By Daoud Kuttab

The Dec. 15 visit by US Secretary of State John Kerry was cut short because of inclement weather. But Kerry, who brought with him four-star Gen. George Allen, has enough time to pass on the bad news. After Allen presented the US-designed security plan for the eastern borders of the future Palestinian state, Kerry transmitted the bad news. The Israelis are insisting that Israeli boots will stay in the Jordan Valley for 10, 15 and maybe as many as 40 years, he reportedly said.

After Kerry left, and as has become routine, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called in what is often referred to as the “Palestinian leadership.” The loose term refers to trusted senior Palestinian officials, advisers and senior media personalities who are often debriefed and consulted with. If any Fatah Central Committee members are in Ramallah, they are usually invited, and some — but not all — PLO executive committee members are often welcomed to these meetings.

A senior official of the Rami Hamdallah government confirmed to Al-Monitor details of this meeting, saying that Abbas was livid about the Israeli offer transmitted via Kerry. The official, who asked not to be identified because of the understanding with Kerry that neither Palestinians nor Israelis are to publicly state the details of closed meetings, said that the Israeli offer shows their lack of seriousness. “They can’t expect Palestinians to wait another 40 years before Israeli soldiers would leave,” he said. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

Never in recent memory has any single issue or location unified Palestinians as much as the starvation of the besieged Yarmouk refugee camp just outside Damascus.

The camp, one of the biggest in Syria, has been a target of the internal Syrian conflict, with some opposition forces holed up inside and government forces keeping a tight siege on the camp.

For weeks, Palestine TV has been covering nonstop the siege of Yarmouk. Political leaders are paraded, news of the status of the food shipment updated every hour and a fund-raising campaign has also been initiated. The save Yarmouk drive was not confined to official Palestinian TV. Social media, local groups, demonstrators and communities inside Palestine and out and on both sides of the Syrian crisis have all been recruited to give attention to the besieged camp. The name Yarmouk was even publicly stated during the opening sessions of the Geneva II conference in Switzerland.

What is remarkable is that the save Yarmouk initiative has infiltrated all fields and has been adopted and picked up by political groups that have not seen eye to eye. While Fatah seems to be the lead faction paying attention to Yarmouk and its destiny, supporters of other Palestinian groups, including Hamas, have also joined the bandwagon, collecting donations and making public declarations. Palestinians and their supporters in Jordan, the Gulf and other diaspora locations have also experienced public rallies and fund-raising campaigns. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

Following appeared in the Jordan Times and Huffington Post

Jewish settlements in the occupied territories are illegal. The whole world has said so.

When the International Court of Justice in the Hague was asked for an opinion on the Israeli wall built deep into Palestinian territory, the ICJ reaffirmed that occupying powers are not allowed to take property or move their people to areas under occupation.

The illegality of settlements is clearly defined in the 4th Geneva Convention, made into humanitarian law after the relatively prolonged Nazi occupation of France. The Israeli occupation of Palestine since 1967 has lasted more than seven times the German occupation.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat was, therefore, totally justified when he told The Associated Press that no settler should remain in the state of Palestine as part of any peace deal.

Erekat was responding to a statement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which the latter stated that Jewish settlers currently living in the occupied territories could remain in their homes and live under Palestinian rule. The statement was later modified to make this issue a choice for Israeli settlers.

With the exception of Erekat, the Palestinian side was relatively silent, but Netanyahu’s bombshell left many political victims in his own ruling coalition. Continue Reading »