In a response to a totally nonviolent protest by Palestinian Christians and Muslims demanding their freedom of movement the Israeli army has effectively banned entry of Christian pilgrims and tourists from visiting the birth place of Christ. Continue Reading »

During discussions in Washington between US officials and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an important revelation surfaced. Under US and international pressure to stop Jewish settlement activities in Arab East Jerusalem Netanyahu argued that peace talks might be delayed another year.

“The Palestinians are now raising a new demand,” the Israeli leader claimed. “If this demand is adopted we are liable to lose another year.”
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dear Mr. Bauer,

I noticed in your reply to Mr. Wright in the NY times that you make two false pieces of information. For the record I wish to set the record straight.

1. You state in reference to Ramat Shlomo that ” Palestinians have never had any intention of taking control of until the Obama administration raised it as an issue.” This is totally false and totally untrue. Ever since 1967 Palestinians have and continue to insist on having control of East Jerusalem which obviously includes the controversial settlement of Ramat Shlomo. Obama has had nothing to do with the consistent Palestinian demand. Continue Reading »

This is not how the peace process was supposed to work. Architects of negotiations have forever talked about leaving difficult issues until last, and in the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, nothing fits the bill of “difficult” as much as Jerusalem.

Israeli behavior towards the US has its own truism. You don’t pick a fight in the beginning of negotiations and you certainly try not to embarrass those who are known to be among your best supporters in Washington.

But these are not normal times.
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RAMALLAH – Palestinians and Israelis have different and possibly contradictory expectations from the indirect negotiations that the United States has pushed both sides into beginning. Israel was among the first parties to welcome the Arab League’s reluctant decision to back Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s call for Arabs to give their blessing to the talks. It is clear that for Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government, the start of indirect talks without freezing settlement activities in the West Bank and Jerusalem is a sort of victory. Just to remind the world of this, as the indirect talks were preparing to get off the ground, Israel’s government approved a decision to break ground on 112 housing units in a settlement south of Bethlehem, and 1600 new settlement units in East Jerusalem.
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The embarrassment the US vice president faced this week when, during his visit to Israel, the creation of a new settlement was announced should not have surprised him. The list of Israeli slaps in the face of US officials is endless.
The situation has become such that many believe calls for a freeze of settlement activities should stop because they resulted in a frenzy to build even more Jewish settlements.
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The people of Gaza appear to have been the recent victims of the arrogance (or what some believe to be the bias) of the NY Times. The stubbornness of Bill Keller, the executive editor of the NY Times, in refusing to relocate his Jerusalem reporter has caused a considerable drop in the paper’s coverage of Gaza. The Times has refused to relocate their reporter covering Israel and Palestine after the appearance of a conflict of interest surfaced. The Electronic Intifada and the US media watchdog FAIR first reported the conflict of interest case in January 25th and 27th respectively. Continue Reading »

The most worrisome aspect of the decision by the Israeli government to recognize various West Bank-based sites as part of Israel’s heritage is the conflation of the state of Israel and the Jewish religion.

Many Arab and international media outlets mistakenly referred to the Israeli Cabinet’s decision as a declaration to consider the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron and Rachel’s Tomb outside Bethlehem part of “Jewish heritage.” No such declaration was made. The Israeli declaration on February 21 called these sites part of the state’s “national heritage.” Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

Palestinians and many others around the world are trying to figure out whether the current US-backed push to restart Mideast talks will lead to serious negotiations or will it be just another act that leads nowhere.

The US peace envoy George Mitchell has been making the rounds trying to restart Palestinian-Israeli talks. Mitchell’s early obstacle was America’s own making. The newly elected president, Barack Obama, as well as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, raised Palestinian expectations by their insistence, soon after taking power, on Israel to totally freeze all settlement activity as part of its obligations to the roadmap. Later Obama reduced his call for a freeze to one for “restricting” activities.

In its latest approach, the US proposed a set of steps including Israeli release of Fateh activists as well as organising indirect talks for three to four months. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

Corruption has always been the Achilles heel of the Palestinian leadership. At the height of PLO’s popularity in the 1970s and 1980s, the relationship between revolution and money was the movement’s major weakness.

Well-respected Palestinian artist Kamal Boulatta best reflected this dichotomy in his painting mixing the words thawra (revolution) and tharwa (riches).
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