Israel insists it will not deal with Hamas-backed PA government

[Jefferson23]

Abbas to present new diplomatic initiative to Arab League next week, which envisages full Israeli withdrawal to pre-1967 lines.


The government stands by its decision not to conduct peace talks with a Palestinian government backed by Hamas, officials said on Tuesday amid renewed attempts at restarting some kind of Israeli-Palestinian dialogue in the wake of the fighting in Gaza.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas plans to present a new diplomatic initiative to Arab foreign ministers during their meeting in Cairo on September 7, Mahmoud al-Habbash, Abbas’s adviser on religious affairs and chief of the PA religious courts, told the Jordanian newspaper Al-Ghad. The plan envisages a full Israeli withdrawal to pre-1967 lines within a period that does not exceed three years, a senior PA official was quoted Tuesday as saying.

The plan calls for the Israelis and Palestinians to resume the peace talks within nine months, the official said.

snip* Abbas said recently that he does not expect the Americans to like his plan.

http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Israel-insists-it-will-not-deal-with-Hamas-backed-PA-government-374282

[Scootaloo]

1. So can Palestine refuse to speak to any Israeli government involving Likud?

I mean since the party is just as adamant - and vastly more lethal - in its refusal to permit the existence of a Palestine, as hamas is with regard to israel...

More evidence only one party of the two is interested at all in peace.

[Jefferson23]

2. The only interesting comment from the OP was from Abbas, and that he does not expect the Americans

to like his plan. Probably a good idea for him to keep that plan..means it actually has
value for the Palestinians if we don't like it.

[Scootaloo]

5. Pretty much

Though in all fairness, the US doesn't tend to like ANY plan that the US didn't come up with.

[Jefferson23]

3. PA to pay Hamas employees in Gaza

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The Palestinian Authority will pay Hamas civil servants in Gaza on Wednesday, ending a months-long salary crisis following the announcement of a unity government.

Senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouq said an agreement was reached between Hamas and PA officials on Sunday.

A row over pay erupted between the two Palestinian factions in June when the PA's Gaza-based staff received their wages but their Hamas counterparts went empty-handed.

Speaking about a ceasefire deal in Gaza, Abu Marzouq said that political decisions need to be made before reconstruction can take place, noting that an international conference to raise funds for Gaza will be held in Cairo in September.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=724627

[Jefferson23]

4. Israeli forces demolish house, water well in Hebron

HEBRON (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces on Tuesday demolished a house and a water well in Hebron, locals said.

Muhammad Nafith al-Herbawi, the owner of the land, said that Israeli forces demolished his house with all his belongings inside and also destroyed a well and a 100-meter long wall.

In a statement to Ma'an, Israel's coordinator of government activities in the territories, or COGAT, said that "security forces carried out the demolition of two buildings which were built without the necessary permits in the Hebron area."

Earlier, a Ma'an reporter said that Israeli forces demolished Palestinian homes and structures near Jabaa village east of Jerusalem.

Bulldozers demolished five houses, four steel structures, and a barn that belonged to Bedouin families.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=725047

[Jefferson23]

6. Chained to the Fence: Inequality in East Jerusalem

August 28, 2014

Natasha Roth, a British immigrant to Israel, is a Researcher and former Coordinator at the African Refugee Development Center (ARDC).

The more Israel tries to homogenize Jerusalem and harmonize its history, the more divided it becomes. [This article was written before the Gaza War. The conclusion has been updated to address the current situation.]

On May 28, tens of thousands of Jews in Israel celebrated Jerusalem Day by marching through the city waving flags, chanting racist slogans and, in no insignificant proportion, inciting racist violence. Known as the “March of the Flags,” this parade through Jerusalem — which places the Muslim Quarter as the final point on its route — celebrates, according to the Israeli narrative, the “reunification” of the city.

Yet reunification in the context of Jerusalem is unspeak for annexation. To speak of reunification is to imply that this state of affairs is right, just, natural and should always have been so. But Israel’s victory in the 1967 Six-Day War — which commenced the occupation at the same stroke as the annexation of East Jerusalem — created a situation of intense abnormality and yawning inequality, which has persisted for almost 50 years. To speak of reunification is to suggest a mutual coming-together on equal terms, but the Israeli government has conceptually absorbed East Jerusalem and physically exerted complete control over the area: In addition to the approval and building of settlements, state-sanctioned house demolitions regularly take place, and the purchase of land and property by Jewish religious organizations in Palestinian areas of Jerusalem is an increasing trend. This distressed vision is the reality created by the nationalist impulses celebrated on Jerusalem Day. As flags fly, lives fall to the floor.

The image of Palestinians tentatively re-emerging from their homes at the end of this year’s parade — during which ultra-nationalist marchers shouted “Death to Arabs” and littered the streets with anti-Muslim leaflets — represents the sharp end of the mixed fortunes of Jerusalem’s Jewish and Palestinian residents. The everyday injustices and dispossessions, transgressions and disenfranchisements, paint a truer picture of occupation and its endless attritions. Due to its status as annexed rather than occupied territory, the situation in East Jerusalem often receives less attention than that of the West Bank, and also suffers regular misinterpretation — whether by accident or by design, such as the Australian government’s recent statement that it does not consider East Jerusalem occupied.

East Jerusalem’s annexation by Israel means it is administered under civil law, rather than being subject to the military rule established in the rest of the Occupied Territories captured in 1967. The annexation has never been recognized internationally. However, that East Jerusalem’s Palestinian inhabitants are ostensibly subject to the same legal and governmental apparatus as Israelis, means the institutionalized discrimination they suffer is frequently overshadowed by the more overtly drastic (and photogenic) problems faced by Palestinians elsewhere in the Occupied Territories. In East Jerusalem, the story is a numbers game.

http://www.fairobserver.com/region/middle_east_north_africa/chained-to-the-fence-inequality-in-east-jerusalem-37812/

[Jefferson23]

7. Israeli authorities demolish Bedouin homes in Negev

BEERSHEBA (Ma'an) -- Israeli authorities demolished three Bedouin structures in the Negev village of Umm Batin on Wednesday, the first such demolition in southern Israel since the end of a weeks-long military offensive in Gaza.

Palestinian-Israeli MK Talab Abu Arar told Ma'an that Israel has "renewed its war against Negev Bedouins" since the ceasefire agreement last week.

He added: "We didn't see these Israeli forces supporting or helping the Arab residents of the Negev during the war, when missiles were landing in Arab villages."

Abu Arar said he has repeatedly contacted the Israeli interior and agriculture ministries to complain about a shortage of apartments for young Bedouin couples in villages not recognized by Israel.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=725123

[Jefferson23]

8. EU gives Israel extra month to prepare for ban on settlement farm products

Still no system in place for distinguishing products from beyond Green Line.

By Ora Coren


Israel has won a one-month extension to ready itself for a European Union ban on many farm products from West Bank settlements, an Israeli source told TheMarker on Tuesday.

http://www.haaretz.com/business/.premium-1.613722

[Jefferson23]

9. Kerry calls Netanyahu to protest Israeli appropriation of West Bank land

The Israeli decision to declare 1,000 acres of land belonging to Palestinian villages in Gush Etzion as 'state lands' has drawn a deluge of international condemnation over the past few days.

By Barak Ravid | Sep. 3, 2014 | 8:00 AM

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.613825