:icon_sadangel2: Palestine Peace a dream?

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Sixty-one years have passed since the Palestinian and Arab Naqba (Catastrophe) and now the Israeli cabinet has approved a draft law to ban marking its anniversary.

The Israeli regime was created on May 14, 1948, triggering a regional war, which saw more than 700,000 Palestinians being driven out or fleeing their homes.

Israel has never accepted the UN General Assembly Resolution 194, passed in 1949, under which Palestinian refugees have the right of return to their homes or being compensated for their losses.

The draft law was brought forward by the government's legal commission at the instigation of the hardline Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman's, ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party.

The Israeli cabinet on Sunday approved the draft law aiming to ban marking the anniversary of the Naqba.

The draft law is planned to be presented for parliamentary approval next week and will propose punishment of up to three years in prison for breaches of the prohibition, an Israeli official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Israeli Arab MPs immediately labeled the draft law as an 'apartheid regime' act and slammed the proposal.

The civil rights association chairman, Sammy Michael, also attacked the draft law, saying, "For the past year we have witnessed a worrying deterioration in Israel of the right to expression and other democratic rights".

"Commemoration of the Naqba does not threaten Israel at all. It is a legitimate expression of the feelings of individuals and an entire people," he said.

Yisrael Beitenu, Israel's third biggest party with 15 of the 120 seats in parliament, targeted Israel's Arab minority during this year's election campaign, adopting the slogan "No Citizenship Without Loyalty."

The Israeli Arab community comprises of around 1.2 million people of the country's total population of about seven million. They are descended from 160,000 Palestinians who remained on their land after the establishment of Israel in 1948.

Although they have voting rights and enjoy a better standard of living than Palestinians in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, they are still the target of discrimination.

FTP/SME/HAR

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A meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Hamas political Leader Khaled Mashal in Damascus has irked Israeli officials.

Senior officials in the Foreign Ministry were furious on Sunday over the news that Lavrov had held talks with Mashaal, saying that he felt maintaining contact with Hamas was 'needed'.

Israeli Foreign Ministry officials were mulling over a possible response to Russia's move which came ahead of Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's visit to Moscow scheduled for next week, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.

The daily added that Tel Aviv might file an official complaint against Lavrov's meeting.

The Russian foreign minister, however, defended his move saying that Moscow believes it needs to keep its contact with Hamas.

The meeting was held when Lavrov was on a brief visit to Syria to attend a session held by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected calls by the United States to halt settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.

"I have no intention to construct new settlements, but it makes no sense to ask us not to answer to the needs of natural growth and to stop all construction," Netanyahu told the cabinet on Sunday, AFP reported.

"Clearly we need to have some reservations about a Palestinian state in a final status agreement... when we reach an agreement on substance, we will reach agreement on terminology," The hawkish premier added.

Netanyahu, however, failed to mention that the settlement activity is in violation of three United Nations Security Council Resolutions -- 446, 452 and 465 - and is condemned by the international community.

"If we talk about a Palestinian state, we have to first and foremost verify what kind of sovereignty and rights this state will have," he said.

The remarks were made while Washington has apparently been seeking to persuade the new Israeli government to remain committed to previous agreements between Israel and the US.

Netanyahu has been rejecting the idea of an independent Palestinian state brought forward by the US as part of his "roadmap plan" to settle the Middle East conflict.

The "roadmap" calls for the creation of two states and stopping settlement construction in the West Bank has been a crucial part of the plan.

Furthermore an end to the settlement activity is deemed by the Palestinian Authority as a key precondition to peace negotiations with Israel.

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War is big business, and the Israeli war machine and industry are no exception. And, not to be left out, it seems that Israeli foot soldiers have decided to put privateering back into private enterprise too.

On May 20, The Jerusalem Post reported that a soldier from the Givati Brigade was taken before a military court charged with looting, by way of stealing a Palestinian's credit card during Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip earlier this year and withdrawing money at Israeli ATMs.

According to the indictment, the soldier stole the credit card from the Palestinian's home in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City and used it to withdraw cash after the onslaught. The paper did not report how the soldier had forced the card-owner to reveal his PIN, without which the card would be useless.

The court postponed its decision indefinitely.

Two days later, Ynet News reported the case of two more Givati Brigade soldiers - also veterans of the Gaza onslaught - who had been arrested on suspicion of stealing jewelry and money from the home of a West Bank resident last November. It was not reported whether they stole from the Gazans as well.

And, the private enterprise of the Israeli soldiers was not limited to robbing from Palestinians. At least when it comes to thieving, Israeli soldiers believe in equal opportunities.

Witness the case of yet two more Givati Brigade soldiers caught red-handed while selling stolen army goods - in this case water containers, military kit, smoke grenades (read white phosphorus) and illuminating bombs to a military surplus store, according to a report in Ynet News on May 21. One of the soldiers was described by his attorney as “an outstanding soldier who fought for the State of Israel,” in the Israeli blitz on Gaza earlier in the year.

There seems no end to the business initiative of the Givati Brigade. This brigade gained international notoriety when - following the massacre of Palestinian civilians in Gaza - it put out T-shirts showing its snipers aiming at the belly of a pregnant Palestinian woman, with the snappy caption of “1 shot - 2 kills.”

But, the Givatis are not new to notoriety. For this is the brigade established in 1948 from the veterans of the Irgun terrorist gang. Among other outrages, Irgun Gang was responsible for the bombing of the King David Hotel in 1946 and the massacre of Palestinians at Deir Yassin in 1948.

By Zhila Keshvari, for Press TV

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Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has declared that Israel will not return to its borders of before the Six-Day War in 1967.

"A return to the borders of '67 today, as we are being pressured to do, would not end the conflict, would not guarantee peace or security," Lieberman told reporters ahead of the weekly cabinet meeting.

"It would simply move the conflict to within the '67 borders," AFP quoted the Israel's ultranationalist foreign minister as saying.

Lieberman's comments follow remarks made by the head of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) on Saturday, who urged Israel to put an end to its occupation of Arab territories.

"We insist on the need for the international community to compel the Israeli government to end its occupation of all the Arab territories occupied since 1967, namely Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Golan Heights and Southern Lebanon," the OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said in an address to the foreign ministers of the OIC member states in Damascus.

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A group of British lawmakers en-route to the Gaza Strip have gone on a hunger strike after Egypt prevented their aid convoy from entering the besieged sliver.

The Convoy of Hope was expected to cross the Rafah border-crossing on Saturday, but reports say that Egyptian authorities have delayed its entry to the territory.

The 40-truck convoy carrying humanitarian aid, led by at least 150 people including European lawmakers was set to deliver to Gazans medical aids, wheel chairs and programs enabling the visually disabled to use computers.

Cairo however denied them entry, saying that only 20 people, minus aids, are allowed to cross Rafah -- Gaza's only border that bypasses Israel.

The Gaza Strip has been under a tight Israeli blockade since the democratically elected government of Hamas took power at least 23 months ago.

Egypt has kept the Rafah border crossing closed even during the three-week-long Israeli onslaught on the region which killed at least 1,350 Palestinians, and left over 5,000 others in dire need of medical attention.

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Netanyahu says settlements can expand
Illegal outpost next to Kokhav Ha Shahar settlement
There are about 100 makeshift Jewish outposts in the West Bank

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says settlements in the occupied West Bank will be allowed to expand despite US objections.

Mr Netanyahu said no new settlements would be built, but natural growth in existing settlements should be allowed.

During Mr Netanyahu's visit to the US last week, President Barack Obama told him all settlement activity must end.

The US regards the Jewish settlements -home to some 280,000 Israelis - as obstacles to the peace process.

"I have no intention to construct new settlements, but it makes no sense to ask us not to answer to the needs of natural growth and to stop all construction," a senior official quoted Mr Netanyahu as telling the Israeli cabinet.

"There is no way that we are going to tell people not to have children or to force young people to move away from their families," he added.

Outposts 'will go'

However, Mr Netanyahu vowed to remove makeshift outposts in the West Bank that the Israeli government itself considers illegal.

"We will take care of them, if possible by dialogue," he said. "There is no doubt that we have committed ourselves to deal with them."

The new Israeli cabinet largely opposes dismantling the outposts despite the fact that Israel agreed to it under the 2003 peace plan "roadmap".

Before the cabinet meeting, Defence Minister Ehud Barak said they would take down 22 outposts.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama in Washington
Barack Obama pressed Mr Netanyahu on the two-state solution

"The 22... have to be dealt with now in a responsible, appropriate manner, first of all, exhausting all efforts at dialogue and if that proves impossible, then unilaterally, using force if necessary," he said.

Mr Netanyahu was briefing cabinet members on his Washington visit.

President Obama urged the Israeli leader to accept a Palestinian state and said Israel had an obligation under the 2003 agreement to stop Jewish settlement in the West Bank.

Mr Netanyahu told his ministers on Sunday that "clearly we need to have some reservations about a Palestinian state in a final status agreement... when we reach an agreement on substance, we will reach agreement on terminology".

It was the first time since his election that Mr Netanyahu has publicly used the words "Palestinian state" - but he stopped short of endorsing the idea.

"If we talk about a Palestinian state, we have to first and foremost verify what kind of sovereignty and rights this state will have. We have to make sure that we are not threatened," the official quoted the prime minister as saying.

Stumbling block

Jewish settlements in the West Bank are one of the major stumbling blocks to a Middle East peace deal.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has said there is no point in meeting Mr Netanyahu unless he stops settlement construction and agrees to open talks on Palestinian independence.

Israel has sanctioned 121 settlements over the years and Jewish settlers have put up an estimated 100 outposts since the early 1990s.

BBC-News

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OCCUPIED AL-QUDS – Palestinians are sounding the alarm that Israel's continuing excavation works beneath the Haram al-Sharif (Noble sanctuary) in Al-Quds (occupied East Jerusalem) is posing a "real and immediate" danger to its Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest shrine.

"Israeli excavations and continuing digging right beneath the Haram al Sharif’s esplanade have already caused irreparable damage to the stability of Al-Aqsa Mosque’s foundations," Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the Islamic Movement, told IslamOnline.net.

Salah, who has been closely monitoring Israeli excavations in the Old City of Al-Quds for over 25 years, says Israel is paying no attention to protests by Arab and Muslim countries over the perils its digging poses to Islamic holy places.

In recent years, the Israeli government, in coordination with powerful settler groups, began digging an extensive tunnel network throughout the Old City.

Israel describes the tunnels as "tourist projects" that pose no threat to Islamic holy places.

However, Palestinians and some Israeli organizations, including the Israeli Committee Against House Demolition, believe that the ultimate goal is to create a subterranean access route to attack Al-Aqsa and other Islamic shrines in the area.

Last year, an Israeli lawyer representing the anti-settlement group, Ir Amin, revealed that government-funded settlers were trying to establish "irreversible facts" as part of a takeover scheme.

"I have no doubt that the Aqsa foundations have been greatly weakened due to these tunnels and other excavations," maintains Sheikh Salah.

"You don’t have to be a great architect to realize this. We have already seen holes and cracks all over the area."

A section of the Aqsa Mosque’s yard caved in last year as a result of Israeli excavations underneath.

The collapse happened near the Qaitbay fountain in the western section of the mosque.

The one-meter deep hole was viewed as an ominous harbinger for things to come.

A school in Silwan neighborhood also partially collapsed due to Israeli excavations in the area.

* Demolishing Al-Aqsa

Sheikh Salah says he is completely certain Israel wants to destroy Al-Aqsa Mosque.

"They want to do it in a way that would appear as is happening as a result of natural causes, such an earthquake."

Salah says that Israel has a "diabolical plan" and is acting on it while Muslims are still just watching and contenting themselves with verbal protestations.

"Verbal reactions won’t stop Israeli designs against Islamic holy places, especially the Aqsa Mosque," he stressed.

"We need a proactive stance by Muslim peoples and governments. Muslims must send an unmistakable message to Israel and its supporters that Islamic holy shrines in Al-Quds are red lines."

Al-Aqsa is the Muslims’ first Qiblah [direction Muslims take during prayers] and it is the third holiest shrine after Al Ka`bah in Makkah and Prophet Muhammad's Mosque in Madinah, Saudi Arabia.

Its significance has been reinforced by the incident of Al Isra'a and Al Mi'raj — the night journey from Makkah to Al-Quds and the ascent to the Heavens by Prophet Muhammad (Peace and Blessings be Upon Him).

Israeli religious leaders, including Knesset members, are making no secret of their schemes regarding Al-Aqsa.

The Temple Mount Faithful, an extremist fanatical group, is dedicated to the demolition of Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

The Temple Mount Institute, another extremist Jewish society, had prepared detailed plans for the rebuilding of the alleged Solomon Temple on the rubble of Al-Aqsa.

It has a large prototype of the temple, special clothes for its rabbis, special places for sacrificial offerings, incense chalice, copper vessels for meal offerings, silver vessel for wine libation and other offering implements.

* No Exaggeration

In recent years, the Israeli occupation authorities have allowed Jewish extremists to pray inside the Haram al Sharif esplanade.

Muslim Waqf (religious endowment) officials have warned that allowing Jews to pray at the Haram is only part of the larger scheme to usurp the Islamic shrines.

"I think they want to secure a foothold, which they would later use to consolidate and expand Jewish presence," maintains Sheikh Muhammed Hussein, Head of the Supreme Muslim Council which oversees the Haram al Sharif.

"This is why Muslims all over the world, people and governments, must protest loudly this brazen and provocative aggression on the sanctity of Islamic sanctuaries."

Sheikh Raed Salah, who has dedicated himself to exposing Israeli schemes in Al-Quds, says Muslims around the world should realize that his repeated warnings are not at all exaggerated.

"When will Muslims come to realize that the dangers are real? When the Mosque is destroyed and the news of its destruction appears on Al-Jazeera?"

He had one clear message to Muslims and those who care about Al-Quds and Al-Aqsa.

"Only a genuine and fast awakening by Arabs and Muslims can help, and this is exactly what we are trying to effect."
Source: IslamOnline

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Israeli campaigners and left-wing lawmakers have condemned moves to ban Israeli Arabs from marking the Nakba - the "catastrophe" of Israel's creation.

On Sunday a government panel backed putting the bill, proposed by the party of far-right Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, before the Israeli Knesset.

A Labour minister opposed it; Hadash, a mainly Arab party, called it "racist".

Some 700,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes in the 1948 war after Israel declared independence.

About 20% of Israel's population are descended from Arab citizens of British Mandate Palestine who remained on the territory that became Israel.

Strengthening unity

Along with Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and around the world, Israeli Arabs mark the yearly Nakba anniversary on 15 May with mourning and commemoration events.


The bill could impair freedom of expression and freedom of protest and achieve the opposite goal
Social Affairs Minister Isaac Herzog

Israelis celebrate their Independence Day, marking the creation of their state, at the same time of year, although according to the Hebrew calendar.

Under the proposed legislation, people caught marking the Nakba could be jailed for up to three years.

Avigdor Lieberman's party, Yisrael Beiteinu, says the bill is "intended to strengthen unity in the state of Israel".

The Hadash MK Hanna Swaid called it "racist and immoral" and "a fierce insult on democratic and political rights".

Social Affairs Minister Isaac Herzog, said it "could impair freedom of expression and freedom of protest and achieve the opposite goal - increasing alienation and strengthening extremists".

He is a member of the Labour party, which is part of the right-leaning governing coalition, together with Yisrael Beiteinu party and led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party.

Legitimate right

Correspondents say that although there have been unsuccessful attempts to introduce similar bills in the past, the right-wing make-up of the current government gives this one more chance of passing - although it has many hurdles to clear yet.

An Israeli rights organisation, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, (Acri) said the committee's initial approval of the bill was "a sign of a democracy losing its bearings".

"Marking the Nakba does not threaten the safety of the State of Israel, but is rather a legitimate and fundamental human right of any person, group or people, expressing grief at the face of a disaster they experienced," said Acri president Sammi Michael.

Mr Lieberman's party also wants to introduce a loyalty pledge, which would demand that Israeli-Arabs swear allegiance to Israel as a "Jewish, Zionist and democratic" state, before they can be issued with their ID papers.

Israel Beiteinu spokesman Tal Nahum said the measure would be discussed by the cabinet on Sunday and the first parliamentary vote would be the following Wednesday.

Avigdor Lieberman raised concerns during Israeli military operations in Gaza in January and December that some Israeli-Arabs were opening expressing sympathy with Hamas - which controls Gaza and which launches militant attacks on Israel and which, in its charter, is sworn to the state's destruction.

BBC

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DAMASCUS – Amid reports of an American plan offering Israel ties with Arab and Muslim countries in exchange for talks on all peace tracks, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) stressed on Monday, May 25, that relations with Israel would come after solving the Arab-Israeli conflict. "(Any normalization) will come after the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict," OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu told a press conference following a three-day meeting of the OIC foreign ministers.

The clear OIC position comes amid reports that the Obama administration is working on a comprehensive approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict offering Israel normalized ties with Arab and Muslim countries in exchange for peace talks with the Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese.

The 57-State Solution: For Israel?

Jordanian King Abullah said recently that Obama was forming a Middle East peace plan that could involve normalization of ties between Israel and the whole Muslim world.

"The future is not the Jordan River or the Golan Heights or Sinai, the future is Morocco in the Atlantic to Indonesia in the Pacific," he has told The Times.

"That is a very strong statement when we are offering a third of the world to meet them with open arms."

Only Egypt and Jordan have signed peace agreements and have full diplomatic ties with Israel.

Secular but predominantly Muslim Turkey has military links with Tel Aviv.

No Reward

The OIC stressed that any recognition of Israel must be linked to solving the Arab-Israeli conflict.

"It should be affirmed that any progress on ties must be linked to how much the Israeli position represents a commitment to a just and comprehensive peace that guarantees the restoration of rights and occupied land," it stressed.

"We must not reward Israel for its crimes."

Israel killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and wounded 5,450 in its 22-day war on fenced-off Gaza in January.

The onslaught also wrecked havoc on the infrastructure, leaving nearly 20,000 homes and thousands of other buildings damaged.

The same message on future ties with Israel was reinforced by Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa.

"Response to Israeli practices should be made by announcing that there could not be processes of normalization as long as such measures continue in breach of international law."

A US Congressional delegation visiting Israel said it was "skeptical" that hawkish Premier Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government would be able to move the peace process with the Palestinians ahead.

The five-person delegation from the sub-committee on the Middle East was headed by Congressman Gary Ackerman, considered one of Israel's greatest friends on Capitol Hill.

The representatives had tough questions for the Israelis on construction in West Bank settlements and protested Israel's intention to continue building.

They also expressed great concern over the siege on Gaza, noting that the civilian population was suffering greatly from a lack of food and medicine.

Source: IslamOnline