Dec
18
2015
By Daoud Kuttab
A member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee has predicted that a possible decision to suspend security and economic ties with Israel will make it impossible for the Palestinian National Council (PNC) to hold a meeting planned for next February.
 Hanna Amireh told Al-Monitor that plans are set to hold the Palestinian parliament in exile late February or early March 2016. “But if certain decisions are made, especially in relation to security and economic relations with Israel, then it is unlikely that the PNC will meet,” he said. “Israel will most likely take measures that will prevent us from having enough people to attend, and as a result we will not have a quorum.â€
Amireh, who is also a member of the political bureau of the Palestinian People’s Party, said that hard choices regarding security cooperation with Israel have not yet been fully agreed on out of fear of Israeli retribution. He told Al-Monitor, “There are some, for example, who expect that Israel will place a full siege on all Palestinian areas and separate them from each other and that Israel will confiscate all Palestinian funds, which are the right of the Palestinian people, and that the Israeli army will reoccupy all areas.â€
He said that it is unlikely that Hamas and Islamic Jihad members will attend the upcoming meetings because of the unresolved conflict between the leading Palestinian groups, and noted that the Palestinians are planning to decide soon on going to the UN Security Council with a new resolution through the Arab League.
The full text of the interview with Amireh follows: Continue Reading »
Dec
14
2015
By Daoud Kuttab
The European Commission’s Nov. 11 “interpretive noticeâ€Â clarifying “the application of existing [European] Union legislation on indication of origin of products to products originating in Israeli-occupied territories†was not arrived at quickly or easily. In fact, it dates back to the mid-1980s.
In 1986, the issue had involved the legalities of how a Palestinian manufacturer in Ramallah couldÂ
export its products to the European Economic Community (EEC), the EU’s predecessor. In 1995, the question arose as to why EU customs officials were failing to collect duties on Israeli settlement products because the settlements were not considered part of Israel, which had a preferential trade agreement with the EU. In 2012, discussion revolved around whether EU law permitted EU-funded support to activities and operations in settlements. The product labeling issue then became one of how the origin of items produced in Israeli settlements should be accurately identified — as all products must be under EU law — so as not to mislead European consumers.
Years of quiet and persistent action and advocacy dating back to 1984 paved the way for today’s notice. Around that time, some Palestinians had begun thinking about the value of exports. Among them was Charles Shamas, a lingerie manufacturer in Ramallah who approached the EEC about exporting his products to Europe. Now a senior partner with the Ramallah-based Mattin Group, Shamas spoke at length with Al-Monitor about the progression leading to the current labeling guidelines. Continue Reading »
Dec
10
2015
By Daoud Kuttab
Members of Jerusalem’s small Coptic Christian community were thoroughly surprised when the leader of the worldwide Coptic Orthodox Church broke a papal-imposed boycott and visited them. The arrival of Pope Tawadros II followed the death of Bishop Anba Abraham, the longtime spiritual leader of the Coptic church in Jerusalem and Palestine. The pope officiated at the funeral service held Nov. 28 in Jerusalem, where the bishop had requested to be buried.
Abraham, who became a priest in Egypt in 1990 and was appointed to head the Church of the Holy Land in 1992, died Nov. 25 at the age of 72. Church officials told Al-Monitor that given the high rank of the bishop in the church, his funeral service could not be performed by priests or even bishops of the same rank — only by Tawadros.
For the past 30 some years, the spiritual leadership of the Coptic church has banned visits to occupied Jerusalem. This came about in part because in 1970 the Israeli police allowed monks from the rival Ethiopian Church to take over the Deir es-Sultan Monastery, located on the roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. At the time, the Israelis were involved in a war of attrition, and Ethiopia was an Israeli ally. The situation has remained unchanged, despite the 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. Continue Reading »
Dec
09
2015
By Daoud Kuttab
The 8th Forum for Arab Investigative Journalists organised by Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ), concluded this week in Amman with a gala dinner where the winners of the 2015 ARIJ Prize for best investigation in print and video categories were announced.
The second prize in the short-form Film Category went to the Palestinian duo Karim Asakreh and Bassam Elroumi for “Hydro: Death Sentence Covered by Lawâ€.Â
For a people and a country under military occupation for almost a half a century one would expect that journalists would be investigating issues related to the Israeli occupation. In past years the reporters have won prizes for investigations related to settlements and the Israeli occupation rather than an internal Palestinian issue like the growing use of a particularly dangerous drug.
The change in direction in Palestine is not coincidental. In talks with a number of young reporters, one gets the feeling that they have largely lost hope in the two-state solution and the peace process, and they have clearly lost hope with the existing leadership, which seems totally out of sync with the aspirations and desires of young Palestinians who constitute the majority of the population. Continue Reading »
Dec
03
2015
By Daoud Kuttab
Hamadeh Faraneh, member of the Palestinian National Council (PNC), caused a firestorm Nov. 30 by revealing that Egypt has been working with the Palestinian president on advancing a four-point road map that includes internal unity within Fatah, reconciliation with Hamas, reconstruction of the Palestine Liberation Organization and general elections.
Faraneh, a former Jordanian member of parliament and who is also a member of the Palestinian Central Council (PCC) and is privy to internal Palestinian politics, spoke to Al-Monitor in his home in Amman about the Egyptian initiative and the reaction of various Palestinian groups to it. Reaction was mixed to an article seen as attempting to encourage the Palestinian leadership to face reality. “No one has denied the details of the contents [of the Ad-Dustour article Faraneh wrote Nov. 30],†he said.
“Some have called me saying it is true, but that it shouldn’t have been published,â€Â Faraneh told Al-Monitor. “Egyptian officials were unhappy, although they were appreciative of the [comprehensive nature of the article]. What I did is put everyone to face their own reality in a strong way.†Continue Reading »
Dec
02
2015
By Daoud Kuttab
IÂ still remember the early days in 1984 in East Jerusalem. I was a member of a Palestinian theatre company when we were fortunate enough to be able to give a physical home to Al Hakawati troupe.
We thought the building could be both a home for our company and a theatre for Palestinians.
A grant from the mayor of Nablus at the time, Zafer Al Masri, helped us buy the lighting equipment; most of the rest of the work was physical.
We had taken over the burnt-out Nuzha theatre, which had been destroyed from the inside, reportedly for screening lewd movies. To honour the tradition, we called it the Nuzha/Hakawati theatre.
Later we called it the Palestinian National Theatre, but the only name that stuck was the name of the original troupe that established it, Al Hakawati.
This week, the manager of this Palestinian theatre received a hefty Israeli municipal tax bill which is threatening to close this important cultural centre. Continue Reading »
Nov
30
2015
By Daoud Kuttab
During November, the Israeli army confiscated broadcasting equipment and closed three Palestinian radio stations in the Hebron area. While the unprecedented move coincided with the increase in anti-Israeli attacks in the Hebron area, this action against private media reveals a change in Israeli policy.
Until November 2015,
Israel has blamed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the official media, Palestine Radio and TV, with incitement to violence. No proof was ever given by the Israelis to substantiate the accusations against the official Palestinian media.
The attacks against the commercial private Palestinian stations began in the early hours of Nov. 3. Ayman al-Qawasmi, chairman of Manbar al-Huriya radio station, reported to the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) the details of what happened: “Thirteen Israeli patrols surrounded the headquarters of the radio station, which is located in the Harizat building near the traffic department in Hebron. At approximately 1:50 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2015, dozens of IOF [Israeli Occupying Forces] raided the office and searched it, stopped the broadcasting, confiscated broadcasting equipment and carried out destruction to several equipment [such] as [computers, microphones, mixers rather than the furniture and the decor of the office].†Continue Reading »
Nov
18
2015
By Daoud Kuttab
Palestinians and Arabs are still unsure about what to call the protest activities that began on the eve of the Jewish New Year on Sept. 13, 2015. Since then, 89 Palestinians and 12 Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers have been killed and many more injured.
After the 1987 first intifada and the 2000 second intifada, it has taken pundits and politicians some time to decide whether what we are witnessing today is a full-blown uprising, or intifada in Palestinian terminology, or simply short, popular outbursts of protests, what Palestinians call “habbeh jamaherieh” in Arabic.
The differences have followed the split within the Palestinian movement with pro-Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas media and politicians calling it habbeh, while pro-Hamas leaders and media are calling it an Al-Quds intifada or Al-Aqsa intifada.
Mohammad Omar, a leading Jordanian media expert and the editor of the Pan-Arab website Al-Bawaba, told Al-Monitor that it is hard to differentiate between the two terms. “What is accepted throughout the Arab world is that the habbeh, or outburst, is usually a reaction, is short winded and doesn’t usually include unified effort,†he explained. Continue Reading »
Nov
18
2015
By Daoud Kuttab
In fighting the scourge of radicalism and religious fundamentalism, one of the strategies is to use religion.
Proponents of this approach vary from those who insist that Daesh and its ideology is simply built on a warped understanding of religion to those who say that the best way to fight religious fundamentalism is by promoting religious moderation as the effective way of combating dark and deadly ideology.
Both ideas have an inherent problem in them.
Playing the game of the radicals and terrorists is unlikely to solve anything.
The fact is that any religious text is easily amenable to interpretation, which means that anyone can find a text to support his/her position.
It is very easy to take a text out of context in order to support a particular point of view.
Yousef Rababaa, a Jordanian professor at Philadelphia University, north of Amman, argues forcefully against the efforts of Jordan TV to fight religious radicalism by using religion.
In an article recently published on AmmanNet, titled “Fighting radicalism with radicalismâ€, he argues that radicals will always win if you argue with them, simply on the basis of religious text. Continue Reading »
Nov
16
2015
By Daoud Kuttab
Senior Palestinian leader Maj. Gen. Jibril Rajoub told Al-Monitor on Nov. 13 that the Fatah Central Committee and other factions are opposed to turning the current uprising into a military one. “There is a decision by all Palestinian factions not to militarize the popular struggle. We want to send a civilized message to the world that military occupation and colonial settlement is the real terrorism and that its continuation is a danger to them as well,†Rajoub said.
 The leading member of the Fatah Central Committee and a
possible successor to Mahmoud Abbas, 81, praised imprisoned leader Marwan Barghouti, but stopped short of endorsing him for a senior position while in jail. “Marwan is a great Fatah leader and, along with him, there are many other leaders and fellow legislators in prison. I don’t think this is a priority issue on our agenda,†he said.
Rajoub spoke powerfully about the need for unity among Palestinians and blamed Hamas for the delay in implementing the reconciliation agreement. “I tell you in the name of Fatah that we are genuinely in favor of doing everything possible to form a national unity [government] with Hamas. Our goal is to reach a strategic agreement on the basis of any future peace agreement,†he told Al-Monitor. Continue Reading »
