issue no 24

Issue No: 24 19th Sep, 2012

24

Issue No: 24

Analysis

Why are Palestinians protesting the Paris Protocol?

News Tour

Hamas: annulment of Oslo accords national necessity

West Bank’s weekly protests demand an end for the Oslo agreement

Workers' Union in WB threatens to launch strike against Fayyad's government

MP Abu Seir: Fayyad's policies damaged the Palestinian econom

Mishaal heading a Hamas delegation arrives in Cairo

Jerusalemites: The new Israeli map of Jerusalem aims to imit the Arab presence

Raed Salah briefs Malaysian PM about threats to Jerusalem

Islamic movement calls for uprising against occupation viol

Calls for the largest solidarity campaign with hunger striking prisoners

European organizations calls on UN to save three Palestinian hunger strikers

Hunger striker to be deported t

Caricature

The international efforts to revive Fayyad’s govt.

Palestinian Weekly Report is a periodical insight into the latest developments of the

Palestinian Issue. It’s issued by The Palestinian Cultural

focuses on the most important news and analysis about the happenings of the

Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation in the Holy Lands of Palestine. The

views expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect PCOM's

Contents

Why are Palestinians protesting the Paris Protocol? ................................................................

Hamas: annulment of Oslo accords national necessity ................................................................

West Bank’s weekly protests demand an end for the Oslo agreement ................................

ion in WB threatens to launch strike against Fayyad's government

MP Abu Seir: Fayyad's policies damaged the Palestinian economy ................................

Mishaal heading a Hamas delegation arrives in Cairo ................................................................

Jerusalemites: The new Israeli map of Jerusalem aims to imit the Arab presence

Raed Salah briefs Malaysian PM about threats to Jerusalem ................................

Islamic movement calls for uprising against occupation violations in Jerusalem

Calls for the largest solidarity campaign with hunger striking prisoners ................................

European organizations calls on UN to save three Palestinian hunger strikers ...............................

Hunger striker to be deported to Egypt on release by Israelis ................................

The international efforts to revive Fayyad’s govt. ................................................................


It’s issued by The Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia and i



views expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect PCOM's editorial policy.

19th Sep, 2012

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ion in WB threatens to launch strike against Fayyad's government .............................. 6

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Jerusalemites: The new Israeli map of Jerusalem aims to imit the Arab presence ............................ 8

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ations in Jerusalem .............................. 9

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Organization Malaysia and it



editorial policy.


Analysis

Why are Palestinians protesting the Paris Protocol?

Recent protests of the increasing cost of living in the West Bank have highlighted demands to abolish the 1994 Paris Protocol, together with calls for the resignation of Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and, to a lesser extent, the resignation of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Palestinians have targeted the Paris Protocol because of its institutional subordination of the Occupied Palestinian Territory’s economy to Israel.

Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister rejected President Abbas’ request last week to review terms of the Paris protocol.

How has the West Bank economy fared under the Palestinian Authority leadership?

Economic conditions of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank have steadily deteriorated. External debt and budget deficit are both around US $1 billion, nearly a fifth of gross domestic product. Foreign aid to the PA is at a shortfall of $250 million, mostly due to over-expected contributions from Gulf States. Aid dependency is painfully obvious, as the PA has delayed several salary payments to 153,000 civil servants this year. Furthermore, a fifth of the working-age population in the West Bank is unemployed.

The youth movement, Palestinian Youth for Dignity, said that, “the primary responsibility [for the financial crisis] falls on those in the Palestine Liberation Organization that signed the Oslo Accords and the Paris Protocol… Second, the Palestinian National Authority, a product of the Oslo Agreement, continued with its reliance on foreign aid and failed to create national industries or support the agricultural sector. Third, some believe that the current government is the cause of the crisis. While it is true that this government contributed to deepening the crisis, the problem at its crux is that the agreement prevents any attempt to establish an independent national economy.”

What is the Paris Protocol?

The Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel signed the Protocol on Economic Relations as the economic appendix to the Oslo Accords in Paris, 1994.The Paris Protocol is a customs union regulating economic relations in four sectors: labor, trade relations, fiscal issues and monetary arrangements. The Protocol mandates Israeli control over Palestine’s external trade and collection of customs duties.


Reuters reported that U.N. agencies and Palestinian economists claim the economic relationship between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, as mandated in the Paris Protocol, has been dominated by Israel and is mostly to its own benefit.

How does the Paris Protocol affect the Palestinian economy?

The Paris Protocol granted Israel’s Civil Administration the right to collect taxes from Palestinians in the West Bank on behalf of the PA. Withholding of these funds has been a common practice by Israel for putting political pressure on the PA and Palestinians.

Since the 2006 victory of Hamas in democratic national elections, Israel has regularly withheld tax funds that it collects on behalf of the PA from goods imported into the OPT, an act that violates the Paris Protocol and limits the funds available to the PA.

Israel maintains control over utilities (such as water, electricity and phone services) in the OPT and in 2004 alone, confiscated US $15.8 million from aid sent to the OPT for utility bills owed by Palestinian municipalities. Israel charges exorbitant prices for these utilities;

despite lower wages and purchasing power, Palestinians pay more for electricity than Israelis.

The Paris Protocol also pegs Value Added Tax (VAT) to Israeli tax rates, currently at 17 percent, despite the huge disparity in average Palestinian and Israeli incomes.

Palestinian Youth for Dignity, said that “the Paris Protocol stipulates that our VAT is only allowed to be less than Israel’s by 2%, and the difference in the final price of gasoline to the consumers in the occupied Palestinian territories cannot be more than 15% of the price to the consumer in Israel, even though the average income in Israel is three times higher than our average income, and the per capita GDP in Israeli is almost 30 times higher than in Palestine!”

Palestinian Youth for Dignity argue that price control is used to maintain similar prices in the OPT in order to reduce competition with the Israeli market, despite a drastic difference in living standards between Israel and the OPT.

By: Alternative Info Centre (AIC)


News Tour

Hamas: annulment of Oslo accords national necessity

14/09/2012

GAZA,(PIC) - Hamas said that cancelling Oslo accords is a national necessity through re-adopting the Palestinian national project for liberation and independence that mainly depends on the resistance option to defend the Palestinian rights.

On the 19th anniversary of Oslo agreement, Hamas said in a statement, that the Oslo Accords and other agreements signed between the PLO/PA and Israel were a serious failure of the PLO, adding that time has come to free the POL from Oslo's abysmal conditions by renewing the organization's main aims.

The statement stressed that the Palestinian national reconciliation is based on the national constants, an end to the security cooperation with the occupation, and unite efforts to resist and not only on election which cannot be applied in an atmosphere of PA and Israeli oppression.

At the end of the statement, the movement greeted the Palestinian martyrs and prisoners for their steadfastness and resistance.

West Bank’s weekly protests demand an end for the Oslo agreement

15/09/2012

RAMALLAH, (PIC) - Israeli soldiers attacked, Friday, the weekly protest against the Wall and Settlements in Bil'in, causing scores of Palestinians and international activists to suffocate.

The Popular Committee against Wall and Settlements said in a statement that "Israeli soldiers fired rubber-coated metal bullets, tear gas and stun grenades at protesters and sprayed them with wastewater mixed with

chemicals when they arrived at the liberated territories of Abu Lemon nature reserve near the apartheid wall".

The Committee added that dozens of demonstrators suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation, while one of the solidarity activists was shot by a gas grenade in his head.

The protesters held a symbolic funeral ceremony for the “Oslo peace agreement”, and carried a mock coffin of the agreement that was “killed by Israeli missiles, bulldozed by extremist settlers, and crushed by tanks”.

They also chanted against the Oslo agreement, and stating that the Israeli occupation was never committed to any of the signed peace deals, and continued its violations and illegitimate activities.

The Popular Committee against Wall and Settlements added in its statement that the protesters called for cancelling the Oslo


agreement and the agreements that followed, as the Paris Protocol, and demanded to put an end to the suffering of Palestinian captives and to release them from the occupation prisons.

Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers attacked, on Friday, Kufr Qaddoum weekly protest against the closure of the main road that leads to the village and arrested three citizens and a number of solidarity activists.

Media Coordinator of the weekly protests in Kufr Qaddoum, Morad Shtewy, stated that dozens of soldiers raided the village, since Friday early hours, preventing the worshipers from reaching the Mosque of Omar bin al-Khattab for Friday prayers.

He added that the soldiers fired tear gas, causing dozens of residents to suffocate, as violent clashes erupted between residents and occupation forces which used poison gas grenades and wastewater, as he said.

The IOF installed roadblocks at the entrances of the village, since early hours Friday, and declared the village and its lands as closed military zones.

They also broke into the home of Adnan Ali, and kidnapped his three sons, Ehab, 35, Baker, 24, and Humam, 16. They also detained two peace activists.

Workers' Union in WB threatens to launch strike against Fayyad's

government

14/09/2012

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- Public sector workers' union head, Bassam Zakarneh, said the civil servants will continue their protest activities against the economic policies adopted by the government of Salam Fayyad.

Zakarneh said the union will announce on Sunday a full program of protest activities,

which may be including an open strike starting from the beginning of next October.

He added in a statement on Thursday: "the government did not take any serious step towards meeting any of the protesters' demands. No talks have been held so far with the union on the employees' demands

“Unfortunately, the government's policies are moving towards imposing more fees and taxes on employees,” workers' union head continued.

He also warned Fayyad's government of a large popular uprising in which all segments of Palestinian people in West Bank will participate next week.

The protesters’ demands are represented in paying public employees' salaries, paying private sector debt and canceling some taxes to relieve Palestinian citizens, said Zakarna.


MP Abu Seir: Fayyad's policies damaged the Palestinian economy

15/09/2012

NABLUS, (PIC) - Palestinian lawmaker Dawoud Abu Seir said that Salam Fayyad turned the West Bank into a free market and

undermined the Palestinian vocational and professional economy.

Abu Seir, head of the legislative economic committee, told the Palestinian information center (PIC) that Fayyad politicized the international grants and yielded to the terms set by the donor countries regarding the use of their funds.

He noted that the increased volume of operating expenses, and not the salaries, is the Palestinian authority's main problem.

The lawmaker added that the Paris agreement also contributed largely to the economic crisis and made the Palestinians partners of Israel and enemies of the Arab and Muslim countries.


Mishaal heading a Hamas delegation arrives in Cairo

17/09/2012

CAIRO, (PIC) - Khaled Mishaal, head of the Hamas political bureau, arrived in Cairo on Monday evening heading a Hamas delegation comprising Hamas leaders from home and exile, on a visit to Egypt that will last a few days.

The PIC correspondent learnt that the delegation will hold talks with Egyptian officials, concentrating on the situation in the Palestinian arena in general and the Gaza Strip in particular.

He also reported that the delegation are slated to meet the Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi on Tuesday to discuss developments in the Palestinian arena.

The delegation comprise Dr. Musa Abu Marzouq, Ezzat al-Resheq, Sami Khater, Mahmoud al-Zahhar, Muhammad Naser, Khalil al-Hayya, Saleh al-Arouri and Nizar Awadallah.

Prime Minister of the Gaza government, Ismail Haneyya, had already arrived in Cairo and is expected to participate in the Hamas delegation also.

Jerusalemites: The new Israeli map of Jerusalem aims to imit the Arab

presence

13/09/2012

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM,(PIC)-- Adala center and the Civic Coalition for Jerusalem institutions confirmed that the new map of the so-called Quds District, will inevitably lead to besiege the Palestinian Arab presence and the development of settlement activity and Jewish presence in the city.

During a press conference held in a hotel in Jerusalem, the Israeli National Council for Planning and Building rejected all objections made by the residents of East Jerusalem against the structural map for the Jerusalem District.

The representative of the National Coalition, Khalil Tufkaji, presented the Israeli structure policies in Jerusalem and the West Bank and its impact on the Palestinians' lives, saying that they aimed to reduce the Palestinian Arab presence.

For her part, the lawyer Suhad Bishara said in the conference that the Israeli new map of the so-called Quds District aims to connect the West Bank settlements economically, geographically and socially with the city of Jerusalem.

Adnan Hussein, Jerusalem governor, pointed out that this policy has been applied since


1967, adding that the Israeli occupation put great importance in targeting the old city of Jerusalem.

Adala center and the Civic Coalition for Jerusalem institutions have presented a detailed objection in 2008 Jerusalem against the structural map for the Jerusalem District.

Raed Salah briefs Malaysian PM about threats to Jerusalem

18/09/2012

KUALA LUMPUR, (MEMO) - The head of the Islamic Movement in Israel ("1948 occupied Palestine") has briefed Malaysia's

Prime Minister about the threats to the Holy City of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque. Sheikh Raed Salah met Mohammed Najib Abdul-Razaq on Friday along with a delegation of senior Palestinian officials in Kuala Lumpur.

The Prime Minister asked Sheikh Salah about his experience on board the Marvi Marmara, which was part of the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza in 2010 when it was attacked by Israeli commandos in international waters. Nine Turkish citizens were killed during the murderous assault.

After the meeting, Mr. Abdul-Razaq drove Sheikh Salah personally to the Putra Mosque, where the visitor led the communal prayer and supplicated to the Almighty for Muslim unity and the liberation of Al-Aqsa. Afterwards, Sheikh Salah and the delegation attended an official lunch hosted by the Malaysian Minister of Religious Affairs, Jamil Khair Haj Bahroum. Sheikh Salah told the audience about the suffering of the Palestinians in Jerusalem and the threats facing Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Islamic movement calls for uprising against occupation violations in

Jerusalem

18/09/2012

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Sheikh Kamal Khatib, deputy head of the Islamic movement in the Palestinian territories occupied in 1948, considered Israeli raids into al-Aqsa Mosque and desecration of its courtyards, especially wall and Square of al-Buraq, a flagrant aggression on Islamic sanctities.

Sheikh Khatib warned of the occupation schemes designed to divide al-Aqsa Mosque and its courtyards, referring to some of the


Israeli Judaizing projects and plans in al-Aqsa Mosque.

He said in a press statement published by Filastin newspaper on Monday: "We warned Muslims in the past and we are still warning them of the occupation schemes and their consequences affecting Muslims' feelings and their religious places."

"These attacks, although coinciding with Jewish holidays, are not new", added deputy head of the Islamic movement, noting that the daily abuses by settlers and military and police units aim to desecrate al-Aqsa Mosque and impose dividing it between Muslims and Jews.

Sheikh Khatib demanded the Arab and Islamic nation to launch a mass uprising worldwide, to stop the Israeli occupation schemes and halt its attacks and practices which desecrate al-Aqsa Mosque.

For his part, the researcher at Jerusalem Affairs Professor Saleh Lutfi, said that these ongoing attacks and raids in Al-Aqsa Mosque, intensified during Jewish holidays, represent "systematic" and planned practices by the Zionist supreme institutions, which seek to Judaize the mosque.

Lutfi told Filastin newspaper that all economic projects approved by Jerusalem Municipality and judicial decisions supporting Jewish infiltration in the Holy City aim to turn al-Aqsa Mosque and its courtyards to public squares for Jews and to "geographically and religiously" divide it.

He also pointed to displacing the city's residents and to imposing a curfew on them during the Jewish holidays.

He called for harnessing all efforts and capabilities to support the steadfastness of Jerusalemites and protect Jerusalem from Israeli plots.

Israeli occupation has been intensifying its military presence in the occupied city of Jerusalem and around al-Aqsa Mosque, especially in the area of al-Buraq. It is also continuing its procedure preventing people under 45 years from entering al-Aqsa Mosque, for the second day in a row.

Meanwhile, 73 settlers broke into al-Aqsa Mosque on Sunday (62 settlers in the morning and 11 others in the afternoon), and tried surreptitiously to perform some Talmudic rituals there.

Calls for the largest solidarity campaign with hunger striking

prisoners

18/09/2012

GAZA, (PIC) - Palestinian prisoners’ studies center called on official, popular and human rights organizations and all those interested in the prisoners' issue to participate in the largest

solidarity campaign with the four hunger striking prisoners on Tuesday.

The solidarity campaign called for by Palestinian prisoners’ studies center coincides with the hunger strike launched by all prisoners, for one day, to support the four hunger strikers in Israeli jails.

The Center's Media Director, researcher Riyad al-Ashqar, said the conditions of the four prisoners, who have been on hunger strike for a number of weeks, has become extremely serious.

He called on everyone to take a unified stand and a clear strategy to support these prisoners


before it is too late and before they die in Israeli jails as a result of the deterioration in their situation, amid the occupation authorities’ negligence to their just demands for freedom and halting their ongoing suffering.

Al-Ashqar noted that there is a dramatic decline in supporting the hunger striking prisoners' cause in Israeli jails, over the recent period, and that this would prolong the suffering of these prisoners and encourage the occupation to commit more repressive procedures against them.

He also called for considering today, Tuesday, as the national day of solidarity with the hunger striking prisoners, especially that prisoners in all the occupation jails announced their intention to refuse food for today in solidarity with the four hunger striking captives.

Riad al-Ashqar stated that despite the announcement of the release of captive Samer al-Barq and his deportation to Egypt, this decision will not be implemented until Wednesday because of Jewish holidays, while al-Barq has not halted his hunger strike until the moment after 118 days.

European organizations calls on

UN to save three Palestinian

hunger strikers

GENEVA,(PIC)-- Five European and Middle East human rights organizations warned that three Palestinian prisoners in occupation jails risk death due to their continued hunger strike for more than 3 months.

The five organizations called on the United Nations Commission for Human Rights to bear its responsibilities towards the sharp health deterioration of the prisoner Samer al-Barq, who is on his 117th day of renewed hunger strike, and Hassan Safadi, who has been on renewed hunger strike for 87 days, and Ayman Sharawna who has refused food for 77 days.

The three hunger strikers are in a critical condition, and at risk of death in Israeli jail, the five organizations said in a statement issued on Sunday.

Samer barq is threatened to start losing brain cells, affecting his vital functions and could limit his ability to recover, the statement added.

The statement pointed out that the three prisoners completely lost their ability to do

any physical activity, while Safadi suffers loss of sensation in parts of his body, according to a statement released by the international committee of the Red Cross on Sunday.

The five Human Rights organizations which issued the statement were Euro-Mid Observer- Geneva, Rights of All-Geneva, Friends of Humanity International- Vienna, Freedom and Justice- Tunis and The Palestinian Centre for Justice- Stockholm. They called for an end to the strikers' unfair and illegal detention, and urged a prompt solution.

The organizations also called for an end to the Israeli brutal policy against the three prisoners, on the brink of death in the Assaf Harofe hospital in flagrant violation to patients' rights for treatment in appropriate psychological condition.

The five organizations pointed out that the Israeli authorities paid no attention to the European condemnation towards the Israeli extensive use of administrative detention orders.

All three prisoners are being held without charge. In May, Israeli authorities had pledged to limit administrative detention orders after a coordinated hunger strike throughout Israeli prisons against conditions for imprisoned Palestinians.


Hunger striker to be deported to Egypt on release by Israelis

18/09/2012

EGYPT, (MEMO) - The family of Samer Al-Barq, 38, has confirmed that Egypt will grant asylum to the Palestinian prisoner following Israel's decision to deport him after his release. Al-Barq has been on hunger strike for 118

days in protest against his administrative detention for more than two years with neither charge nor trial.

The deportation decision was, said Al-Barq's father, made the moment that Israel arrested his son: "They want to get him out of Palestine," he said. "Due to his deteriorating health, we had to choose the option of seeing him deported in order to improve his health."

Due to the Jewish holidays, the exact procedure for the deportation is still unclear. Lawyers acting for the prisoner and his family have been unable to meet with the relevant authorities.

Whether or not Samer Al-Barq will stay in Egypt or travel on to Pakistan, where his wife lives, is still open to question. The Egyptians have confirmed that he is welcome to stay there but is free to go abroad if he wishes.

Caricature

The international efforts to revive Fayyad’s govt.

issue no 24

Documents

palestinian issue

palestinian struggle

palestinian weekly report

palestinian econommishaal

palestinian economy

fayyads policies

palestinian cultural

fayyads govt