Issue no 74

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Issue No : 74 23th December, 2013

Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia | 1


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Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia

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Meshaal discusses key Palestinian issues with

Abbas

Prof. Abdul-Fattah: Having relations with Hamas is not guilt

Palestine is still on its own long walk to freedom

By: Dr Daud Abdullah

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Haneyya calls for the formationof a consensus government

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President Morsi referred to criminal court for

communicating with Hamas

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MDA reject blood of MKof Ethiopian decent

Samer al-Issawi slatedfor release on Monday

International aid convoy heading to Gaza in early 2014

Malaysian NGOs to join in P11

Palestinian Cultural

Organization Malaysia

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CONTENTS

News of Palestine

Articles & Analyses

Palestine is still on its own long walk to freedom 12

MDA reject blood of MK of Ethiopian decent 10

Israel Insider

Malaysia & Palestinian Cause

International aid convoy heading to Gaza in early 2014 11

Meshaal discusses key Palestinian issues with Abbas 4

President Morsi referred to criminal court for communicating with Hamas 5

Haneyya calls for the formation of a consensus government 6

Israel killed 4 Palestinians last week 7

Israel will continue to build settlements, 8

Samer al-Issawi slated for release on Monday 9

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News of Palestine

16/12/2013

In a long phone conversation on Saturday, Khalid Meshaal, the head of Hamas› Political Bureau, discussed three key issues with Palestinian Au-thority (PA) President Mah-moud Abbas, an informed source told the London-based newspaper Al-Hayat.The three issues discussed are the ongoing negotiations between the PA and Israel, the occupation›s increasing violations against Jerusa-lem, and the Israeli siege of Gaza, which has now wors-ened due to the latest wave of extreme weather. The source confirmed that at the end of the conversation, both sides agreed to continue mutual discussions.According to the source, «Meshaal reiterated two goals during the phone call: the necessity of achieving reconciliation based upon previous agreements, and the importance of building a united national strategy to face the Zionist dangers and threats.»Meshaal reportedly spoke to Abbas about the importance of maintaining the rights and principles of the Palestinians, telling him not to surrender to the American pressure being put on the PA. He acknowl-edged to Abbas that the PA is the weakest side, which

means it faces even greater pres-sure to offer more concessions.The source explained that Me-shaal told Abbas that: «any nega-tive outcome in the peace talks affects not only the PA alone, but also all Palestinians.»Furthermore, Meshaal stressed the importance of not building up hopes on the talks› outcome, because the Israeli occupation is still not ready to offer anything that would be accepted by the Palestinians.Regarding Jerusalem, Meshaal insisted that: «Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque have to be on the top of the PA›s agenda when dealing with the other side. The unprecedented attacks against Jerusalem and its mosque, as well as the aggressive intentions towards them, have all become very clear in recent months.»Meshaal added that: «The Al-

Meshaal discusses key Palestinian issues with Abbas

Aqsa Mosque must be the main concern for the Palestinian movement to lobby Arab, Is-lamic and international bodies to place pressure on the Zion-ists to stop the Judaisation of Jerusalem and to undermine the occupation›s attempts to di-vide the holy city.»About Gaza, Meshaal report-edly discussed the disastrous humanitarian situation caused by the seven-year-old Israeli siege, which has recently been made worse by the extreme weather and severe shortage of electricity and warming facili-ties.Concluding his conversation, Meshaal thanked Abbas for his interest in supporting the Pal-estinians in Gaza, who he ex-plained are experiencing «dif-ficult circumstances».

Source: MEMO

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21/12/2013

Egypt›s de facto attorney-general Hisham Barakat decided to refer president Mohamed Morsi, chief of Muslim Brotherhood Mo-hammed Badie and his dep-uty Khairat Al-Shater along with other senior members of the Muslim Brotherhood to the criminal court in Cairo over espionage claims.Barakat›s office charged president Morsi and the other defendants with communi-cating secretly with foreign groups, especially the Hamas Movement, in order to stir up violence in Egypt, disclosing secret military information to a foreign country, and financ-ing terrorism in addition to other serious allegations.Lawyers of president Morsi criticized the legal proce-dures taken against president Morsi and his fellow state and party officials, and described the entire judicial scene as being run by putschists.A noted Egyptian academic said the decision to prosecute president Mohamed Morsi and a number of his aides and fellow leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood group for their communication with the Hamas Movement «invites ridicule and laughter.»Seif Addin Abdul-Fattah, a political science professor at Cairo university, added that

making such accusations are aimed at smearing Morsi and his aides and portraying them as traitors.«The Egyptian people is fully aware that the Palestinian resis-tance Movements, like Hamas, play a national role in liberating their land, and thus to have rela-tions with them cannot be guilt, not to mention the Egyptian people›s strong bond with the Palestinian cause and the Egyp-tian historical role in supporting this cause,» Abdul-Fattah said in a statement to the Palestinian in-formation center (PIC).He stressed that accusing Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood of having been involved in contacts with Hamas since 2005 is con-sidered utter nonsense because

President Morsi referred to criminal court for communicating with Hamas

different Palestinian resistance Movements, including Hamas, had been visiting Cairo before that date and meeting with many politicians and not only with officials from the Muslim Brotherhood.«Is not Hamas a national lib-eration movement seeking to free its land like the rest of the Palestinian resistance move-ments? Was it not supported by the Egyptian people during the wars it had fought in the Gaza Strip?» he questioned.He expressed his belief that the current regime in Egypt is try-ing to undermine the truth and discredit Hamas because of its Muslim Brotherhood roots.

Source: PIC

Prof. Abdul-Fattah: Having relations with Hamas is not guilt

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Haneyya calls for the formationof a consensus government

19/12/2013

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haneyya called on PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to hold a na-tional meeting to discuss the formation of a na-tional consensus government according to Cairo agreement.In a conference on Jerusalem issue, organized by International Quds Institution on Thursday in Gaza City, Haneyya stressed the need to support the national project in face of Israeli schemes.He pointed to the Palestinian people›s need to the national project, which guarantees the protection of Jerusalem and the West Bank and an end to Is-raeli arrogance, and achieves the liberation of Pal-estinian land and people.He condemned the U.S. biased position in favour of the establishment of Jewish state with Jerusa-

lem as its eternal capital. He also criticized the Arab Nation›s preoccupation with internal issues rather than Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque.The Prime Minister called on the Arab and Islamic countries to take firm positions in support of Pales-tine and Jerusalem.He stressed that all political and armed paths of Is-lamic and national factions have to be directed to-wards the liberation of Jerusalem and Palestine.Haneyya also called for forming a Palestinian, Arab, Islamic, and international strategy to put an end to Israeli violations and threats in Jerusalem, stressing the importance of practical projects, and not confer-ences, to save Jerusalem.

Source: PIC

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Israel killed 4 Palestinians last week22/12/2013

The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) killed 21-year-old young man, Jamil Saadi, on Wednes-day after he was arrested to-gether with his cousin. They were both shot by Israeli gunfire when they confronted Israeli soldiers that were storming the house of prisoner Sheikh Jamal Abu al-Hija in the Jenin camp on Thursday night.

In Qalqilia, a special Israeli army unit killed a Palestinian young man, Palestinian sources in the city said that 24-year-old Saleh Yassin, who works for the PA intelligence apparatus, was gunned down at the east-ern entrance of the city. They said that Israeli occupation forces ambushed the youth and gunned him down, adding that

he was hit with multiple bullets.

In Gaza, one Palestinian young man was killed and four others wounded when the Israeli oc-cupation forces (IOF) opened fire at them in areas to the north and south of the Strip. Medical sources told said that 20-year-old Awdah Hamad was shot dead on Friday by Israeli soldiers during his presence east of Beit Hanoun district in northern Gaza.

On Saturday, a 13 – year – old child , Ameen Swelam, crashed

to death by an Israeli settler›s car at Issawiyya crossroads in Jerusalem.

The child relative reported that the ambulance lifted Swelam immediately to Hadassah Ein Karem hospital where he suc-cumbed to his wounds soon.

It’s worth mentioning that over 30 Palestinians were killed since the resumption of talks between the Palestinian Au-thority and Israel last July.

Source: Agencies

Israel will continue to build settlements, says Netanyahu

20/12/2013

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that Israeli will continue with the construction of settlements even though warnings have been made that peace negotiations with the Pales-tinians could suffer a breakdown.

During an interview on Wednesday Netanyahu stated that, ““We will not stop, even for a moment, building our country and becom-ing stronger, and developing the settlement enterprise.”

Since negotiations have begun, Israel has announced plans to build some 5,992 new housing units. With four Palestinians killed by the Israelis this week alone, tensions are mounting.

Source: PNN

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Thousands evacuated after Gaza floods

16/12/2013

At least 5,000 people have been evacuated from flood-damaged homes in northern Gaza and at least one person killed in what the United Na-tions called «a disaster area».

The flooding, caused by four days of torrential rain, was so severe that many homes could only be accessed by rowing boat with water two metres deep in some places.

«Large swathes of northern Gaza are a disaster area with water as far as the eye can see,» the UN Relief Works Agency (UNRWA), that ad-ministers refugee camps in the Palestinian territory, said in a statement on Saturday.

Many people were trapped inside homes inundated by rising waters. A 22-year-old Palestinian man died from smoke inhalation on Saturday after lighting a fire to warm his home, a government spokes-man said.

The Gaza health ministry said 100 other people had been hurt as flood waters damaged poor-ly built homes in the coastal territory. Among those injured were people who had been hit by objects falling from inun-

Al-Qassam Brigades helps civilians in Gaza’s flooded areas

dated buildings or had been in car accidents on flooded roads.

Side to side with the govern-ment’s apparatus in Gaza, the re-sistance fighters of Hamas’ armed wing “Al-Qassam Brigades” have participated in the rescue and relief efforts taking place in the areas affected by floods in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Al-Qassam Brigades has put its human and material resources at the disposal of the authorities in Gaza and helped evacuate many families and citizens from the flooded areas.

Many Qassam fighters were seen with their cars and tools helping people in the areas affected by the rainstorms.

Citizens reported that resistance

fighters from Al-Qassam Bri-gades evacuated dozens of helpless families in Gaza city, Rafah district and Deir Al-Balah district to schools and other centers used as makeshift shelters and provided them with emergency aid.

In addition to the evacuation of citizens from the affected areas, Al-Qassam Brigades provided first aid for the injured citizens, transported them to hospitals, protected evacuated homes and took livestock owned by citi-zens to safe places.

Members of the Brigades also established mounds of dirt and barriers of sandbags in the areas covered by rainwater to stop its flow to other homes.

Source: Agencies

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Samer al-Issawi slatedfor release on Monday

Palestinian Cultural

Organization Malaysia

22/12/2013

Israel is expected to release Samer al-Issawi on Monday, December 23, morning to his home in occupied Jerusalem.

Al-Issawi was released under prisoner swap deal between the Israeli occupation and Hamas Movement in October 2011 after serving ten years in prison.

He was re-arrested on July

7, 2012 and charged of alleg-edly breaching the deal’s terms. One month later, he launched an open-ended hunger strike to pro-test being detained him without a charge.

He continued his hunger strike for nine months until his de-mands were met. Al-Issawi end-ed his protest action on April 23 after signing an agreement with

the Israeli occupation which set a date for his release.

The deal provided that Issawi will be released to his home town in occupied Jerusalem af-ter being held for eight months without trial. He sought with his 266-day hunger strike for his freedom, which he will em-brace on December 23, 2013.Source: ALRAY

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Israel Insider

12/12/2013

In additional case of discrimi-natory practices, Yesh Atid MK Pnina Tamano-Shata barred from donating blood because she has «special kind of Jewish-Ethiopian blood»

Magen David Adom refused to allow Member of Knesset (MK) Pnina Tamano-Shata (Yesh Atid) to donate blood, saying she had «the special kind of Jewish-Ethiopian blood.»

The staff then told her that she could donate blood, but her donation would be frozen, not used. In the past, the MDA›s refusal to use blood donated from resident of Ethiopian descent has inspired claims of racism, the MDA in response claim they are only trying to minimize risks to blood re-cipients.

Tamano-Shata arrived Wednesday afternoon to do-nate blood in a special do-nation center opened at the Knesset. After being refused and told she had «the spe-cial kind of Jewish-Ethiopian blood,» Tamano-Shato tried to explain that she has been liv-ing in “Israel” since the age of three, and has served in the Israeli Army.

MDA reject blood of MKof Ethiopian decent

She was sent to speak with the MDA donation teams› supervisor. Tamano-Shata told her «you›re the professional, check if I fit the criteria» for Jews of Ethiopian decent which are allowed to donate blood.

After an additional examination, she was informed that she can-not donate blood. After pushing the matter further, Tamano-Shato was informed she could donate but that her blood would be frozen and not used.

In response, she told the MDA: «I›m good enough to serve the country in the Knesset, but for some reason, to donate blood, I›m not good enough… this is insulting.»

Blood and bloodIn her youth, the young Yesh Atid MK led protests against the MDA practice of disposing of blood donated by Ethiopians.

Tamano-Shata further said «it is sad that after so many decades the State has failed to stop differentiating between blood and blood. This is a shameful experience that has been haunting me since I was 16 and I can only hope that the Health Minister (Yael German, also from Yesh Atid) will change the situation.»

Tamano-Shata was 16 when the MDA practice was first reported and later, when it reared it head again in 2006, she led the struggle against the discriminatory practice.

Source: Yedioth Ahronot

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21/12/2013

An international aid convoy is heading to the Gaza Strip in early 2014 to deliver humanitar-ian aid to the besieged enclave after being hardly hit by a four-day storm.

«The international convoy is expected to reach the Gaza Strip in early January 2014 to deliver humanitarian aid to the fallout from the Alexa storm that swept Gaza recently,» Un-dersecretary of Ministry of Foreign Affairs Dr Ghazi Hamad said to ALRAY.

Hamad added that «127 solidarity activists hailing from Arab and Islamic backgrounds will participate in the convoy, which will be entitled ‹International Lifeline Convoy›,»

The international solidarity activists would represent convoys of Miles of Smiles, European Wafaa campaign, relief commissions and supporters from Malaysia, Algeria, Libya, Mo-rocco and Bahrain, said Jordanian daily Al-Sabeel.

Arab and Islamic bodies and relief committees lately appealed to the Egyptian government to open the Rafah crossing and contribute to alleviating disaster areas in Gaza and allow the entry of urgent humanitarian aid to the affected people there.

A report released by the government in Gaza estimated the losses the heavy storm inflicted only on the public sector at some $64 million. The storm left two deaths, and 108, including two serious, injuries among the Palestinians in Gaza.

The government said in the report that the number of the households evacuated from their homes amounted to 7.000; of the 4.200 people accounting for the households, some 900 took refuge in 19 rescue shelters in schools, while the rest were housed in homes of their relatives and acquaintances. Source: ALRAY

Malaysia & Palestinian Cause

International aid convoy heading to Gaza in early 2014

Malaysian NGOs to join in

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By: Dr Daud Abdullah *

There are certain events in the life of nations that define their history for generations. In South Africa, the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre and the 1976 Soweto Uprising are prime examples. In Palestine, Israel›s wilful killing of four Palestinian workers in December 1987 ignited the First Intifada (Uprising) and changed the course of the Palestinian struggle forever.

The comparisons are apt. Sharpeville give birth to Umk-honto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), the military wing of the African National Congress (ANC), in 1961, which kept up the pressure on the apartheid regime until June 1976 when the Soweto Uprising erupted and sent several other townships into a spiral of rebellion.

As in South Africa, there were deep seated social, eco-nomic and political factors inherent in the Palestinian ex-perience which made the Intifada inevitable. It was from this charged political climate that the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) emerged to become a major political force on the Palestinian scene. Almost thirty years later, Hamas has gone on to develop a military capability that allows it to resist the Israeli occupation as well as pursue the goal of national liberation.

Ultimately, this is as far as the comparisons can go. There are significant differences too. For a start, the ANC never gave up the option of armed struggle before the goal of national liberation was achieved. In Palestine, however, the negotiations which started in Madrid in 1991 were used as a pretext to quash the Intifada then at its height; armed resistance was abandoned by the Western-backed Palestinian leadership. That is still the case today, despite their failure to deliver on any of the promises enshrined

Articles & Analyses

Palestine is still on its own long walk to freedom

in the Oslo Accords and national lib-eration is still a dream.

Former Hamas spokesman Ibrahim Ghusheh recalls in his newly-pub-lished memoirs how intense pres-sure was brought to bear on Hamas at a meeting convened by Sudan›s President Omar Al-Bashir between Hamas and Fatah just prior to the Madrid Conference. The aim of the meeting, wrote Ghusheh, was to force Hamas to join the Palestine National Council (PNC) and then at-tend its planned meeting in Algiers, where the PLO leadership intended to endorse the decision to go to Ma-drid. In the event of any agreement with the PLO, having Hamas within the PNC would have made the Oslo Accords look as if they were en-dorsed by the Islamic movement.

In its early stages, the Intifada was referred to as the «Mosques› Intifa-da» because of the noticeable influ-ence of the Islamic movement in the occupied Palestinian territories. It

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the 1987 Intifada. It was from there, in Gaza, that Hamas announced its arrival with its first communique on 14 December 1987.

The Soweto Uprising of 1976 laid the foundation for the long but ulti-mately successful international boy-cott and sanctions campaign against the South African apartheid regime. Although the Palestinian Intifada pricked the conscience of the world community in 1987, this never de-veloped into a similar international boycott, possibly because the prior-ity for campaigners at the time was to defeat South Africa›s heinous po-litical system. Now that it has been dismantled the world must turn its attention to the last remaining bas-tion of racial domination, Israel›s occupation of Palestine. Justice and liberation for the Palestinians is long overdue but notice is given to the world that whether they get on board to defeat Israeli apartheid or not, the Palestinians have the courage, pa-tience and determination to continue with their resistance, in their own unique style, on their own long walk to freedom.

* Daud A. Abdullah is the current Dep-uty Secretary General of the Muslim Co uncil of Britain. He has been se-nior researcher at the London-based Palestinian Return Centre and editor of the Return Review, which has re-cently been replaced with the Jour-nal of Palestinian Refugees Studies.

was later referred to as the «Stones Intifada» in recog-nition of the weapons used to confront Israel›s military might.

Everyone was taken by surprise by the uprising›s scale and intensity. The occupying Israeli power believed wrongly that after the humiliating defeat of 1967 their colonial project in Palestine would never again be challenged by either the Palestinians or the Arab states. They reckoned that the defeat of the official Arab armies in the Six-Day War had put an end to all forms of resistance.

They were wrong. Out of the rubble of 1967 a new generation emerged; they were not the defeated gener-ation, psychologically or politically, as was often pre-sumed. The regimes around them were, but they were not. They have come of age today.

As for Hamas, it has survived, despite the extra-judi-cial killings of its historic leadership; despite the siege of Gaza; and despite the attempts by the Israeli occu-pation to besmirch and isolate the movement with the ‘terrorist› label. Since the Intifada catapulted it on to the political scene Hamas has remained an indispens-able factor in the complex Palestinian equation.

Today it appears that the pre-Oslo scenario is about to repeat itself as Israeli officials point out openly that that they will not sign a deal with the Palestinians if Hamas is not on board.

The failure of the US-sponsored negotiations have left Palestinians bitterly disillusioned and aggrieved. On the other hand, the achievements of the Hamas-led resistance, notably from Gaza, have made them opti-mistic that they can realise their dream of being free in their own land; not because of US impartiality but in spite of Washington›s bias as a dishonest broker.

For the people of the Gaza Strip, this 26th anniversary of the First Intifada has a special meaning and signifi-cance. Just as Soweto formed the crucible from where the South African Uprising of 1976 erupted, so too Jab-aliya refugee camp in Gaza became the launch pad of

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Issue no 74