issue no 33

Issue No: 33 3rd Mar, 2013

Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia (PCOM) 1



Read in this report:

West Bank boiling as popular resistance grows (P.3)

Six Palestinians wounded in Gaza in IOF fire (P.3)

Bukairat: Israel trying to impose full sovereignty over Aqsa mosque (P.6)

Hamas warns of the seriousness of Obama's visit to Al-Aqsa mosque (P.7)

Netanyahu seeks more time to build new Israeli government (P.8)

Najib: Look beyond aid to build a better Palestine (P.9)



CONTENTS

NEWS OF PALESTINE

West Bank boiling as popular resistance grows ........................................................................ 4

Six Palestinians wounded in Gaza in IOF fire ........................................................................... 4

Seven Palestinian refugees killed in Syria ................................................................................. 5

First phase of the mass hunger strike inside the Israeli jails launched ...................................... 5

Bukairat: Israel trying to impose full sovereignty over Aqsa mosque ....................................... 6

Palestinians race to disrupt Israeli marathon ............................................................................. 6

Hamas warns of the seriousness of Obama's visit to Al-Aqsa mosque ..................................... 7

Erdogan calls Zionism a crime against humanity ...................................................................... 7

ISRAEL INSIDER

Netanyahu seeks more time to build new Israeli government ................................................... 8

MALAYSIA & PALESTINIAN CAUSE

Najib: Look beyond aid to build a better Palestine .................................................................... 9

ARTICLES & ANALYSES

The Intifada and its signals ...................................................................................................... 10



West Bank boiling as popular resistance grows

01/03/2013 Dozens of Palestinian protesters were hit by rubber-coated bullets while others suffered from tear gas during clashes in the last week across the West Bank and Jerusalem between Israeli troops and protesters.

Hundreds of young Palestinians rallied after Friday prayers to protest the death of a young Palestinian man, Arafat Jaradat, last week only five days after he was detained and interrogated by Israeli intelligence, and to show solidarity with hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners.

Israeli forces have used live bullets to quell the rallies. Mahmoud Audah, 20, was shot in the head with live fire during clashes with Israeli soldiers at Qalandia checkpoint, while Palestinian journalist Jihad al-Qadi was shot in the abdomen while covering clashes outside Ofer detention center.

Source: Ma’an New agency

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Six Palestinians wounded in Gaza in IOF fire

01/03/2013 Three Palestinian people were wounded Friday morning, in the Gaza Strip, as a result of IOF artillery fire while three others were wounded in the evening, in the northern Gaza Strip when IOF troops opened fire at them.

Dr. Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesman of the Health Ministry in Gaza, told PIC that IOF fired a number of artillery shells at farmers east of al-Buraij refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip, wounding three of them, while the other three were wounded in the northern Gaza Strip when IOF troops opened fire at them.

The IOF continues to breach the ceasefire agreed last November which was brokered by Egypt, wounding at least 80 Palestinians and killing four others.

In a related context, The Palestinian government in Gaza on Tuesday denied Israeli claims that a Palestinian rocket launched from Gaza had landed in the south of the occupied city of Asqlan. "It is no more than a lie," a spokesman said.

Denying Israeli media reports this morning (26/2), the chair of the government information bureau, Ihab al-Ghosein, said: "Sources in the government affirmed that no rockets have been launched from the Gaza Strip."

“The Israeli occupation was putting out lies as a means of shifting global attention away from the plight of the Palestinian prisoners in its jails and its violations against protestors on the streets of the West Bank where a Palestinian has been killed and dozens of others have been injured” he added.

Source: Agencies

NEWS OF PALESTINE



Seven Palestinian refugees killed in Syria

03/03/2013 Seven Palestinian refugees were killed in Syria over the past couple of days due to sniper fire and shrapnel of bombs.

Local ‘Al-Quds’ daily quoted “special sources” as saying that a boy was killed when a mortar shell blasted near his school in Qabun

neighborhood in the capital Damascus. They said that a number of Palestinian and Syrian students were injured in the same explosion that killed Mohammed Al-Hindi.

A young woman was also killed in another bomb explosion while walking in Aruba street in Yarmouk refugee camp. Another young man, Mazen Barshali, was pronounced dead on Wednesday after a sniper hit him in the head in Aydeen refugee camp in Homs on Tuesday.

In Yarmouk camp, four Palestinian refugees were killed on Saturday due to the continued shelling and attacks by the Syrian regime.

The death toll among Palestinian refugees in Syria has jumped to over 1030 since the beginning of the revolution against the Syrian regime.

Source: PIC

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First phase of the mass hunger strike inside the

Israeli jails launched

28/02/2013 Wa'ed Society for Detainees and Ex-detainees said that the first and primary phase of the mass hunger strike has been launched, inside the Israeli jails.

It said that the prisoners have decided to continue their protest steps that followed the death of captive Arafat Jaradat until the date of the beginning of the mass hunger strike scheduled before the beginning of next April.

The Information Office of Wa'ed Society pointed out that the prisoners have become convinced that starting a new battle of empty stomachs represents the only way to oblige the occupation to meet the captives' demands and to commit to the terms of Wafa al-Ahrar deal and the agreement signed after the Karama strike.

The prisoners have also called on the masses and the media to continue the events and activities that support the prisoners' steadfastness and expose the occupation crimes against them, until the liberation of all the captives from Israeli jails.

It’s worth mentioning that Israel has detained 382 Palestinians from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in February including deceased Arafat Jaradat, three parliamentarians and ten women, a report by AHRAR has said.

Besides, prisoners Samer Issawi and Ayman Sharwna continue their open-ended hunger strike since over 220 days and are in a very critical health situation.

Source: Agencies



Bukairat: Israel trying to impose full sovereignty over

Aqsa mosque

03/03/2013 Sheikh Najeh Bukairat, the director of the Aqsa mosque, has said that Israel was trying to

impose full sovereignty on the holy Aqsa mosque in occupied Jerusalem.

Bukairat, who is exiled from the mosque at the hands of the Israeli occupation authorities, said that all what is happening in the mosque reflected the IOA attempts in this direction.

He said in a press release on Sunday that the IOA could not impose its full sovereignty despite many attempts since 1967.

Bukairat said that the IOA is strenuously trying to end the Jordanian religious sovereignty and administration of the Aqsa along with that of the Islamic Awkaf and to obstruct their work.

Source: PIC

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Palestinians race to disrupt Israeli marathon

01/03/2013 Israeli police on Friday stopped a Palestinian protest "marathon" organized against an Israeli event that takes place annually in occupied Jerusalem.

Palestinian racers started off in the historic Lifta village to counter the Israeli marathon that began from the Knesset building.

On the other hand, the Arab League has condemned the decision by Jerusalem municipality to organize the marathon in occupied Jerusalem.

The League said in a press release on Wednesday that the marathon to be organized in early March grouping 17000 athletes from 50 countries would attempt to bestow legitimacy on Israel’s occupation of Jerusalem.

The League called for mobilizing the public opinion to demand governments and public institutions to boycott that race or any other similar event that is being exploited by Israel to deceive the world public opinion and that is being held in violation of the international law.

Source: Agencies



Hamas warns of the seriousness of Obama's visit

to Al-Aqsa Mosque

27/02/2013 Hamas warned of the seriousness of the visit by U.S.A President Barack Obama to Al-Aqsa Mosque, stressing that "it is a political disaster that Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims should not be silent towards."

The movement said in a statement on Tuesday: "The mass media have been publishing news

about President Obama's intention to visit Al-Aqsa Mosque, which threatens an imminent danger."

It warned in its statement of the consequences of the American support to the Israeli desire to impose its domination over Jerusalem, adding that Obama's visit to Al-Aqsa Mosque, under the auspices of the occupation, is the most dangerous move in the history of political relations and a serious bias toward Israel.

Hamas called on President Obama to cancel his visit, and called on the Arab states, mainly Egypt, to oppose this visit by all possible means.

The movement demanded the Palestinian people and the masses of the Arab and Islamic nation to defend Al-Aqsa Mosque against any Israeli plan that aims to seize it.

Source: PIC

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Erdogan calls Zionism a crime against humanity

28/02/2013 The Israeli media have criticised remarks made by Turkey's Prime Minister at the official opening of the 5th UN Alliance of Civilisations Global Forum in Vienna. Recep Tayyip Erdogan described Zionism, Israel's founding ideology, as a "crime against humanity".

Haaretz newspaper said that despite efforts to bridge the gap in Turkey-Israel relations

Erdogan appears to seize every opportunity to attack Israel. However, Zionism was not the topic of Erdogan's speech; he included it along with a number of other "anti-humanity" ideologies which lead to discrimination and racism. In his speech to the Forum, Erdogan decried rising racism in Europe and the fact that many Muslims who live in countries other than their own often face harsh discrimination.

"We should be striving to understand the culture and beliefs of others more, but instead we see that people act based on prejudice and exclude others and despise them," he said. "That is why it is necessary that we must consider - just like Zionism or anti-Semitism or fascism - Islamophobia as a crime against humanity."

UN General Assembly Resolution 3379, which was adopted by a vote of 72 to 35 (with 32 abstentions), stated: "Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination." Under intense US pressure, the international organisation revoked this resolution in 1991.

Source: MEMO



Netanyahu seeks more time to build new Israeli government

02/03/2013 Deadlocked talks with potential coalition partners have forced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seek more time to build a new government and avert a snap election. In a meeting with President Shimon Peres on Saturday, Netanyahu got an approval for a two-week extension after his right-wing party, the narrow victory in Israel's Jan. 22 ballot, exhausted the standard four weeks allotted to build a coalition and due to that fact that the

talks with representative of Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid party and Naftali Bennett's Jewish Home party have failed to reach an agreement for either party to join the coalition because neither of them is ready to give up basic principles of their platforms.

In a related context, US officials preparing for President Barack Obama's visit to “Israel” have told their Israeli counterparts that the visit will be cancelled if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fails to form a new government by mid-March.

Source: Agencies

ISRAEL INSIDER



Najib: Look beyond aid to build a better Palestine

02/03/2013 Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak today called on Malaysians to go beyond providing funds, medical aid and other emergency relief to Palestinians and help plan for a better Palestine.

"What we can offer is a vision of the future for Palestine, as well as our resources to share our assistance where needed.

"We can also learn what strife, unrest and war can do to a nation, something we want to avoid in its entirety," he said in his foreword of the souvenir programme for the 'Evolution for Palestine' conference organised by the Malaysia-Palestine Youth Movement (MPYM), in Kuala Lumpur today.

Najib, who is also the MYPM patron, said Malaysians, along with the people of many nations in the world, had always been emphatic towards the Palestinian plight.

"They are as real to us as the air we breathe in, like the rain that washes down on us, like a

cut on our hands and the blood that runs. We hear their cries, we feel their pain," Najib said.

The prime minister stressed that the MPYM was a good platform because it represented the hopes and dreams of Malaysia and Palestine, not to mention having exuberance, ideas and energy to build and strengthen relations between each other.

For his part, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad insists, there is a need for Palestinians to review their strategy to achieve an independent Palestinian state.

“Palestinians also needed to equip themselves with knowledge and skills to win the support of the world, especially the West” He said this in the closing speech at the conference 'Evolution For Palestine'.

Source: BERNAMA

MALAYSIA & PALESTINIAN CAUSE



The Intifada and its signals By: Lama Khater Since the last war on Gaza, the media has abounded with forecasts and the predicted signals of a third Intifada in Palestine, particularly in the West Bank. These expectations have mounted following the death of Palestinian prisoner, Arafat Jaradat, in an Israeli prison and the violent clashes that ensued as an extension of the escalating public reaction to the prisoner hunger strikes in Israeli prisons.

No one contests the fact that motives for a new Intifada are present - not just of late, but over the course of the last few years during which there has been an increase in illegal settlement construction, the Judaisation of Jerusalem, and Israeli settler and military attacks against Palestinians without the occupation having to face even the bare minimum of deterrents.

However, the presence of the motives for an uprising does not seem enough without the will in the hearts of those responsible for carrying this Intifada as its fuel and the factor for its continuity. On the other hand, a strong factor contributing to its failure is the presence of a powerful Palestinian contingent that is doing all it can to prevent it and trap its motives; that is able to abort it in its early stages, especially since the hotbeds of the occupation are in limited places.

Hence, the outbreak of an intifada under the current authority in the West Bank means the protesters will have to face two fronts; the occupation and the authority, and the latter will make sure to prevent developments of a comprehensive and continuous Intifada. This is due to the fact that the occupation simply cannot risk giving up the unprecedented sense of security it has enjoyed on this front for years which the PA has played a major role in providing.

When we remember the Al-Aqsa Intifada, we must remember that the people's reaction to it (stone-throwing at the barriers) only lasted for

the first few months. It then developed into armed confrontation meaning that Palestinians aspire to develop their means of resistance in any way possible and are not content with confronting an armed soldier with rocks. They will only do this if they are unarmed as they were at the beginning of the Intifada. The phase of armed resistance also emerged in the early nineties, but its intensity lessened in the later Intifada years.

Those who call for liberation must keep in mind the development of a means to face their enemy, as well as the provision of an atmosphere that fosters the culture and behaviour of resistance, not one that discourages it. As for those who call for protest against the occupation to remain fully peaceful and not develop over time, and those who consider the use of rocks violent, they are not looking for liberation. They are looking for a way of discouraging the culture of resistance and a justification for supressing forms of resistance they consider harmful to the interest of Palestinians, even though the Palestinian people are the only ones who have proven their worth over history in terms of their conflict. However, the toll is high and precious and cannot be reached by those who claim to be patriotic or have used it as a trade and for their own benefit.

Despite all of this, we still believe that the culture of resistance, which has recently been amplified in the minds of Palestinians, will soon be translated onto the streets. If it is not successful in breaking the suspicious security grip sought by the occupation, it will at least succeed in creating a gap in the wall of inactivity and stagnation and will establish a pathway for the new generation to play its expected and anticipated role. Both through large national confrontations that drain the energies of the occupation army and through concentrated resistance operations that re-align the unbalanced situation and impose new equations!

ARTICLES & ANALYSES

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