MalarkyNews

The U.S. State Department has just released the following statement in the name of U.S. Special Envoy George Mitchell: “I’m pleased that the Israeli and Palestinian leadership have accepted indirect talks. We’ve begun to discuss the structure and scope of these talks and I will return to the region next week to continue our discussions. As we’ve said many times, we hope that these will lead to direct negotiations as soon as possible. We also again encourage the parties, and all concerned, to refrain from any statements or actions which may inflame tensions or prejudice the outcome of these talks”.

This suggests that Mitchell is leaving — and will not participate in a second meeting with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) on Wednesday, when U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is expected to pay a visit to the Muqata’a presidential compound in Ramallah, after 36 hours of talking in Israel — about Iran.

What happened today? Mitchell was in the Muqata’a in Ramallah, meeting President Abbas and Chief Palestinian negotiator Sa’eb Erekat — who are the two people who are now charged with any negotiations, according to one informed Palestinian official. Mitchell’s aide David Hale was apparently also present. The meeting lasted approximately three hours.

UPDATE: Palestinian Television news at 9pm tonight showed an initial meeting between Mitchell and Abbas with four aides on each side — on the Palestinian side: Yasser Abed Rabbo, Saeb Erekat, Mr. X (unidentified), and Nabil Rudeineh; and on the American side: U.S. Consul-General in Jerusalem Danny Rubenstein, Mr. X, Ms. X, and Mr. X.

[Haaretz carried a story that earlier reported: " 'Today President Abbas will hand a written response to Senator Mitchell about our acceptance of the proposal of the proximity talks', Erekat told Reuters". This Haaretz report is posted here.]

This journalist was told this evening that Abu Mazen gave Mitchell a “letter”: “I cannot elaborate, but it contains the terms of reference [for the negotiations] that we Palestinians believe are right”, the informed Palestinian official said. “The P.L.O. gave President Abbas a mandate. We are still waiting for the American response”.

The Palestinian official said that at this point, there are not either “proximity talks” or “negotiations” — but instead “just setting the terms of reference for the negotiations”.

“We are here to negotiate to obtain our freedom. If this turns out to be just an attempt to make a good PR [public relations] campaign for Mr. Netanyahu, then of course we are not willing to do simply that”.

This Palestinian official added that “this is the problem we have with the Americans — they are speaking about ‘relaunching’ these negotiations, while we want to ‘resume’ negotiations at the point they ended on 27 December 2008 [the day Israel launched an unprecedented three-week military operation against Hamas in Gaza]. But Israel doesn’t want to do that”.

According to this Palestinian official, maps were “shown” during the Annapolis process of negotiations in 2008. But, he said, the Israeli interlocutors “refused to hand over any maps or any papers”.

So, he said, “based on some references, we know what parts of the West Bank Israel would like to keep, but we don’t know what Israel really wants”.

He said each side made an offer during the Annapolis process. The Palestinians, he said, “gave an offer to exchange [or swap] 1.9 percent of the West Bank. We also showed this to the Americans and gave them a map”.

The Israelis, he said, indicated they “had an idea of swapping 6.5 percent of the land”.

So, he said, it should be expected that “any solution that comes out of negotiations would be between these two figures”.

However, he said, Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, who was asked to form the present government after Israeli elections in February 2009, may intend to ask for 20 percent or more: “He has said he wants to keep the Jordan Valley — this means that Israel intends to control our borders. He has said that he wants all of Jerusalem — we cannot give up East Jerusalem. And he has said he will keep [the West Bank Jewish settlement of] Ariel — which sits on the western aquifer that contains 85 percent of the water used in the West Bank, and we cannot play with our water sources”.

What will happen now? “I’m not 100 percent sure”, the Palestinian official said. “We Palestinians are not willing to accept another round of failed negotiations”. He noted that the situation is now “very tense”, and recalled that Chief Palestinian negotiator Sa’eb Erekat said earlier today that this is “the last chance for a peaceful solution”. [See the Haaretz story linked above, here: "Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said that
the indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinians would be a last chance to keep the Middle East peace process alive. 'The relationship has deteriorated to this stage where the U.S. is trying to save this peace process with the last attempt - by the way, mark my words - this will be the last attempt in order to see if it can be a tool to make decisions between Palestinians and Israelis', he told Army Radio".

Ali Waked, writing in YNet, spoke to Erekat himself after the meeting with Mitchell and reported that Erekat said "the Palestinians made it clear to Mitchell that if the Israelis increase the settlements, raids of cities and assassinations during each of his visits to the region, this casts a serious doubt over the American peace efforts." Waked also wrote that "The remark was made as the United States released an official statement saying that Israel and the Palestinians have agreed to launch indirect talks mediated by Mitchell ... The Palestinians have agreed to resume the negotiations indirectly in principle, but have asked Mitchell for several clarifications and demanded that Israel stop embarrassing the Palestinian Authority with announcements on new construction plans in the West Bank. Erekat said that the settlement issue was the focus of Abbas and Mitchell's meeting, which lasted about five hours. During the meeting, the Palestinian president expressed his resentment over the Israeli declaration on 112 new housing units slated to be built in the settlement of Beitar Illit. Defense Ministry officials say the discussed plan was approved by the Olmert government. A Palestinian source told Ynet that the Palestinians were discouraged by the inefficiency of the talks and that the American pressure on Israel has led to nothing so far. He said that the Palestinians estimate that the negotiations are only damaging the Palestinian leadership's reliability"... This Ali Waked report in YNet is published here.

Laura Rozen wrote an assessment, Parsing the Mitchell statement, published on Politico.com here, reporting that "Middle East Peace Envoy George Mitchell issued a statement from Israel today which on its face seemed a quiet victory wave on achieving agreement for Israeli-Palestinian proximity talks over the weekend. But a former Israeli official reading the statement interprets it differently, to suggest they haven't agreed on what they are going to be talking about indirectly ... 'The text indicates that he will NOT announce anything while Biden is here', the former Israeli official interprets. 'There will be a generic statement on the sides's 'willingness' to participate in 'indirect talks' but nothing on terms of reference, [specific] issues etc.’, the former Israeli official interpreted”.

Haaretz later reported that “It was unclear, however, whether the indirect talks had already begun. [U.S. State Department spokesman P.J.] Crowley told reporters he thought they had. ‘I believe they have started’, Crowley said. ‘I think they are underway’. Pressed on whether he was sure the indirect talks had begun, Crowley said: ‘I am certain’.” This Haaretz report is posted here.

Article from UN-Truth read more here

The Washington Post has picked up an article written by Ben Hubbard for the Associated Press about the misery that is Qalandia checkpoint.   Apparently, Ben spent five days there, early in the morning when Palestinians with permits are being treated not unlike animals as they try to get to work.

Thousands — no, millions, upon millions of words have been written about this shame.  We have written about it repetitively — just enter the word Qalandia in the search box on this page, and the stories will pop up.

But, nothing changes.  If anything, it simply gets worse.

[UPDATE: Also see Amira Hass' article published in Haaretz here: "Israel calls the checkpoint a 'terminal' and relates to it as an existing, legal border between the State of Israel and the Palestinian entity. For Palestinians, the Qalandiyah checkpoint is a physical representation of the fact that for most of them, East Jerusalem has become as far away as the moon. Most of the people who pass through Qalandiyah are Palestinian residents of Jerusalem. A minority are West Bank residents who have temporary permits to enter Israel".]

The AP story published in the WPost is entitled Checkpoint misery epitomizes a Mideast divide, and it is posted here.

This is the AP photo used to illustrate the article in the Washington Post – it was taken 15 Dec 2009:

Please note that the AP reporter who did the story wrote only about the pedestrian passage.  Crossing with a car is a different and separate nightmare, for those who are allowed.

Please note that this is only about Qalandia checkpoint, and not about the main checkpoint at Bethlehem, which, if anything, may be worse, or about the Erez crossing into Gaza.

It is not about the checkpoint on Road 443 that I was shocked to see had Palestinian men stuffed into wire-caged walkways at 4 am last Thursday after passing military inspection, but before boarding white Ford Transit vans for transportation to their jobs in central Israel.

Please note that the crossing times listed for each day the reporter was at this checkpoint — which Israeli forces like to call a “border crossing” — are just for the crossing time only, and not for the difficult transportation that comes before and after the crossing.

Please also note that every Israeli in uniform at this place is carrying at least one big gun, and that there are military reinforcements always at the ready in the immediate enclosure, and more are not far away.

The AP article reports that “The journey to Jerusalem, for tens of thousands of Palestinians [daily], begins in a dank, trash-strewn hangar. They move through cage-like passages and 7-foot-high turnstiles to be checked by Israeli soldiers from behind bulletproof glass. The soldiers often yell at them [only in Hebrew, of course, and in a muffled and incomprehensible way] through loudspeakers. They [the Israeli soldiers] are supposed to work in pairs to speed the lines through, but sometimes one of them is asleep, his feet on his desk. The Qalandia crossing, say the Israelis, is where potential attackers are filtered out before they can reach Jerusalem on the other side. Palestinians say it’s a daily humiliation they must endure to reach jobs, family, medical appointments and schools. This main checkpoint between the northern West Bank and Jerusalem is one of the rawest points of friction between Israel and the Palestinians, a symbol of the day-to-day bitterness that grinds between the two sides as the U.S. struggles to relaunch peace negotiations. Since taking office last year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has eased Palestinian movement inside the West Bank, but not into Jerusalem … Qalandia [is] the only way for 60,000 taxpaying [legal and official Jerusalem] residents [whose homes, by Israeli military design, are now behind -- or on the West Bank side -- of Qalandia checkpoint and The Wall] to reach their city. They too must line up along with tens of thousands of West Bank residents to enter Israel for work – provided they are patient, have permits, and don’t arouse suspicion” … And God help them if they do, because there is nobody who can help them…

The article reports that “The AP reporter saw soldiers sleeping in their booths four times during five days at the crossing. When told about it, Maj. Peter Lerner, an Israeli army spokesman, said he was ’surprised’ …” though nobody would be who has ever been at a checkpoint when there were only Palestinians and internationals present, but no higher Israeli officer.

The article reports that “The line takes Abu Jalil into a 15-foot-long cage of metal bars, barely wide enough for a large man or high enough for a tall man to stand upright. At the far end, a turnstile clicks open, letting about 10 people through at a time before clicking shut again. Once inside: another line to another turnstile, this one leading to a window where Israeli soldiers check IDs. Abu Jalil waits, then a worker at the front of the line gets turned back. He tells the others they can’t carry lunches through, so Abu Jalil and others with lunches change lines, starting again at the back. It’s a common problem. Sometimes, certain lines accept only certain IDs, but the workers don’t know that until they reach the window. A soldier may close a window without announcing it, leaving people waiting in vain. There is no supervisor or hot line they can take complaints to.

The article reports that one 70-year-old Palestinian woman who returned after living in the U.S. for 11 years (there are many Palestinian West Bank residents who have American citizenship) said to the AP reporter that “I made the biggest mistake of my life in coming back here … This the worst place I’ve seen in my life”..

It may not be the worst thing I’ve ever seen, but it’s truly awful, something to be avoided, if possible, at all costs. It’s really, really bad…

Article from UN-Truth read more here

Palestinian TV showed the Friday prayer in … the Muqata’a Presidential headquarters in Ramallah today.

Front and center, the chief worshipper was Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen). The sermon was given by the Palestinian Authority (PA) Minister of Awqaf (Muslim Trust foundations), Mahmoud Habbash. After the eventful tension of recent weeks (particularly the extremely embarassing sex + corruption videotape scandal involving Abbas’ chief of office, Rafiq Husseini), it seemed to be a Friday prayer in penitential mode, with references to the role of the President, his duties, and the limits of his power.

(Less than two hours before the Friday prayers, Fahmi Shabaneh, the disgruntled Palestinian security officer who went to the Israeli media with the Husseini videotape held a press conference in this East Jerusalem {Beit Hanina} home, and said he had been reassured by Abbas that there would be an investigation into his allegations. Shabaneh said he would not hold a press conference this week, as he had threatened, to reveal more scandals, but would instead hand over all his evidence and documentation to Abbas… And through the grapevine, I heard this week that Rafiq Husseini told someone in East Jerusalem that the videotape was doctored with advanced techniques, that the living room and/or bedroom shown on the scandalous videotape was, in fact, his apartment — but, Husseini said, his secretary had never been with him there… proving, he reportedly argued (and as he has said before, despite much scepticism), that the whole thing was a fake.)

There were no famous faces in the room [UPDATE: many were instead at the demonstration in Bil'in, see below]. The room used for Friday prayers is the same room which is used for press conferences and meeting such as the Palestine National Council etc… On Abbas’ right hand was a Fatah Central Committee official with a big black mustache [Mahmoud Ismail] who was involved in the recent General Assembly + long-delayed elections of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (in which some Fatah officials, particularly Tawfik Tirawi) were deeply involved. I didn’t recognize anybody else except Presidential press office aide Mohammed Edwan, sitting at the far right end of the frong row of worshippers. Among those praying, there was at least one Palestinian policeman in uniform, a number of Presidential guard officers in camouflage green uniforms, and others who appeared to be low- to medium-level employees. At least one armed Presidential Guard officer was standing at alert behind the worshippers (but he only had a small side arm, and not a big huge black machine gun).

Palestinian television did not immediately go to the regular Friday weekly demonstration against The Wall in Bil’in today. Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was among those present at the demonstration. (UPDATE: Palestinian Television’s nightly news showed a number of other political figures were there as well (maybe this is why they were not praying with Abu Mazen in the Muqata’a).

The Popular Struggle Committee sent out a press release saying that thousands were expected to attend or participate in the demonstration: “Following the victory forcing Israel to begin rerouting the path of the Wall, in face of the Army’s unprecedented attempts to crack down on the popular struggle, the people of Bil’in will celebrate five years of protest tomorrow. In a show of support to the popular struggle, the people of Bil’in will be joined by thousands from across the West Bank, among them Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and leaders from across the Palestinian political spectrum. Mohammed Khatib of the Bil’in Popular Committee said today that “The Army realizes the efficiency of our struggle and believes that it can be pacified with token gestures and repressed by the hundreds of arrests in last months. After managing to force Israel to finally follow its own court order and begin rerouting the Wall last week, we will prove tomorrow that Palestinian society, its left-wing as well as right, is united behind the popular movement, and the Israeli assault only stands to strengthen us.” Last week, 2.5 years after an Israeli Supreme Court decision deeming the path of the Wall on the lands of Bil’in illegal, preliminary infrastructure work to reroute the barrier in accordance with the ruling has finally began. … Roughly 680 dunams of the 2,000 dunams currently sequestered by the Wall will be returned to the village following the court-ordered rerouting of the trajectory”.

The Mayor of Geneva, Switzerland, was also present this week …
UPDATE: Ma’an News Agency reported that the man who was almost elected Mayor of Tel Aviv (he had the entire youth vote, apparently) Dov Heinin, MK of Democratic Front for Peace and Equality, was also present … “A group of Palestinian teens and young men successfully pulled down a 30-meter length of barbed fence from the separation wall, as the crowds were met with high-pressure skunk water sprayed at them by Israeli forces in full riot gear”, Ma’an added, here.

Later, the Popular Struggle Committee reported that about 1,000 people attended, and that two demonstrators were injured in Bil’in
(”One was struck with a tear-gas projectile in the leg and another was shot in the stomach by a rubber-coated bullet”), while about ten demonstrators were injured in other villages: “Al-Ma’sara, south of Bethlehem, Ni’ilin and Nabi Saleh, where 10 protesters were hit by rubber-coated bullets, including a Swedish national who was struck in the mouth”.

Although the Popular Struggle Committee said it regards the rerouting of The Wall near Bil’in as a victory, it vowed that “protest will continue until the Occupation is over and the Wall is dismantled in its entirety”.

Afterwards, it was reported (in Haaretz, among other places) that “Demonstrators participating in rally protesting the Israel’s West Bank separation fence dismantled a section of the barrier on Friday, during a rally marking five years since the beginning of the Bil’in protests. About a thousand people took part in the rally, which was also attended by Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, Palestinian parliament member Mustafa Barghouti as well as Fatah strongman Nabil Shaath. During the rally several protesters managed to cross the barrier, placing a Palestinian flag on top of an Israel Defense Forces outpost, while others dismantled a 30-meter section of the fence itself. IDF sources claimed that the fence’s repair could cost several hundred thousand NIS“.

So, here is part of the fence that has to be moved by order of the Israeli Supreme Court, and the Israeli military is complaining that they will have to repair it at great cost …

The Haaretz article also reported that (no doubt because of Salam Fayyad’s presence — and Fayyad is one of two Palestinian officials whose movement around the West Bank is coordinated with Israeli security forces, who also reportedly escort his convoy) — Israeli security forces “were aligned in rear positions to allow the demonstrators to protest in a ‘non-violent fashion’, but began using dispersal instruments as soon as protesters commenced hurling stones. A source in the IDF’s GOC Central Command told Haaretz that the incident proved that the IDF was willing to allow non-violent protest, but that it was clear that some of the participants act violently, hurling stones and causing thousands of shekels in damages to the fence”. This Haaretz article can be read in full here…

Another weekly demonstration was expected in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem today, where an hour in advance a tight and manned police barrier appeared to bar entrance to the entire neighborhood (including the site of the tomb of Shimon Hatzadik, believed to have been a high priest in the Second Jewish Temple, which has now been taken over by Orthodox Jewish worshippers). A row of white police vans stood behind the barricade, and there were groups of police and Border Policemen in various uniforms under the warm mid-day sun.

UPDATE: Ma’an later added that “Israeli forces attempted to disperse the press and diverted protesters from attaining the residential areas closed off by Israeli police, as settlers entered the contested neighborhood”. This Ma’an report is here.

UPDATE. The Jerusalem Post later reported that “1 man was detained on Friday afternoon dozens of left-wing activists and east Jerusalem locals gathered for the weekly protest against the expansion of the Jewish enclave in Sheikh Jarrah, a predominantly Arab neighborhood. The activist was taken in for questioning after attempting to organize a march in the neighborhood without an appropriate permit”. This JPost report is here.

And, there was also supposed to be a demonstration in the Silwan area of East Jerusalem as well, around the other side of the Old City, where Jerusalem’s Mayor has ordered the demonstration of 200 Palestinian homes, if he has also to demolish one seven-story building housing Jewish settlers in the same neighborhood — also built “illegally”, without required permits, which in turn are dependent on municipal planning that is non-existent.

Article from UN-Truth read more here

Who is this man, really? (He is the Chief of Staff of the Palestinian President.)  Is all this just another Israeli conspiracy? Or is there something seriously wrong here? Does responsibility start at the top? Or somewhere in between? Certainly, it also has to start inside the heart, and conscience, of each person, doesn’t it?  What, exactly, is corruption? What is acceptable behavior for employers? What is acceptable behavior for men?  Where do they get such a sense of entitlement?  And why, if it was known for months, or even more, that there were problems here, might there only be action after an outcry, when the Israeli press takes up a massive campaign — while the Palestinian press goes into defensive mode?  What is the difference between this and l’affaire Taqrir Goldstone [Goldstone Report]?  Which scandal aroused more passionate public interest? What are the similiarities? [Hint, the tone-deafness, and the failure to realize the impact...]

This has previously been brushed away by calling it a “personal matter”. AP is reporting that the Palestinian leadership is “rallying around” this man — but maybe not … Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas — who reportedly has known about the accusations against this man, and the videotape evidence which was broadcast on Israeli TV this week — was in India and Pakistan today. This matter has, however, now reached such proportions that it is no longer possible to imagine this man to remain in official functions. The next question is, will people be so relieved just to see him retire from view that they will not want to ask questions about why the Palestinian leadership knew about this for so long, without doing anything other than brushing it under the carpet?

The AP report says that “In the video, broadcast by Israeli TV, xxxxxxxxx is shown undressing in a bedroom and calling out to an unseen woman, heard off camera, to join him.  A former Palestinian intelligence official who says he secretly took the footage in collusion with the unidentified woman says Husseini demanded sex with her in return for using his influence to solve a family problem”.   This item is posted here.

See also our earlier post here (point 3) about the disgruntled former Palestinian Authority (PA) security official, Fahmi Shabaneh, and his claims.

AFP reported that “Palestinians were shocked on Thursday after Israeli TV aired a graphic video showing a senior official caught on a hidden camera soliciting sex from a job applicant.  The video, parts of which aired on Israel’s Channel 10 earlier this week, was shot by former Palestinian intelligence officer Fahmi Shabaneh, who has accused the Western-backed Palestinian Authority of widespread corruption.  In the video, xxxxx xx-xxxxxxxxx, President Mahmud Abbas’s chief of staff, is shown flirting with a woman Shabaneh said was seeking a job in the Authority before entering a bedroom, taking off his clothes and crawling into bed.  “How does this work? Should I turn off the lights or will you,” he chuckles from inside the room to someone off-screen in the video, now widely available on youtube.  Moments later Shabaneh and several other security men walk into the room, surprising a naked xxxxxxxxx, who holds British citizenship, and confronting him with the allegations. The video was shot sometime in 2008″.  This AFP report is published here.

The Israeli TV Channel 10 report can be found in full on Youtube. In it, xxxxxxxx is seen sitting in a small living room with two women whose faces are blurred to disguise them. One of them was identified as a secretary in the man’s office. The other one wants either a job, or some family issue resolved, or both. The women ask the man leading questions about the former and present Palestinian leaders, and he replies, with answers that are at the very least embarassing — whether true or not. Then, the man is shown undressing in a bedroom, calling out to a woman, to ask if he should turn off the lights. [There is no woman in the same room with him when he is undressed...] Then, the disgruntled PA security official and several other men walk into the room, and introduce themselves. The man gets dressed, without too much display of emotion.

Earlier in the day, Palestinian TV showed this man receiving a sports delegation from the United Arab Emirates.

By the evening, it was not only the Israeli media which had identified Rafiq Husseini by name — it was all over the main-stream media.  And Palestinian TV announced that Husseini would be making an appearance on the “All In The Open” live discussion, hosted by Maher Shalabi, after the regular nightly news.  He was joined tonight by Ma’an News Agency’s Editor in Chief Nasser Lahham.  But, Husseini did not show up.  Instead, a statement was read on the air in his name, in which said he believed he was the target of a conspiracy to discredit him and the Palestinian President.  He promised to reveal the full truth in due time, and said he was ready to be held accountable if it were proven that his had done something wrong.

Then one of the women who was shown in the film was speaking on air via telephone line (the voice was recognizable from the videotape) — apparently the secretary — and she said the other woman had been her friend for many years. The friend had a problem (with her daughter, it seems), and they all went together to her house. All the lies that have been told are just unbelievable, she said, after speaking at length. Her account did not make sense.

UPDATE: One Palestinian journalist in Ramallah said that he turned off the program in disgust as soon as it was announced that Husseini would not be participating. “I was hoping he would come forth and apologize”, this journalist said. “I could have forgiven him if he had offered an apology … Despite his very important position as one of the closest adviser to Abbas, he is new to politics, and has been here only five years. Before that, he was in London, working for at least 15 years with an organization providing medical aid to Palestinians. And, his wife is still in London”.

The AP story, developed later, reported additionally that “Shabaneh said he began investigating Husseini after a woman complained that the chief of staff made suggestive remarks when she went to his office to ask for help with a family problem. Shabaneh said he set up cameras in the woman’s apartment, with her permission, and filmed Husseini’s next encounters with her. In the video, Husseini is shown sitting on a couch in a living room, flanked by two women Shabaneh identifies as Husseini’s secretary and the unidentified woman who sought his help. During their conversation, Husseini is heard describing Abbas as aloof and lacking charisma and says Arafat surrounded himself with crooks. At some point, Husseini alludes to his own influence. ‘Would you like a decree? Would you like me to issue a presidential decree for you?’ he asks, though it’s not clear to which of the two women the remark is addressed. In a later scene, Husseini is shown undressing, alone, in a bedroom. He gets into bed, plumps the pillows and calls out to the unseen woman to join him. ‘Do I turn off the light or do you? What is the procedure?’ he is heard asking the woman.  Moments later, Shabaneh enters the room with three other men and identifies himself. Husseini jumps out of bed and gets dressed.
The official Palestinian media have not reported the details, but the video appeared on YouTube and quickly became a main topic of conversation across the Palestinian territories. The independent West Bank-based Maan news agency urged Husseini in an editorial to step down pending an investigation, arguing that he could no longer carry out his job effectively. ‘This is embarrassing to the Palestinian Authority, this is embarrassing to our people, this is embarrassing to our families’, Maan editor-in-chief Nasser Laham, who wrote the editorial, said in an interview. However, Laham also portrayed the Abbas aide as a victim of a smear campaign, calling Israeli TV’s airing of the footage ‘a lynching’. Jibril Rajoub, a senior Fatah official, promised an investigation. ‘There will be accountability, if it was proven that there were excesses’, he told Palestine TV. He said he believes the video is a result of entrapment, but that Husseini bears some responsibility”. This developed AP story can be read in full here.

It seems that PA officials have grown accustomed to the idea that “corruption” only involves donor money, and all the rest is … fair game. Yesterday, the Israeli newssite YNet published a story saying that “A high-ranking PA official said Wednesday to Ynet that the video revealed by Shabana is a personal issue known for quite some time and that his staff are not rattled by the corruption claims. According to the official, the PA maintains transparency with donor countries and operates a strict oversight mechanism on their payments … the PA noted that Shabana first negotiated with them to exchange monetary compensation in exchange for not publishing the claims reported Tuesday. ‘If we had any concern, we would have closed that file by paying Shabana’, said the PA official”.   This YNet story can be read in full here.

Article from UN-Truth read more here

It’s Friday, and Palestinian TV is showing the Friday prayers at the El-Bireh mosque, right next to downtown Ramallah.

(Ramallah and El-Bireh are two separate cities that have grown conjoined — they have separate institutions but are one urban area.)

Last Friday, Palestinian TV was here as well, because this mosque is right next door to the hall where the Palestinian Journalists Union was holding a General Assembly and preparing for the first elections in some 20 years, so the live coverage simply moved next door…

On Monday, the wife of the Mayor of El-Bireh was arrested by invading Israeli forces — she was suspected of doing something in support of Hamas. She may still be in Israeli detention. The Mayor, her husband, is a Hamas supporter, if not member. This week, the Friday sermon is overtly political. And, there are more men in Islamic dress (like the Tahrir crowd, or some supporters of Hamas though they are usually more conservative). It seems to be an effort to reconcile, rather than divide.

The sermon it is about this land, this country, about Jerusalem, about faith. Israel — yes, “Israel” — is mentioned two or three times. One people, one authority, and so forth. Quds, and Palestine. And the community of believers around the world (the Muslim Ummah).

The expressions on the faces of the men present are amazing — rapt attention, much more involved and reactive than the previous Friday sermons I’ve watched recently. The eyes are engaged, many mouths curved in small not-quite-smiles.

At the end of the sermon, prayers — not unlike those I’ve seen in St. George’s Episcopal Anglican Cathedral in East Jerusalem — for those who have died, for the elimination of checkpoints and closures, for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and more.

Then the collective Friday prayer is performed. (There is a brief pause to arrange a sound difficulty, while everybody is patient. Then the recitation of the Fatiha begins solemnly, and all present intone “Amin” at the end.)

**************************

UPDATED: It’s Friday – Part Two: Palestinian Television is now showing the weekly demonstration against The Wall in Bil’in – a rural area west of of Ramallah. Because it’s rural, The Wall is in the form of a double wired fence with barbed wire rolls, and a dirt road in between for Israeli patrol cars.

It looks like a countryside festival, at first — a slow procession of people walking on foot up a rural road in the sunshine with green all arouns and almond or fruit trees in blossom. Then, a cloud of white tear gas appears in the middle of the procession. There is a liesurly retreat. The Israeli soldiers are relaxed. A few are already positioned in the dirt track in the middle of the The Wall/fencing. Others, with vehicles, and camoflague netting, are waiting just behind, on a small hill top.

It’s just the beginning.

Demonstrators (a handful) are near the gate. Some sit down. There is a group of photographers. Suddenly, a big volley of tear gas, directed at the gate, but some shots are flaring — curving clouds of white in a fine trail before hitting and releasing a big cloud — much further up the road where the demonstrators are retreating.

There is a man in a wheelchair in the front lines — he seems to be a Palestinian, maybe early middle-aged.

There are also a group of blue people, with theatrical blue face paint and clothes, and paper ears. One of them carried a Palestinian flag, and was later affected by tear gas. I realize from the Palestinian TV evening news that these demonstrators are making reference to the new film Avatar, where the blue (Nav’i) people of Pandora successfully resist a far more advanced and powerful colonizing people.

Then, I found a photo on the Mondoweiss blog, apparently originally from the Daily Telegraph:

The worst action usually comes later in the day, when younger boys begin throwing stones, and the soldiers’ lose their temper.

This Friday is the first, following an IDF announcement in mid-week that it was beginning work to re-route The Wall — fence, here — following a Supreme Court decision two-and-a-half years ago. According to a press release from the Popular Struggle Committee, headed by Mohammed Khatib, “preliminary infrastructure work to reroute the barrier in accordance with the ruling has finally began. Since the ruling, the state has twice been found in contempt of the court, for not implementing the decision”.

As a result of the Supreme Court decision, about half of the Bil’in village lands that were confiscated by the Israeli military as a buffer zone to protect nearby expanding Jewish settlements were not needed for that purpose, and were ordered returned to Bili’n. So far, despite the start of something this week, that has not happened.

Khatib himself said, in a statement in the press release, that this new development would not stop the demonstrations: “The Supreme Court had already ruled this should happen almost three years ago and it should not have taken so long. There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that the only reason that this is finally happening now are the five years of persistent struggle and the scarifies the people of my village have made. While we are happy for the lands that do return, we do not forget the lands and crops that remain isolated behind the Wall. Our struggle will continue until all of our lands are returned and the Occupation is over.”

UPDATE: The IDF is now reporting that “riots are taking place there” — and it’s only 2:00 pm.

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Coming up: the Sheikh Jarrah gathering — at about 2:30 this afternoon, Jerusalem time … UPDATE: It seems to have passed well. The group of largely Israeli demonstrators was shown on the Palestinian TV news Friday night…

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UPDATE: According to Ma’an News Agency, “The Hebrew-language daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli citizen and anti-wall movement organizer, was detained in the Ramallah-area village of Dir Nezam during a protest there. He was reportedly being held on the pretext that he violated an army order and entered Area A, a West Bank designation off-limits to Israeli citizens. Residents of Dir Nezam are joined by international peace activists each week”. This report is posted here.

Article from UN-Truth read more here

What happens when Israeli Border Police decide to stage a massive raid — looking for “tax delinquents” as well as “illegal West Bank worker” — in Shuafat Refugee Camp (the only Palestinian refugee camp inside the boundaries of what Israel unilaterally defined as the “Greater Jerusalem Municipality” in 1967?

The legal residents of the camp have Jerusalem IDs. But, in recent years, Israel has unilaterally decided to exclude it and close it off from Jerusalem by the construction of The Wall around three sides of Shuafat refugee camps — it is now only freely open to the West Bank.

And, an awful Israeli military checkpoint has been put at the main entrance into Shuafat Refugee Camp. Now, children needing to get to school in the morning, and adults needing to get to their jobs, all have to pass out of the camp through this prison-like checkpoint. The traffic jam, and the stress, are terrible — every day, day in and day out — imposing great stress on people who are technically residents of Jerusalem but who have become de facto West Bankers…

Though they still have to pay their Jerusalem taxes!

The CNN team in Jerusalem took some good footage under near-battle conditions, and the video can be seen by clicking on the link: here.

A few hours earlier, and not very far away, the Israeli military raided Ramallah/El-Bireh, and arrested the wife of the mayor of El-Bireh, apparently because of alleged activities on behalf of Hamas. And other Israeli military units raided the offices of the Stop the Wall campaign, carrying out a three-hour search operation, and carrying away documents, computers, videos and other materials found in the office.

And, still other units of the Israeli military raided another area of Ramallah and arrested two young women who were said to be members of the International Solidarity Movement. The two women were seized — in Ramallah — for overstaying their Israeli visas, and then taken to the Israeli military detention center in Ofer (still in the West Bank). Luckily, they had a lawyer who was able to take their cases before the Israeli Supreme Court, which ordered their release on bail while they contest their pending deportation. However, they are banned from returning to their apartment in Ramallah…

Article from UN-Truth read more here