Middle East Inside Line: Nakba Day/Independence Day; Deterioration in East Jerusalem; Israel's Lieberman "An Imbecile"?

Independence Day/Nakba (Catastrophe) Day: Palestinians marked Nakba Day on 15 May, remembering the day in 1948 when Israel declared statehood as the prelude to the fleeing or expulsion of some 700,000 Arabs from their homes. Hundreds of Israeli Arabs took part in a rally in East Jerusalem. On the same day, leaders of Hamas and Fatah displayed rare unity in a joint rally in Gaza.

Israeli Arab MK Jamal Zahalka said that if Israel's government were to go ahead with its construction plans for East Jerusalem, a "third Intifada would erupt," calling "what is happening today in Jerusalem a second Nakba".

Middle East Analysis: Russia’s Strategy on Israel, Palestine and Beyond

On Saturday night, the National Left (Smol Leumi) movement, Peace Now, and "Ofek" (the Meretz party at Hebrew University) organized a large demonstration near Zion Square in Jerusalem. Under the banner "Zionists are not settlers!", thousands of left-wing activists called for "an end to the occupation."


East Jerusalem's Deteriorating Situation: According to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (Acri), "a unified Jerusalem does not exist and he truth is, two cities exist side by side":

- Only three social service stations operate in East Jerusalem in comparison to 20 in the West.
- Less than 50 per cent of schoolchildren attend public schools; 1,000 classrooms are needed.
- The annual budget allocation per elementary school child in East Jerusalem was $152 (577 shekels) compared with $627 (2,372 shekels) in the west of the city.
- Eighty homes were demolished in 2009, leaving 300 people homeless.
- Hundreds of streets do not receive rubbish collection services.
- About 160,000 Palestinianresidents have no suitable and legal connection to the water network and 50km of main sewage lines are lacking.

Acri said Palestinians faced discrimination in almost all sectors of life, "Israel's policy for the past four decades has taken concrete form as discrimination in planning and construction, expropriation of land, and minimal investment in physical infrastructure and government and municipal services."

The report added that Israel has expropriated more than one-third of East Jerusalem land which was privately owned by Palestinians, on which it has built more than 50,000 homes for the Jewish population:

- A majority of Palestinians in East Jerusalem, including three out of four children live in poverty.
- Only 10 per cent of East Jerusalem's 300,000 Palestinians have access to social services to help remedy the situation.
- 65 per cent of Palestinian families in East Jerusalem exist below the poverty line, as opposed to 31 per cent of the city's Jewish families.

North Korea Attacks Israel's Lieberman: Looks like Pyongyang is not happy that Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has called Iran, Syria, and North Korea .the "new Axis of Evil" because of their pursuit of a "mad arms race". North Korea's Foreign Ministry said Saturday that its government has nothing to do with any spread of WMDs and called Lieberman "an imbecile in diplomacy".

Middle East Inside Line: Mitchell's Talks in Palestine; Israel's Official Perception of Peace

Mitchell in Ramallah: US envoy George Mitchell was in Ramallah on Friday for meetings with the Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas and the PA's top negotiator Saeb Erekat. Both Palestinians reiterated their call upon Israel to stop construction in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Though the Palestinian Liberation Organization's executive committee has not made a formal decision yet, Erekat said:

If the price that we will pay for saying yes to Mitchell will be more settlements and more dictations, that's a big question mark about the possibility of continuing.

Now the Israeli government has a choice, either peace or settlements, and it can't have both.

Following Defense Minister Ehud Barak's request to delay the demolition date of illegal residential structures in the West Bank, Israeli officials told the High Court of Justice that they may legalize the Givat Hayovel outpost in the West Bank.



Livni's Call for an Agreement: In an interview with Haaretz, the opposition leader MK Tzipi Livni (Kadima) on Thursday called to combine the forces of "the two large Zionist parties in Israel" - Kadima and Likud - to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians. Livni said:

The prime minister is the one preventing the change....Change is possible, but it will not be done with the agreement of the ultra-Orthodox parties. They have no reason [to agree], as long as Likud is the ruling party. Likud has bound its political destiny and all Israelis' fate to the ultra-Orthodox politicians' whims....Change is possible and the keys to change are in the hands of the Zionist parties representing the majority in Israel.

Israel's Official Perception of Peace: In an interview with The Jerusalem Post, Vice Premier and Regional Development Minister Silvan Shalom said: "No matter what we do, I do not see a Palestinian leader who is willing to accept what [Yasir] Arafat rejected, and I don’t see a Jewish prime minister who can give more than what [Ehud] Barak offered. Therefore, I see it as a dead end."

Shalom stated that the Palestinian Authority was already functioning like a de facto state. “True, they don’t have borders,” he said, “but we also don’t have borders.” He described the proximity talks as "bypass" talks and said their focus should be on economic projects, development of industrial areas, and joint projects in the spheres of electricity, sewage, water and infrastructure assistance. They could also increase freedom of movement in the West Bank, through the lifting of roadblocks, and help the Palestinians fight terrorism and enhance security.

Israel's Security: On Friday, President Shimon Peres told US envoy Mitchell that Israel placed security at the top of the agenda for the upcoming talks.

Israeli newspaper Maariv reported that FBI Director Robert Mueller came to Israel to discuss international crime and joint U.S-Israeli efforts to counter “terrorism” with Israeli Police Chief David Cohen.

Cohen said that the talks were positive and cooperation between security agencies in Israel and US had been fruitful in "the fight against organized and computer crimes as well as the fight against terrorism".

Israel-Palestine Opinion: Discrimination in East Jerusalem (Eldar)

Writing in Haaretz, Akiva Eldar considers the "discriminatory situation" in East Jerusalem, criticising the Netanyahu Government's construction policy in the eastern sector of the city andquestioning Israel's 43-year-old policy of not allowing Israeli Arabs to build homes on the expropriated 35 percent of East Jerusalem:

Israel-Palestine: Proximity Talks to Begin on Wednesday? (Yenidunya)

If everything goes as expected next week, with the beginning of proximity talks, thousands of Jews will be marking 43 years since the "unification of Jerusalem." The politicians will certainly not miss the festive opportunity to express their great love for "our united capital for all eternity."


At that same hour, the police will continue to question municipal leaders who, while singing songs of praise to Jerusalem, lent a hand to the construction of the monstrous Holyland complex. You don't need judges in Jerusalem to know that a serious crime was committed against the city with the Holyland. But corruption on the hill in West Jerusalem is nothing compared to the theft of land, identity rape, and the body of lies and criminal discrimination against 270,000 residents of the eastern part of the city.

Although these despicable acts have been going on in broad daylight for years, the public and the media don't find them interesting. After all, it's about Arabs. If not for the "unfortunate timing" of the U.S. vice-presidential visit, who would have cared about 1,600 housing units at Ramat Shlomo? Did anyone investigate why, over the opposition of the Israel Lands Administration representative, the District Planning and Building Committee rezoned the land from open space to land for construction? Who knows how many apartments the Housing and Construction Ministry built for young couples from East Jerusalem, which, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is no different than North Tel Aviv?

A reminder: Since 1967, Israel has expropriated 35 percent of the area of East Jerusalem (around 24 square kilometers). New Jewish neighborhoods were built on those lands, with 50,000 housing units.

Hundreds of developers and contractors (and public employees?) continue to get rich from this construction. How many neighborhoods were built during that time for Arab-Israeli residents? Zero. When was the last time the government supported the construction of 600 apartments in an Arab neighborhood? Thirty years ago. Most of the lands left in the hands of Palestinians (about 45 square kilometers) have been declared "green areas." Lacking a comprehensive master plan for Jerusalem because of intentional political foot-dragging, building permits cannot be issued for areas outside the densely built-up Palestinian neighborhoods.

And after all that, people on the right dare to complain that Arabs are building without permits, while attempts are being made to "expel" Jews from Beit Yonatan, a large building without a permit that their friends stuck like a bone in the throat of a Palestinian neighborhood. The prime minister is also peddling the line that "a Palestinian from East Jerusalem can build anywhere in the city." It's hard to believe that Netanyahu, who was born in Jerusalem, doesn't know that only Israeli citizens or those entitled to Israeli citizenship through the Law of Return have access to ILA property (93 percent of the land in Israel).

Not only are Arabs from East Jerusalem not allowed to buy the homes in Talbiyeh (whose name has been officially changed to Komemiyut) where they were born 63 years ago; the law doesn't permit them to build a home on one-third of the land of East Jerusalem - the area that was expropriated from Palestinians after 1967. In contrast, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, who demanded that U.S. President Barack Obama leave Jerusalem alone, is welcome to purchase a vacation apartment in the new Jewish housing project in Sheikh Jarrah.

While children in West Jerusalem schools are celebrating "Jerusalem Day," thousands of children in East Jerusalem will stay home or crowd into rickety schoolrooms. The education minister and the mayor, who will praise the "unification of Jerusalem," are among those continually defaulting on the pledge to the High Court of Justice to build some 250 of the more than 1,000 classrooms that are lacking in the city.

And people who disregard Israel's High Court will have no trouble ignoring agreements with foreigners. Who remembers that according to phase one of the road map that the Israeli government was to reopen the Palestinian Chamber of Commerce and other shuttered Palestinian institutions in East Jerusalem, pledging that they would operate based on previous agreements?

"For Zion's sake will I not hold My peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until her triumph go forth as brightness, and her salvation as a torch that burneth, and the nations shall see thy triumph, and all kings thy glory," wrote the prophet Isaiah. It's hard to believe that proximity talks will bring peace into closer proximity between Israel and the Palestinians. But if they help replace baseless, sickly sweet declarations with just a little more justice and wisdom emanating from Jerusalem, as the prophet envisioned, that will be enough.

Israel-Palestine: Arab League Supports Indirect Talks (Yenidunya)

The Arab League nations backed indirect talks between Israelis and Palestinians on Saturday. Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa told reporters: "The timeframe of indirect talks will not change from what was agreed to in March, and there will be no change from indirect talks to direct talks until after the outcome of indirect talks has been assessed."

Middle East Analysis: Washington’s Latest Stick for an Israel-Palestine Solution

The top Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, filled in the detail on the "assessment of the indirect talks", "If Israel builds one house in the West Bank, Palestinians will immediately stop the negotiations." Arab foreign ministers added East Jerusalem to the agenda, warning that peace efforts would collapse if Israel continued to build settlements in the city as well as in the West Bank.



The Arab League, who gave the U.S. four months from March for so-called proximity talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, said that it had received "positive signs" from the United States.

Hamas, the Palestinian leadership in Gaza, criticized this support: "The endorsement and support for the Arab Committee to resume negotiations again, even after the occupation continues with its policies and settlements, is considered as accepting the situation as it is, and a new umbrella for it to commit more crimes and violations against the Palestinian people."

In contrast, Israeli officials welcomed the League's endorsement. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement, "Israel is willing to renew negotiations with the Palestinians at any time and at any place." President Shimon Peres added:

There is a readiness in Israel to solve the obstacles at the basis of peace negotiations. It took a little longer than we hoped for and problems are not yet solved but at least the way to handle them is open.

Israel has adopted the principle of two states for two peoples, and we extend our hand for an honest peace with our neighbours.

For now, Israeli officials are not saying a word about settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

On Sunday, Palestinian Authority Secretary General Tayeb Abdel Rahim said that U.S. President Barack Obama has assured the PA that Washington is committed to a two-state solution and that a future Palestinian state will be independent and have territorial continuity. Rahim added that the U.S. vowed to assign blame publicly to any party that takes provocative actions or jeopardizes prospects for peace.

London-based Arab-language newspaper Al-Hayat claims that Obama has promised Abbas a prolonged Israeli settlement freeze in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The report asserts that Saeb Erekat told the Arab League ministers Saturday night that Obama made his promise off the record in order to avoid conflict with right-wing factions in Israel.

Middle East Analysis: Washington's Latest Stick for an Israel-Palestine Solution

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday she expects indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinians to begin next week. However, this is not the end of the story.

Here is the Obama Administration’s most recent and biggest stick: an international summit run by the Quartet of Middle East peacemakers --- the United States, European Union, United Nations, and Russia --- to establish a Palestinian state if Israeli-Palestinian talks remain stalemated into September or October.

Israel-Palestine: The Golden Key to Proximity Talks? East Jerusalem (Yenidunya)

Why in September or October? First of all, Arab League foreign ministers are expected to demand that the negotiations show progress within four months. Secondly, the UN General Assembly will reconvene in late September. Thirdly, September is the first anniversary of Obama’s trilateral summit with the Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Lastly, 26 September marks the end of the 10-month Israeli freeze on construction in West Bank settlements.


So what does this mean for Israel? Simply put, Washington says that West Jerusalem might find itself facing an internationalization of the conflict, moving hand-in-hand with insistence on a solution based international law and UN Resolutions 242 and 338. This means a shift away from the basis of provisions for Israeli self-defense to the  consolidation of socio-political institutions seeing the Israeli occupation as the heart of problems in the region.

Meanwhile, Washington is increasing its pressure on Israel. On Friday, a Palestinian source told The Guardian that the Obama administration would consider allowing the UN Security Council to censure Israel over its activity in West Bank settlements, encouraging the Palestinians to participate in peace talks. This would mean a US abstention on any resolution. The same source also reported that David Hale, the deputy to US special envoy George Mitchell, told Abbas that the Obama administration views Israeli construction in East Jerusalem as "provocative."

Will the Obama Administration be able to convince other countries to support these measures, despite Israel’s “sensitive” bilateral relations with Russia and France? Washington may find ground if it presents this as an approach to not only the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but also other regional problems, such as Iran’s nuclear programme, Hamas-Fatah reconciliation talks, and Israel’s relations with Lebanon and Syria.

If the Obama Administration is really serious in its warning, this is more than welcome for the Palestinian Authority as it will decrease pressure on the PA in the Weskt Bank.  However, Palestinians are unlikely to welcome an international conference if they cannot get more than “gestures” from the Netanyahu Government.

Arab countries will take a similar position. The London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi has already reported that Syria is opposed to the Palestinians returning to the negotiating table because "Israel has not made enough gestures of good faith, and in light of the fact that senior officials in Israel have been sounding threats against Damascus and Beirut".