Vermonters
for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel
Elections Archive - March 2007
Elections Archive - March 2007
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Vermonters
for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel Elections Archive - March 2007 |
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U.S. cuts back plan to bolster Abbas’ forces, offers $59 million Ha’aretz 3/27/2007 The United States plans to provide $59 million to strengthen Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas’s presidential guard and support his new national security adviser, an amount that was scaled back from an initial $86. 4 million proposal. The offer was reduced after Abbas joined forces with Hamas in a coalition government in a bid to end factional warfare and ease a Western aid boycott. Another $20 million are earmarked to help fund any future Palestinian elections, infrastructure improvements at the Karni commercial crossing between Gaza and Israel, and other non-security projects, according to U.S. government documents obtained by Reuters on Tuesday. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said the money for Abbas and security adviser Mohammad Dahlan was meant to fuel divisions among Palestinians... Palestinian supreme court bans teachers’ union elections Ma’an News Agency 3/27/2007 Qalqilia - The Palestinian Supreme Court on Tuesday ratified a decision prohibiting elections which the teachers’ union intended to hold next Thursday. The decision came after a request by the teachers’ general association. The spokesperson of the teachers’ union, Jamal As-Wayy denied the reports. He told Ma’an that no one from the society of teachers, the ministry of education and the ministry of interior was informed about the reports, which he depicted as rumours. Consequently, he affirmed that the elections will be carried out next Thursday. At the same time, a statement was distributed in the Gaza Strip by the government teachers calling to boycott the elections. [end] Poll: ’Palestinians feel Hamas has failed’ Jerusalem Post 3/26/2007 More than two thirds of Palestinians feel Hamas has failed at running the government, according to a poll conducted in the Gaza Strip, Israel Radio reported on Monday. Over half of those surveyed felt that Hamas gave up a significant part of the group’s election platform by joining the new unity government with Fatah. In addition, less than a quarter of those surveyed said they would vote for the party again if elections were held now. The poll also showed that nearly one third of Palestinians would emigrate to areas outside of the PA territories if they could. The survey was published by the An-Najah University in Nablus. [end] Association of teachers rejects call to form a teachers’ union Ma’an News Agency 3/26/2007 Bethlehem - Palestinian teachers on Monday depicted the call to elect a union for teachers in all Palestinian governorates as illegal and aiming to break teachers’ unity. The general secretary of the teachers’ association, Jamil Shahadah, told Ma’an that "this call is contradictory to what has been agreed upon between all blocs: to form 4 unions in 4 different sectors within the education ministry. We were surprised by the Islamic bloc calling for elections." Shahadah affirmed that the teachers’ association submitted a warrant to the Palestinian higher court to determine the legality of the call for elections. Students targeted during university elections campaign period Palestine News Network 3/12/2007 The Islamic Student Bloc of the Universities of Palestine issued a statement on behalf of its West Bank members condemning the arrest of 30 students from Jenin’s Arab American University this morning. “These campaigns are aimed primarily at weakening the body of the Islamic bloc in the Palestinian universities by putting its leaders in the occupation prisons, thus undermining its performance,” the student bloc wrote on Monday. Student council elections are planned for the near future in West Bank and Gaza Strip universities, the last period of which the Hamas party swept. Most of the students arrested today were members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. “It vexes the occupiers that the Islamic bloc plays such a important role in the universities. ”Israeli forces arrested another 15 students from the Islamic bloc at the Arab American University several days ago. PLC: Israel’s policy of abducting elected representatives is undemocratic Ma’an News Agency 3/7/2007 Khan Younis - The Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) affirmed on Wednesday that any new Palestinian government must lay precise and appropriate foundations for establishing a comprehensively efficient system. This system must take into account the security, economy and management of the Palestinian executive, judicial and legislative institutions. Once these institutions are run appropriately, they will then be able to accomplish the role they have to play in offering the Palestinian people the best service possible, the PLC said. In a statement commemorating Palestinian Democracy Day, the PLC said, "The PLC has for 11 years presented its role and activities on Palestinian Democracy Day; [the PLC] embodies the slogan of ’democracy is not ’doable’ without elections,’ which are the soul and unchangeable principles of democracy in Palestine." Israel responds cautiously to PA offer of truce for end to boycott Ha’aretz 3/7/2007 Israel responded cautiously Wednesday to a Palestinian offer for a complete cease-fire if Jerusalem supports an end to the international aid boycott imposed on the Palestinians following Hamas’ victory in the January 2006 parliamentary elections. A senior Hamas official told Haaretz on Tuesday that if Israel agrees to persuade the international community not to boycott the new Palestinian unity government, the Palestinians "will offer a promise from Hamas and Fatah of a total cease-fire with Israel, including a complete halt to Qassam [rocket] fire and suicide bombings." But said Prime Ehud Olmert’s spokeswoman Miri Eisen, "We need to see that you can actually implement the ceasefire [in Gaza] before we can consider an extension." Discord between the Palestinian health ministry and the union of Palestinian doctors Ma’an News Agency 3/7/2007 Gaza - Ma’an - Palestinian Minister of Health Dr. Bassem Naim has denied the accusations by the union of Palestinian doctors that he is trying to marginalize the role of the union in the international arena. Speaking to Ma’an via telephone, Dr. Naim described the union as "illegitimate" since it has not held any elections for seven years. Dr. Naim also described the head of the union as "illegal" since he formerly occupied the post of health minister and then he returned as head of the union without being elected by the union. Another point of contention has arisen regarding the examination which Palestinian doctors must take in order to qualify to practice their profession. The Palestinian health ministry has decided to take control of the supervision of this exam.  Articles
On Israel, America and AIPAC By George Soros, New York Review of Books 4/12/2007 The Bush administration is once again in the process of committing a major policy blunder in the Middle East, one that is liable to have disastrous consequences and is not receiving the attention it should. This time it concerns the Israeli–Palestinian relationship. The Bush administration is actively supporting the Israeli government in its refusal to recognize a Palestinian unity government that includes Hamas, which the US State Department considers a terrorist organization. This precludes any progress toward a peace settlement at a time when progress on the Palestinian problem could help avert a conflagration in the greater Middle East. The United States and Israel seek to deal only with the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, in the hope that new elections would deny Hamas the majority it now has in the Palestinian Legislative Council. This is a hopeless strategy because Hamas has said it would boycott early elections, and even if their outcome would result in Hamas’s exclusion from the government, no peace agreement would hold without Hamas’s support. In the meantime Saudi Arabia is pursuing a different path. In a February summit in Mecca between Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, the Saudi government worked out an agreement between Hamas and Fatah, which have been clashing violently, to form a national unity government. According to the Mecca accord, Hamas has agreed "to respect international resolutions and the agreements [with Israel] signed by the Palestinian Liberation Organization," including the Oslo Accords. According to press reports on March 15, the new government, like the present one, will be headed by Ismail Haniya, the Hamas prime minister, but Hamas will get nine of the government’s twenty-four ministries, as well as an additional minister without portfolio; President Abbas and his Fatah party will control six ministries, and independent representatives—some said to be under the control of Hamas or Fatah—and other political factions will fill the nine remaining ministries. After Mecca: Engaging Hamas International Crisis Group 2/28/2007 Executive Summary And Recommendations It has been a year since Hamas formed its government – and what a dismal year it has been. The Islamists thought they could govern without paying an ideological price, Fatah that it could swiftly push them aside and regain power. By imposing sanctions and boycotting the government, the Quartet (U.S., European Union (EU), Russia and UN) and Israel hoped to force Hamas to change or persuade the Palestinians to oust it. Washington promised security and economic aid to encourage Fatah to confront Hamas and help defeat it. The illusions have brought only grief. The 8 February 2007 Saudi-brokered Mecca Agreement between the Palestinian rivals offers the chance of a fresh start: for Hamas and Fatah to restore law and order and rein in militias; for Israelis and Palestinians to establish a comprehensive ceasefire and start a credible peace process; and for the Quartet (or at least those of its members inclined to do so) to adopt a more pragmatic attitude that judges a government of national unity by deeds, not rhetoric. The adjustment will not be comfortable for anyone. But the alternative is much worse. That Palestinians have wasted the past twelve months is difficult to contest. Treated as an international outcast and an intruder by much of the Fatah-aligned civil service and security forces, Hamas has been unable to govern. It has survived, and under these conditions survival is an impressive achievement. But it arguably is the only one. Fatah, obsessed with recovering power, has done virtually nothing to restore popular credibility and reform itself. Its periodic threats to call early elections or a referendum to unseat the Islamists exacerbated tensions without offering a way out of the stalemate. Palestinian Authority (PA) institutions are collapsing, law and order vanishing; relations between Hamas and Fatah deteriorated to near civil war. Israel and the Quartet also squandered the year. Sanctions did not achieve their objectives. The EU – justifiably reluctant to starve the Palestinian people – pumped more money into the PA but more ineffectively and less transparently. Years of investment in now decrepit Palestinian institutions have gone down the drain. Western commitment to democracy in the Middle East has been roundly discredited. Hamas, weakened but still strong, is not going away. Diplomacy has been non-existent, violence between Israelis and Palestinians continues, and there has been no movement on prisoner exchanges. By almost every conceivable standard – governance, security, economics, institution-building and the peace process – there has been only regression. -- See also: Full Report in MS-Word format and Full Report as PDF file in A4 format LinksAdalah Adalah (Justice in Arabic) is the first non-profit, non-sectarian Palestinian-run legal center in Israel. The main goal of Adalah’s work is to achieve equal rights and minority rights protections for Palestinian citizens of Israel. Addameer Prisoners’ Support and Human Rights Organization: Addameer (conscience) is a Palestinian non-governmental, civil institution which focuses on human rights issues. Supports Palestinian prisoners, advocates for rights of political prisoners, works to end torture. Amnesty International Amnesty International (AI) is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights. AI’s vision is of a world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards. Amnesty International USA Amnesty International (AI) is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights. AI’s vision is of a world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards. Arab Association for Human Rights - HRA The HRA was founded in 1988 to promote and protect the political, civil, economic, and cultural rights of the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel and to further the domestic implementation of international human rights principles. It is an independent non-governmental organisation registered in Israel. Association for Civil Rights in Israel - ACRI The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) was founded in 1972 as a non-political and independent body, with the goal of protecting human and civil rights in Israel and in the territories under Israeli control. B’tselem The Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch is an independent, nongovernmental organization, supported by contributions from private individuals and foundations worldwide. Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world. Occupation Prisoners News stories and reports about Palestinian prisoners from International Press Center, of the Palestinian National Authority’s State Information Service. Palestinian Centre for Human Rights The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) is an independent legal body based in Gaza City dedicated to protecting human rights, promoting the rule of law, and upholding democratic principles in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Palestinian Prisoners Society The Palestinian Prisoner Society is a social and human institution and its members are prisoners inside prisons and released prisoners. Membership is open to every Palestinian prisoner inside and outside prisons who meets the conditions of membership. Physicians for Human Rights - Israel Physicians for Human Rights - Israel (PHR-Israel) was established in 1988 as a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, dedicated to promoting and protecting the medical human rights of all residents of Israel and the Occupied Territories. Public Committee Against Torture in Israel - PCATI An independent human rights organization founded that monitors the implementation conditions in detention centers and continues the struggle against the use of torture in interrogation in Israel and the Palestinian Authority. United Nations Information System on the Question of Palestine The main collection contains the texts of current and historical United Nations material concerning the question of Palestine and other issues related to the Middle East situation and the search for peace. World Organisation Against Torture OMCT is today the largest international coalition of NGOs fighting against torture,summary executions, forced disappearances and all other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in order to preserve Human Rights. It has at its disposal a network, SOS Torture, consisting of some 240 non-governmental organisations which act as sources of information.
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