Issue no 85

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Issue No : 85 10th March, 2014

Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia | 1


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Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia

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FEATURED STORY

ARTICLE

Hamas, the ‹outlawed› movement in Egypt

Hamas and Egypt: A fluctuating relationship over the years

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Hamas: Egyptian court decision to ban the movement serves occupation

Gov’t: ‹Weapons ship› is an Israeli fabrication to justify the blockade

Netanyahu: I did not commit to freeze settlement construction

Israel doubled illegal settlement construction in 2013

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CONTENTS

News of Palestine

Articles & Analyses

Reports

Hamas, the ‹outlawed› movement in Egypt 13

Hamas: Egyptian court decision to ban the movement serves occupation 4

Netanyahu: I did not commit to freeze settlement construction 5

Gov’t: ‹Weapons ship› is an Israeli fabrication to justify the blockade 6

Israeli court›s sentence against Sheikh Raed Salah 7

Several Palestinian prisoners› health situation deteriorates 8

On International Women’s Day, 21 women still held prisoner by ‘Israel’ 8

boycott costs Israel 100 million shekels in losses 9

Hamas and Egypt: A fluctuating relationship over the years 10

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News of Palestine

4/3/2014

Hamas movement said in a statement on Tuesday that the Egyptian court decision banning Hamas’s activities and closing its offices in Cairo was po-litical par excellence.Hamas declared its rejection of the decision, which, it said, was issued by the Egyptian court to enhance hostility to Palestinian resistance in ser-vice of political goals.The movement said that it had no offices or activi-ties in Egypt, charging that the decision reflected clear antagonism to resistance and only served the “Zionist occupation”.

Hamas: Egyptian court decision to ban the movement serves occupation

The decision, which Hamas described as null and void, fell in line with the media incitement campaign against the Palestinian people and their “brave resistance”.Hamas asked the Palestinian and Egyptian peo-ples in addition to Arabs, Muslims and free people of the world to stand up to such “oppressive de-cisions” that target the Palestinian resistance and came in harmony with the Zio-American strategy in the region.

Source: PIC

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Netanyahu: I did not commit to freeze settlement construction

7/3/2014

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he did not commit to freezing settlement construction during his meeting with US President Barack Obama and that he will reject any agree-ment with the Palestinians that does not meet Israel’s security needs.Israel Radio quoted Netanyahu on Friday, on his way back to Israel, telling Israeli journalists that he considered extending the negoti-ating period between the Israelis and Palestinians in US Secretary of State John Kerry’s framework agreement unlikely to make a dif-ference for the Israeli coalition government, as most of its mem-bers reject the idea of establishing a Palestinian state.He added that he will reject any agreement with the Palestinians that “does not meet Israel’s needs

and poses a threat to its security, even if there are attempts to im-pose such an agreement on Israel.”Netanyahu refused the possibility of unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank territories if the negotiations fail, stating that he does not prefer this possibility and that “the unilateral withdrawals (from south Lebanon and the Gaza Strip) have not justified them-selves nor did they provide security stability for Israel”.According to a report published on Monday by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, illegal settlement construction in the occupied West Bank has witnessed a dramatic rise, with more than double the number of settlements constructed in 2013 than the previous year. The Central Bureau of Statistics’ data finds that ever since the cur-rent minister of housing, Uri Ariel, took office, settlement opera-tions have been accelerated, with the construction of 2,534 new housing units launched in 2013, in comparison to 1,133 in 2012.The data indicates that the rate of settlement construction in 2013 was the highest yet from the time when records on settlement con-struction were first documented in 2000. In addition, 46 per cent of the new settlement units have been classified as “public buildings”, which means that they were set up and supported by the Ministry of Housing.

Source: Agencies

Israel doubled illegal settlement construction in 2013

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06/03/2014

The Palestinian government in Gaza has stated that the oc-cupation’s announcement of its interception of a ship in the Red Sea supposedly on its way to Gaza carrying ad-vanced Iranian weapons is an Israeli fabrication “to justify the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip”.An adviser to the cabinet, Ta-her Al-Nono, posted on his Facebook page that: “The Is-raeli announcement and the scenario about intercepting the weapons ship is a silly story-line in a failing film that is not

convincing at all; used as a means to justify and prolong the block-ade of Gaza, in correspondence with Egyptian attempts to elimi-nate Hamas.”He added, “Hamas and Gaza will rise above the results of these re-gional policies that impose block-ade and restrictions”, noting that preventing Algerian activist Jami-la Bu Hreid, along with a delega-tion of 100 other female activists, from entering Gaza would be a clear and blatant Egyptian state-ment that it is blockading Gaza. So far, the Egyptian government has already deported Irish Nobel

Laureate Mairead Maguire and American activist Medea Ben-jamin.Al-Nono stressed that “None of these actions will affect our wisdom in dealing with their outcome and our calmness in assessing the situation.”The Israeli occupation claims it intercepted an Iranian ship sailing in the Red Sea on the borders between Eritrea and Sudan, 1500 km away from oc-cupied Palestine.

Source: MEMO

Gov’t: ‹Weapons ship› is an Israeli fabrication to justify the blockade

line in a failing film that is not has already deported Irish Nobel

Palestinian Cultural

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4/3/2014

The Israeli Magistrate Court has sentenced on Tues-day Sheikh Ra’ed Salah, the leader of the Islamic movement in 1948 occupied Palestine, to 16 months including 8 months actual imprisonment and an 8 months suspended sentence.The Israeli court claimed to find the Sheikh guilty in November last year of incitement in what came to be known as Wadi Al-Jauz sermon.The Friday sermon was delivered on the 16th of February 2007 after Israel was charged with demol-ishing part of al-Aqsa Mosque ten days earlier.

Source: Ufree network

5/4/2013

Health condition of a group of Palestinian de-tainees has seriously deteriorated in Israeli Shatta prison, human rights sources revealed.According to Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS), the detainee Iyad Istiti, who went on hunger strike for nine days early February de-manding his transfer from Ashkelon prison, has been suffering lung and colon inflammation where he only received painkillers.The detainee Osman Said, from Jenin, has suf-fered health problems in his kidney, liver, lung and stomach, in addition to frequent bleeding. He was held in Ramle prison hospital; however he did not receive any medical treatment. Said confirmed that he got these health diseases after visiting an Israeli dentist who used non-sterile medical instruments while examining his teeth, which led to a virus transmission.Kamal Abu Waar, from Jenin, is suffering from severe pains in his liver and kidneys. He under-went a blood test without receiving any results. On the other hand, the detainee Mohammed Abed Rabbo suffered migraine and bleeding in addition to frequent syncope.Meanwhile, three more Palestinian prisoners have announced their open-ended hunger strike

Israeli court›s sentence against Sheikh Raed Salah

Several Palestinian prisoners› health situation deteriorates3 Palestinian prisoners announced their hunger strike

protesting their illegal administrative detention.One of them is Aref Hreibat, 28, who was arrested on 18 Aug 2013, and spent more than 6 years in the israe-li occupation jails throughout his life. The other two prisoners are; Ayman Tbeish, 33, who was arrested on 9 May 2013 and spent more than 11 years in the israeli occupation jails, and Ahmad AbuRas, 33, who was ar-rested in 2 Jan 2014 and spent more than 2 years in the occupation jails.In addition to those three prisoners, there are four more prisoners who have announced their open-ended hunger strike earlier to protest their detention condi-tions.

Source: Agencies

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On International Women’s Day, 21 women still held prisoner by ‘Israel’

8/3/2014

The Head of the Census Depart-ment at the Palestinian Ministry of Detainees, Abdul-Nasser Fer-wana, stated that, since 1967, Is-rael has kidnapped and imprisoned more than 15,000 women, includ-ing 1,000 since 2000, and that 21 women are currently held by Is-rael.Ferwana stated that the army has kidnapped mothers, wives, chil-dren and ailing women, subjecting them to torture and very difficult conditions. He said that 21 women are cur-rently held by Israel, and that the longest serving is Lina Jarbouni, who was taken prisoner twelve years ago, and was sentenced to 17 years imprisonment. Arresting and imprisoning women is part of Israel’s policy of target-ing Palestinians and subjecting them to extreme torture, abuse and harassment. “The arrests escalated after the beginning of the al-Aqsa Intifada, in late September 2000. This is a form of collective punishment and is in direct violation of Inter-national Law”, Ferwana said. “In many cases, women are kidnapped by the army to force wanted Pales-tinians to surrender, or to pressure detainees to provide information and to make up confessions.”The official further said that all detained women are subjected to physical and psychological hu-miliation. “They are also tortured, placed in solitary confinement for

days, and even months”, Fer-wana stated. “They are placed in dark rooms, and face harass-ment by prison guards.”Ferwana saluted all Palestinian women, all former and current female detainees, and said that, as the world marks Interna-tional Women’s Day, Palestin-ian women continue to play an essential role in the Palestinian struggle against the Israeli oc-cupation. “They are defending our dig-nity, the dignity and freedom of the Palestinian people. They continue to play an important role in the struggle”, Ferwana added. “They have been killed by the army, wounded, impris-oned and even forced into ex-ile, but they have never surren-dered, and continue to fight for the liberation of their people.” The official urged international and local groups, who are ac-tive in defending the rights of women, to play a more active role in defending the rights of Palestinian women, and to doc-ument both their suffering and their achievements, despite Is-

rael’s escalating violations.He stated, “As women around the globe mark International Women’s Day, we need to remember the suffering of Palestinian women, facing oppression and attacks by Israel’s army and settlers, in occupied Palestine, we need to act and pressure Israel into releasing all detained women, and stop targeting them.Palestinian women are an es-sential part of the struggle against the illegitimate Is-raeli occupation of Palestine. Many have helped lead the struggle, and continue to be a very important part of the revolution for liberation and independence. Hundreds have been killed by Israeli fire and shells, thou-sands were injured, and they continue to face aggression by the army and fanatic set-tlers, but they never surren-dered, and their steadfastness and courage inspire entire generations.“

Source: IMEMC

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7/3/2014

According to Israel’s Maariv newspaper, Israeli sources believe that the interna-tional boycott of Israeli settlement products has already caused Israel’s economy financial losses amounting to about 100 million shekels ($30 million), with the agricultural sector in the Jordan Valley suffering the most.One source described the boycott as a “constant war”, while others added that they expect Israel will face an increase in the number of boycott calls, especially if the peace talks with the Palestinians fail and the construction of settlements continues, noting that the European Union will also renew its decision to label settlement products if the negotiations fail, which would cause even more damages to the Israeli economy.The newspaper reported on Friday that the European calls to boycott settlement products would likely grow, while the European imports from Israel would shrink. The overall volume of settlement exports to Europe is estimated to be about 300 million shekels ($90 million), with most sales generated by SodaStream.

Source: MEMO

boycott costs Israel 100 million shekels in losses

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Hamas and Egypt: A fluctuating relationship over the years

8/3/2014

The recent ruling issued by a Cairo court on Tuesday (4-3-2014) to ban the activities of Hamas in Egypt has marked a new phase in the relationship between the movement and Egypt.This relationship, during pre-vious periods, has been de-pending on the orientations of the existing regime in Egypt since the era of the deposed president Hosni Mubarak, through the period of Presi-dent Mohamed Morsi, and to the phase of the military coup which saw the most serious decisions against the move-ment and the Palestinian resis-tance.The court ruling provides that all the activities of Hamas, its institutions and the organiza-tions that receive support from it will be temporarily banned in Egypt, pending determina-tion of a submitted criminal case.Hamas, together with mem-bers of the Muslim Brother-hood, have been accused of “prison break” during the Jan-uary 25 revolution. The move-ment has completely denied involvement in such actions.The relationship between Egypt and Hamas has started in the era of Mubarak. At that

period, the Egyptian intelligence was in charge of Hamas’s file, but the Egyptian officials’ con-cern began growing after the rise of Hamas and after it won parlia-mentary elections in 2006.Yet, the requirements of the Egyptian moves in the Palestin-ian arena had forced the regime in Egypt to avoid entering into any open conflict with the resis-tance movement, especially as Egypt was the sponsorship of the Palestinian reconciliation file.The relationship with Egypt has seen a positive and a remarkable development after the January 25 revolution and especially after President Morsi came to power.In that period, Hamas officials were greeted at the presiden-tial palace, developments were achieved in the reconciliation file, and the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip was lifted through the

opening of Rafah crossing.This relationship has quickly deteriorated after the coup staged by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and Hamas had to face many accusations.Those accusations included participating in prison break, espionage and killing Egyp-tians, and came in conjunction with a fierce media campaign to undermine the resistance and its elements, and proce-dures tightening the blockade on the Gaza Strip; including closure of the Rafah crossing and demolition of all the tun-nels.The Egyptian military even made matters worse by enter-ing the skies of Gaza, while the Ministry of Endowments in the coup government can-celled the Jerusalem Commit-tee of the Supreme Council for

Repoerts

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Islamic Affairs; the first offi-cial committee concerned with the Palestinian cause.According to observers, many motives lie behind the deci-sion to ban Hamas’s activities. They said the coup leaders want to introduce themselves to America and Israel as the most able to protect their in-terests, through contributing to the distortion of the resistance accusing it with terrorism.Hatem Azzam - deputy head of the Wasat Party and mem-ber of the coalition to support the legitimacy - said in a press statement: “After the decision to ban Hamas, the coup leader became a national hero for the Zionist entity.”He pointed out that Sisi has begun offering concessions to Israel to convince the U.S. ad-ministration that he will be the best president for Egypt serv-ing America’s interests.Meanwhile, political science professor at the Palestinian an-Najah University Professor Abdul Sattar Qassem believed that the court decision aims to incite the Egyptian street against the resistance. That would lead to tightening the Gaza siege, he said, and there-fore intensifying the suffering of the Palestinian people.Jordanian writer Hilmi Asmar stressed that Hamas has no headquarters or activities in Egypt, and stressed that this decision was a political one par excellence.Concerning the legal effect of the ruling, many legal experts emphasized the invalidity of

this verdict as it is contrary to all the Egyptian constitutions and the international treaties and conventions which consider that Hamas is a resistance move-ment exercising its natural right to resist the occupation, and that supporting it is the duty of the neighboring countries including Egypt.The experts pointed out that this systematic campaign comes as part of the war waged by the authorities of the coup against Hamas and the resistance move-ments that threaten the security of Israel, and aims to satisfy the American-Israeli lobby.Dr. Mustafa Abu al-Khair - legal expert and professor of interna-tional law - stated in a press state-ment that the court ruling which provides the closure of Hamas’s headquarters, which do not even exist, is intended to criminalize the movement and label it as a terrorist organization, in adop-tion of the American and Israeli viewpoint.For his part, political science professor at the Egyptian univer-sities Abdullah Ashaal urged in a press statement the Egyptian authorities not to implement the provision, and emphasized that its implementation would be a historic and strategic mistake.He said such a step would be against the Egyptian national se-curity, and therefore the interest of Egypt lies in supporting the resistance.Observers believe that the deci-sion has serious implications and will deepen the internal crisis in Palestine and the Palestinian di-vision.

The decision to ban the Hamas activities was met with many angry reactions in the Arab and Islamic world, while the inter-national organizations consid-ered that it is directly targeting the Palestinian resistance and offers an unlimited support for Israel in its crimes against the Palestinian people.Many also saw that this deci-sion is a prelude to the col-lapse of the reconciliation file in which Egypt plays the most prominent role, alongside Fa-tah and Hamas.The Islamist group said that the decision threatens national security and “represents an in-sult to all Egyptians, as it gives the wrong message that Egypt supports Israel”.It said: “Considering Hamas a threat to the Egyptian national security is a grave mistake at a time when everyone, including the former Mubarak regime, is aware that the group represents a defensive line for Egypt’s eastern borders against any Is-raeli invasion.”For his part, leader of the Tu-nisian Ennahda Movement Sheikh Rashid Ghannouchi slammed the decision and considered it unfair, while the head of the Palestinian Forum in Britain Ziad Aloul said it is a collective punishment that would harm the interests of the Palestinian people.Palestinian factions and per-sonalities expressed their an-ger toward this decision, and saw it as a collective pun-ishment and as targeting the Palestinian resistance, which

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forms the first line of defense for Egypt.The member of the political bureau of Hamas Mahmoud al-Zahar said on Tuesday that Egypt has lost its role in the Palestinian reconciliation pro-cess, after the new decision.For his part, First Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Council Dr. Ahmed Bahar called on the Republic of Egypt to retreat from the de-cision, because it “does not serve the Palestinian cause and targets the legitimate Palestin-ian resistance against the oc-

cupation.”The Change and Reform Bloc said that the Egyptian judiciary decision is a political decision par excellence.Other Palestinian factions called for holding a dialogue between the two parties to resolve out-standing problems.Hamas movement in a statement called on the Palestinian and the Egyptian peoples, the Arab and Islamic countries and the free people of the world to stage a popular movement, in order to put pressure on the Egyptian

authorities to retreat from the Cairo court’s decision and to prevent the criminalization of the resistance.The Palestinian MP and the Hamas leader Ismail al-Ashqar stressed that the ruling authori-ties in Egypt have offended Egypt and its history and started to play the role of the hostile party to the resistance approach.Meanwhile, some believe that Hamas has to drag the recon-ciliation file from Egypt and introduce another party in-stead.

Source: PIC

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Articles & Analyses

Hamas, the ‹outlawed› movement in Egypt

By: Helmi Al-Asmar

Hamas was not “officially” pres-ent in Egypt in order for it to be banned (it is present in the hearts of its honourable people), nor has it been “officially” present in any Arab country as far as I know. It is a “state of mind”, an idea and heart-beat, not just an organisation that is like any other Palestinian resistance group. Israel acknowledges it more than any other Arab country and carefully deals with it as a reality on the ground, more careful with it than any other Arab country.The Egyptian judicial order ban-ning Hamas required it to actu-ally be present in Egypt, but today we are living in a world of won-ders and oddities. The order bans the Islamic resistance movement Hamas from working within Egyp-tian borders, bans all its activities and stipulates the confiscation of its headquarters in Egypt (where are the headquarters?). This “ur-gent” lawsuit was filed by lawyer Samir Sabry against Interim Presi-dent Adly Mansour, former Prime Minister Hazem El-Beblawi, and Minister of the Interior Mohamed Ibrahim, urgently demanding them to consider Hamas a “terrorist or-ganisation”. The lawsuit pointed out that “Hamas was established as an Islamic resistance movement in Palestine, but transformed into a terrorist organisation after adopt-ing the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood.”

Of course, this “judicial” order has nothing to do with legal order, as it is obvi-ously a political issue and has been filed for internal reasons that have no value on an international level. According to Sabah Al-Mukhtar, president of the Arab Lawyers Association in the UK, the judiciary in Egypt has been politicised for some time now, and targeting Hamas, and the Muslim Brotherhood before them, confirms its politicisation.He also said that in addition to the order “being groundless, as it is a po-litical order that has no relation to the rule of the law, there has also been insufficient evidence for this order. Hamas is a political movement and the Egyptian governments have been dealing with it throughout its various stages and have made deals regard-ing the borders with the movement. In addition to this, Hamas won the 2006 elections and represents a fun-damental part of the Palestinian peo-ple. All of these indications confirm that it is a political movement and not a terrorist organisation.” Such facts cannot be written off by court orders.Furthermore, as surprised as we are at this order, we are even more sur-prised at Fatah’s position which jus-tified this order, considering the ban on Hamas a result of its intervention in Egyptian affairs and its siding with the Muslim Brotherhood, according to a Fatah spokesperson. This spokes-

person would have been better off distancing himself from this farce, as it does no good to the Egyptian government and only deepens the divisions between the Palestinians, which is being fuelled by some countries and governments who do not have these people’s best in-terests at heart.I will end by saying that this order is another offence going down in Egyptian history, that does not af-fect Hamas or its members, who consider the movement a fighting group that has fought the enemy and hurt it more than all the harm done by the Arab countries com-bined, including Egypt.When Hamas emerged from amongst the people, it did not need permission from Egypt’s judges or the Arab governments and its continued existence is a decision made by the Palestinian people and no one else. Only the people who embrace the move-ment can ban it.

This is a translation by MEMO of the Arabic text published by Ad Dustour newspaper on 5 March, 2014

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Issue no 85

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