Dag: 9 maart 2014

TEL AVIV: Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Israeli Army Radio on Sunday, “the nature of Israel is something that should be defined by Israelis, not Palestinians.”

Erekat said Palestinians expected Israel to complete on March 28 the release of the final batch of 104 Palestinian prisoners it agreed to free as part of peace efforts.

“And then the negotiations are supposed to continue until April 29,” he said, referring to the end of the nine-month negotiating period originally envisaged by Kerry.

Reiterating another core Palestinian demand, Erekat said Israel must recognise a Palestinian state along the lines that existed before the 1967 Middle East war, in which Israeli forces captured the West Bank, Arab East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip.

Israeli Prime Benjamin Netanyahu said any peace deal with the Palestinians would take at least another year to negotiate should both sides accept US-proposed principles to keep talks going.

In an Israel Radio interview broadcast on Sunday, Netanyahu reiterated that he regarded guidelines that US Secretary of State John Kerry is drafting for a future deal as an “American document of American positions.”

Such a definition could give Netanyahu leeway to register reservations that could discourage staunch supporters of Jewish settlement in occupied land where Palestinians want to make their state from bolting his coalition.

“I think (the Kerry document) is a possible path towards moving the talks forward. It will take us at least a year to exhaust these negotiations but I can’t say that the Palestinians will accept this document, and I also have not seen it yet,” he said.

Netanyahu gave the interview on Thursday in Los Angeles, before flying back to Israel after a US visit that included White House talks with President Barack Obama.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is due to see Obama on March 17 to discuss the so-called “framework deal” aimed at salvaging the faltering negotiations, which began in July with a target date of April for a final agreement.

Abbas has rejected a core Netanyahu demand — recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. Palestinians fear such a condition will deny Palestinian refugees, who fled or were forced to flee their homes in Arab-Israeli wars, any right of return.

Israel has said a return to those boundaries would leave it with indefensible borders.

(Source / 09.03.2014)

The Israeli water company Jihon said on Friday that 80,000 Palestinians in East Jerusalem have been without water for more than three days.

In a statement Jihon said: “About 80,000 Palestinians in four Arab neighbourhoods in Jerusalem and its outskirts have been suffering from complete loss of water for three days.”

The Israeli company said that it would like to supply water for all consumers in Jerusalem, including Jewish and Arab citizens, but the water infrastructure in the Arab areas is decaying. It also said that the increasing number of inhabitants contributes to the problem.

Meanwhile, the Arab inhabitants at the Palestinian refugee camps of Su’fat, RasKhamis and Ras Shihadeh, as well as Al-Salam Suburb, said they have been suffering from a complete water shortage for several days.

The residents said in a statement issued on Saturday that tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees and citizens in the three residential gatherings in Jerusalem have been without water since the beginning of last week.

According to the statement the Palestinians said that they did not know the reason why the water supply stopped.

The statement also blamed the company Jihon, which is the only body that has a permit to supply water to Jerusalem, for the water shortages. “It started reducing water portions two weeks ago,” the statement said. “And in the end it completely stopped the water.”

Deputy head of the Popular Committee in Su’fat Refugee Camp, Khalid al-Khaldi said: “There are about 23,000 Palestinian refugees and citizens in the camp and they have not had water for three days. In Ras Shihadeh, there has been no water for 20 days.”

He reiterated that there has been no water in Ras Khamis and Al-Salam Suburb for a long time either.

Al-Khaldi blamed the UNRWA, which is responsible for the Palestinian refugees, for the water problem. He called for it to immediately move to solve the problem.

(Source / 09.03.2014)

Events to mark ‘International Women’s Day’ began in earnest in Palestine on March 6th as women from various movements and organisations staged a small demonstration outside the entrance to Yasser Arafat’s tomb at al-Muqata’ in Ramallah. The event which was called for by a coalition of women’s groups in the city demanded full equality for women under law and in practice in Palestine. Palestine Authority police and plain clothes security officers requested that the protesters move away from the presidential compound and in to the city centre but the demonstrators refused to be moved as they exercised their rights to protest which should be the norm in any society.

On March 8th – the day celebrated as ‘International Women’s Day’ globally – a much larger protest gathered at the entrance to Qalandia refugee camp on the outskirts of Ramallah and made its way towards Jerusalem. Organisers said the protest would attempt to pass the checkpoint and reach Jerusalem although upon reaching Qalandia checkpoint and the Apartheid Wall it was met with a violent response from the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) who fired large amounts of tear gas and percussion grenades at the non-violent march. Palestinian flags were hung on the fences of the checkpoint and some Palestinian youth as well as women responded to the tear gas by throwing stones at the IOF.

For women in Palestine these two events are only the start of many being held across Palestine in the coming days. The demand for full gender equality and women’s rights within Palestinian society and the collective demands of all Palestinian people for liberation will be highlighted jointly during these events.

Some 4600 Palestinian detainees, including 12 women and 187 children, are currently held in Israeli prisons