Thursday, June 22, 2017

The Real Terrorists in Jerusalem | In Numbers: Palestine & World Refugee Day | What Does Nikki Haley Really Want | More ..

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Since the launch of The Palestine Chronicle in September 1999, our mission has never felt so urgent. From the onset of so-called 'Arab Spring' in early 2011 and the wars and military interventions that followed, there has been a deliberate and protracted campaign to sideline Palestine from the news as a non-priority. This campaign involves not only international but also Middle Eastern media.

Yet, while Israel's illegal settlements are in constant expansion, the suffering of Palestinians has never ceased; the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank is mostly pacified and Occupation has become almost an acceptable everyday reality for everyone. Except for the Palestinian people, of course; they are resisting, fighting, waiting at military checkpoints and, very often, dying.

Worse still, various Arab governments are reportedly willing to normalize relations with Israel with little or no pre-conditions. This tendency to dismiss Palestine and to normalize with Israel is not new, but has now accelerated under the Trump Presidency.

The Palestine Chronicle has been at the forefront of exposing this charade, and fighting with all of its resources to uncover the ongoing plot and those who are behind it. It has worked tirelessly, on a daily basis, to challenge the Israeli-dictated mainstream media narrative on Palestine, through authentic Palestinian news sources, bold commentary and astute analysis.

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EDITORIAL

Israel vs. the United Nations: The Nikki Haley Doctrine

By Ramzy Baroud

http://buff.ly/2sZ17XD

The United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, seems to be championing a single cause: Israel.

When Haley speaks about Israel, her language is not merely emotive nor tailored to fit the need of a specific occasion. Rather, her words are resolute, consistent and are matched by a clear plan of action.

Along with Haley, the rightwing Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu is moving fast to cultivate the unique opportunity of dismissing the United Nations, thus, any attempt at criticizing the Israeli Occupation.

Unlike previous UN ambassadors who strongly backed Israel, Haley refrains from any coded language or any attempt, however poor, to appear balanced. Last March, she told a crowd of 18,000 supporters at the Israel lobby, AIPAC's annual policy conference, that this is a new era for US-Israel relations.

"I wear heels. It's not for a fashion statement," she told the crowd that was thrilled by her speech. "It's because if I see something wrong, we're going to kick 'em every single time."

Trump's new sheriff/ambassador, condemned, in retrospect, UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which strongly criticized Israel's illegal settlements. While still in its final days in office, the Obama Administration did not vote for - but did not veto the Resolution, either - thus setting a precedent that has not been witnessed in many years.

The US abstention, according to Haley, was as if the "entire country felt a kick in the gut."

What made Israel particularly angry over Obama's last act at the UN was the fact that it violated a tradition that has extended for many years, most notably during the term of John Negroponte, US Ambassador to the UN, during the first W. Bush's term in office.

What became known as the 'Negroponte doctrine' was a declared US policy - that Washington will oppose any resolution that criticizes Israel that does not also condemn Palestinians.

But Israel, not the Palestinians, is the occupying power which refuses to honor dozens of UN resolutions and various international treaties and laws. By making that decision, and, indeed, following through to ensure its implementation, the US managed to sideline the UN as an 'irrelevant' institution.

Sidelining the UN, then, also meant that the US would have complete control over managing the Middle East, but especially the situation in Palestine.

However, under Trump, even the US-led and self-tailored 'peace process' has become obsolete.

This is the real moral but, also political, crisis of the Haley doctrine, for it goes beyond Negroponte's silencing any criticism of Israel at the UN, into removing the UN entirely - thus international law - from being a factor in resolving the conflict.

In a talk at the Geneva-based Human Rights Council - which is made up of 47 member countries - Haley declared that her country is 'reviewing its participation' in the Council altogether. She claimed that Israel is the "only country permanently on the body's calendar," an inaccurate statement that is often uttered by Israel with little basis in truth.

If Haley read the report on the 35th session of the Human Rights Council, she would have realized that the Rights body discussed many issues, pertaining to women rights and empowerment, forced marriages and human rights violations in many countries.

But considering that Israel has recently 'celebrated' 50 years of occupying Palestinians, Haley should not be surprised that Israel is also an item on the agenda. In fact, any country that has occupied and oppressed another for so long should also remain an item on international agenda.

Following her speech in which she derided and threatened UN member states in Geneva, she went to Israel to further emphasize her country's insistence to challenge the international community on behalf of Israel.

Along with notorious hasbara expert, Israel's Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, Haley toured the Israeli border with Gaza, showing sympathy with supposedly besieged Israeli communities - while on the other side, nearly 2 million Palestinians in Gaza have been trapped for over a decade in a very small region, behind sealed shut borders.

Speaking in Jerusalem on June 7, Haley took on the UN 'bullies', who have 'bullied' Israel for too long.

She said, "I have never taken kindly to bullies and the UN has bullied Israel for a very long time and we are not going to let that happen anymore," adding "it is a new day for Israel in the United Nations."

By agreeing to live in Israel's pseudo-reality, where bullies complain of being bullied, the US is moving further and further away from any international consensus on human rights and international law. This becomes more pronounced and dangerous when we consider the Donald Trump Administration's decision to pull out from the Paris accords on global warming.

Trump argued that the decision was of benefit to American businesses. Even if one agrees with such an unsubstantiated assertion, Haley's new doctrine on Israel and the UN, by contrast, can hardly be of any benefit to the United States in the short or long run. It simply degrades US standing, leadership and even goes below the lowest standards of credibility practiced under previous administrations.

Worse still, inspired and empowered by Haley's blank check, Israeli leaders are now moving forward to physically remove the UN from Israel's occupation of Palestine. Two alarming developments have taken place on that front:

One took place early May when Culture and Sport Minister, Miri Regev, made a formal demand to the Israeli cabinet to shut down the UN headquarter in Jerusalem, to punish UNESCO for restating the international position on the status of Israel's illegal occupation of East Jerusalem.

The second was earlier this month, when Prime Minister Netanyahu called on Haley to shut down UNRWA, the UN body responsible for the welfare of 5 million Palestinian refugees.

According to Netanyahu, UNRWA 'perpetuates' refugee problems. However, the refugees' problem is not UNRWA per se, but the fact that Israel refuses to honor UN resolution 194 pertaining to their return and compensation.

These developments, and more, are all outcomes of the Haley doctrine. Her arrival at the UN has ignited a US-Israeli hate fest, not only targeting UN member states, but international law and everything that the United Nations has stood for over the decades.

The US has supported Israel quite blindly at the UN throughout the years. Haley seems to adopt an entirely Israeli position with no regard whatsoever for her country's allies, or the possible repercussions of dismissing the only international body that still serves as a platform for international engagement and conflict resolution.

Haley seems to truly think of herself as the new sheriff in town, who will "kick 'em every single time", before riddling the bullies with bullets and riding into the sunset, along with Netanyahu. However, with a huge leadership vacuum and no law to guide the international community in resolving a 70-year-old conflict, Haley's cowboy tactics are likely to do much harm to an already bleeding region.

Since the Negroponte doctrine of 2002, thousands of Palestinians and hundreds of Israelis were killed in an occupation that seems to know no ends. Further disengagement from international law will likely yield a greater toll and more suffering.

- Dr. Ramzy Baroud has been writing about the Middle East for over 20 years. He is an internationally-syndicated columnist, a media consultant, an author of several books and the founder of PalestineChronicle.com. His books include "Searching Jenin", "The Second Palestinian Intifada" and his latest "My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story". His website is www.ramzybaroud.net.

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COMMENTARY

The Real Terrorists in Occupied East Jerusalem

By Rima Najjar

http://buff.ly/2tykl3u

East Jerusalem is occupied by Israel. It is also illegally annexed. It is also illegally separated from the rest of the West Bank by an illegal wall.

In Jerusalem, Israel boasts of 220,000 illegal Jewish settlers settled on land confiscated from 300,000 Palestinian residents who are now landless. It boasts of 50,000 illegally displaced Palestinian Arabs and 685 illegally demolished Palestinian homes that have rendered 2,500 Palestinian Arabs homeless [see sources for this this information here].

All of this is legalized through Israel's jurisprudence, but never legitimized as its fundamental human rights violations are enshrined in military occupation law.

Although the US and Israel both reject the concept of state terrorism (i.e. acts of violence practiced by official state agencies), the above description of Israel's policies and actions in East Jerusalem should be regarded as terrorist activities. Israel's violent activities are premeditated, political in nature, and aimed at civilians - i.e., all the factors generally accepted to constitute elements of terrorism.

The nature of Israel's violence in Jerusalem (as well as in the other occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip) is highlighted by the extrajudicial and brutal erasure of Palestinians who exercise their internationally recognized right to resist as described by the United Nations General Assembly Resolution A/RES/33/24 of 29 November 1978:

"2. Reaffirms the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation by all available means, particularly armed struggle."

Israel has a long history of extrajudicial killing of Palestinians in and outside Palestine and also a history of trying to prevent reporters from exposing its policy of extra-judicial killing. As Palestinian resistance increases, so does the proliferation of Israel's extrajudicial killings:

"Human Rights Watch has documented numerous statements since October 2015, by senior Israeli politicians, including the police minister and defense minister, calling on police and soldiers to shoot to kill suspected attackers, irrespective of whether lethal force is actually strictly necessary to protect life. (Israel/Palestine: Some Officials Backing 'Shoot-to-Kill')"

So, what to make of the incidents that took place on June 16, 2017, in which three Palestinian young men reportedly conducted two attacks on Israeli police in Jerusalem?

"Two Palestinians were shot dead after opening fire at and trying to stab a group of Israeli police officers on Friday night, police said. At the other, a Palestinian fatally stabbed a border policewoman before being shot dead by police.... The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the stabbing but the militant Palestinian organization Hamas and the People's Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said the three attackers and were their own members.... Palestinian media named the attackers as Adel Ankush, 18, from a village near Ramallah, Bra'a Salah, 18, from the same village, and Amar Bedui, 31 from Hebron.
"Since September 2015, Palestinian assailants have killed 42 Israelis, two visiting Americans and a British student, mainly in stabbing, shooting and vehicular attacks. In that time, about 250 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire. Israel identified most of them as attackers.
"Israel blames the violence on incitement by Palestinian political and religious leaders compounded by social media sites that glorify violence and encourage attacks.
"Palestinians say it stems from anger over decades of Israeli rule in territory they claim for their state." (The Guardian)

The excerpt from The Guardian above lays out all the dimensions of the tragedy, but in the wrong order. The reference to the Islamic State is in the subheading of the article, "Three Palestinians armed with knives and a home-made gun launched two attacks and were shot dead in attack claimed by Islamic State", but the refutation of it is buried inside the story.

The Israeli side of the report is up front, the Palestinian side is literally in the last line of the report.

The three young men involved are said to have 'entered Jerusalem from the West Bank.' as if occupied and illegally annexed East Jerusalem is not part of the West Bank and as if the village of these young men, Deir Abu Mashal northwest of Ramallah does not share the same confiscation of land by Israel and Jewish settlement ringing it as does East Jerusalem.

Here is a little bit of information from the village profile online that will connect the dots for you:

"The Israeli government confiscated hundreds of dunums of lands in Deir Abu Mash'al to open Israeli bypass road no. 465. This road is constructed and open to connect the Israeli settlements surrounding the village with each other. The real threat of bypass roads lies in the buffer zone formed by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) along these roads, extending to approximately 75 m on the roads' sides." (Deir Abu Mash'al (Dayr Abu-Mashal/Meshal), Ramallah gov.)

In all justice, we should be condemning the instigators of the violence in Jerusalem, the brutal oppression and erasure of Palestinians meant to ensure the "Jewish character", i.e., the "right" of Israel to exist as a Jewish state on stolen land. We should do what the United Nations General Assembly has already done (Resolution A/RES/33/24):

"7. Strongly condemns all Governments which do not recognize the right to self-determination and independence of peoples under colonial and foreign domination and alien subjugation, notably the peoples of Africa and the Palestinian people."

- Rima Najjar is an activist for justice in Palestine, researcher and retired professor of English literature at Al-Quds University in the occupied West Bank, Palestine. She contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.

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