This Week in Palestine Dec. 22-28

Dec 28, 2012

HAVANA TIMES — Welcome to this Week in Palestine, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for December 22 to the 28th, 2012

As Israeli settlement activity increases in the West Bank, Palestinian President makes remarks about dissolving the Palestinian Authority, meanwhile, Israeli invasions into West Bank communities continue, we bring you these stories and more.

The Nonviolence Report

Let’s us begin our weekly report with nonviolent activities organized in the West Bank. protests this week were in solidarity with hunger striking Palestinian political prisoners held by Israel.

This week anti wall and settlements protests were organized on Friday in the villages of Bil’in Ni’lin and al Nabi Saleh in central West Bank, as well as Al Ma’ssara village in southern West Bank in addition to Kufer Kadum, in the north.

International and Israeli supporters joined al Nabi Saleh villagers in their weekly anti wall protest on Friday midday. Troops used tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets against protesters before even leaving the village. Many were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation.

Also in central West Bank, many residents were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation when soldiers attacked the anti wall protests organized at the villages of Bil’in and Nil’in village. Local sources reported that Israeli soldiers attacked the protesters as soon as they reached the Israeli wall.

In the village of Kufer Kadum many villagers were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation when troops attacked the weekly anti wall and settlements protest there. Soldiers fired tear gas at the residents as soon as they reached the road block Israel installed 10 years ago. The army road block cuts off the main road that connects the village with the rest of the West Bank.

Three residents were slightly injured at al Ma’ssara village, on Friday, when Israeli troops attacked the weekly anti wall protest there. Soldiers forced people back into the village and did not allow them to get to the wall. Soldiers used rifle buts and batons to bush people back, causing the three injuries.

The Political Report

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gestured this week possibility to dissolve the Palestinian Authority unless Israel halts settlements building on the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Palestinian president suggestion comes on top of relentless efforts by him and other international players to help bridge the gap between Israelis and Palestinians for the resumption of stalled peace talks amidst Israel’s persistence to keep up settlements activities on occupied Palestinian territories.

Recently , some European countries including France, which backed a UN resolution recognizing Palestine as a non-member state at the UN, have engaged in efforts to bring Palestinians and Israelis back to the negotiations table based on a two-state solution, with Palestine statehood on the 1967 border lines including Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem.

From his part, Israeli foreign minister, challenged Abbas by asking him to go ahead with dissolving the Palestinian Authority for Liberman considers Abbas as an obstacle to peace-making in the region. Liberman warned of control by the Islamist Hamas party, which Israel rejects, over the West Bank, similar to the situation in Gaza.

In his statement, Abbas proposed that at some point, he would prefer handing over responsibility for the Palestinian occupied territories to the Israeli occupation. Israel has not yet agreed to any permanent solution with the Palestinians, following two decades of negotiations, starting from Oslo peace accords of 1993.

On a related note, Israeli prime minister, met in Jordan this week with the Jordanian Monarch Abdullah II. Some media sources suggested that Natanyahoo discussed with Abdullah possible PA-Jordan confederation, which will eventually lead to a permanent status solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Meanwhile, Secretary General of the Arab States league, Nabil Alarabi, is expected to arrive in Ramallah of the West Bank soon, within Arab efforts to back the Palestinian Authority financially and politically. Since last November’s Palestinian bid at the United Nations, the PA has been facing an unprecedented financial crisis to the extent it could not fun salaries of it’s payroll.

In the Gaza Strip, the ruling Hamas party agreed to Fatah’s request to hold a major celebration ceremony in one of Gaza’s large squares. The agreement by Hamas is the first of its type in the past five years as Fatah is to mark the 48 anniversary of the moment’s establishment.

Hamas’s agreement is similar to another move in the West Bank, where Hamas movement was allowed by the PA in Ramallah to mark the anniversary of the party’s establishment for the first time in five years.

Since 2007, Hamas has been in control of the Gaza Strip after taking over the authority from Fatah leadership amidst political rivalry. Recently, both parties have begun some sort of confidence building measures ahead of possible political reconciliation and reunification of the Palestinian political spectrum.

The West Bank and Gaza Report

This week the Israeli army conducted at least 71 military invasions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. During these invasions, they arrested at least 44 Palestinians, Israeli troops also left at least eight Palestinians injured this week. IMEMC’s Ghassan Bannoura has more:

This week invasions in the West Bank were focused in the cities of Hebron, Bethlehem, Ramallah and Jenin. Among those arrested this week there were six children.

On Saturday six Palestinian civilians, including a child, were wounded, when the Israeli forces opened fire at dozens of Palestinians, who went out in a funeral of a dead person to the cemetery near the entrance of Beit Ummar village, north of Hebron. Wounds of two residents were serious doctors reported.

Later in the week the Palestinian political Prisoners Society reported on Wednesday that at least four prisoners were injured during an Israeli troops attack on them at the military’s Megiddo prison The Society said that troops stormed sections nine, six and four of Megiddo and assaulted the detainees. The four injured were from section six, the Society added.

Israeli settlers attacked on Thursday midday the village of Qassra near the northern West Bank city of Nablus. Local sources reported that settlers attacked residents’ homes and uprooted 40 olive trees owned by local farmers. Residents told local news that the settlers also attacked them on Wednesday night.

Also on Thursday In the central West Bank town of al Eizaryia, Israeli troops demolished on Thursday a house and a workshop.

In the Gaza Strip this week, the information center of the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza issued a report on Thursday saying that Israeli attacks during 2012 on Gaza have left 278 Palestinians dead and 2158 injured.

According to the report 189 residents were killed during the Israeli eight day war on Gaza in November. Moreover the November Israeli war left 1526 injured according to the report.

And that’s all for today from This Week in Palestine this was the Weekly report for December 22 to 28th 2012 from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. This is our last report for the year 2012, we hope to get back with you next year in 2013, For more news and updates please keep visiting our website at www.imemc.org. On behalf of the IMEMC News team, we wish you had a Merry Christmas and hope for a better new year in 2013.