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Elections Archive - March 2008
Elections Archive - March 2008
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for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel Elections Archive - March 2008 |
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Halabeyya: IOA Cancellation of MPs residency permits in O. Jerusalem illegal Palestinian Information Center 3/27/2008 GAZA, (PIC)-- Rapporteur of the Quds committee in the PA legislative MP Dr. Ahmad Abu Halabeyya has strongly condemned the Israeli decision of canceling the residency permit of three Jerusalemite lawmakers Dr. Mohammed Tutah, Mohammed Abutair, Ahmad Attun, and former Jerusalem affairs’ minister Khaled Arafa. Halabeyya also described the decision of the Israeli Ofer military court as "unjust, repressive, and politically motivated" that aims at driving Palestinian Jerusalemites out of the holy city in preparation to Judaize it. "The decision constitutes strong violation of human rights in occupied Palestine, in general, and in the occupied city of Jerusalem in particular and it puts additional psychological pressures on the Palestinian people", Halabeyya added. The three Palestinian MPs won their seats in the PLC through clean, transparent, and honest general elections under the banner of Hamas Movement. Israel confiscating identity of Jerusalemites Palestine News Network 3/23/2008 Jerusalem / PNN -- Taking away the Jerusalem citizenship of elected members of Palestinian Legislative Council is another step in the process of "ethnic cleansing," as Presidents Abbas and dozens of others have said of the situation in the city - The Israeli government and its military court renewed the announcements to confiscate the identity of PLC Vice President in Jerusalem, the Minister of Jerusalem of Affairs, and 100 other PLC members currently in Israeli prisons. After the last PLC elections, Israeli forces began arresting its members. Four are from the Fateh party, one from the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the rest from Hamas. Attorney Fadi Qawasmi stressed that there is nothing in even Israeli law that provides a reasonable defense for confiscated the identities, the citizenship, of entrusted members of the Palestinian government, its Legislative Council members and Ministers. Israel threatens to sever relations with PA if Palestinian unity talks succeed Saed Bannoura, International Middle East Media Center 3/24/2008 According to Israeli sources, top officials in the Israeli government have threatened to cut all ties with the Palestinian Authority if a ’national unity’ agreement is made between Palestinian factions. "If Abbas decided to return to a unity government with Hamas, Israel would not carry out negotiations with him and would stop the talks on the permanent status", said an unnamed source from the Israeli government, on Israeli army radio Monday. The source was referring to talks between the major political factions in the Palestinian territories, Hamas and Fateh, that are currently ongoing since Sunday. The Hamas party was elected in democratic elections in 2006 to head the Palestinian government. But Israel and the United States refused to recognize the results of the election, claiming that Hamas is a "terrorist" organization. Behind the scenes at Sanaa, bargaining and concessions on both sides Ma’an News Agency 3/24/2008 Bethlehem – Ma’an – Hamas acquiesced to pressure from the Yemeni president to hold early elections in Palestinian in exchange for a pledge from Fatah that the governments of both the West Bank and Gaza would be restructured, Hamas-affiliated sources told the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper. Those are just some of the reported details of the intense negotiations that have emerged since the announcement that Hamas and Fatah signed a Yemeni-brokered agreement to resume talks aimed at restoring Palestinian unity. Crucially, Al-Hayat reported, the term "Hamas coup against the Palestinian Authority (PA)," was removed, so that the document called for "resuming dialogue to restore the Palestinian situation as it was before the events in Gaza as part of maintaining national unity in the Palestinian territories. Aqsa Khatib denounces statements of American presidential candidate Palestinian Information Center 3/22/2008 OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Sheikh Ekrema Sabri, the chairman of the higher Islamic authority, has denounced statements voiced by US republican presidential candidate John McCain during his visit to the Hebrew state in which he announced he would recognize Jerusalem as capital of Israel if he won the elections. Sabri, addressing the Friday congregation in the holy Aqsa Mosque, said that the American candidate’s statements, which also included his clear backing to military escalation against Gaza, were unacceptable. Such statements are "aggressive and inhuman", the Sheikh charged, adding that McCain’s statements infringed on Palestinian legitimate rights and did not care less about the innocent lives that would be lost in any Israeli military escalation against Gaza. Meanwhile, shifting to the internal-Palestinian discord, he urged Palestinian media to stop hostile campaigns especially. Hamas: No hope for change in American strategy towards Arab-Israeli conflict Palestinian Information Center 3/20/2008 GAZA, (PIC)-- The Hamas Movement strongly denounced the statements of John McCain, the republican party candidate for the presidential elections in the USA, in which he considered occupied Jerusalem as the capital of the Hebrew state. Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, underlined that these statements reflects the American strategy which is biased in favor of Israel against the rights of the Palestinian people. Abu Zuhri also stated that these statements and similar ones made earlier by Barack Obama, a democratic party hopeful, confirms that there is no hope that any American administration would change its strategy towards the Arab-Israeli conflict. Republican senator McCain had announced in statements in the Jordanian capital Amman that he recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Bahar: The democracy pretenders conspired against the PLC Palestinian Information Center 3/20/2008 GAZA, (PIC)-- Dr. Ahmed Bahar, the acting speaker of the PLC, stated Wednesday that the democracy pretenders who testified to the fairness of the Palestinian democratic elections along with the Israeli occupation and its allies in the PA security apparatuses conspired against the PLC through kidnapping more than 45 MPs and putting them in Israeli jails. During the open meeting held by the independent Palestinian commission for citizen’s rights, Dr. Bahar underlined that in spite of this conspiracy, the council succeeded in holding 19 sessions during the first year and approved 32 bills in the same year, the most important of them were the prohibition of torture and the prosecution of Israel for its crimes against the Palestinian citizens. In response to those who question the performance of the PLC, Marwan Abu Ras, a member of the Hamas parliamentary bloc, said that the present council. . . Feature-Fatah seeks new blood in bid for Palestinian state Mohammed Assadi, ReliefWeb 3/20/2008 RAMALLAH, West Bank, March 20 (Reuters) - The once-dominant Fatah faction is looking for younger members as it struggles to draw popular support from its Islamist rival Hamas, and overcome deadlock in Palestinian peace efforts with Israel. With a survey earlier this week showing support waning for Fatah’s leader, President Mahmoud Abbas, the U. S. -backed Palestinian leadership in the West Bank is bidding to recover its political viability. "We don’t want members whose pockets are filled with medications. We want an infusion of new blood," said Qaddoura Fares, a member of Fatah who calls for reforming the group, in disarray since its shock loss of legislative elections to Hamas Islamists in January 2006. Abbas is widely expected to convene select members this year, for the first time since 1989, for internal votes at which a "young guard" of grassroots leaders will try to win posts in two key decision-making bodies. News in Brief I Ha’aretz 3/19/2008 IAF strike wounds 12 Palestinians in Gaza At least 12 Palestinians were wounded in an Israel Air Force strike on a car carrying four Islamic Jihad militants in the northern Gaza Strip yesterday. The strike wounded the four militants, one of whom was critically hurt. Also yesterday, Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzuk said his organization had sent a delegation to Yemen to receive that country’s proposal for a reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah. The proposal calls to return the situation in Gaza to that which existed before Hamas’ takeover of the Strip last June. Another clause calls for PA early elections. To date, the proposal has been accepted by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas but rejected by Hamas. (Avi Issacharoff) Some 15,000 children from the Negev region will be given 50- to 90-percent discounts on extracurricular activities and courses, it was announced yesterday. Hamas accepts Yemen reconciliation initiative Reuters, YNetNews 3/18/2008 Hamas, Fatah agree to initiative calling for new Palestinian elections; ’dispute isn’t between Fatah and Hamas, it’s between action factions and Hamas,’ says Abbas aide -Fatah officials said Tuesday they were ready to begin a Palestinian national dialogue if the rivalHamas faction accepts the terms of a Yemeni initiative to end hostilities between them. "The dispute is not between Fatah and Hamas. . . It is between all the national action factions and Hamas. "Hamas has been singled out from the start when it used armed force," senior Abbas aide Azzam al-Ahmed told reporters in Yemen. A top Hamas official said later that his group was ready to accept a Yemeni initiative for reconciliation with the rival Fatah, but did not say if that means it accepts to relinquish its grip over the Gaza strip. Jailed Barghouti mulls running for Palestinian presidency Avi Issacharoff, Ha’aretz 3/18/2008 Jailed Tanzim leader Marwan Barghouti said Monday that he is considering running for the Palestinian Authority presidency in the next elections that are expected to take place in 2009 or 2010. "When the date of the elections is decided, I will make my decision," Barghouti said in a message he passed on to his attorney. Barghouti’s comments came only a few hours after a poll showed that the Israel Defense Forces attacks in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip have boosted the popularity of the Islamist group’s leader Ismail Haniyeh among Palestinians in that territory and in the West Bank. The survey by the West Bank-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research showed that if new presidential elections were held, Haniyeh would receive 47 percent of the vote compared with 46 percent for President Mahmoud Abbas of the rival Fatah faction. Poll: Hamas leader’s popularity rises Reuters, YNetNews 3/17/2008 Palestinian Centre for Policy’s survey shows Hamas support on rise as group’s leader Ismail Haniyeh gets 47% of the votes on Palestinian street, Palestinian president’s 56% approval rate drops to 46% - Israeli attacks in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip have boosted the popularity of the Islamist group’s leader Ismail Haniyeh among Palestinians in the territory and in the West Bank, according to a poll on Monday. The survey by the West Bank-based Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research showed that if new presidential elections were held, Haniyeh would receive 47% of the vote compared with 46% for President Mahmoud Abbasof the rival Fatah faction. The figures represented a sharp strengthening of Haniyeh’s popularity. He served as prime minister in the Hamas-led government Abbas dismissed after Hamas seizedthe Gaza Strip from Fatah in June. Dalima calls on Israel to negotiate with Hamas Palestinian Information Center 3/15/2008 ROME, (PIC)-- Italian foreign minister Massimo Dalima has called on Israel for the second time in a week to consider opening dialogue with the Hamas Movement if it was really concerned with having peace. The minister was speaking during an interview with an Italian TV network a couple of days ago, and said that Hamas controls a big part of Palestinian lands. He added that if "we want peace we should include those who represent a big portion of the Palestinian people in the negotiations". "Let’s not forget that Hamas won in the elections," Dalima said, adding that negotiations are usually held between "enemies and not friends". For his part, the Israeli ambassador to Italy said that his government was not pondering holding talks with Hamas at present as long as that Movement did not change its position and accept the quartet’s conditions. Amos Oz: Left wing can return to power in next elections Mazal Mualem, Ha’aretz 3/10/2008 The Israeli left wing has a chance to win the next general elections, Israeli author Amos Oz told attendees at a rally for MK Haim Oron, who is running for the chairmanship of the left-wing Meretz Party. Oz stated that the greatest challenge facing the left wing is convincing the public that there is a direct link between the occupation and poverty in Israel." Poverty is gnawing at the country. We have an impoverished country, running from Gadera to the South and from Hadera to the North. Our real enemy is not the right wing, it? s fatigue and desperation, the feeling that there is nothing we can do," Oz stated. Oz added that "more and more Israelis are fed up with the right wing, the settlements, and have come to the conclusion that enough is enough." In regard to the Palestinians, Oz stated that presently there are two Palestinian entities developing, one in the West Bank and one in Gaza, and that Israel must reach a peace agreement with both. Nazzal: Hamas possess strong evidence to indict Dahalan over Gaza events Palestinian Information Center 3/6/2008 DAMASCUS, (PIC)-- Senior Hamas political leader Mohammed Nazzal has affirmed on Thursday Hamas Movement posses "amazing" evidence on the role of Mohammed Dahalan in carrying out an Israeli-US scheme to oust Hamas from power after it won the elections. According to Nazzal, who is also a member of Hamas’s political bureau, the news revealed by an American news paper a couple of days ago which unveiled a secret plan concocted by the US administration purposely to ignite a Palestinian civil war were supporting Hamas’s claims that the Movement was defending itself and its cadres when it decided to put an end to Dahalan’s mutiny trend in Gaza last June. In press statements he made, Nazzal asserted "They (Dahalan and his mercenaries) were working for Israel and US interests [against the interests of their own people. MP Mariam Saleh to stand trial at Israeli high court Palestinian Information Center 3/5/2008 NABLUS, (PIC)-- The lawyer of the Nafha society defending human and prisoners’ rights said on Wednesday that the Israeli high court in occupied Jerusalem is to open a hearing into the case of detained Palestinian MP Dr. Mariam Saleh on Thursday. The society described the trial as a "trial of legitimacy and democracy and a flagrant intervention in the results of the elections in January 2006". It accused occupation of committing war crimes then trying to cover them up. The society appealed to journalists, Arab members of the Israeli parliament and the Jerusalem inhabitants to head to the court and to express solidarity with the detained female MP along with the detention without trial or charge of 51 other Palestinian deputies and ex-ministers. Saleh was arrested from her home in Ramallah on 12/11/2007 after savagely breaking into it.  Articles
Anti-Arab racism and incitement in Israel Ali Abunimah, Electronic Intifada 3/30/2008 A prominent strategy of Israeli hasbara, or official propaganda, is to deflect criticism of its actions in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip by stressing that within the country’s 1948 boundaries, it is a model democracy comparable to the societies in Western Europe and North America with which it identifies and on whose diplomatic support it relies to maintain a favorable status quo. In fact, Israeli society is in the grip of a wave of unchecked racism and incitement that seriously threatens Israel’s Palestinian community and the long-term prospects for regional peace. This briefing examines societal and institutional racism and incitement by public figures against Israel’s Arab population and considers some policy implications. Background and context When Israel was established in 1948, most of the indigenous Palestinian inhabitants were driven out or fled from the area that became Israel. Approximately 150,000 Palestinians remained behind. Until 1966, these Palestinians lived under martial law. Today, having increased in number to approximately 1.3 million or about one fifth of Israel’s population (not including the Palestinian population of occupied East Jerusalem), they are citizens of the state of Israel and can vote in elections for the Knesset. Despite this, most view themselves as second-class citizens. As indigenous non-Jews in a self-described Jewish state, they face a host of systematic social, legal, economic and educational barriers to equality. Israel lacks a constitution and has no other basic law guaranteeing equal rights to all citizens regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or national origin. Settling for less? Akiva Eldar, Ha’aretz 3/27/2008 A pungent aroma of hot coals filled the small car that passed the checkpoint and then sped up the road to the settlement of Mevo Dotan. On both sides of the twisting road, small bonfires cast a bit of light on a row of shabby homes. Benny Raz, from the Bayit Ehad (One Home) organization, stepped on the gas and passed a battered Subaru with Palestinian license plates. Raz, a resident of the Karnei Shomron settlement whose organization is promoting the passage of an "evacuation-compensation" law for the settlers living on the eastern side of the security fence, explained that we were passing through the village of Yabad. The villagers make a living by producing coals for barbecues, but they sometimes also engage in less-friendly fire. Four settlers have been murdered on this road in recent years. No one is counting the number of people hurt by stones being thrown at their cars. Men and women travel the road with weapons on their knees, at the ready. Relatives of the settlers stay away, as though the place were a leper colony. The 49 families who remain in Mevo Dotan do not have a "bypass road." Why waste money on building one? On the eve of the last elections, which Ehud Olmert won on the wings of the magic word "convergence," the settlement’s residents were ready to leave. They remember that cabinet minister Gideon Ezra, a member of Olmert’s Kadima party, came to visit and suggested that they "stop watering the gardens." The evacuation was just a matter of time then - and residents believed it wasn’t a matter of a lot of time. Bay of Pigs in Gaza Tom Segev, Ha’aretz 3/13/2008 One day in the fall of 2006, the U.S. consul general in Jerusalem, Jake Walles, went to Ramallah to meet with Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen). As diplomats do, he took with him a document known as "talking points" - a prepared memo listing the main elements of what he was going to tell the Palestinian leader. For some reason, perhaps by accident, Walles left the document behind when he left, with the result that the American monthly Vanity Fair is able to publish a first draft of a chapter in the history of the rise of Hamas and its takeover of the Gaza Strip. (The article can be accessed at www.vanityfair.com under "The Gaza Bombshell" in the April 2008 issue.) According to the paper left behind by the consul general, he wanted to pressure Abu Mazen to take action that would annul the outcome of the elections that had catapulted Hamas to power. The author of the article, David Rose, reminds his readers that President George W. Bush had pressed for the elections to be held, contrary to the advice of several experts, who warned that Hamas would emerge from them strengthened. But Bush wanted democracy. Now he effectively wanted Abu Mazen to cancel the elections in retrospect. Canada’s Response to Israel’s Actions in Gaza Jim Miles, Middle East Online 3/5/2008 Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier issued a news release expressing his concern about the escalating violence in the Gaza Strip.It does nothing to help resolve the situation and only demonstrates that the Canadian government is only putting out more face-saving rhetoric for the international community and to placate the home crowd with platitudes about the non-existent peace process.It is an empty statement, devoid of any real suggestions to improve the situation in Gaza. Language is all important within his statement.While he “deplores” the actions of Hamas, Israeli actions - which have resulted in far more misery and deaths – receive only the approbation that we are “very concerned about the impact” of Israeli actions.More language continues the bias.While the Hamas personnel are “terrorists” the Israelis are only defenders with a “clear right to defend itself." The Canadian government does not recognize, and was one of the first to deny, that Hamas won the Palestinian elections with a clear majority in elections regarded globally as being one of the fairest ever presented. Good Morning, Hamas Uri Avnery, Middle East Online 3/2/2008 We Israelis live in a world of ghosts and monsters. We do not conduct a war against living persons and real organizations, but against devils and demons which are out to destroy us. It is a war between the Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness, between absolute good and absolute evil. That’s how it looks to us, and that’s how it looks to the other side, too. Let’s try to bring this war down from virtual spheres to the solid ground of reality. There can be no reasonable policy, nor even rational discussion, if we do not escape from the realm of horrors and nightmares. After the Hamas victory in the Palestinian elections, Gush Shalom said that we must speak with them. Here are some of the questions that were showered on me from all sides: Do you like Hamas? Not at all. I have very strong secular convictionI. I oppose any ideology that mixes politics with religion - whether Jewish, Muslim or Christian, in Israel, the Arab world or America. Kosovo and Palestine: Why Different Standards? Walid Awad, MIFTAH 3/1/2008 In July 2000, President Clinton, at the insistence of Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Barak, invited President Arafat and Barak to Camp David. In less than two weeks of intensive negotiations, Clinton expected Arafat and Barak to arrive at a solution to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Incomplete progress was achieved at Camp David, but an agreement was not. Follow-up negotiations resumed in the months ahead, and by January 2001 an agreement was reached, but as far as Clinton and Barak were concerned, it was too late. Clinton evacuated the White House, and Barak lost the elections in Israel. Ariel Sharon, who worked relentlessly to sabotage all peacemaking efforts between Israel and the PLO after Oslo, assumed office in Israel and the intifada against the Israeli occupation intensified. Much blood has been spilled since then, but two more nonofficial “peace” agreements between Israelis and Palestinians were worked out — the Geneva agreement between Yaser Abed Rabbo and Yossi Beilin, and another one between Sari Nussiebeh, currently head of Al-Quds University, and Ami Ayalon, a minister in the current Israeli government. Outlines, frameworks, and parameters, call them what you wish, for solving the conflict were reached between the sides after Oslo, but never formally or officially adopted or signed. 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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