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1102. C2. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, "Responding to Hamas Attacks from Gaza—Issues of Proportionality," March 2008 (excerpts)
- Publication Date:
- 06-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of Palestine Studies
- Institution:
- Institute for Palestine Studies
- Abstract:
- In response to criticisms that its military attacks on Gaza following Hamas Qassam rocket strikes in Sederot were causing unnecessary civilian casualties, Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) released a background paper in March, excerpted below, to clarify and justify the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) understanding of the principle of proportionality. This principle, along with the principle of intentionality, forms the jurisprudence of International Humanitarian Law. Citing a number of international legal scholars and Article 52(2) of the Additional Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions (1977), to which Israel is a signatory, the background paper attempts to redefine proportionality in order to legitimate attacks on targets that are not strictly military, placing the blame for any civilian deaths on Hamas for using civilians as "human shields." Although the IDF and the MFA have advanced this argument in response to international criticism about IDF strikes causing civilian deaths in Lebanon and the occupied Palestinian territories, this background paper represents an attempt to subordinate the need to cause as little harm to civilians as possible to Israel's stated need to preempt future attacks. The report is available online at www.mfa.gov.il.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy
- Political Geography:
- Israel, Palestine, Gaza, and Lebanon
1103. C3. Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), "'Family Matters': Using Family Members to Pressure Detainees under GSS Interrogation," Jerusalem, 13 April 2008 (excerpts)
- Publication Date:
- 06-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of Palestine Studies
- Institution:
- Institute for Palestine Studies
- Abstract:
- On 13 April, the Israeli human rights organization Public Committee against Torture in Israel (PCATI) released an extensive report, excerpted below, detailing the Israeli Security Agency's (Shin Bet) use of abuse and threats against detainees' family members in order to extract confessions. PCATI's report also reveals that despite the Israeli High Court ruling against the use of torture in 1999, both physical and psychological torture, assisted by physicians, continues. The report concludes with recommendations concerning both legislation and the supervision of the General Security Services (GSS) that will contribute to preventing the use of this deplorable method. One of six cases presented in the report is excerpted below. The full report is available online at www.stoptorture.org.il.
- Topic:
- Security
- Political Geography:
- Israel
1104. D4. Former Pres. Jimmy Carter, Notes on Meetings with Hamas Leaders and Syrian Pres. Bashar al-Asad, and Observations Regarding the Peace Process, Atlanta, GA, 22 April 2008 (excerpts)
- Publication Date:
- 06-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of Palestine Studies
- Institution:
- Institute for Palestine Studies
- Abstract:
- From 13-22 April, former U.S. Pres. Jimmy Carter held high-profile meetings with political and civil society leaders in Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. The trip occasioned heated debates in the U.S. and Israeli media, largely because Carter planned to meet with Hamas leaders, particularly Khalid Mishal, who agreed in the course of their Damascus talks to put Hamas's position on final status talks with Israel in writing, which Carter formally unveiled at the end of his trip (see excerpts). Initially, Carter intended to make the trip part of a larger delegation led by Nelson Mandela to raise awareness of the urgent need for Israeli-Arab peace and the interlocking nature of the region's conflicts. After Israel denied the group's request to meet with senior officials during the tour to protest the planned meeting with Mishal, the delegation canceled its trip, and Carter opted to go on his own on behalf of the Carter Center. Israel agreed to receive him but denied permission for him to travel to Gaza to meet with Hamas's Ismail Haniyeh. Carter instead met with Hamas officials in Ramallah, Cairo, and Damascus. Israeli PM Ehud Olmert, Vice PM and FM Tzipi Livni, and opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as Palestinian pres. Mahmud Abbas, turned down requests to meet. Carter was received 4/13 on behalf of Israel by Pres. Shimon Peres, who reprimanded him for having "caused many problems in recent years with your comments and meetings," and 4/14 on behalf of the PA by PM Salam Fayyad. During the trip, he alsomet with the PA's negotiation advisers, various Israeli MKs, Israeli and Palestinian student groups, U.S. security envoy Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, Syrian pres. Bashar al-Asad, Jordan's King Abdallah, and Saudi Arabia's King Abdallah. The State Dept. urged (4/10) Carter against meeting with Mishal, arguing that it went against U.S. policy of isolating Hamas. Carter responded that peace could not be achieved without including Hamas and stressed that he was traveling in a personal capacity. The following excerpts from Carter's "Trip Report" cover his meetings with Hamas leaders and President Asad, and his overall impressions regarding the status of the peace process. The full text is available online at www.cartercenter.org.
- Political Geography:
- Israel, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Cairo, and Damascus
1105. D6. Pres. George W. Bush, Address to the World Economic Forum, Sharm al-Shaykh, Egypt, 18 May 2008 (excerpts)
- Publication Date:
- 06-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of Palestine Studies
- Institution:
- Institute for Palestine Studies
- Abstract:
- Following his visit to Israel, George W. Bush made stops in Saudi Arabia and Egypt to visit with Saudi King Abdallah and Egyptian pres. Husni Mubarak and to attend the World Economic Forum. The full speech is available at www.whitehouse.gov.
- Topic:
- Economics
- Political Geography:
- Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt
1106. This section is part of a chronology begun in JPS 13, no. 3 (Spring 1984). Chronology dates reflect Eastern Standard Time (EST). For a more comprehensive overview of events related to the al-Aqsa intifada and of regional and international developments related to the peace process, see the Quarterly Update on Conflict and Diplomacy in this issue.
- Publication Date:
- 06-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of Palestine Studies
- Institution:
- Institute for Palestine Studies
- Abstract:
- 16 FEBRUARY: As the quarter opened, Israeli and Palestinian Authority (PA) negotiating teams created at the 11/07 Annapolis summit were holding regular meetings to discuss final status (see Quarterly Update for details). Israel, meanwhile, maintained an extremely tight seal on Gaza following Hamas's 1/23-2/3 breach of the Gaza-Egypt border (see Quarterly Update in JPS 147); no exports were permitted and only very limited humanitarian imports were allowed. During the day, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) makes a ground incursion into Rafah, clashing with local gunmen, killing 1 Hamas mbr., wounding 7 Palestinians (including 1 bystander). In the West Bank, the IDF conducts arrest raids, house searches in `Ayn al-Sultan refugee camp (r.c.) nr. Jericho, nr. Nablus. A Palestinian resistance mbr. wounded during a 2/11 IDF raid on Wadi al-Silqa dies. An Islamic Jihad mbr. dies of injuries sustained on 2/15 when a mortar he was preparing exploded prematurely. (WP 2/17; OCHA 2/20; PCHR 2/21; OCHA 3/4) 17 FEBRUARY: The IDF makes a predawn incursion into al-Shuka in s. Gaza, exchanging fire with local Palestinians, leaving 3 Hamas mbrs. and 1 mbr. of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRCs) dead, more than 20 Palestinians wounded (including "several" gunmen), 1 IDF soldier seriously injured; at least 80 Palestinians are detained for questioning before the IDF withdraws in the afternoon. The IDF also sends armored vehicles, bulldozers into areas n. of Bayt Lahiya in n. Gaza to level land. After a Palestinian rocket hits a home in Sederot later in the day (causing no injuries), Israeli PM Ehud Olmert gives the IDF a "free hand" to operate against militants in Gaza, stating that Gazans would "not be allowed to live normal lives" as long as Israelis are targeted by rocket fire. In the West Bank, the IDF conducts arrest raids, house searches in and around Tulkarm town and r.c., in Abu Dis nr. East Jerusalem and Nablus, nr. Jenin; fences off farmlands along a settler-only bypass road nr. Azun nr. Nablus to prevent Palestinian youths fr. stoning passing Jewish settler vehicles. Nr. Hebron, a Palestinian boy is injured when he accidentally triggers unexploded ordnance (UXO) left by the IDF. (NYT, WP 2/18; OCHA 2/20; PCHR 2/21) 18 FEBRUARY: The IDF sends armored vehicles, bulldozers into the Erez industrial zone to level land. Palestinians fire at least 15 rockets fr. Gaza into Israel, causing damage but no injuries. Egypt sends 334 Gazans it has rounded up since the border was reclosed on 2/3 back to the Strip through the Rafah crossing; another 150 Gazans are being held at a youth hostel in al-Arish. A Palestinian dies of injuries sustained during the 2/17 IDF raid on al-Shuka. (WT 2/19; OCHA 2/20; PCHR 2/21) 19 FEBRUARY: The IDF sends troops to Dayr al-Balah and Wadi al-Silqa in central (c.) Gaza, exchanging fire with local Palestinians, killing an 11-yr.-old Palestinian boy; fatally shoots a Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) mbr. planting a roadside bomb nr. the Gaza border fence. In n. Gaza, 3 Palestinians are injured when a rocket fired toward Israel lands inside the Strip. In the West Bank, the IDF conducts arrest raids, house searches nr. Tulkarm and in Hebron, Jenin (raiding a Hamas-affiliated charity, confiscating computers and files). (NYT, OCHA, WP 2/20; PCHR 2/21) 20 FEBRUARY: In the West Bank, the IDF sends undercover units in a car with Palestinian license plates into Tulkarm to raid a café, detaining 13 Palestinians, releasing most (including a 14-yr.-old boy) later in the day; conducts arrest raids, house searches in and around Hebron, nr. Nablus. Unidentified gunmen fire on the home of a senior Hamas mbr. in Gaza City, causing no injuries. (PCHR 2/21; OCHA 2/27; PCHR 2/28) 21 FEBRUARY: Gaza's Health Min. and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Rafah report that most of their ambulances have stopped running for lack of fuel. The IDF makes a late-night air strike on a group of Palestinians nr. the Gaza border e. of al-Maghazi, killing 2 armed Palestinians. In the West Bank, the IDF patrols in, fires on residential areas of Tulkarm, causing no injuries; conducts arrest raids, house searches nr. Bethlehem. (PCHR 2/21; OCHA 2/27; PCHR 2/28) 22 FEBRUARY: IDF troops on the Gaza border e. of Gaza City fire a missile at a group of armed Palestinians nr. the border, wounding 1 armed Palestinian, 1 Palestinian teenager outside his home nearby. In the West Bank, the IDF conducts arrest raids, house searches in `Ayn Bayt al-Ma' r.c. nr. Nablus (arresting senior Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine [PFLP] mbr. Majdi Mabruk) and nr. Bethlehem, Hebron, Tulkarm; breaks the windows of several Palestinian cars parked nr. a Hebron building occupied by Jewish settlers for the past yr., stating the vehicles posed a threat to the settlers; fires rubber-coated steel bullets, percussion grenades, tear gas at Palestinian, Israeli, international activists taking part in the weekly nonviolent demonstration against the separation wall in Bil`in nr. Ramallah (injuring 6). Hamas-affiliated imam Majid Barghouti (age 44), who was among 8 Palestinians arrested by the PA in a raid nr. Ramallah on 2/14, dies in PA General Intelligence custody in Ramallah of apparent torture; PA Pres. Mahmud Abbas puts West Bank security forces on high alert, orders an investigation. (JP 2/23; WP 2/24; al-Akhbar [Cairo] 2/26; OCHA 2/27; PCHR 2/28) 23 FEBRUARY: The IDF shells a suspected rocket-launching site nr. Bayt Hanun in n. Gaza, killing 3 Palestinian civilians sitting outside a house. Palestinians fire 4 mortars fr. Gaza into Israel, causing no damage or injuries. In the West Bank, the IDF patrols, conducts random ID checks in Anabta nr. Tulkarm; conducts arrest raids, house searches in and around Nablus, and in Hebron, Qabatya nr. Jenin. (NYT, WP 2/24; OCHA 2/27; PCHR 2/28) 24 FEBRUARY:The IDF makes an incursion into al-Shuka in s. Gaza, raiding and searching homes, clashing with local gunmen, killing 1 armed Palestinian, detaining 50 Palestinians for questioning, arresting 3 and transporting them to Israel. In the West Bank, the IDF conducts arrest raids, house searches in and around Bethlehem, Nablus, and nr. Jenin, Tulkarm. In Dayr al-Balah, Hamas-affiliated police raid the Prisoners' Association building, confiscate documents and furniture. (NYT 2/25; OCHA 2/27; PCHR 2/28) 25 FEBRUARY: Overnight, the IDF makes air strikes on suspected rocket-launching sites in n. Gaza, killing 2 Hamas mbrs., 1 unidentified armed Palestinian, 2 bystanders. Across Gaza, several thousand Palestinians take part in a nonviolent march to the border with Israel to urge an end to the siege; Hamas-affiliated security forces block demonstrators fr. reaching the Erez crossing. After the rally, some Palestinian youths gather at Erez and throw stones toward IDF positions, burn tires; the IDF fires on them, wounding 2. Palestinians fire 11 rockets fr. Gaza into Israel, seriously injuring a 10-yr.-old Israeli boy in Sederot. In the West Bank, the IDF sends undercover units into Nablus in a truck with Palestinian license plates, raiding a shop, firing on those inside wounding 2 Palestinians, arresting 6 (including a 16-yr.-old boy); conducts rare arrest raids, house searches in Jericho. (IFM, JP, NYT 2/25; NYT, WT 2/26; OCHA 2/27; PCHR 2/28) 26 FEBRUARY: Overnight, the IDF sends troops into Hebron to search the offices of several schools, youth centers, and orphanages (housing some 1,000 children) owned by the Islamic Charitable Association (ICA), issuing an order declaring the ICA an illegal organization affiliated with Hamas, demanding that the buildings be vacated and turned over to the IDF for a 3-yr. period by 4/8, and stating that anyone remaining in the buildings will be considered to be admitting membership in Hamas and thereby subject to 5-yr. imprisonment; soldiers immediately confiscate 2 buses, a car, computers, appliances, furniture, documents; the ICA, a major philanthropic group founded in 1962 that runs many schools, nurseries, bakeries, and other services for the poor across the West Bank, denies Hamas affiliation. During the day, the IDF conducts arrest raids, house searches in and around Jenin town and r.c., Ramallah. In East Jerusalem, the IDF demolishes a Palestinian home. Meanwhile, in s. Gaza, the IDF sends troops into al-Qarara, firing on residential areas, killing 1 Palestinian civilian. (OCHA, WP 2/27; PCHR 2/28; al-Ahram Weekly [Cairo] 4/18)
- Topic:
- Humanitarian Aid
- Political Geography:
- Israel, Palestine, Gaza, and Egypt
1107. The Williamsburg Conference
- Publication Date:
- 04-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Asia Society
- Abstract:
- Coming in the midst of a very heated U.S. presidential election campaign, where the U.S. is faced with numerous foreign policy challenges in the Asia-Pacific region and at a critical juncture in Islam's relationship with the rest of the world, the Asia Society convened over 50 Asian and American leaders at a very opportune time in Bali, Indonesia from April 3-6, 2008. Delegates discussed the characteristics of Islam in Asian countries with multiethnic or multireligious populations like India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. They also suggested ways of tackling radicalism and extremism by alleviating poverty, improving education, and reforming prisons and rehabilitation Centres, to name a few. During the second half of the conference, delegates engaged in a conversation about the evolving U.S. role in Asia. Contemporary affairs like the protests in Myanmar and Tibet, engagement with North Korea, and the impact of the Iraq war on U.S. foreign policy towards Asia were analyzed in light of the coming presidential election. Asian leaders were invited to give advice to the new U.S. president. Finally, young leaders from the Asia Pacific region shared their thoughts on what kinds of leadership and values are needed in the future.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, International Trade and Finance, Islam, Post Colonialism, and Terrorism
- Political Geography:
- United States, South Asia, Indonesia, India, Israel, Asia, and Southeast Asia
1108. Palestinian Refugee Compensation and Israeli Counterclaims for Jewish Property in Arab Countries
- Author:
- Michael R. Fischbach
- Publication Date:
- 10-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of Palestine Studies
- Institution:
- Institute for Palestine Studies
- Abstract:
- Unlike its demands for Holocaust reparations, Israel's compensation claims for properties that Jews left behind in the Arab world have aimed not to provide individual financial reparations, but rather to counter and offset Palestinian refugees' claims for restitution and the right of return. In U.S.-sponsored negotiations in 2000, Israel announced it would drop its counterclaim policy and agreed with the Palestinians that individual compensation would be paid out to all sides from an international fund. More recently, however, a new counterclaim strategy has emerged, based not on financial reparations, but rather on an argument that a fair population and property exchange occurred in 1948. By pursuing this strategy, Israel and international Jewish organizations risk exacerbating tensions between European Jews who have received Holocaust reparations, and Arab Jews angry that their claims are held hostage to diplomatic expediency.
- Political Geography:
- United States, Europe, Israel, and Arabia
1109. Secrets and Lies: The Persecution of Muhammad Salah (Part 2)
- Author:
- Michael E. Deutsch and Erica Thompson
- Publication Date:
- 10-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of Palestine Studies
- Institution:
- Institute for Palestine Studies
- Abstract:
- Secrets and Lies: The Persecution of Muhammad Salah (Part 2)Michael E. Deutsch and Erica ThompsonJournal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 38, no. 1 (Autumn 2008), p. 25Special FeatureAmong the handful of high-profile terrorism cases in which the U.S. government has failed to win convictions in jury trials, that of Muhammad Salah stands out. Like the cases against Sami Al-Arian, Abdelhaleem Ashqar, and the Holy Land Foundation, the case against Salah was built on the criminalization of political support for the Palestinian resistance. But while the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is at the core of all four cases, Salah's, unlike the others, was primarily about Israel: the case was manufactured in Israel, the evidence on which it was based was generated in Israel, and its prosecution depended on close U.S.-Israeli cooperation at every turn.
- Topic:
- Government
- Political Geography:
- Israel
1110. Postscript to Oslo: The Mystery of Norway's Missing Files
- Author:
- Hilde Henriksen Waage
- Publication Date:
- 10-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of Palestine Studies
- Institution:
- Institute for Palestine Studies
- Abstract:
- THIS SEPTEMBER marks the fifteenth anniversary of the signing of the Oslo accord that was expected to bring peace to the Middle East. It is doubtful that the date will be widely celebrated. By now it is clear that the 13 September 1993 Declaration of Principles, though it resulted in the creation of a Palestinian self-governing authority, failed to lead to peace. For the Palestinians, it resulted in the parceling of the West Bank, the doubling of Israeli settlers, the construction of a crippling separation wall, a draconian closure regime, and an unprecedented separation between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Far from being celebrated, Oslo in many quarters in the occupied territories and the Palestinian diaspora is at best desperately clung to as a last-ditch legal basis for some form of a Palestinian state, and at worst vilified as the beginning of the end of Palestinian hopes for meaningful sovereignty.
- Topic:
- Sovereignty
- Political Geography:
- Middle East, Israel, Palestine, Gaza, and Oslo