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Conclusion of Summer Camp Activities of “Know your country’ in an UNRWA camp for Palestinian refugees from 1948 war

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
-

www1.wafa.ps/wafa/arabic/index.php?action=detail&id=48153
[Edited Google translation]
Date: 10/8/2009 Time: 19:08

10-8-2009 Jerusalem WAFA(PLO news agency) – Today was the conclusion of
summer camp ‘know your country’ the UNRWA Shu’fat refugee camp north of the city
of Jerusalem…

Events included the UNRWA camp, which lasted 20 days…mainly targeting the
creation of the first generation of a consciousness and connection to the
homeland, and the just cause, and to affirm the right of return for all
refugees in the homeland and the diaspora.

The summer camp had a series of activities and events carried out by women
in order for the refugee children to identify with the towns and villages
destroyed in 1948 that were overseen by a team of supervisors with the
experience and efficiency.

…we wish to continue in such activities aimed at highlighting the
destroyed Palestinian towns.

Abbas: Won’t Abandon Armed Resistance

By
David Bedein
-

The Fatah general conference convened this week in Bethlehem, 20 years after the previous conference that was held in Tunisia. Discussions addressed the question of whether Fatah should give up the armed struggle.

Large posters featuring Palestinian children brandishing rifles decorated the conference hall.

“Our determination to choose the path of peace and negotiations-does not mean that we have abandoned our noble path of legitimate resistance, which is based on international law,” declared PA Chairman Abbas in his keynote speech at the three day conference of the Fatah, which is the ruling party of the Palestinian Authority.

“Yes, resistance is legal, and we are with this resistance”, Abbas repeated, over and over.

An Israeli Arab Member of the Israeli Knesset Parliament, MK Ahmed Tibi, former advisor to the late PLO founder, Yassir Arafat, also spoke at the conference, calling upon the delegates to expel Jews from the future Palestinian state, leading thousands of Palestinians in a chant: “Get out of the Palestinian lands. Get out of all of our souls. Get out already!”

Following Mr. Tibi’s harangue, the Israel Legal Forum demanded that Israel Attorney General Meni Mazuz prosecute Mr. Tibi for incitement sedition and racism in his remarks

One of the possible future leaders of the Fatah, the former security chief Jibril Rajoub, presented a clear position:

“Fatah will never give up the armed struggle,” he said, “there are tactics of struggle and policy, but they depend on Israel’s position and recognition of the existence of the Palestinian people.”

MEMRI, a credible middle east think tank, translated that Palestinian Legislative Council member Jamal Huwail’s speech at the Fatah conference, which reflected the tenor of events at the event: “This conference must confirm the right of resistance by all means, as they appear in U.N. conventions, considering that Fatah is a national liberation movement and its people are under occupation. The resistance is carried out not only with guns, but also [with] political activity and serious negotiations.”

MEMRI also translated Husam Khader, another senior Fatah member who has spent the last few years in an Israeli prison for active participation in the who declared that: “Fatah has not changed its national identity, and it retains the option of resistance and armed struggle. But now, for the first time… it is permitting the option of negotiations as one of the Palestinian people’s strategic options and as a possible way of attaining its political goals.”

Interviewed in prison, where he is serving life for the murder of 13 Jews, Marwan Al-Barghouti, a senior Fatah member imprisoned in Israel, said in an August 4, 2009 interview with the Palestinian Authority daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida: “Resistance to the Israeli occupation is a national obligation, and it is a legitimate right…”

In an earlier interview, on July 21, he said: “Fatah believes in a combination of all forms of struggle, and it will not abandon, thwart, or rule out any form of struggle. As long as a single Israeli soldier or settler remains on the Palestinian land that was occupied in 1967, Fatah will not relinquish the option of resistance.

“There isn’t a single Fatah member who does not believe in resistance, because the very essence of the Fatah [movement] is resistance, [more] resistance, and eventual victory. There isn’t a single people in history that was under occupation and did not resist. Resistance is a legitimate right that is confirmed by religious law, U.N. resolutions, and international law.

“We in Fatah think that political activity and negotiations complement resistance, and harvest its fruits. Therefore, we have always called for adhering to the option of resistance, negotiation, and political activity alike.”)

MEMRI also translated Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades commander Zakariya Al-Zubeidi, called on the Fatah conference “to propose a plan that will combine the political line with the resistance line within Fatah, against the backdrop of the past failure of [each path alone] to obtain results favorable to the Palestinian cause.” He likewise rejected the possibility that Fatah would omit the armed struggle from its plan.

Fatah spokesman Fahmi Al-Za’arir stated: “It is not possible to rule out or to marginalize the military option. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades are the jewel in Fatah’s crown. We must strengthen their status… [and] maintain them in a state of alert..

During the Fatah conference, former PA Prime Minister Abu Alaa welcomed Khaled Abu-Usbah to the conference and referred to him and Dalal Mughrabi as Palestinian heroes for carrying out the bus hijacking in 1978, which killed 37 Israeli civilians, including 12 children.

At the same time, the Fatah party platform that was adopted at the conference, explicitly stated that Israel must not be recognized as a Jewish state.

Leaders of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations sharply criticized the statements made by former Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Abu Alaa and other Fatah officials at yesterday’s Fatah Congress.

Conference Chairman Alan Solow and Executive Vice Chairman Malcolm Hoenlein said,

“Statements by Abbu Allah praising suicide bombers who have killed dozens of people is wholly unacceptable and represents the true challenge to the chances for peace in the region. Statements by other Fatah officials urged the continuation of armed resistance and asserted that Fatah would not recognize the State of Israel. These declarations, made by the so-called ‘moderate’ Palestinian faction puts into sharp focus the question of the real beliefs of the party with whom Israel is to negotiate. Such rhetoric cannot be dismissed as it glorifies murderers and incites others to emulate their example. The U.S. has urged the Palestinians to address the issue of incitement, which is both an immediate and long-term obstacle to the prospect of meaningful negotiations. Too often such statements have been dismissed. But as history has shown, it is a serious impediment, not only undermining the confidence of Israelis, but exhorting this and future generations to violence and hate. The leadership of the Palestinian Authority must speak out against these actions to declare and take steps that all such incitement will be stopped.”

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com.

Gaza Regime Prepares Children For Death

By
David Bedein
-

Jerusalem – At a time when Israel continues to come under scathing criticism for the deaths of 22 children during Israel’s three week counter attack in Gaza last winter, the Gaza regime has been training teenagers as young as 14 in military camps throughout Gaza p.

This summer, Hamas and several other Palestinian militias have recruited high school students for military training. Gaza teenagers are being taught basic combat skills as well as the use of explosive belts for suicide missions.

“In the war against Israel, there were more than 100 children trained to attack Israeli forces in Gaza,” a Gaza source told the Middle East Newsline., adding that “Some of them ran away and many of them were killed.”

Most recently. the Saudi-owned news agency Elaph ran a news feature about the recruitment of teenagers by Islamic militias in the Gaza Strip and other parts of the Arab world. Elaph, based in Beirut, visited military training camps in the Gaza Strip that included teenagers.

“Several minors who trained in Palestinian military camps confirmed that they were there of their own free will,” Elaph reported.

Correspondents toured several youth military training camps in Gaza.

One teenage fighter, who identified himself as Mohammed, an 11th grader, said that he underwent weapons training in Gaza’s Futuh district. The recruitment was said to have begun with Islamic sermons at mosques controlled by Hamas or Palestinian militias. Teenage recruits represented the youth wing of the militias at their school and eventually were invited to training camp.

“A year ago, he [Mohammed] underwent training in carrying weapons, and received permission to aid resistance fighters in night reconnaissance of advancing Israeli military vehicles,” Elaph reported. “He was also trained to [aid the fighters] from a distance in armed clashes. Mohammed hopes to die defending the homeland for the sake of Allah, and follow his comrades who have already reached paradise.”

“There are institutions belonging to organizations dealing with educating children and deepening their awareness by means of summer camps” said Abu Mohammed, a senior agent in the Iranian-sponsored Islamic Jihad, based in Gaza.

Meanwhile, the Gaza regime now employs thousands of children to construct and operate the tunnel network between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.

The youngsters help dig tunnels to smuggle weapons from Egypt to Gaza.

A Palestinian report asserted that 16,000 people have been working in an estimated 800 tunnels that span the city of Rafah, which remains artificially divided between Egypt and Gaza… The report by the Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution, estimated that half of the employees were under age 18.

The report said about 25 percent of the Palestinian victims of tunnel collapses were teenagers. The center said 30 of the 115 casualties since 2007 were below age 18.

In early July four Palestinian children suffocated to death in the tunnel network.

On late July five Palestinians teenagers were killed in a fire in a tunnel.

The teenagers were said to earn less than $30 per day, spending more than 10 hours underground.

Will Fatah Give Up the Armed Struggle at Its Sixth General Congress?

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
-

.
www.mesi.org.uk/ViewBlog.aspx?ArticleId=68

The Sixth Fatah General Congress, convening for the first time in twenty
years, will be judged mainly by two factors: its decisions and the
composition of its new leadership. Here we will examine the nature of its
expected decisions and leave the evaluation of the new leadership for future
examination.

There is great international interest in the Fatah Congress since so much of
the international community perceives the Palestinian problem as the key to
the entire spectrum of conflicts in the Middle East. Many observers are
watching to see to what extent the congress will advance or retard the
prospects for re-launching the peace process between Israel and the
Palestinians, and even launching a regional peace process based on the
Israeli-Palestinian bilateral track.

In this regard, the crucial question is: Is Fatah going to waive its
historical principle of “armed struggle” – muqawama – and devote itself to
peace negotiations based on compromise, as was discussed extensively between
the former Kadima-led Israeli government and Palestinian negotiators – led
by PA leader Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and former Prime Minister Abu Ala?

Two Documents: One for International Consumption and the Other for Internal
Use

The two relevant documents to be discussed and approved by the Fatah
Congress are the Political Program and Fatah’s “Internal Order.” The
Political Program might be seen by many as reflecting progress in terms of
accepting a political solution and rejecting violence – but it falls short
of waiving the principle of armed struggle. The document endorses the Arab
Initiative, talks in vague expressions of the “right of return” – using a
formula “based on UN Resolution 181” and not on fulfillment of this
resolution, and offers the model of the “Intifada of the Stones” (the first
intifada) as preferred over the model of military struggle.

The principle of the “armed struggle” is mentioned as an option of the past
that must be re-examined in comparison to other options of struggle. The
model seen to
fit our times is the anti-wall campaigns in Nil’in and Bil’in, but “10,000
times as fierce.” The political program uses the term “the struggle” (not
quite describing it as the “armed struggle”) and even the “peaceful
struggle.” However, there is more than one reference to the term “the
struggle of all options,” that includes the armed struggle as well. In an
interview with Maan News, the Fatah leader in Lebanon, Sultan Abu al-Einein,
made it clear that the “struggle of all options” includes the armed struggle
as well.

Fatah’s Internal Order Presents a Different Face

Developing the Nil’in-Bil’in model of struggle is problematic because it can
easily deteriorate into violence, as past experience shows, but the real
problem lies in the Internal Order document. All of the phrases that were
omitted in the Political Program are present in this would-be “bureaucratic”
document. The term “armed popular struggle” appears at the very beginning.
While the Political Program sought to subordinate the struggle to the need
for “international legitimacy,” the Internal Order is very clear in
rejecting all international peace initiatives: “The projects, agreements,
and resolutions that were issued or will be issued by the UN or group of
states or any separate state on the Palestinian problem that waives the
rights of the Palestinians on their homeland is null and void.”

Furthermore, Article 22 calls for: “objection by force to all political
solutions that are offered as an alternative to the extermination of the
occupying Zionist entity in Palestine and all the projects that aim for the
elimination of the Palestinian problem, or seek to internationalize it or
put an outside custodian on its people from any possible party.” This
article is in contradiction to the call in the Political Program for greater
international involvement in the problem and its welcome for the involvement
of international forces in Palestine.

Article 9 states clearly that “the liberation of the Holy Land and the
defense of its holy sites (that are forbidden to infidels) is an Arab,
Muslim, and humanitarian duty.”

Fatah Retains the Strategy of the Armed Struggle

And here we come to the essence: Fatah retains the armed struggle as a
strategy in order to liberate the whole of Palestine and eliminate Israel.
Article 12 calls for “the liberation of Palestine completely and the
elimination of the state of the Zionist occupation economically,
politically, militarily, and culturally.”6 (Indeed, one of the methods
mentioned in the Political Program for the “peaceful intifada” is an
economic boycott of Israel.)

Article 13 calls for “establishing a sovereign democratic Palestinian state
on the entire Palestinian territory that will preserve the legitimate rights
of the citizens on the basis of justice and equality without discrimination
on the basis of race, religion and belief, and Jerusalem will be its
capital.” While the Political Program lists the “one-state solution” as an
option in case the “two-state solution” fails, the Internal Order document
mentions the “one-state solution” as the only solution.
Article 17 says: “The armed popular revolution is the only inevitable way to
the liberation of Palestine.”

Finally, Article 19 notes: “The armed struggle is a strategy and not just a
tactic and the armed revolution of the Arab Palestinian people is a decisive
factor in the war of liberation and the elimination of the Zionist
existence, and the struggle will not end until the elimination of the
Zionist entity and the liberation of Palestine.”
While Fatah’s Political Program tries to accommodate international
expectations and seems designed to mobilize international legitimacy for the
re-launching of a “peaceful intifada,” Fatah’s “Internal Order” reminds us
how deeply ingrained in Fatah is its ideology from the 1960s and 1970s.

Pinhas Inbari is a senior policy analyst at the JerusalemCenterfor Public
Affairs. He is also a veteran Palestinian affairs correspondent who formerly
reported for IsraelRadio and left wing Al Hamishmar newspaper, and currently reports
for several foreign media outlets. He is the author of a number of books on
the Palestinians including The Palestinians: Between Terrorism and
Statehood.

A Critique: Jewish Telegraphic Agency coverage of Fatah Congress in Bethlehem

By
David Bedein
-
The Fatah Congress, launched on Tuesday in Bethlehem, focused on Fatah’s determination to continue the armed struggle against the state and people of Israel.
However, Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) Correspondent Dina Kraft waits until graph nine to even mention the threat of continued Fatah war against Israel:
http://jta.org/news/article/2009/08/04/1007021/fatah-congress-focuses-on-split-with-hamas
JTA ignores the official statement of the Israel Minister of Information who declared that the statements of this Fatah Congress represent a declaration of war against the state of Israel.
http://imra.org.il/story.php3?id=44973
JTA ignores the refusal of the Fatah to remove the “armed struggle” from the Fatah platform:
http://israelbehindthenews.com/bin/content.cgi?ID=3686&q=1
JTA ignores Fatah columnists who editorialized this week as to why Fatah must maintain the “armed struggle as part of the Fatah’s bylaws”
http://imra.org.il/story.php3?id=44974
JTA ignores coverage of the Middle East Newsline which features interviews with a wide range of Fatah leaders who call for the continued armed struggle
http://israelbehindthenews.com/bin/content.cgi?ID=3695&q=1
http://imra.org.il/story.php3?id=44970
JTA ignores Fatah refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state:
http://israelbehindthenews.com/bin/content.cgi?ID=3688&q=1
JTA ignores Fatah TV shows aired this week which define
Haifa, Acre and Jaffa as Palestinian cities
http://imra.org.il/story.php3?id=44980
Since the Fatah Congress resumes on Wednesday morning, it will be instructive as to whether JTA will continue to downplay the spirit of this seminal meeting, which represents a lethal threat to the state and people of Israel

ARMED STRUGGLE ON THE TABLE: Middle East Newsline Provides Hands-On Coverage of Fatah Conference in Bethlehem: Fatah Bolstered By Commanders From Abroad

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
-

The ruling Fatah movement has been bolstered by dozens of military commanders abroad, some of whom prepared to
stay in the West Bank.

Nearly 100 Fatah commanders and senior operatives have arrived in the
West Bank for the movement’s general conference, scheduled to begin on Aug.
4. Some of the commanders, long sought by Israel for mass-casualty attacks,
said they would remain in the West Bank and help renew war against the
Jewish state.

“Do we want Fatah to be a liberation movement?” Fatah commander in
Lebanon, Sultan Abu Einan said. “If so, then we must translate this into
actions on the ground.”

The Fatah commanders were said to have arrived from Egypt, Jordan,
Lebanon and Syria. Many of the arrivals have called for an alliance with
Iran to facilitate the resumption of war against Israel.

“Maybe the most important thing is to maintain that our movement is
still in the national liberation stage and preparing to build its authority
for the next stage,” Qasim Subih, Fatah secretary in the Lebanese city of
Sidon, said.

Some of the commanders expressed surprise that Israel allowed their
entry to the West Bank to attend the Fatah conference, the first in 20
years. One visitor was Khaled Abu Usba, a member of a Fatah cell that
hijacked a bus in Israel in 1978 in which 36 civilians were killed.

“I’ve waited for 30 years to return to Palestine,” Abu Usbah told the
Palestinian news agency Maan. “And now that I’m here I have no intention to
leave. I will wait until I obtain residency here and until my wife and
children join me.”

More than 2,200 delegates from 70 countries were invited to the
conference. Many of them have called for the renewal of the military option
against Israel.

“It is impossible for Jerusalem to be restored to us without thousands
of martyrs,” Brig. Gen. Tawfik Tirawi, the military adviser to PA Chairman
Mahmoud Abbas, said. “Anyone who thinks that America will return Jerusalem
to us is mistaken.”

The former Fatah militia chief in the northern West Bank agreed.
Zakariya Zubeidi, who in 2008 signed an agreement to renounce violence, said
Fatah and the Palestinian Authority were being trained by foreign advisers
to restore a military option against Israel.

“I am happy that our army is trained in Jordan in Egypt, in Russia, in
several countries around the world,” Zubeidi told Maan. “In case of a future
war, we will have some people who will be trained.”

Israeli officials said they were closely monitoring the Fatah conference
and placed security forces on alert for any violence. They said the Fatah
threats against Israel could lead to a resurgence of violence against
Israeli soldiers and civilians in the West Bank.

“This is a declaration of war on the state of Israel,” Israeli
Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz said.

Historic Fatah Conference To Convene In Bethlehem

By
David Bedein
-

Jerusalem, Israel – For the first time in more than 20 years, Fatah (Arabic for “conquest”), the dominant ruling power of the Palestinian Authority, will gather next week for a conference in Bethlehem, with than 1,7,50 of its active members expected to attend. This is the first since the 1993 signing of the Oslo Accords, which the Fatah never ratified.

Israel has decided not to not keep any delegate to the Fatah convention from being able to attend the parley next week in Bethlehem, including those coming from Syria and Lebanon.

A senior Fatah official Muhammad “Abu Maher” Ghneim returned to Palestinian territory on Wednesday from in Tunisia ahead of the movement’s general conference, which opens next week in Bethlehem. Palestinian news sources reported that President Mahmoud Abbas convinced Israeli authorities to allow Ghneim to attend the conference.

After crossing the Israeli-controlled Allenby Bridge border crossing from Jordan on Wednesday, Ghneim was whisked to the Palestinian Authority (PA) headquarters in Ramallah in a presidential car, accompanied by top negotiator Saeb Erekat. In Ramallah, the Fatah official was welcomed by Abbas in an official ceremony.

Ghneim’s return also marks a reversal in Palestinian politics. Ghneimopposed the Oslo peace agreements, and at first refused to return to Palestine until all of its territory was “liberated

On the eve of the conference, the Middle East Newsline broke the story that Israel’s military has determined that the ruling Fatah movement continues to engage in weapons smuggling, after capturing Fatah militia commanders who admitted to

smuggling weapons acquired weapons from such sources as Israeli organized crime, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority itself.

“The weapons are sold for profit, mostly to Israeli and Palestinian criminals, some of them who engage in terrorism,” a military source said.

Fatah weapons smugglers were operating in Bethlehem, Hebron, Nablus, Ramallah and Tulkarm, in coordination with the Iranian-sponsored Islamic Jihad. Israeli military sources also confirm that Fatah weapons smugglers have also sold weapons to the opposition Hamas.

On July 24, the Israel Army arrested a suspected Fatah weapons smuggler in Nablus named as Nasser Mahmoud Abu Kishk, a 34-year-old Fatah militia operative from Nablus Abu Kishk, wanted by Israel for several years, was also said to have supplied weapons to Fatah’s Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which is identified by both Israel and by the United States intelligence agencies as a terrorist organization.

Israeli army spokesmen also said that Kishk has participated in shooting attacks against Israelis.

Policy Issues On The Agenda

An organization known as www.palwatch.org has put forward four policy issues for the Fatah to reconsider, if Fatah is to be seen as a real party to peace talks in the future.

1. Fatah does not recognize Israel’s right to exist. Fatah leaders emphasize that this ideology is current and not merely an oversight

2. Fatah continues to use maps that don’t acknowledge Israel’s existence

3. Fatah charter still calls for Israel’s destruction

4. Fatah continues to support the cease fire, only in terms of the continued armed struggle against Israel

Israel Renews Construction Supply Sale To Gaza

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
-

An area where Israel continues to cope with is the world wide campaign against Israel’s restrictions of potentially lethal exports into Gaza.

Since the Hamas terror takeover of Gaza in June 2007, Israel did halt the sale of iron, cement and other building materials into Gaza to prevent the construction of fortifications such as underground bunkers and the use iron to manufacture weapons and rockets

On July 16, a group of Philadelphia Rabbis, led by Rabbi Arthur Waskow of Germantown’s Shalom Center, organized Rabbis from all over the United States to conduct an international day of fasting to protest the Israeli “blockade” of humanitarian and medical supplies into gaza.

Due to such pressure, Israel on Thursday allowed renewed export of 300 tons of cement, steel pipes and construction materials into Gaza, for the first time since its military offensive last January.

Rabbi Waskow would not return phone calls to explain why he spread the false rumor that Israel had blocked humanitarian and medical supplies into Gaza.

Mr. Raed Fattouh, an official in the Palestinian Ministry of National Economy, confirmed in an interview with the Palestinian Ma’an news agency that cement would be shipped through UNRWA, the United Nation’s relief agency for Palestinian refugees. The Israeli government also approved the transfer of 25 million dollars in cash into Gaza each month, earmarked to pay the salaries of the Palestinian Authority workers and UNRWA workers-

An Israeli security establishment spokesman stressed that “We will carry out all the necessary examinations to ensure that the cement does not fall into the wrong hands-to Hamas,”

However, since Hamas terrorists won an overwhelming victory in the March 2009 UNRWA workers election, with Hamas winning more than 80% of the vote, UNRWA facilities are solidly in the hands of the Hamas terror personnel. This was the third straigt election which affirms the dominant Hamas role in UNRWA.

Israel Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak, would not respond to a Bulletin query as to how Israel could avoid cement and cash payments from falling into the hands of Hamas, since Hamas personnel dominate UNRWA facilities in Gaza.

Fourth Anniversary Of Explusions Marked

This week, more than 2,000 people took part yesterday in a rally to mark the fourth anniversary of Israel’s expulsion of 21 Jewish communities from the Katif district of Gaza.

The rally, held near the Kissufim border crossing to the east of Gaza was attended by expelled residents from various Katif communities, including hundreds of teenagers and young children.

“I am a refugee in my own land and am trying to rehabilitate myself,”

said Mr. Avi Farhan, who was evicted from Yamit in the Sinai in April 1982 after the Camp David Accord and then from Elei Sinai in northern Gaza in August 2005. “You need to understand that it is going to take seven years of living out of boxes, moving from one rented apartment to another, until we move into our own house.”

At this point in time, 8 out of the 23 permanent communities earmarked for the Katif evictees are still under construction.

In 11 of the communities, preliminary infrastructure work has yet to be begun. Unemployment among the evictees is 21%, as opposed to the 5% unemployment rate that existed when the Katif communities were thriving.

What Do The Katif Communities Look Like Now?

Four years after the destruction of the 21 Katif Jewish communities, several Israeli journalists hired Palestinian cameramen to take pictures of the destroyed Jewish communities, to see what Palestinians had done there since taking over the area.

What Israelis want to know is whether overcrowded UNRWA refugee camps had moved into the abandoned Jewish communities of Katif.

Polls show that Israeli and international public opinion supported the eviction of the Jewish communities from Katif in order to enable a better life for thousands of Palestinian families who have been confined to teeming tenements of UNRWA refugee camps since 1948.

However, pictures taken by a Palestinian photographer show that contrary to what Israelis believed would happen, Palestinians have not built a single new house in the

any Katif community, four years after the destruction of these Jewish communities, where public buildings were allowed to remain..

The photographs indicate that the Palestinians completely destroyed anything that was left standing following the evacuation process, including synagogues and buildings that remained standing.

More than 100 photographs were taken in the framework of the project.

“What is sad is that it’s very hard to identify the buildings that are documented in the photographs,” said one Israeli journalist who had covered Katif for the international media.

Why have Palestinians from overcrowded UNRWA camps not moved into the abandoned Katif communities?

An UNRWA camp committee spokesman explained that, “These were not our homes – we want to move back to the homes that we left after we were expelled in 1948 – from places like Beer Sheva and Ashkelon”

Obama To Achieve Normalization Gestures From Arab World?

After several days of consultations with Israeli government officials, US Presidential Middle East envoy George Mitchell left his Israeli interlocutors with an assurance that President Obama would be able to extract some normalization gestures towards Israel from the Arab world within a month, following White House confirmation that Preisdent Obama had indeed sent letters leaders of Morrocco, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, asking them for confidence-building measures toward Israel.

However, Saudi Arabia, the kingpin of the Arab League of Nations which has been in a formal, full scale war with Israel since 1948, immediately responded with a full rejection of any gesture of normalization with Israel, so long as Israel does not relinquishsovereignty over Jerusalem, allow recognition of the right of return of Palestinian refugees from 1948, and stop the development of any Jewish community that lies in areas acquired by Israel in 1967.

Jerusalem Think Tank Attacks Obama On Failure To Name Anti-Semitism Envoy

By
David Bedein
-

Jerusalem, Israel – A monograph published by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, run by Dr. Dore Gold, a close advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahy, entitled “The Politics of the American Response to Global Anti-Semitism.” has leveled stinging criticism of the Obama administration for failing to to name an envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism around the world. This position is mandated by US law. Since President Obama assumed his position on Jan. 20, the position has not been filled.

Dr. Rafael Medoff, director of the Washington DC-based David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, who wrote the monograph for the Jerusalem think tank, said that

“Foot-dragging on the selection sends a message that anti-Semitism is not of great importance to the United States,” said Medoff.

According to Medoff, “At a time when anti-Semitism remains a staple of government propaganda in the Middle East, when violent anti-Semitic incidents are reported almost daily throughout Europe, and when even the streets of Washington are not untouched by anti-Semitism’s violent potential, that is the wrong message to send.”

The State Department’s Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, which was established by a Congressional initiative in 2004, advocates American policy on anti-Semitism both in the US and internationally.

The proposal to establish such an office was initially opposed by the Bush administration, which took 18 months to appoint an envoy to head the office, Medoff said.

“On the one hand, it is understandable that at a time of multiple domestic and foreign crises, the Obama administration does not see this position as a top-tier concern,” Medoff wrote. “Yet it is nevertheless surprising how far down anti-Semitism appears to have slid on the new administration’s list of priorities, particularly when it was the Democrats themselves who fought so hard to create the position over the vehement opposition of the Bush administration.”

Israel Gov’t Accuses Rights Groups Of Fraud

By
David Bedein
-

Jerusalem, Israel – Over the past few weeks, the Israeli government has gone on the offensive against human rights groups who have publicized allegations against Israel for many months, without any concerted Israeli response.

One of these rights groups which gained attention of late has been “Breaking the Silence”.

This Israeli group held a press conference on April 1, 2009 in Sderot, one mile from Gaza, in which they announced that the British government had financed them to survey more than 1000 Israeli soldiers who had taken part in last December/January Israeli military incursion into Gaza, in order to “find evidence of Israeli war crimes against Gaza civilians”

An organization known as the Rabbis for Human Rights facilitated funding from the Spanish government to hold a conference this past Wednesday in which the Breaking the Silence organization promised to bring about thirty testimonies of Israeli soldiers who had witnesses crimes against Gazan civilians.

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Rabbis for Human Rights had claimed that it had brought such testimonies to the attention of the Israeli army. However, the Israeli army spokes man issued a strong statement, saying that “testimonies were never presented” to the Israeli army from Rabbis for Human Rights or from “Breaking the silence:”

Neither were testimonies brought to the Wednesday conference – only anonyms statements by Israeli soldiers that they had heard of abuse of Palestinian civilians by Israeli soldiers.

However, the damage was done, and the impression left by the Rabbis for Human Rights in the world media is that Israel must have conducted atrocities against civilians in Gaza.

Most importantly, some board members of the Rabbis for Human Rights have reacted with disappointment that the “Breaking the Silence” group, after all of its publicity, could not and would not provide even one affidavit from an Israeli soldier who witnessed any atrocity by an Israeli soldier.

At the same time, the Israeli Foreign Ministry summoned the British Ambassador to Israel to express Israel’s “outrage” at the UK sponsorship for the “Breaking the Silence:” campaign.

Meanwhile, the Israeli government has issued an internet accessible 164 page report, “The Operation in Gaza: Factual and Legal Aspects”, which examines the biases of non-government organizations that have been issuing reports against Israel since the recent conflict.

On the central issue of how Palestinians used civilians as human shields, this Israeli government report noted that prominent human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, claimed to have no evidence of Hamas’ utilization of this practice.

The Israeli report also quoted Hamas operatives who openly bragged that they had launched rocket attacks from schools.

The report also described incidents “in which Hamas activists requested children to wheel carts laden with rockets, in case IDF forces noticed them.”

Numerous examples are provided, including televised speeches of a Hamas legislator who encouraged women, children and the elderly to use their bodies to protect Hamas military sites against Israeli attack.

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