Issue no 71

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Issue No : 71 25th November, 2013

Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia | 1


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Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia

Palestinian Cultural

Organization Malaysia

Read In This Report

P 4

P 12 P13“Miles of Smiles” Aid Convoy

arrives in Gaza

Hamdan: we will take steps to end the Gaza

blockade

P6 P8 P8

Recognition of “Jewish state”

implies Okaying ethnic cleansing of Palestinians

By:Khalid Amayreh

Abbas: Our talks with Israel ongoing despite settlement

expansion

OIC proposes severing ties with countries that recognise Jerusalem as

Israel’s capital

Israel›s former chief rabbi arrested on suspicion of

corruption

UN: Gaza situation worse than before

P 11Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal Finds Prima Facie In Israel

Genocide Charge

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CONTENTS

News of Palestine

Articles & Analyses

Malaysia & Palestinian Cause

Recognition of “Jewish state” implies Okaying ethnic cleansing of Palestinians 13

Israel›s former chief rabbi arrested on suspicion of corruption 10

Israel Insider

Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal Finds Prima Facie In Israel Genocide Charge 11

“Miles of Smiles” Aid Convoy arrives in Gaza 12

Hamdan: we will take steps to end the Gaza blockade 4

Israeli occupation carries out multiple airstrikes in the Gaza Strip 5

Abbas: Our talks with Israel ongoing despite settlement expansion 6

OIC proposes severing ties with countries that recognise Jerusalem 7

as Israel’s capital

Hunger striker Alaa Hammad is nearing death 8

Boat carrying Palestinian family fleeing from Syria sinks off Greece 9

Anti-Prawer protests held in Jerusalem 9

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News of Palestine

22/11/2013

Political Affair s official in Hamas, Osama Hamdan, stressed that his movement will make efforts and take steps to end the siege imposed for years on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.Hamdan stressed in an inter-view with Voice of Aqsa ra-dio from Gaza that the cruel blockade cannot kill the Pal-estinians and will never de-feat the resistance.He said, on the first anniver-sary of the Battle of the Shale Stones, that Hamas adheres to the option of resistance, which will continue to de-velop itself with time.Meanwhile, the United Na-tions has warned against the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory James Rawley said on Thursday, «After 12 months the initial hopes for a significant improvement on the ground have not been realized.»The UN official made the re-marks as he visited Gaza to mark the first anniversary of the Israeli war on the block-aded sliver.More than 160 Palestinians killed and some 1,200 others

were injured in the Israeli war on November 14-21, 2012.«In fact I am sorry to report that situations for Gaza›s 1.7 million people is worse than it was be-fore the hostilities a year ago» Rawley stated, warning against the fuel and energy crisis in the coastal enclave.UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Robert Turner has criticized the Egyptian military for its crack-down on the underground tun-nels near the border with Gaza.«The closures of the tunnels has led to a near total collapse of private sector constructions,» Turner said.In recent months, fuel and elec-tricity shortages in Gaza have worsened as the Egyptian mili-tary has blocked supply tunnels leading into the region. The un-derground tunnels serve as a life-line for the Gazans.

Hamdan: we will take steps to end the Gaza blockade

On the other hand, there are warnings of a humanitarian disaster in Gaza caused by the floodwater submerging the streets: not the aftermath of heavy rain, but raw sewage.One of the Palestinian enclave’s largest waste water treatment plants has stopped working be-cause of power cuts caused by fuel shortages.Residents are forced to pass by or through the filthy muck that overflows into the streets each time the plant goes idle and the waste goes untreated.“This is the start of a catastro-phe and unless the world listens to our cries, a real disaster may hit Gaza and its people,” said Sa’ad El-Deen Al-Tbash of the Gaza City wastewater depart-ment. “This is a humanitarian, not a political issue.”

Source: Agencies

UN: Gaza situation worse than before

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20/11/2013

Israeli warplanes carried out on Wednesday night a series of airstrikes against the Gaza Strip, leaving dozens of Pal-estinian children traumatised.Witnesses said that several sites throughout the Strip were targeted last night by Israeli F16s. Most of the strikes targeted empty areas, but were still close to resi-dential neighbourhoods.Palestinian medical sources reported that dozens of chil-dren were rushed to the hos-pital and treated for trauma; however, no serious causali-ties were reported.A number of Israeli drones

continue to fly over the Strip and their sound roars heavily in the skies. «We have no tranquillity,» a shopkeeper said. «With their noise, drones spoil our life.»Hundreds of Palestinian families have already made preparations

Israeli occupation carries out multiple airstrikes in the Gaza Strip

to evacuate houses that are near to police and security head-quarters because they fear that the Israeli occupation will soon carry out an offensive similar to the one last year.

Source: MEMO

Palestinian Cultural

Organization Malaysia

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Abbas: Our talks with Israel ongoing despite settlement expansion

19/11/2013

President Mahmoud Abbas said the Palestinian Authority (PA) would never stop its ne-gotiations with the Israeli side regardless of the settlement expansion in the occupied lands of the West Bank and Jerusalem. Abbas made his re-marks during a joint news con-ference with French president Francois Hollande on Monday.Abbas affirmed that his authority›s peace talks with Israel would continue for nine months despite what happens on the ground.He stated that the current PA-Israeli negotiations that start-ed under the auspices of US secretary of state John Kerry were aimed to stop his au-thority from going to interna-tional organizations for action against Israel in exchange for the release of Palestinian pris-oners from Israeli jails.He also confirmed the news reports talking about the resig-nation of his negotiating team, but he said that he still did not decide on its acceptance.Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netan-yahu on Monday called on President Mahmoud Abbas to address the Israeli Knes-set and to «recognize Jewish

links to the land of Israel.»«I call on him from here today: let›s break the deadlock,» Ne-tanyahu said on Tuesday in a special address to the Knesset, in honor of a visit by French President Francois Hollande.«Come to the Israeli Knesset and I›ll come to Ramallah. Get up on this platform and recog-nize the historical truth: the Jews have a nearly 4,000-year-old link to the land of Israel, he said addressing PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas.Meanwhile, Israel›s chief nego-tiator Tzipi Livni declared a new round of negotiations to be held in few days with PA delegation.Livni confirmed that Saeb Er-ekat, who recently announced

Netanyahu calls on Abbas “to recognize Israel as a Jewish state”

his resignation as head of the Palestinian negotiating team, «is still in his office and he will head the Palestinian delegation at the upcoming meeting.»Erekat decided along with members of the Palestinian negotiating team to resign in protest against the Israeli government›s decision to ap-prove more tenders to build thousands of settlement units.Sources in Fatah movement pointed out that Erekat with-drew his resignation after Fa-tah Central Committee decided to continue the negotiations despite Israeli settlement esca-lation and the killing of 14 Pal-estinians since talks› resump-tion three months ago.

Source: PIC

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OIC proposes severing ties with countries that recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital23/11/2013

The secretary general of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC), Ekmeled-din Ihsanoglu, has indicated that the foreign ministers who represent the organisation›s member states will discuss a recommendation during their meeting in Conakry to sever diplomatic ties with countries that either recognize Jerusalem as Israel›s capital or transfer their embassies there.

According Ihsanoglu›s state-ment: «a special ministerial session on the status of Jerusa-lem will take place on the side-lines of a ministerial meeting in Conakry to discuss the legal and international aspects need-ed to curb the Israeli violations in the holy city.»

Ihsanoglu explained that: «the ministers will discuss another recommendation to coordi-nate the Islamic efforts in the UN Human Rights Council to thwart Israel›s attempt to de-lete the seventh item from the council›s agenda, which ad-dresses the status of human rights in the Palestinian terri-tories.»

Meanwhile, A specialist in

Jerusalem›s history, Khalil Ibra-him, has claimed that the Israeli authorities built three new Jewish synagogues to practice biblical prayers, including chambers to host women›s prayers, inside the tunnels that are scattered beneath the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Ibrahim, who also works as a tour guide, told Palestine Online: «We only saw these synagogues during our tours; otherwise we would not have known anything about them. They were built quietly under the ground. These synagogues are an extension of other religious sites that Israel is building in occupied Jerusalem, especially around the Al-Aqsa Mosque, to impose new realities on the ground. The con-structions have political back-

ing in an effort to Judaise the city.» Ibrahim explained that the Israeli government aims to encircle the Al-Aqsa Mosque with a belt of settlements and structures that carry alleged religious titles, including syna-gogues. Ibrahim also revealed that: «inside these synagogues, the Jews are using Psalms to model and demonstrate the Temple›s structure under the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Other facili-ties including schools, libraries and synagogues are being built in an attempt to undermine and erase the Islamic and Arab heritage in the holy city and to construct a Jewish heritage in its place.»

Source: Agencies

Israel builds new synagogues beneath Al-Aqsa mosque

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22/11/2013

Jordanian prisoner Alaa Ham-mad is nearing death after 204 days of hunger strike in Israeli jails, human rights sources confirmed.

Waed Association for prison-ers expressed deep concern over the serious health con-dition of hunger striker Alaa Hamdan without any national or international attention to his issue.

Israeli authorities have trans-ferred the hunger striker more than once from one prison to another in an attempt to break his will and his hunger strike that was launched 7 months

ago.

Alaa Hammad, a father of six children, started his hunger strike on 2nd May 2013 along with 4 other Palestinian political pris-oners. He suffers vision prob-lems and severe pains through-out his body and he cannot walk, in addition to losing many of his weight.

In a related context, Palestinian MP Bassem Zaarir announced that the administrative detain-ees will start escalatory steps, including open hunger strike to end their detention, adding that the prisoners› suffering has con-tinued in the absence of a real

move to release them.

Zaarir, who was released on Thursday from the occupation jails after one year of deten-tion, stressed that the admin-istrative detention represents a violation of international laws.

He warned of the Israeli at-tempts to kill the spirits of the Palestinian people by targeting the leaders, icons and MPs by the administra-tive detention, noting that the number of administrative detainees increased to more than 160.

Source: Agencies

Hunger striker Alaa Hammad is nearing deathAdministrative captives to begin escalatory steps

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Anti-Prawer protests held in Jerusalem

Boat carrying Palestinian family fleeing from Syria sinks off Greece

20/11/2013

Hebrew University students, international activ-ists, and residents of the Negev held a demon-stration Wednesday in protest of Israel›s Prawer Plan to relocate Bedouins from their land.

The protest was held in front of the supreme court in Jerusalem calling for an end to plans to displace a Bedouin village called Umm al-Hiran.

The protest came ahead of worldwide demon-strations scheduled for Nov. 30, activist Rafat Awashe said.

It also coincided with deliberation in Israeli court to approve the plan. Source: Ma’an News

23/11/2013

Palestinian refugee family drowned off Greece coasts while trying to reach Europe after fleeing from the ongoing events in Syria, Action Group for Palestinian Refugee in Syria revealed.

In its statement issued Saturday, the Action Group documented the death of six members of one Palestinian family on the 14th of November off Greece after fleeing from the Syrian conflict, pointing out that they were buried in a cemetery northern Greece.

In a related incident, the Action Group reported the martyrdom of Palestinian refugee Moham-med Mohawesh and the injury of many others on Friday due to repeated shelling targeting Dar›aa refugee camp in Syria.

A state of calm has prevailed in Palestinian ref-ugee camps in Syria particularly Yarmouk refu-gee camp in which Palestinian refugees have

marched after Friday prayers demanding an end to the tight siege imposed on the camp for 130 days.

A boat carrying Syrian and Palestinian refugees capsized off Italy after a Libyan military vessel fired on them as it left Libya on the 11th of Oc-tober, leaving more than 200 victims among the refugees. Source: PIC

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Israel›s former chief rabbi arrested on suspicion of corruption

19/11/2013

Israeli police arrested Yona Metzger, a former chief rabbi of Israel, on Monday morning on suspicion of money laundering and taking bribes, according to police spokesperson Luba Alsemary.

Alsemary said that the investigation of Metzger started several months ago on sus-picions of crimes related to bribery, money laundering, fraud, obtaining testimony under duress and tax evasion worth millions of shekels during Metzger›s term as chief Ashkenazi rabbi.

Metzger is scheduled to be brought before the Rishon Lezion Magistrate›s Court today to decide whether or not to extend his remand in police custody in connec-tion to the ongoing investigations.

Source: MEMO

Israel Insider

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Malaysia & Palestinian Cause

23/11/2013

The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal to-day decided there was a prima facie case in the genocide and war crime charges against Israel and Amos Yaron, a retired Israeli army general who was in charge during the Palestinian mas-sacre in Sabra and Shatila in 1982.

The decision was announced by the tribunal›s president, Tan Sri Lamin Mohd Yunus at the end of the tribunal proceeding at 7pm Saturday.

«(Having) considered the evidence of witness-es, there is a prima facie and a case to answer. That is the position (of the tribunal),» he said.

Prior to the decision today, the tribunal, which was held at the office of the Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Criminalise War, heard submis-sion by the prosecution.

Chief Prosecutor Professor Gurdial Singh Ni-jar, in his submission, said the Palestinians were the largest diaspora of refugees in the world and since 1948 there had never been an end to the killing of Palestinians.

He said the prosecution had established beyond reasonable doubt that Israel was guilty of the crime of genocide under the Genocide Conven-tion and the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Charter and thus, should be found guilty.

«In this way, the cry for justice by the Palestin-ians in Gaza, the West Bank and the diaspora, long ignored by the world community, will be finally assured, and it will bring some form of closure to the first part of their quest for jus-tice, a stepping stone for a civilised state in this civilised world to exercise universal jurisdic-tion,» he added.

The coram of judges for the tribunal today were Tunku Datuk Sofiah Jewa, Professor Salleh

Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal Finds Prima Facie In Israel Genocide Charge

Buang, Professor Datuk Shad Saleem Faruqi, Da-tuk Mohd Saari Yusof, John Philpot and Tunku Intan Mainura. The defence were lead by Jason Kay Kit Leon.

A total of 11 witnesses testified before the tribu-nal. Some of the witnesses testified using Skype from Gaza, London and Lebanon.

The tribunal continues tomorrow to hear submis-sion from the defence.

The Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Criminalise War established the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission to investigate cases of war crimes that have been neglected by established institu-tions such as the International Criminal Court.

The Commission seeks to influence world opin-ion on the illegality of wars and occupation un-dertaken by major powers.

Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Moha-mad founded the Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Criminalise War, a non-governmental organisa-tion in 2007.

Source: BERNAMA

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“Miles of Smiles” Aid Convoy arrives in Gaza

21/11/2013

The “Miles Of Smile” solidarity aid convoy made it into the coastal region, on Thursday [November 21, 2013], after crossing through the Rafah Border Ter-minal between Gaza and Egypt, carrying supplies and various Arab and other international champions.

Media sources in Gaza say that the activists are from many different countries, including Malaysia, Algeria, Libya, Jordan, Britain and Sweden. The aid convoy is the first since Egyptian army coup against President Mohammad Morsi.

The Egyptian army, along with numerous Israeli air strikes, has demolished siege-busting tunnels along the border.

Partners for Peace & Development for Pal-estinians (PPDP) issued a press release stat-ing that the convoy is part of a chain of the “Miles of Smiles” convoys which made it into Gaza, and continue to make trips to the coastal region in support of the Palestinian people and breaking the illegitimate Israeli siege.

The Miles of Smiles leadership has urged ev-eryone not to step back from supporting their brothers and sisters in the Gaza Strip because of the political events in Egypt.

Source: IMEMC+ MEMO

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By: Khalid Amayreh*

Israeli Prime Minister Binya-min Netanyahu has once again demanded that the Palestinian Authority (PA) recognize Is-rael as a Jewish state.

Speaking during a joint press conference with visiting French President François Hollande in Occupied Jerusalem earlier this week, Netanyahu said he would travel to Ramallah in order to demonstrate Israel ‘s desire for peace.

He called on PA leader Mah-moud Abbas to reciprocate by visiting Occupied Jerusalem, addressing the Knesset and rec-ognizing Israel as a Talmudic Jewish state where non-Jews can only maintain a precarious survival depending on Jewish “tolerance and magnanimity.”

Netanyahu is a professional liar par excellence. He is a mas-ter of prevarication, quibbling and verbal juggling. Devoid of simple honesty and rectitude, the Israeli premier has a zero credibility.

First of all, Netanyahu’s oc-cupation army occupies every

But what do Netanyahu and other Israeli officials really mean when they keep invok-ing the mantra of recognizing Israel as a Jewish state?

They surely don’t have in mind the encapsulation of equal-ity and justice in Israeli laws, nor the necessary absence of any systematic discrimination based on ethnicity and confes-sional affiliation.

The truth of the matter is that when Zionist leaders invoke the “Jewish state” mantra, they have two things in mind:

First, completing the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Palestinians, the native inhab-itants of the land, which began in 1948?

Israeli spokespersons and intel-lectuals often express remorse for not “completing the job” they started 65 years ago.

They are so sorry that Israel allowed a quarter of a million Palestinians to stay in their homes.

These 250,000 Palestinians

Articles & Analyses

Recognition of “Jewish state” implies Okaying ethnic cleansing of Palestinians

street and neighbourhood in Ra-mallah and the rest of Palestine from Lebanon to Gaza and from the River Jordan to the Mediter-ranean . Hence, he doesn’t need a permission from Mahmoud Abbas to go to the “capital” of the PA ad-ministration.

Furthermore, Netanyahu’s preten-sion about longing for peace is ab-solutely false. In the final analysis, a country that truly desires peace doesn’t build hundreds of colonies in occupied territories nor does transfer hundreds of thousands of its citizens to neighbours’ territo-ries in order to live on land that be-longs to another people.

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””

Indeed, clinging to the right of return is the best response to Israel ‘s whims about Jew-ish statehood. After all, this right is well-root-ed in international law.

“Jewish state’s whims” have been flaccid, mediocre and quite tepid.

The likely reason for this flac-cidity is Abbas’s keenness not to anger the Americans, the bankroller of his regime.

However, Palestinians must communicate a strong mes-sage to Abbas, telling him in an unmistakable manner that the right of return is not and must not be a subject of political ma-neuvers and bargaining.

Indeed, clinging to the right of return is the best response to Israel ‘s whims about Jewish statehood. After all, this right is well-rooted in international law.

Now the question that begs it-self is: Will the PA have the po-litical courage to tell Israel and her guardian-ally, the United States, that the right of return is an ultimate red line and that there can be no real solution to the decades-old strife without granting these wretched refu-gees their natural right to return to their homes from which they were expelled at gunpoint at the hands of barbarian Jewish invaders from Eastern Europe?

* Khalid Amayreh is a se-nior American-educated Palestinian journalist liv-ing in Occupied Palestine .

have grown in number, reach-ing 1.6 million people in ” Is-rael proper” alone. They now constitute about one fourth of Israel ‘s population.

Israeli demographers and stra-tegic planners view the very ex-istence of this large non-Jewish demographic mass as a painful thorn in Israel ‘s side. If added to the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Palestinians constitute an ab-solute majority of about 51% of the population west of the River Jordan. Hence, the Israeli dilemma.

The other issue behind inces-sant Israeli demands for a Pal-estinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state is the right of re-turn for millions of Palestinian refugees uprooted from their ancestral homeland when the Zionist entity was established more than 65 years ago.

The right of return is consid-ered the ultimate anathema for Israel and Zionism. After all, Israel wouldn’t have survived and grown had it not been for the expulsion and dispersion of these Palestinians all over the globe.

Yet, the right of return repre-sents the essence of the Pales-tinian problem as no durable solution to the conflict can be imagined in the absence of re-patriating the refugees.

To his credit, the late Palestin-ian leader Yasser Arafat resisted all Israeli and American pressure to cede the right of return for the refugees. He told the Americans on several occasions that ceding the right of return could cost him his life.

The current Palestinian leaderm Mahmoud Abbas, doesn’t ex-pressly say he would give up the right of return. However state-ments by Abbas, such as voic-ing his willingness to give up his right to return to Safad, his native town and birthplace, raises ques-tion- marks about the depth of his commitment to this paramount national issue.

Moreover, it is often noted that Abbas’s responses to Israel ‘s

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Issue no 71

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