By Daoud Kuttab

Closed-circuit cameras have always been part of Israel’s high-tech approach to security, but in recent months, the presence of cameras and Palestinians’ use of cell phones have come back to haunt the Israeli security establishment.

A security camera perched on top of the store owned by Hussein Abu Khdeir provided key evidence in the kidnapping and murder of his son Mohammed, showing the Israelis involved and the car in which they abducted him. It was a cell phone camera that captured Israeli policemen beating Mohammed’s subdued 15-year-old Palestinian-American cousin, Tariq, who was visiting Jerusalem, on vacation from Tampa, Florida.

A month ago, Israeli officials and spokesmen were caught off guard on May 15, when a security camera atop a carpentry shop captured Israeli soldiers’ unprovoked shooting of two Palestinian school boys in the Beitunia area. Israeli officials, believing that there were no cameras at the site, claimed that the soldiers had not used live bullets and that those shot with rubber bullets had been throwing stones at soldiers. Autopsies and the security camera exposed their attempts to falsify reality. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

The Rev. Atallah Issawi, pastor of a Protestant church in the West Bank village of Aboud, and his wife, Hilda, were driving home the night of July 5 after attending a wedding in Ramallah. Issawi’s church, along with an excellent private school in their predominantly Christian village, had been established by missionaries from the US-based Church of God in the 1960s. Traveling with the Issawis was another couple, Rev. Musa Allawi and his wife, Palestinian citizens of Israel from Ramleh.

The four passed an Israeli army checkpoint, where they were told to be careful because a group of angry settlers was roaming around. After continuing on their way, they fell into a trap and were ambushed by stone-throwing settlers.

Issawi told Al-Monitor that he felt that he was about to be killed. The Palestinians managed to speed away, despite a broken windshield and other damage to the car. All the passengers escaped injury and worse. The settlers followed them but quit the chase when the Palestinians found refuge in the nearby village of Deir Abu Mishaal. Palestinian residents there protected and comforted the travelers while they waited a few hours for the Israeli army to decide to respond to the settlers’ hooliganism and order them off the roads.

Such settler attacks are occurring alongside officially sanctioned Israeli army roundups of Palestinians, including parliamentarians. The total number of prisoners has reached nearly 700 according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club. Arrests have continued after the discovery of the bodies of the three missing Israelis that resulted in the latest round of detentions. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

The Palestinian film director had no idea that her production was a security threat. Emtiaz al-Moghrabi had produced a film — “Noor” (Light) — about the problem of drug abuse among the youth of East Jerusalem. The documentary, which was screened in Ramallah and other Palestinian cities, was to be shown in East Jerusalem on the eve of the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on June 26. A local educational institute, Dar al Tifl, was chosen as the venue and the event was promoted as part of the local community’s campaign against drug abuse.

The screening never took place. Israeli police arrived at the location half an hour before it was to start with an order signed by the Israeli interior minister banning the event.

Film censorship has been practically unenforced in Israel for years. The order states that the film may not be shown anywhere in Israel without prior permission. This is not the first time Israel has banned an event that poses no security threat to deny the Palestinian Authority (PA) a say in what happens in East Jerusalem. Last year, the Palestinian National Theater was closed for a week because it had organized a Palestinian children’s puppet festival that was supported with funding from Europe through the PA.

These incidents show how far the Israelis will go to isolate Palestinians in East Jerusalem from their Palestinian connections. This isolation has done the city’s Palestinians terrible psychological as well as physical damage. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel reported in a May 2012 study that 78% of Palestinians living in East Jerusalem and 84% of the children there live below the poverty line — among the worst poverty rates anywhere. The report also says that Palestinians are only able to build on 17% of their land and that 90,000 live behind the concrete wall Israel built. Over 14,000 have had their Jerusalem residency revoked by the Israeli Interior Ministry in what Palestinians consider a form of ethnic cleansing. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

Twelve days of constant media coverage, often 24-hour live reporting and repeated accusations from the very top of the Israeli government of the involvement of Hamas in the kidnapping and killing of the three Israeli youths, have reached the level of hysteria.

The Israeli army, well-armed Jewish settlers and even members of the press have taken up these calls, acted on them, expounded on them and justified them.

The news of the discovery of the bodies has triggered an unprecedented wave of bloodthirsty demands of revenge that has been supported by the Israeli prime minister. Speaking to reporters, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu justified acts of revenge. “Vengeance for the blood of a small child, Satan has not yet created; neither has vengeance for the blood of three pure youths, who were on their way home to meet their parents, who will not see them anymore. Hamas is responsible — and Hamas will pay,” Netanyahu said.

Not long after the news of the discovery of the bodies of the three Israeli teenagers, army units demolished a Palestinian suspect’s home, and ran bombing raids on the Gaza Strip.

Settlers have also taken up their own acts of revenge. On the roads, Palestinian media reported two cases of Palestinian children being run over by settler cars. The situation in Hebron was nothing short of a volcano waiting to erupt.

But some of the worst reaction to the despicable act of killing the Israeli teens has come from politicians and pundits. When the incitement comes from the very top of the government, it is no wonder how the rest of the population acts. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

Sixty-three days after they declared an open-ended hunger strike, some 75 Palestinian administrative detainees announced on June 25 that they have suspended their hunger strike. Few details have emerged, but the Palestinian prisoners succeeded in exposing the injustice of administrative detention without putting a stop to this undemocratic practice.

No written agreement has been signed, a point Israel insisted on. But Al-Monitor sources among ex-prisoners point to some small signs of success despite the general observation that the prisoners failed in their stated goal of ending the Israeli practice of detaining Palestinians without charge or trial.

Political events, especially the disappearance of the three Israeli settlers and the large arrest campaign, have caused a major change in tactics for the hunger-striking prisoners. The over 100 detainees who were held without trial or charge when the April 24 hunger strike began, found their numbers nearly doubling in the past weeks as Israel detained hundreds of Palestinians without any charge or evidence against them. The campaign to find the three Israeli settlers who disappeared June 12 has also made the Israelis so sour and angry that the Palestinian prisoners realized this was not the best time to press them on what they consider a deterrent weapon — administrative detention.

Prisoner leaders as well as their counterparts outside had concluded a week ago, according to a former Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) prisoner in Bethlehem, that a face-saving formula must be found to end the hunger strike. The first problem was that the Israeli prison authorities had separated the prison leaders into different prisons and later, when their physical condition worsened, in separate hospitals. Therefore, the priority was to find a way to regroup the leadership committee that was made up of eight prisoners. The committee was comprised of two representatives each from Fatah, Hamas, the PFLP and Islamic Jihad. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

By Daoud Kuttab

The Israeli reaction to the disappearance, and most probable kidnapping, of three Israeli settlers reveals once again a worn-out, failed deterrence policy that inflicts great pain and suffering by Israel on its supposed long-term neighbors.

Article 33 of the Geneva Convention (IV) specifically bans “collective punishment” by an occupying power to the people under its occupation, precisely because such punishment is aimed at “intimidating and terrorizing” innocent persons. The same article also considers revenge and pillage crimes of war.

Israel’s arrest dragnet has turned into a wide-ranging campaign that Israeli officials now admit are not connected directly to the search of the kidnappers. While prefacing his statements with words about finding the missing Israelis, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon made it very clear that the aim of the detention campaign was to weaken the Islamic Hamas movement. Speaking to reporters, Ya’alon said that the heads of Hamas “are feeling the hits.”

Palestinians in as far away as Nablus and Jenin have been targeted. Three Palestinians have been killed since the announcement on June 12 that three settlers were allegedly kidnapped. A complete travel ban was slapped on Hebron, the West Bank’s largest populated district, and hundreds have been arrested, homes pillaged, travel even between Hebron and Ramallah barred for Hebron residents. The home of the family of a Palestinian leader living abroad was demolished without cause, proof or direct responsibility. The Arab American University in Jenin and Bir Zeit University near Ramallah were raided by Israeli troops. The centers of most major Palestinian cities were raided by the army, despite the Oslo Accord that considers these areas under total Palestinian security and administrative control. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

As the kidnapping disappearance of three young Israeli settlers enters its first week without any trace of them, politics, repercussions and reactions have begun to take center stage. How will it affect the nearly dead peace process? How will it affect the internal debate in Israel? How will it influence Palestinian politics and scheduled elections?

The big mystery that stands to sway a number of answers to these questions is the identity of the kidnappers. There are at least two theories. The more likely scenario is that the operation was carried out by a small, well-organized and tight-knit group not directly connected to any of the well-known Palestinian factions. The prospect that renegade or unorganized groups might become more effective has been a worry for Israel, which has succeeded in subduing the major Palestinian factions, but is well-aware of the high level of discontent among Palestinians. To put this issue in perspective, it helps to know that the operation that ended in the kidnapping of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was not carried out exclusively by Hamas, although it later was able to lay claim to and benefit from it.

From a political perspective, it is difficult to imagine in the post-Palestinian reconciliation period that Hamas’ political bureau would approve such an operation, knowing that it would bring pain to the movement and its leadership. If Hamas had any desire to be involved in such a high-profile act, it is unlikely it would have accepted a reconciliation deal largely on the terms of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Mahmoud Abbas. Hamas has publicly denied responsibility for the kidnapping, despite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s unproven accusation that it is behind it.

On the other hand, it is possible that a renegade element within Hamas or its military wing, which is unhappy with the reconciliation effort, could have carried out such a daring operation to shuffle the cards and engage the movement.

Regardless of who is behind the kidnapping, the reality on the ground is that Israel is carrying out a full-court press, especially in the Hebron area. Soldiers are going house-to-house, and some residents are reporting abuse at the hands of the invading soldiers. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

Seif Abu Arqoub, 5, was born in Amman while his parents were students at the University of Jordan. Upon completion of their degrees, the Arqoub family returned to Nablus, the hometown of Abla, Seif’s mother. Abla teaches at Al-Najah University in Nablus and Mohammed, Seif’s father, is a lecturer at Birzeit University. Except for short visits to his grandparents’ home in the Hebron district town of Dura, the young Abu Arqoub only knows Amman and Nablus.

But this week, the Abu Arqoub family has been collectively punished. A planned summer vacation before the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan was abruptly canceled. Mohammed wrote on his Facebook page that because of his birth in the Hebron district, the family will not be allowed to leave via the Allenby Bridge to Jordan, the only border crossing that Palestinians in the West Bank are allowed to use. The collective punishment on all Hebronites comes as Israel takes revenge on the Palestinian population following the kidnapping of three Israeli settlers on June 12.

The travel ban on Hebronites is only one of many acts of collective punishment. Workers from Hebron with valid permits to work in Israel were banned entry into Israel and a huge dragnet took place throughout the occupied territories, arresting mostly known Hamas figures. Israel killed a 19-year-old Palestinian at the Jalazone refugee camp outside Ramallah during the arrest sweep. Abdel Aziz Dweik, speaker of the suspended Palestinian Legislative Council, is among those detained by Israel. Also among those arrested are former ministers, parliamentarians and former prisoners pardoned as part of a prisoner swap that included the exchange of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Article 33 of the Geneva Conventions prohibits occupying powers carrying out such acts of punishment. The 1949 convention states: “No protected person may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited. Pillage is prohibited. Reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited.”

The focus on Hamas appears to be the result of an Israeli belief that such a well-planned kidnapping could not have been carried out by an amateur group. A previously unknown group, Ahrar al-Khalil (Free of Hebron) issued a communiqué taking responsibility for the kidnapping and vowing to use it to secure the release Palestinian prisoners. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly put the blame on Hamas and US Secretary of State John Kerry seemed to agree with this conclusion, saying, “Indications point to Hamas’ involvement.”

Israel’s extensive arrest campaign has three purposes. One is to help lessen public anger. For instance, a Facebook page in Hebrew calling for the execution of a “Palestinian terrorist every hour the teens are held” received over 15,000 likes within hours of its creation. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

A courageous Palestinian hunger strike is nearing its 50th day, yet it has barely made a dent on the local, regional or international scene. Palestinian administrative detainees — those being held without charge or trial — are with their stomachs fighting an unjust practice carried out by a country that claims to be a democracy, but no one is paying attention. Israel currently holds 189 Palestinians under administrative detention, and 100 to 125 of them have been on a hunger strike since April 24.

To bring attention to the plight of these prisoners, Palestinians in the West Bank held a partial general strike on June 8. In Gaza, hundreds of citizens held a candlelight vigil. Demonstrations in solidarity with the prisoners have also taken place in a number of countries, but they have attracted little notice. Social media efforts to bring attention to the hunger strike chose the hashtag #Water_and_Salt in Arabic, with the hope that it would generate international support, like the 2012 strike led by Adnan Khader, which succeeded in pressuring the Israelis into forgoing renewal of his administrative detention order.

Various other efforts have been made to humanize the hunger strike — including publishing profiles of the doctors, parliamentarians, teenagers and school teachers taking part — but, again, with little success. The strike has been eclipsed by major news from the region, including the visit of Pope Francis to the Holy Land, the Egyptian elections and inauguration of a new president and the ongoing violence in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Meanwhile, Ukraine captured most of the international headlines. Continue Reading »