Mar
12
2015
By Daoud Kuttab
When “Mahmoud” won a scholarship to get his Ph.D. from a US university, he was ambivalent. After all, he had always been politically opposed to the Americans because of their foreign policy even though he was impressed by their democracy. In fact, Mahmoud, a lecturer on media ethics who asked to use a pseudonym because of the sensitivity of the subject, is not a big fan of the Palestinian president, and US ally, Mahmoud Abbas. Despite Mahmoud’s father having been a Fatah leader, he has generally voted for Hamas candidates in student council elections and did so as well in the decisive 2006 parliamentary elections, which Hamas swept, winning 74 of the 132 Palestinian Legislative Council seats.
After Mahmoud’s paperwork was finalized and his documents arrived from the United States, all that remained was an interview at the US Consulate General in Jerusalem, but there was a problem: Jerusalem was beyond the wall, and the only way to reach the city was to get a permit from Israel. Mahmoud and his wife applied for permits, and she was immediately approved. His application was held up; the requirements for security clearance for Palestinian women are usually much lower than those for men. As the interview neared, Mahmoud still had no permit. He began thinking about a plan B. A work colleague from Jerusalem offered to drive him into the city using the settler road, where soldiers don’t usually check every car, but that worried Mahmoud.
What would happen to his colleague if they were stopped? Would the US officials punish him if they found that he had been “smuggled” into the city? He had an official letter from the US Consulate showing that he had an interview, but friends told him that soldiers only accepted Israeli-issued permits in the city, which Israel unilaterally annexed following the 1967 war and subsequent occupation. Continue Reading »
Mar
12
2015
By Daoud Kuttab
A headline featured on the website of Al-Quds, a Palestinian daily, was very clear: “The decision of the Palestinian Central Council means the end of the Oslo era.†The headline was taken from a quote by council member Mustafa Barghouti of Al-Mubadara Party, following the conclusion of the council’s two-day meeting March 5.
But did the Palestinian Central Council really end the 1993 memorandum of understanding between Israel and the PLO, which is commonly referred to as the basis of the Oslo Accord?
The fifth clause of the council’s recent communique comprises six points and deals with Palestine’s relationship with Israel. The first point states that “Israel will be held responsible for the welfare of the Palestinian people as an occupying power according to international law.†The resolution’s most important point follows, calling for the “end of security coordination, in all its forms, with the Israeli occupying authorities, in light of its failure to adhere to the agreements signed between both parties.†Continue Reading »
Mar
12
2015
By Daoud Kuttab
Throughout history, liberation struggles have been waged inside prisons as much as outside them. When a national struggle stagnates, it is often the prisoners who remind the rest of the nation of the purpose and goals of their fight. February 2015 has proven to be an especially difficult month for Palestinians held in Israeli jails, in Ramon Prison in particular. Unlike other detention facilities, which have long descriptions and photos on the official Israel Prison Service website, Ramon Prison, located in the Negev Desert, only has a short description on its web page: “This prison is located on Ramon Mountain, right next to Nafha Prison. It was established in 2006 to keep security prisoners in custody.â€Â The security prisoners, that is, the 920 Palestinians being held there, are on the verge of initiating a major protest likely to spread throughout the prison system.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners Club, a nongovernmental organization focusing on the situation of Palestinian inmates, during the second half of February, Ramon experienced a sharp increase in tensions after the transfer of four prison leaders — Zeid Buseis, Ahed Abu Ghelmeh, Mohammed Muali and Jamal Abu al-Hijia — and other actions intended to forestall expected protests demanding an end to solitary confinement and administrative detentions.
In response, prisoners belonging to Islamic Jihad clashed Feb. 21 with guards attempting to enter Wing 4, where prisoners from the movement are held. Ramon is divided into seven wings with prisoners belonging to Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad clustered in one or more wings, depending on their numbers. Prisoners belonging to Hamas and Fatah have multiple wings, while unaffiliated prisoners are held in the remaining wings.
This led prison officials to place four Islamic Jihad prisoners in isolation cells. The following day, according to a Prisoners Club Report, Islamic Jihad inmates returned their food trays untouched and refused to participate in the prisoner count, conducted twice a day to ensure that no one has escaped. On Feb. 23, tensions further escalated when a prisoner from Gaza, Hamzeh Abu Sawwen, attacked a prison guard. In response, guards beat Abu Sawwen badly enough that he was taken to the prison hospital for treatment. Continue Reading »
Mar
12
2015
By Daoud Kuttab
The Feb. 24 shooting death of 19-year-old Palestinian Jihad al-Jaafari by Israeli troops may have killed the last remaining working feature of the Oslo Accord — the 21-year-old agreement for security coordination between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA).
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his security forces have been stubbornly resisting calls to end security coordination, which has been one of the key guarantors of Israeli security and continuity of the Palestinian government.
In the early morning hours of Feb. 24, Israeli military units entered the Dheisheh refugee camp, situated in Area A, under Palestinian security control. The camp is two kilometers (1.2 miles) south of the main headquarters of the Palestinian National Guard in Bethlehem. According to the Oslo Accord, Israelis army units are forbidden in the areas under Palestinian security control, but years of Israeli violations have produced a simple unwritten understanding that when Israeli troops arrive, Palestinian security forces withdraw from the scene, and the local population normally engages them, throwing stones at the well-armed soldiers. Continue Reading »
