This small sample of photos, selected from hundreds viewed by JPS, aims to convey a sense of the situation on the ground in the occupied territories during the quarter.
The Quarterly Update is a summary of bilateral, multilateral, regional, and international events affecting the Palestinians and the future of the peace process. More than 100 print, wire, television, and online sources providing U.S., Israeli, Arab, and international independent and government coverage of unfolding events are surveyed to compile the Quarterly Update. The most relevant sources are cited in JPS's Chronology section, which tracks events day by day.
On 15 September 2009, the private Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative known as the Geneva Initiative published 13 detailed annexes to the Geneva Accord, the draft framework for a final status agreement between Israelis and Palestinians unveiled in 2003. The Geneva Initiative was launched by former Israeli justice minister Yossi Beilin and then Palestinian Authority (PA) minister Yasir Abid Rabbuh in their private capacities in 2001. The original accord, while immediately rejected by then Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, was met with considerable international backing, but never formed the basis of any official negotiations.
This 112-page report by human rights NGO Amnesty International examines the main patterns and trends affecting Palestinians access to water in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, highlighting the extent to which Israels discriminatory policies affect their rights in this area. Parts of the report not reproduced here include detailed chapters on the water resources available in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories (OPT), the water crisis in Gaza, water-related expulsions of Palestinians, the effects of military attacks on water resources, and Palestinian mismanagement of water resources.
The following report, covering the period from September 2008 to August 2009 and submitted to the UN General Assembly, provides an overview of key aspects of the humanitarian and human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel, such as the Israeli blockade on Gaza, the firing of rockets against Israeli civilian areas, restrictions on freedom of movement in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and house demolitions and forced displacement in area C and East Jerusalem.
Topic:
Human Rights
Political Geography:
New York, Israel, Palestine, Gaza, and United Nations
While the main concern at the conference was electing a new leadership, other significant issues were discussed. Eighteen committees dealt with a wide range of topics, though meetings for the most part were sparsely attended, in many cases by no more than 10 or 15 delegates. Most sessions did not produce minutes, and significant decisions were left for the new leadership bodies to tackle later. No action was taken on corruption, for instance, despite the fact that it was a major concern entering the conference.
I will also continue to seek a just and lasting peace between Israel, Palestine, and the Arab world. We will continue to work on that issue. Yesterday, I had a constructive meeting with Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and President [Mahmud] Abbas. We have made some progress. Palestinians have strengthened their efforts on security. Israelis have facilitated greater freedom of movement for the Palestinians. As a result of these efforts on both sides, the economy in the West Bank has begun to grow. But more progress is needed. We continue to call on Palestinians to end incitement against Israel, and we continue to emphasize that America does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements.
This section lists articles and reviews of books relevant to Palestine and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Entries are classified under the following headings: Reference and General; History (through 1948) and Geography; Palestinian Politics and Society; Jerusalem; Israeli Politics, Society, and Zionism; Arab and Middle Eastern Politics; International Relations; Law; Military; Economy, Society, and Education; Literature, Arts, and Culture; Book Reviews; and Reports Received.
In 2000, President Clinton suggested the presence of an international force to oversee security following an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. This could be a NATO force, according to Thomas Friedman. His idea was revived in 2008 by President Obama's National Security Advisor James Jones. The suggestion of a NATO presence in the Middle East sparked a debate that up to now has revolved around a multitude of aspects: the pros and cons, the timing, the actors of such a NATO involvement, the possible preconditions and consequences, and has also triggered a debate in Germany on whether the conduct of patrols in the civility of Israel would be reconcilable with Germany's past.
The mining of diamonds, their trading mechanisms, their financial institutions, and, not least, their cultural expressions as luxury items have engaged the work of historians, economists, social scientists, and international relations experts. Based on previously unexamined historical documents found in archives in Belgium, England, Israel, the Netherlands, and the United States, this book is the first in English to tell the story of the formation of one of the world’s main strongholds of diamond production and trade in Palestine during the 1930s and 1940s. The history of the diamond-cutting industry, characterized by a long-standing Jewish presence, is discussed as a social history embedded in the international political economy of its times; the genesis of the industry in Palestine is placed on a broad continuum within the geographic and economic dislocations of Dutch, Belgian, and German diamond-cutting centers. In providing a micro-historical and interdisciplinary perspective, the story of the diamond industry in Mandate Palestine proposes a more nuanced picture of the uncritical approach to the strict boundaries of ethnic-based occupational communities. This book unravels the Middle-eastern pattern of state intervention in the empowerment of private capital and recasts this craft culture’s inseparability from international politics during a period of war and transformation of empire.
Topic:
War, Military Strategy, Natural Resources, Labor Issues, State Violence, and Mining
Political Geography:
Britain, United Kingdom, Europe, Middle East, and Palestine