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Issued on: 16/04/2013
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Issue No: 39 16th April, 2013
Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia (PCOM) 2
Read in this report:
Abbas accepts Fayyad’s resignation (P.4) Erdogan confirms visit to Gaza
in May (P.5)
Israeli troops shoot and arrest disabled
Palestinian (P.6) Report: Israel arrested 100 Palestinians
last week (P.6)
Livni criticised for wavering over Jewish
state label (P.7)
Article: Israel impunity and its culture of
torture (P.8)
Issue No: 39 16th April, 2013
Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia (PCOM) 3
CONTENTS
NEWS OF PALESTINE
Abbas accepts Fayyad’s resignation .......................................................................................... 4
Erdogan confirms visit to Gaza in May ..................................................................................... 5
Hamas: Jewish marches won’t succeed in wiping out facts ...................................................... 5
Israeli troops shoot and arrest disabled Palestinian ................................................................... 6
Report: Israel arrested 100 Palestinians last week ..................................................................... 6
ISRAEL INSIDER
Livni criticised for wavering over Jewish state label ................................................................. 7
ARTICLES & ANALYSES
Israel's impunity and its culture of torture ................................................................................. 8
Issue No: 39 16th April, 2013
Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia (PCOM) 4
Hamas: the resignation is not related to reconciliation
Abbas accepts Fayyad’s resignation
15/04/2013
Despite US and European pressure,
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud
Abbas has accepted the resignation of his
Prime Minister in Ramallah “Salam
Fayyad”. The president has asked Fayyad
to continue in the post until a new
government is formed.
Sources reported that Fayyad expressed his
deep thanks to President Abbas for his
support to the government over the years.
However, local sources claim that the
prime minister would not stay in the role
"even if the whole universe" asks him to
stay.
Senior American and European officials
have been putting a lot of pressure on
Abbas to reject Fayyad's resignation. He
has been hailed by the international
Middle East Quartet for his cooperation
with the West and Israel. US President
Barack Obama described the outgoing
prime minister as a "peace partner" during
his visit to the region last month, and
Secretary of State John Kerry held several
meetings with him in a show of solidarity
and support.
For its part, the Hamas Movement said the
resignation of Salam Fayyad as head of the
de facto government in the West Bank and
its acceptance by president Mahmoud
Abbas had nothing to do with the
Palestinian reconciliation.
"The acceptance of Salam Fayyad's
resignation by Mahmoud Abbas has
nothing to do with any reconciliation
agreement; it is only related to differences
between Fatah and Fayyad, and the
former's call for dismissing him as it
clearly stated in the last meeting of its
revolutionary council," Hamas spokesman
Sami Abu Zhuri stated in a press release.
Source: Agencies
NEWS OF PALESTINE
Issue No: 39 16th April, 2013
Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia (PCOM) 5
Erdogan confirms visit to Gaza in May
15/04/2013
Turkey's prime minister has confirmed that
he plans to visit the besieged Gaza Strip
next month. Recep Tayyip Erdogan made
the announcement during a video link with
a joint ceremony organised by the Turkish
Red Crescent Society and the Palestinian
Ministry of Agriculture.
In response to an invitation from Minister
of Agriculture Ali Al-Tarshawi, Mr
Erdogan said, "I am visiting Gaza in May
to shake hands with our families there."
The visit will go ahead despite US
pressure to postpone it. It will be entirely
for humanitarian purposes, said the
Turkish prime minister.
The Turkish Red Crescent was celebrating
the success implementation of several
agricultural projects it supports in the Gaza
Strip.
Source: MEMO
___________________________________________________________________________
Hamas: Jewish marches won’t succeed in wiping out facts
15/04/2013
Hamas warned against proceeding with the
Jewish march slated to start from Israeli
premier Benjamin Netanyahu’s house to
the Aqsa Mosque demanding full
sovereignty over the holy site.
The movement described the march in a
statement on Monday as “provocative” and
a desperate attempt. It added that the
march would not succeed in imposing a de
facto situation or in wiping out facts.
Hamas called on the Palestinian people to
unite their ranks in confrontation with the
Israeli occupation’s plots and projects.
Hamas urged the Arab League and the
Organization of Islamic Cooperation to
assume their responsibilities in protecting
Jerusalem and the Aqsa and to adopt
practical steps to deter the occupation’s
crimes against the land and holy shrines.
In a related context, the organizers of the
global march to Jerusalem said they would
stage a worldwide rally in support of the
holy city on June 7, 2013, which marks the
46th anniversary of Israel's occupation of
the eastern part of the city.
Issue No: 39 16th April, 2013
Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia (PCOM) 6
The organizers of the march said in a press
release on Monday that they intend to hold
this global march because of Israel's
persistent occupation of Jerusalem and its
escalation of its violations against the city
and its native people.
Source: PIC
___________________________________________________________________________
Israeli troops shoot and arrest disabled Palestinian
11/04/2013
Israeli troops have shot and wounded a
physically disabled Palestinian man during
an arrest operation in the southern West
Bank city of Hebron, according to
a prisoners' rights group.
Motazz Obeidu, 32, was "seriously
wounded by Israeli army gunfire during an
arrest operation" at dawn, the Palestinian
Prisoners' Society (PPS) said on Thursday.
The PPS held the occupation fully
responsible for Obeidu's life, whose health
condition is very critical. "He uses a
urinary drainage bag at all times and was
shot in his left leg by Israeli soldiers when
he was arrested two years ago, which led
to paralyzing his leg."
A large military force surrounded Obeidu's
shop, stripped him totally and left him
outside in the cold weather before
arresting him, according to his father.
Source: Aljazeera + Agencies
___________________________________________________________________________
Report: Israel arrested 100 Palestinians last week
14/04/2013
A Palestinian statistics report said that
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) nabbed 100
Palestinian citizens in the West Bank over
the past week.
The report published by Hamas on Sunday
said that most of those arrested were taken
from Al-Khalil governorate where 26
citizens were detained.
The report pointed out that the list
included three women, two of whom were
mothers of prisoners who were detained
during visits to their sons, and five who
were released from Palestinian Authority
jails.
Source: PIC
Issue No: 39 16th April, 2013
Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia (PCOM) 7
Livni criticised for wavering over Jewish state label
10/04/2013
Officials in Israel have launched a strong
attack against Justice Minister Tzipi Livni
for hinting that the government may be
willing to give up the demand for
Palestinian recognition of the "Jewish
State" as a precondition for a return to
negotiations. Livni has been put in charge
of negotiations by Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu.
The leader of the governing coalition and
Knesset member for Likud, Yariv Levin,
said that Livni does not reflect the
government's official point of view on this
matter. "Israel as a Jewish state is the basis
of all negotiations and settlements," he
insisted. "It is an unequivocal demand that
is considered to be binding to all parties of
the coalition of the government in Israel."
Levin called on all members of the
coalition to "show more responsibility and
adhere to the principles that allow Israel to
achieve its demands in any future
negotiations".
Livni's statement also came under fire
from the Deputy Minister of
Transportation, Tzipi Ahtpola. "The Prime
Minister of Israel is the only one who
decides on the policy of the government
and determines the conditions for
negotiations with the Palestinians," she
said. "Any idea which opposes this
framework would be a gift to those who
reject peace."
According to the Minister of Construction
and Housing, Uri Ariel, of the far-right
Jewish Home Party, "Livni's words
demonstrate a total disregard for the
government's decisions and policies." He
noted that the Palestinians have to
acknowledge the requirement to recognise
the Jewish nature of the state. "How can
we conduct negotiations with those who
do not recognise our existence?" asked
Ariel. "It was silly talk by a minister."
Source: MEMO
ISRAEL INSIDER
Issue No: 39 16th April, 2013
Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia (PCOM) 8
Israel's impunity and its culture of torture
By: Ramona Wadi *
The recognition of torture in Israeli prisons
is subject to a host of narratives, entrenching
it within a distinct, yet hidden realm. Since
the start of Israel's illegal occupation,
thousands of Palestinians have been tortured
in a manner reminiscent of the macabre
extravagance now associated with
Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. The
revelation that torture was taking place in
Israel's prisons in 1977 was met with an
incredulous reaction from Prime Minister
Menachem Begin, who refused to acknowledge its existence.
The Landau Commission in 1987 failed to
ban torture in Israel. Instead of condemning
the practice as a breach of international law,
torture was deemed to be permissible in
certain cases, governed by a set of secret
rules which torturers adhered to. The
foundation for impunity was given a solid
structure; "lying to the court" about torture
was "intolerable" but the practice itself was
allowed. Thus was the relevance of the
impact of torture upon Palestinian prisoners
pushed to one side. In 1999, a Supreme
Court ruling that torture was illegal became
mired in ambiguity, owing to the same
court's allowance of torture in situations of
"necessity". Aided by experts in the medical
and psychological fields, torturers would
follow a set programme which stipulated the
limits of physical resistance prior to the
victim suffering irreparable damage. The
vagueness of the term used resulted in an
effective safeguard for torturers, who
ensured the isolation of prisoners in order to
fetter the emotional and physical scars of torture.
The death of Arafat Jaradat at the hands of
the Israeli internal security agency Shin Bet
in February brought state-sanctioned torture
onto the front pages. An autopsy revealed
that Jaradat had been subjected to brutal
torture; several bones in the neck, spine,
arms and legs were broken, and blood clots,
bruising and blisters were evident. As
expected, Israel failed to acknowledge the
veracity of the autopsy report, calling it
inconclusive and clinging to a fabricated
version of events which claimed that "cardiac arrest" was the cause of death.
Apart from the physical isolation of tortured
prisoners, the isolation of individual
recollections of torture within the collective
Palestinian memory contributes to its
displacement by other narratives. The instant
glorification of martyrdom is centred upon
an individual living under decades of
oppression, whereas if we focus on the
decades of oppression the subject of torture
can rise to the communal level. Maintaining
a false dichotomy between individual and
collective memory can prove
counterproductive to Palestinian resistance,
allowing sub-narratives to sink without trace.
Shin Bet's reliance on medical practitioners
to help with torture are documented in legal
rights group Adalah's report "On Torture".
Physicians have been known to disregard
torture complaints, help to send prisoners
back to their torturers, disclose medical
conditions to make torture "more effective"
and fail to report complaints about, or
personal observation of, torture. While the
elimination of socio-political processes plays
a role in transforming the torture victim's
identity into a stereotype, there is an inherent
culture promoted by the Israeli state that
Palestinians are a target the disposal of
which is necessary in order to achieve the
Zionist dream. In such a context, while
medical practitioners' identification with the
oppressor is an affirmation of allegiance to a
ARTICLES & ANALYSIS
Issue No: 39 16th April, 2013
Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia (PCOM) 9
"superior" state, the same state is responsible
for the dissemination and application of apartheid practices.
The protection of human rights cannot take
place if the political views of the oppressor
eliminate any possibility of such discourse
by encouraging its citizens to become active
participants in oppression. Israeli society is
not oblivious to the torture of Palestinians,
yet it has willingly conformed to the
requirements of stereotyping and
dehumanisation of the victims. Rhetoric
abounds about the preservation of the Jewish
state and references to Zionism, with these
influences being articulated with venom on
social media, advocating the use of further
violence against Palestinians. It has become
commonplace for Israelis sticking to the
Zionist agenda to suggest "breaking the
bones" of Palestinians or castration,
shooting, death by nerve gas or burning of
Palestinian children. The culture of violence
has been embraced eagerly, with the
Holocaust card trumping any outrage at
torture taking place in the name of the state
and creating irrational fears about
"existential" threats.
Sanctioned by almost every strata of society,
Shin Bet's impunity with regard to torture
has lasting consequences on Palestinian
victims. An absence of criminal
proceedings, despite over 600 complaints in
recent years, has resulted in a series of
myths regarding the practice. Claims that
certain techniques are no longer used, such
as prolonged beatings or hangings, thrive
within the parameters of bureaucratic form-
filling and secret proceedings. It is also
implied that certain torture techniques veer
towards the psychological, such as using
Palestinians willing to collaborate with the
Israeli secret service in exchange for
material benefits, which help to weaken the
defences of the prisoner under interrogation.
However, the physical violence has not
diminished, as demonstrated by the
lacerations evident on Jaradat's body. What
is remarkable, notoriously so, is Israel's
absolute impunity which allows it to regard
torture and murder as collateral damage in a "war against terror".
Having broken a multitude of UN
resolutions and regulations pertaining to
international law and never been held
accountable, it is apparent that the culture of
impunity which normalises and sanctions
violence in Israel has been ignored by the
international community. Understandably,
the US is incapable of condemning human
rights violations and torture since it is an
advocate of both; criticism of others would
attract attention to its own illegal activities.
Indeed, Israel and the US have sanctioned
torture in remarkably similar circumstances;
ostensibly to provide security for their
citizens at the expense of thousands of
people whose existence amounts to nothing
more than a name or number on a list.
Imprisonment and torture as a means to
safeguard Israeli security have distorted the
identity of Palestinian prisoners. If the
transformation and misrepresentation of
torture into the lesser of many evils can be
removed from the international
consciousness, then there is a chance that
Israel and other states could be called to
account for their crimes. The alternative is
that the Palestinian struggle will be
bludgeoned into oblivion by Israel's torturers
aided by the silence and complicity of its friends and allies.
* Ramona Wadi is a writer, book reviewer and blogger based in Malta specialising in
the Palestine, international relations and revolutionary philosophy. She writes regularly for
Middle East Monitor and her work has been published in various outlets, including academic
publications.