United Nations. Abbas has hesitated to take more dramatic steps, like filing war crimes indictments against Israel at the International Criminal Court, a tactic that only a recognized state can carry out.

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Israeli undercover raid into West Bank apartment sets off violent protests

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Israeli undercover troops broke into a West Bank apartment building in a failed arrest raid Thursday, igniting a violent protest and signaling that Israeli-Palestinian security coordination may be in trouble, officials said.

Thursday’s raid targeted a suspected Islamic militant and marked the second time this week an army operation sparked clashes. Palestinians accused Israel of taking provocative actions in retaliation for their successful bid in November to win U.N. recognition of a state of Palestine in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, the territories Israel captured in 1967.

Israel‘s military denied it was walking away from coordination with the security forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose self-rule government administers just over one-third of the West Bank, where more than 90 percent of the Palestinians live.

Palestinian officials said Thursday’s operation began when undercover troops, followed by uniformed soldiers in more than a dozen jeeps, broke into an apartment building on the outskirts of the West Bank town of Jenin. The apparent target, an activist in the militant Islamic Jihad group, was not in the area.

The Israeli military said several hundred Palestinians began throwing stones, and that some in the crowd hurled firebombs and rolled burning tires toward the soldiers. Troops fired warning shots, and also used tear gas, stun grenades and rubber-coated steel pellets to quell the protest, the military said.

Talal Dweikat, the Palestinian governor of the Jenin district, put the number of stone throwers at several dozen. He said a Palestinian was shot in the leg and an elderly woman was bitten by an army dog. The military confirmed a woman was bitten and taken for medical treatment.

In recent years, the West Bank has been relatively calm, in part because of Israeli-Palestinian coordination in tracking Islamic militants. The coordination came in response to the 2007 takeover of Gaza by the Islamic militant Hamas, Abbas’ main political rival.

Trying to prevent a similar takeover in the West Bank, Abbas began cracking down on Hamas and found his interests aligned with Israel‘s. Abbas has long argued that violence is counterproductive, since Palestinians are bound to lose any armed confrontation with Israel. Hamas believes Israel will make concessions only in response to force.

Security coordination with Israel is unpopular in the West Bank, especially at a time when peace talks are frozen and Palestinian independence appears unlikely anytime soon. U.N. recognition gave the Palestinians a diplomatic boost but changed little on the ground.

Palestinian officials alleged Thursday that the recent Israeli raids are part of Israel‘s retaliation for the statehood bid. Israel strongly opposed the U.N. recognition, saying it was an attempt to bypass negotiations.

A Palestinian security official said Abbas has ordered his security forces to avoid any confrontations with Israeli troops. Abbas is concerned about an unwanted escalation he believes will not serve Palestinian interests, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss internal deliberations with reporters.

Adnan Damiri, a spokesman for the Palestinian security forces, said Israeli troops have increasingly entered Palestinian-run areas without coordination since November. “There has been an escalation in Israeli raids into our territories since the U.N. bid,” he said.

Earlier this week, another undercover raid targeting suspected Islamic Jihad militants in the West Bank prompted clashes that left 10 Palestinians wounded.

Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich, an Israeli army spokeswoman, said Israel has not abandoned security coordination with the Palestinians. “As far as we are concerned, the coordination has not changed,” she said. “Our activities are in relation to threats (by militants), and nothing else.”

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Israeli undercover raid sets off violent protests

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Palestinian officials say Israeli undercover troops broke into a West Bank house in a failed arrest raid, igniting a violent protest and signaling that Israeli-Palestinian security coordination may be in trouble.

The Israeli military says some 500 Palestinians threw stones and firebombs at troops near the town of Jenin. Palestinian officials say a Palestinian was shot in the hand by army fire and an elderly woman was bitten by an army dog.

In recent years, the West Bank has been relatively calm as a result of coordination between Israel‘s military and Palestinian security forces in tracking down militants. However, Palestinian officials say Israel has stepped up unilateral actions, such as surprise arrest raids, since the Palestinians won U.N. recognition of a state of Palestine late last year.

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Arab League chief says Palestinians to petition UN

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Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby says two decades of talks with Israel have been “a waste of time” and that Palestinians will soon take a new statehood bid to the U.N.

“We will return to the U.N. Security Council,” he said in Ramallah Saturday after meeting Palestinian officials. “Palestine will be cooperating with Arab and EU countries to change the equation (in the peace process) that prevailed over the past 20 years, which was a waste of time.”

The U.N. last month endorsed a de facto Palestinian state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza, areas Israel won in a 1967 war.

Talks collapsed in 2008 after Palestinians demanded Israel stop building in areas they want for a future state. Israel insists settlements and other issues should be negotiated.

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Roman Catholic cleric celebrates Palestinian state

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The top Roman Catholic cleric in the Holy Land has celebrated the United Nations‘ recent recognition of a Palestinian state in his annual pre-Christmas remarks.

Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal told followers at the patriarchate’s headquarters in Jerusalem on Monday that they were celebrating “two occasions, the birth of Christ our Lord and the birth of the state of Palestine.”

From Jerusalem, Twal set off in a procession for the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Jesus’ traditional birthplace.

There, he was reminded that life on the ground for Palestinians has not really changed since the statehood recognition last month.

He had to enter the biblical city through a massive metal gate in the barrier of towering concrete slabs Israel built between Jerusalem and Bethlehem during a wave of Palestinian attacks in the last decade.

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AP Exclusive: Palestinians aim to isolate Israel

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Weeks ahead of Israeli elections, Palestinian officials are already plotting a series of tough steps against Israel to be taken if, as polls predict, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is re-elected and peace efforts remain stalled.

Emboldened by their newly upgraded status at the United Nations, the Palestinians are talking of filing war crimes charges against Israel, staging mass demonstrations in the West Bank, encouraging the international community to impose sanctions, and ending the security cooperation that has helped preserve quiet in recent years.

These plans, combined with growing international impatience with Israeli settlement construction on occupied land, could spell trouble and international isolation for the Israeli leader.

In a series of interviews with The Associated Press, a number of Palestinian officials all voiced a similar theme: Following the U.N. General Assembly‘s recognition of “Palestine” as a nonmember observer state in November, the status quo cannot continue.

“2013 will see a new Palestinian political track. There will be new rules in our relationship with Israel and the world,” said Hussam Zumlot, an aide to President Mahmoud Abbas.

Israeli-Palestinian peace talks broke down shortly before Netanyahu’s election in early 2009 and have remained frozen throughout his term, mostly due to the dispute over Israel‘s construction of settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank. The Palestinians claim the areas, along with the Gaza Strip, for a future state. Israel captured the areas in the 1967 Mideast war.

The Palestinians have demanded that Israel halt settlement construction before negotiations can resume, saying the continued building is a show of bad faith. Netanyahu says talks should resume without preconditions, and notes that a 10-month partial freeze on construction he imposed two years ago failed to bring about substantive negotiations.

Frustrated with the impasse, the Palestinians turned to the United Nations for recognition of an independent state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza. Israel, which withdrew from Gaza in 2005, rejects a return to its 1967 lines.

Although the U.N. vote did not change the situation on the ground, it had deep implications. Opposed by just nine countries, it amounted to a strong international endorsement of the Palestinian position on future borders. It also cleared the way for them to join international agencies to press their grievances against Israel.

Netanyahu has accused the Palestinians of bypassing direct negotiations.

“One would hope we will in fact see in 2013 the re-emergence of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiating process,” said Netanyahu’s spokesman, Mark Regev. “There is no substitute for direct talks. You’re not going to make peace in resolutions at the United Nations or other international forums.”

At the heart of the deadlock are the huge gaps between the two sides’ conditions. Netanyahu has embraced the idea of establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Without action soon, the thinking goes, Israel will find itself in permanent control of millions of disenfranchised Palestinians, threatening its status as a democracy with a Jewish majority. But Netanyahu has added so many caveats, including a refusal to turn Jerusalem into a shared capital and demands to retain significant parts of the West Bank, that the Palestinians believe negotiations would be futile.

Palestinian officials say they are hopeful that a formula for restarting talks can be found after Israel‘s election on Jan. 22, perhaps through a new initiative from President Barack Obama.

The Palestinians have begun to speak of a trial, six-month negotiating period. Azzam al-Ahmed, a top aide to Abbas, said Arab diplomats will present the plan in Western capitals, Russia and China next month. But with the Palestinians insistent on a settlement freeze, and opinion polls forecasting a new hardline Israeli coalition headed by Netanyahu, expectations are low.

The Palestinian officials said they will not rush toward any punitive measure, but they are determined not to stand pat.

“We have to prepare ourselves for a long and tough battle,” added Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Palestinians’ top decision making body. “We will use all the political tools available.”

Among the options being considered is halting cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian security forces in the West Bank. The cooperation is widely seen as a key element in preserving the calm in the West Bank in recent years, in sharp contrast to the heavy fighting a decade ago.

“There will be no security cooperation as long as there is no political horizon,” said Mohammed Ishtayeh, a Palestinian Cabinet minister.

The Palestinians also talk of increasing “popular struggle,” the term they use for demonstrations against Israeli soldiers. Such face-to-face confrontations frequently turn tense, with protesters throwing stones and troops firing tear gas and water cannons, and run the risk of growing more violent.

Perhaps most troubling to Israel, the Palestinians also want to use their upgraded status on the world stage to push for international action against Israel.

Officials say they will move to join the International Criminal Court, where they hope to pursue war crimes charges against Israel for its settlement activities. Although the road to taking legal action in the ICC appears to be long and complicated, it nonetheless has made Israeli officials jittery.

“We are going to pursue this policy to reach a point of having the international community impose sanctions on Israel,” said Qais Abdelkareem, another PLO official.

This Palestinian agenda, while ambitious, is likely to encounter stiff resistance from both Israel and its international allies. Israel has a number of tools at its disposal, including possible military or economic pressure on the Palestinians. Israel‘s allies in the West, particularly the U.S., will also likely shield it from any attempt to impose broad international sanctions, at least in the near term.

But there are signs that international patience with Israel is wearing thin. There was strikingly sharp anger over the Israeli plan to build thousands of new settler homes in response to the Palestinian bid at the U.N.

The U.S., using especially harsh language, accused Israel of engaging in a “pattern of provocative action.” All the members of the U.N. Security Council except the U.S. denounced the Israeli settlement plans at a special meeting this week.

The European Union has also condemned the planned construction. The 27-member bloc issued a statement earlier this month raising the possibility of requiring Israel to label any exports that originate in the settlements. It also noted that future cooperation agreements would not include territories captured in 1967, including east Jerusalem, which Israel claims as an integral part of its capital. There are fears that individual European states might impose sanctions of their own.

An Israeli official said the extent of the international uproar had caught officials off guard. “Something has changed,” he said. “Clearly a line has been crossed.” He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing closed diplomatic meetings.

Yossi Beilin, a former deputy foreign minister and peace negotiator, said there is “no way” the status quo can continue and that Netanyahu “understands that this situation where the U.S. is the only one to support Israel cannot go on forever.” He said Netanyahu, after pandering to hard-liners during the election campaign, will likely try to bring in a centrist party into his coalition after the vote to give the government an image of moderation.

“Reality might impose itself in such a way that we will find him doing things, like maybe an interim agreement with the Palestinians or something that seems now unexpected,” Beilin said. “He will make small steps to appease adversaries. And to Netanyahu, the whole world is an adversary.”

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