Palestine

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HOW ZIONISM TRIED TO RECRUIT NAZI AID AGAINST PALESTINE
Jun 29, 2023 , 12:42 p.m.


Some find it hard to believe how Jews in Palestine could ask the Nazis for help to break out of British control in that territory (Photo: File)

Recently declassified files from the Israeli state reveal how one of its militias tried to enlist the help of Nazi Germany against the British Mandate. This Zionist body known as Lehi operated in Palestine before the formation of Israel. The British Mandate for Palestine was established after World War I and as part of the partition of the Ottoman Empire.

The leaked documents include the confessions of a member of Lehi, a splinter group of the Irgun militant organization, who read: "We will contact any military power that is willing to help with the establishment of the kingdom of Israel, even if it is Germany. If Germany He agrees to help us fight enemy number one, the British, we will join him. He is not an enemy of the Jews in Israel," reviews The Cradle of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz .

The first militant Zionist organizations began to establish themselves in the 1930s after years of massive Jewish immigration to Palestine. Later these groups, such as the Irgun and the Haganah, would make up the majority of the Israeli army. Among the Irgun terrorist attacks, the one committed against the King David Hotel , headquarters of the Military Command of the British Mandate for Palestine and the Criminal Investigation Division of the British, stands out. The balance was 92 deaths.

The south wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem was occupied to house the central institutions of the British regime, including the army headquarters and civilian government. Machine gun nests were built at numerous points. Soldiers, policemen and detectives kept a close and constant watch on the building that housed the supreme English rulers of the Mandate.

This process began with the Balfour Declaration , whose purpose was to support the establishment of a "national home" for the Jewish people in the Palestine region. But then tensions between the Zionists and the British escalated when the authorities in charge began to limit the flow of Jewish settlers.

Throughout the 1940s, until the Nakba of 1948, an event that marks the expulsion of nearly a million Palestinians from their territory to found the State of Israel, Zionist militias waged an intense terrorist campaign against British and indigenous citizens. in Palestine, when the Mandate was already undertaking a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian population.

Some are told to believe how the Jews in Palestine were able to ask the Nazis for help to break out of British control in that territory. This finding demolishes the longstanding Israeli narrative that the Palestinians collaborated with Nazi Germany.

https://misionverdad.com/como-el-sionis ... -palestina

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Israel's Large-Scale Military Operation in Jenin Leaves 8 Dead


Wounded Palestinian enters a hospital, July 3, 2023. | Photo: Twitter/ @enhawarnews

Published 3 July 2023 (2 hours 21 minutes ago)

As of Monday morning, the occupation forces had arrested some 20 Palestinians as part of their raids, centered on the refugee camp.

On Monday, the Israeli occupation forces launched a large-scale military strike early on the city of Jenin. So far, this offensive has left eight Palestinians dead and fifty wounded.

Dozens of armored vehicles backed by drones and helicopters stormed the city and the refugee camp, said Palestinian eyewitnesses, adding that airstrikes were carried out during the exchange of fire between Palestinian militants and Israeli soldiers.

Palestinian eyewitnesses said Israeli forces entered Jenin shortly after the airstrikes began, and armed clashes erupted between the soldiers and the Palestinian gunmen.

The attack on the city of Jenin is being carried out by over 1,000 Israeli soldiers, including combat troops and intelligence agents. As of Monday morning, the occupation forces had arrested some 20 Palestinians as part of their raids, centered on the refugee camp.


Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who held a meeting with Israeli security leaders on Sunday night, has been updated as the operation continued.

On Sunday, the Palestinian side slammed Netanyahu for his policy of motivating Israeli settlers to commit more crimes against the Palestinians.

"Netanyahu's boast of killing large numbers of Palestinians since the formation of his government motivates settlers to commit more of their crimes against our people," said the Palestinian Foreign Ministry.

Since January, over 175 Palestinians, including children and women, were killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers, according to official figures.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Isr ... -0006.html

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Zionist Myths: Israeli Invention of National Symbols
JULY 1, 2023


Israeli far-right politician May Golan at a Flag March in Jerusalem, in 2021. Photo: Adi Hodefi/Wikimedia Commons.

By Jamal Kanj – Jun 27, 2023

The absence of an authentic Israeli national memory made it crucial for political Zionism to construct a convoluted web of deception by appropriating national symbols.

If a random group of highly educated individuals were asked who established the city of Jerusalem, some might plead ignorance, but most would likely answer King David. After all, it’s ostensibly known as the City of David.

This example demonstrates how unchallenged legends, originating from non-historical documents like religious texts, can shape the sophistical historical narratives. This article will delve into major Zionist wonted myths that are accepted at face value in the West.

The organic development of nations relies on several factors: mainly national symbols that form an important part of the national memory, distinct cultural heritage, belonging, territory, values, customs, traditions, language, and social behaviors. These elements evolve gradually and are transmitted over generations, forming the foundation of nationhood.

However, the development of the State of Israel followed an unconventional path. The political Zionist movement took a reverse approach by occupying the territory, first, bypassing the natural process of generational development and appropriating various aspects of the local surface culture, including national symbols.

Israeli leaders often assert, for instance, that Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital for 3000 years. In the West, the veracity of such a claim is not questioned, either out of ignorance, religious accommodation, or outright fear of being accused of “antisemitism” for challenging Zionist narratives. This organized intimidation is the primary reason why critical thinking in the West often fails to challenge Israeli accounts.

As a result, only a few are aware that the city of Jerusalem served as the capital of the original Palestinians for over 6000 years, long before it was occupied by Jewish tribes from Mesopotamia. Historical and archaeological evidence points to the Phoenician Canaanites, the ancestors of today’s Palestinians, as the first human settlement in Jerusalem in the 4th millennium BCE. The Jebusites, a Canaanite tribe, referred to the small town on the hill as “Urushalim.” The name is a portmanteau term blending the words “uru,” meaning “founded by,” and “Shalem,” the Phoenician Canaanite god of dusk, hence, “Urushalim.”

Consequently, the most well-known Israeli national symbol, Jerusalem, was not the City of David. In fact, it was built 3000 years before David’s birth, and was dedicated to the Canaanite god of dusk, Shalem, not Avraham’s Elohim. Israel and Zionism adopted a variation from the Canaanite lexicon, calling the city “Yerushaláyim,” implying a Hebrew association with the original name.

The Zionist appropriation of national symbols is so pervasive that I, too, once fell for this misconception, mistakenly believing that “Urushalim” had a Hebrew origin. I recall hearing a Christian priest in Lebanon refer to Jerusalem as “Urushalim,” instead of its Arabic name, “Al Quds.” At the time, I failed to realize that the priest was using the original Canaanite name, reminding us that modern Zionists appropriated the name “Urushalim” when the city was occupied in the 10th century BC and again in the 20th century AD.

In addition to the historically forged claim of being the “eternal capital,” another iconic national symbol that has been falsely portrayed as exclusively “Jewish” is the six-pointed star in the Israeli flag. Contrary to popular belief, the hexagram in the Israeli flag is not solely a Jewish symbol. Prior to its association with Judaism in 17th-century Eastern Europe, the earliest Jewish usage of the symbol was inherited from medieval Arabic literature by Kabbalists for use in talismanic protective amulets.

The symbol was also used in Christian churches as a decorative motif many centuries before its first known use in a Jewish synagogue. Israeli historian Shlomo Sand’s book, “The Invention of The Land of Israel,” explains that the Star of David is not an ancient Jewish symbol but has its origins in the Indian subcontinent, where it was extensively used by various religious and military cultures.

The two equilateral triangles can still be found today in the stunningly intricate mother-of-pearl inlay work featuring hexagrams as part of mosaic designs on walnut chairs, tables, and wooden boxes in present-day Syria. This exquisite art form dates back thousands of years in the city of Damascus, the world’s oldest continuously inhabited city.

Another symbol that lacks inherent religious significance in history is the so-called “Western Wall.” The wall is not an internal structure and cannot be part of a building. Rather, it is an exterior embankment supporting higher ground (Haram el Sharif/ Noble Sanctuary) and an extension of the defensive exterior wall surrounding the Old City, which predates the Jewish presence in the city. The approximately 2.5-mile-long and 40-foot-high fortification wall was reconstructed between 1537 and 1541 under Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I.

Jews who assimilated within Palestinian culture but maintained their religious beliefs lived in Palestine, including Jerusalem, alongside their Muslim and Christian compatriots for centuries. Throughout history, before the advent of the Western Christian Messianic movement and the birth of political Zionism, there are no historical records indicating that the Western fortification wall was used as a prayer site. The west side of the wall only became a religious attraction in the seventeenth century, driven by Christian religious devotees who wanted to hasten the return of the Messiah.

In an attempt to validate their delusional fantasies, successive Israeli governments have conducted extensive excavations beneath the Noble Sanctuary for over sixty years. However, they have yet to produce any archeological evidence pointing to a religious Jewish site.

In more recent history, it is little-known that the melody of the Israeli national anthem, “Hatikvah,” originally belonged to the World Zionist movement’s anthem and was adapted from the famous tune “Vltava” (My Homeland) by Czech composer Bedřich Smetana.

The absence of an authentic Israeli national memory made it crucial for political Zionism to construct a convoluted web of deception by appropriating national symbols and imbuing alternative facts that have become ingrained in the Western national discourse. By inculcating false narratives, legends, and fables into the mainstream, a new reality is shaped, or as Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels famously said, “A lie told once remains a lie, but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.”

The latter could possibly explain the mutual adulation between Donald Trump, and his Hebrew version, Benjamin Netanyahu.

https://orinocotribune.com/zionist-myth ... l-symbols/

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Jenin Fury Carving New Rules of Engagement, Deterrence in West Bank
JULY 4, 2023



By Ali Halawi – Jul 3, 2023

The Battle of the Fury of Jenin has underlined the fragility of Israeli forces, specifically its soldiers and command, who are unable to achieve their government’s security objectives.

On June 20, Palestinian Resistance fighters led by the Al-Quds Brigades – Jenin Battalion executed thoroughly planned ambushes on Israeli forces who were raiding the camp, thwarting their mission and dealing several casualties on the intruding troops.

The Israeli response marked the first use of Israeli air force capabilities in the West Bank since the second Intifada, as the army sent out Apache helicopters to secure the escape of besieged forces in the camp who came under the heavy fire of fighters.

Monday’s military campaign on Jenin and the Jenin refugee camp comes as the Israeli occupation forces attempt to reconstruct its military capabilities in the occupied West Bank, which has experienced a substantial surge in the Resistance’s organization, popularity, and capabilities.

The Battle of the Fury of Jenin will test the Resistance’s ability to shift the deterrence equation in their favor against the floundering Israeli ground troops and command as a journey similar to that of the freed Gaza Strip begins to materialize.

Attack drones lead the aggression
In what the Israelis dubbed “Operation Garden and Home” the Israeli forces have sent out hundreds of armored vehicles carrying ground troops as well as bulldozers in their invasion of Jenin.

However, the occupation forces’ experience in June necessitated that strike and surveillance drones be heavily deployed in its aggression on the northern West Bank city and its refugee camp. This shows that Israeli ground troops are no longer able, by themselves, to establish supremacy in Jenin which has been at the forefront of the phenomenon of Resistance in the West Bank.

After reports showed that Netanyahu and Galant greenlit a major campaign in the West Bank on Sunday night. Locals reported on the presence of a large number of drones and quadcopters in Jenin and its vicinity, as Israeli forces collected information and intel before launching their attack.

At around 10:20 AM on Sunday night, local sources in Jenin reported heavy activity of Israeli drones over the city, as fear grew over the possibility of a large campaign grew. At 1:13 AM on Monday, the first explosion was reported in the city followed by a series of explosions signaling armored vehicles which invaded Jenin a few minutes later. Since then, Resistance fighters have continued to confront intruding forces, executing multiple ambushes that targeted Israeli convoys across the camp.

Resistance fighters from the Al-Quds Brigades, Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, and the Al-Qassam Brigades separately announced they were able to directly target Israeli forces, as reports and photo evidence showed a Black Hawk helicopter transferring IOF casualties from the battlefield.

Hyper-dependency on Technology
A noticeable trend can be highlighted when examining the Israeli tactics as it seeks to secure its security goals in Palestine.

That is Israel’s hyper-dependency on technology after attempts to put an end to the progress of the Resistance capabilities led to successive Israeli failures, highlighted by the constant growth of the Resistance, whether as an idea that Palestinians relate to and support or simply on the military level.

“Israel” has been able to achieve a bulk of its security goals in the West Bank since the second Intifada due to a number of factors which include active collaboration with parties inside the West Bank through the so-called security coordination and ill-preparedness of Resistance groups.

The diligent work undertaken by Palestinian factions headed by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, who have created the necessary infrastructure and commands, capitalizing on the sentiments of Palestinian youth who seek to free themselves from the bitterness of a reality which they were born into, has led to the expansion of the Resistance’s capabilities and operations in the occupied territories.

Parallels could be drawn between Israeli tactics in Gaza and those used in the West Bank today.

Since January 2009, Israeli forces have not been successful in invading Gaza Strip with ground units after a campaign was launched by the government to end the “indiscriminate” rocket fire from the Strip towards occupied territories. Instead “Israel” has depended heavily on the use of air raids and precise drone strikes in its aggression on the Strip.

This scenario was largely due to heavy losses suffered in the ranks of the elite Golani Brigade when Israeli occupation attempted a ground invasion on the Strip, a possibility which could repeat itself as the Resistance has only gained more expertise and technologies which would allow it to recreate such an event if necessary.

The Israeli military and political command are well aware of the situation, thus they have depended heavily on air raids and strikes in every battle with the Palestinian Resistance in Gaza since then.

Its bombing campaigns in Gaza have proven next to be useless in the long run, as the occupation has been unable to halt the progression of the Resistance’s military capabilities nor has it been able to severely damage its intricate and well-developed infrastructure, two failed objectives that were clearly highlighted in the aftermath of the May 2021 battle of Seif Al-Quds.

This phenomenon begs further examination of the Israeli Forces structure, the morale of its troops, as well as the Zionist social fabric as a whole, which will be studied in upcoming reports.

The possibility of a multi-front war prevents genocide
In its military campaign on Jenin, “Israel” has been forced to act in accordance to red lines which the Axis of Resistance over the past 20 years has cemented in their deterrence against the IOF.

In 2002, the IOF embarked on a large-scale attack on the Jenin refugee camp, as it massacred residents of the city. The repetition of such a scenario in which the Israeli forces indiscriminately slaughter Palestinians in the West Bank will come at a high price for “Israel.” Wide condemnations and UN resolutions have historically failed to halt the massacring of the land’s indigenous people by an occupying force, as demonstrated in 2002.

Today, such an endeavor would open up a Pandora’s Box for the Israeli command which does not want to and cannot deal with an event in which rockets bombard its positions from Syria, Gaza, and Lebanon, especially amid the ongoing escalation in the north and the boiling internal political and social situation within the colonial entity.

Its leadership is well aware of this situation, which is why “Israel” limits its operations to small-scale and quick attacks, as it seeks to isolate Resistance factions and limit their cooperation in the field.

A destructive bombing of the camp, which is being speculated as this piece is being written, means that the occupation has been unable to reach its security goals in this operation and has chosen to commit another atrocity marking another failure of its security and military strategies.

https://orinocotribune.com/jenin-fury-c ... west-bank/

Why Israel Is Afraid of Hezbollah
JULY 4, 2023


U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, en route to the Golan Heights in March 2019 for an Israeli briefing on the military situation in the region. Photo: Matty Stern/U.S. Embassy Jerusalem.

By As`ad AbuKhalil – Jun 30, 2023

The emergence of a disciplined resistance movement in Lebanon not only brought military defeat to Israel and the rise of Hezbollah, it heralded a new era of Arab assertiveness.

Israel is in trouble. Its military-strategic doctrine — predicated on the use of massive force to subjugate the Arab population — has resulted in successive massacres intended to instill fear in the hearts of all Arabs. In his book The Revolt, former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin admitted this brutal practice was official Zionist policy.

But times have changed, and Israel does not scare Arabs anymore.

The 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War, also known as the July war in Lebanon, was the watershed, as were the recent successive Israeli wars in Gaza. The perception of the Israeli army has been altered beyond repair.

Gone are the days when Arabs accepted defeat in a matter of hours at the hand of the Israeli army. Also gone are the days when Arab populations harbored little faith in Arab fighters. Scenes of those fighters with their hands over their heads in surrender belong to the 1967-era of the Six Day War, not today.

In July 2006, Arab fighters reversed the trend by instilling fear, not only in the hearts of Israeli soldiers, but also in the hearts of Israelis.

A Hezbollah cross-border raid on July 12, 2006, left three IDF soldiers dead, with two other Israeli soldiers taken by Hezbollah to Lebanon. Five more were killed in Lebanon, in a failed rescue attempt. The IDF launched a ground invasion of Southern Lebanon, imposing an air and naval blockade, while Hezbollah continued to launch rockets into northern Israel and engage the IDF in guerrilla warfare.

After a U.N. Security Council resolution backed by both Israeli and Lebanese governments in August, the conflict ended with the Lebanese army deployed in Southern Lebanon, the blockade lifted, and by October 2006, most Israeli troops had withdrawn from the country.

Not Spooked by PLO
Israel was not frightened of Lebanon when the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) had its base there after the PLO and its Fatah brigade arrived in 1971 following expulsion from Jordan.

The PLO was a menace to Israel, but did not pose a threat. Its leader, Yasser Arafat, never developed a strategy to confront Israel and his military commanders were woefully unsuccessful in devising a strategy of resistance. Arafat’s mind was more on diplomacy and U.N. forums.

It has been repeatedly predicted that Israel would launch another war after the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War, seeking revenge for its humiliating defeat in the 34-day conflict.

It was said there was no way Israel could afford to let the results of the war stand. But it hasn’t happened.

In my youth in Lebanon, Arabs were genuinely scared of Israel. They were misled to believe the Israeli army was invincible and that resisting the Israeli occupation forces was tantamount to suicide. Two factors contributed to this myth among the Arabs.

Arab regimes promoted the notion that Israel’s army and intelligence organizations were uniquely powerful and omnipresent, and that no reasonable person would contemplate defying them or trying to defeat them. Arab governments wanted their populations to fear Israel to minimize the potential of escalation or confrontation with the Israeli army.

Arab rulers’ first priority was — and remains — the stability of their regimes. I remember, growing up, how Arab media would publish long articles on the successes and sophistication of Israeli intelligence, or about the Israeli army’s advanced weaponry. They wanted Arabs to give up on the belief in resistance.

Political and academic literature also pushed this notion of Israel’s invincibility.


Sadik Al-Azm in 2006. (Bgadsby, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

Sadiq Al-Azm’s Self Criticism After the Defeat, published after the 1967 War, gave the impression that civilizational, scientific and cultural requirements for victory against Israel were impossible to meet, for now.

The third Arab–Israeli War was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states, primarily Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, from June 5 to 10, 1967.

Al-Azm argued a broad and significant transformation of Arab society at all levels was required before even contemplating confronting the Israeli military. Al-Azm and his ilk refused to regard the defeat as purely a military one, which it was, first and foremost.

Those intellectuals exaggerated the historical significance of the defeat. After all, Germany had suffered a devastating defeat in World War I but rose again by the 1930s.

PLO Ineptitude & Lebanese Volunteers
The PLO in Lebanon, under the clownish leadership of Arafat, could be described as schizophrenic. Arafat would wildly exaggerate the PLO’s capabilities and engage in triumphalism over Israel and its army.

However, the PLO’s actual performance in the face of Israel’s military was largely abysmal. The PLO and its Lebanese allies benefited from support of many Arab and international countries, especially during the Cold War. Yet these resources were not properly used and the PLO lacked a strategic acumen dealing with Israeli’s military threat in Lebanon.

The organization would preach that it was feasible to confront and even defeat the Israeli occupation army, but this message contrasted deeply with the reality of the PLO’s own performance. It fell well below the high expectations Arafat and his comrades had planted in the minds of Arabs. This weakened support for the Palestinian cause among the local population prior to the Israelis’ 1982 invasion.

Invasion Galvanized Resistance


Hezbollah parade following the end of Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon, May 2000. (Khamenei.ir, Wikimedia Commons,CC BY 4.0)

All that changed after 1982. At a time of defeatism, demoralization and political depression, when it seemed the Israeli occupation had succeeded in extinguishing the flame of resistance among Lebanese and Palestinians in Lebanon, Lebanese volunteers rose to chart a new course of battle against Israeli occupation.

Many of these volunteers previously trained within the PLO. The Lebanese volunteers began to slowly escalate national resistance, a process that ultimately led to a humiliating withdraw of Israeli forces from Lebanese territory in 2000.

In May that year, Israel pulled back from Southern Lebanon to the international border line in compliance with U.N. Security Council Resolution 425.

In the ranks were communists, Syrian nationalists and Islamists — what later became Hezbollah, and the Amal movement. Hezbollah established a pattern of military confrontation with Israel that broke with all established norms since the 1948 Israel-Arab War, which followed Israel’s declaration of independence.

It was a combination of factors that brought Hezbollah to a level of military skill and sophistication. I don’t subscribe to the notion that it was Iranian military and financial support that shaped the effectiveness of Hezbollah.

The PLO received military and financial support from an array of countries, yet that did not translate to an effective military force. Hezbollah managed to utilize similar resources in a very effective way and learned from the experiences of the PLO by not resorting to bombastic statements, instead working in total secrecy. It won and preserved public support for its operations against the Israeli army.

The Hezbollah leadership contrasted sharply with that of the PLO. The PLO was often in conflict. Even within the Fatah movement of Arafat, there was constant bickering and infighting and even clashes among the various factions.

Hezbollah established a unified command and assigned individuals the task of implementing the strategy of the leadership. Their military communiques reported developments on the ground as accurately as possible. That created credibility for the movement locally, something the PLO never enjoyed.

Israel Lobbies Against Formidable Threat


Sign erected after the 2006 Israel–Hezbollah War in Southern Lebanon displays rockets and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. (Eternalsleeper, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

Hezbollah was able to forge a formidable military force. It combined complete secrecy in military operations, an ability to read and predict Israeli army behavior, the utilization of advanced military devices and arms and the pioneering use of psychological warfare against Israel —something Arab armies never considered or used.

The organization was able to train its fighters to scare Israeli soldiers, instead of being conditioned to fear them. The fact that the Israeli army has now formed a special military unit to deal with the possibility of a Hezbollah encroachment into Galilee indicates a level of Arab military preparedness unknown among all Arab armies since 1948.

It is for this reason that Israel lobbies against Hezbollah worldwide and insists, typically, on classifying it as a terrorist organization. Any Arab forces who resist Israeli occupation are considered terrorist in the eyes of the West and Israel. There are Arab organizations, unfortunately and disturbingly, that have harmed civilians. But that pales in comparison with the record of Israel in murdering civilians, and on a large scale. Of course, this should not excuse the harming of civilians by any side.

Israeli remains in a conundrum. On the one hand, it wants to start a war to teach Hezbollah a lesson and revive its past military prestige. But it knows victory is far from being guaranteed. For that reason, Israel will continue to find reasons to lobby the West to disarm its opponents, chiefly in Palestine and Lebanon.

https://orinocotribune.com/why-israel-i ... hezbollah/

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From Ghassan Kanafani to Walid Daqqah: Assassination, Imperialism, Resistance and Revolution
JULY 10, 2023



By Samidoun – Jul 8, 2023

On the 51st anniversary of the assassination of Palestinian revolutionary leader, intellectual, writer and artist, Ghassan Kanafani, and his niece Lamis Najem, in Beirut by a Mossad car bomb in 1972, Kanafani’s revolutionary direction, critical eye and focus on the popular forces and working class of Palestine are perhaps more relevant today than they have ever been.

We mark this anniversary while the resistance in Jenin refugee camp turned back the occupier’s destructive war machine, while the sons and daughters of the Palestinian popular classes organize, fight and resist in the villages camps and prisons of occupied Palestine, in the refugee camps surrounding the occupied land, and everywhere in exile and diaspora. And on this occasion, it is clear just why the Zionist regime targeted him — and the politics he represented — for assassination.

Ghassan Kanafani was targeted for assassination as part of a comprehensive policy of the Zionist regime to eliminate the leaders, spokespeople and revolutionary voices of the Palestinian liberation movement, a policy that continues to the present day. Kanafani’s assassination was followed shortly by that of Mahmoud Hamshari, Basil Kubaisi, Wael Zuaiter, Kamal ‘Udwan, Mohammed Yousef al-Najjar, Kamal Nasser, Mohammed Boudia, and many others, a policy that has continued with the assassination of Wadie Haddad, Khaled Nazzal, Abu Jihad, Fathi Shiqaqi, Abu Ali Mustafa, Abdel-Aziz Rantisi, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Samir Kuntar, Basil al-Araj and many others. From the Elbit drones used in Gaza and Jenin to assassinate leaders and resistance fighters today, to the continued targeting of Iranian and Arab scientists who serve national priorities and the resistance, the assassination policy is a linchpin of Zionist strategies of control.

The Palestinian prisoners’ movement is not exempt from the policy of assassination. From the killing under torture of Ibrahim al-Rai, to the systematic medical neglect targeting Palestinian prisoners today, the occupation regime does not require a “death penalty” in law to target Palestinian prisoners for assassination. Just two months ago, Palestinian hunger striker and prisoners’ movement leader, Sheikh Khader Adnan, was systematically denied medical treatment on his 86th day of hunger strike: an assassination behind bars. The occupation regime continues to detain his body.

Right now, there is a Palestinian revolutionary, intellectual and writer behind bars who is facing the assassination policy of the Zionist project: Walid Daqqah. Like Kanafani, Daqqah’s role in the Palestinian liberation movement, and the prisoners’ movement in particular, spans the political and intellectual, engaged in a revolutionary project for the liberation of Palestine. Walid Daqqah has been imprisoned for over 37 years for his role in the Palestinian resistance in 1986. Today, as global left publishers wrote in a statement demanding his freedom:

“He is a voice of the people, a voice that the Occupation fears and hopes to silence. But though his body is behind bars, his voice has broken free through his novels, essays, and letters, which have nourished and motivated the Palestinian prisoner movement, the resistance, and the international solidarity movement in all corners of the world.”

He has been diagnosed with myelofibrosis, a rare bone marrow cancer that requires specialized treatment, including a bone marrow transplant. Since December 2022, he has suffered a stroke, developed pneumonia, had a portion of his lung surgically removed, and undergone multiple infections, all while being denied the care he needs — and the freedom that he requires.

Despite the fact that his sentence expired on 24 March 2023 and he is now serving a two-year penalty for smuggling a mobile phone, he has been repeatedly denied early release by multiple Zionist courts and review panels, even as he continues to be transferred back and forth between civilian hospitals and the notorious Ramleh prison clinic, called “the slaughterhouse” by Palestinian prisoners. His family have stated that these decisions are “permission for his execution,” and, indeed, we are watching the Zionist assassination policy carried out in real time inside the prison system, with the weapon of medical neglect.

On the 51st anniversary of the assassination of Ghassan Kanafani, now is the time to take action to free Walid Daqqah and to stop the latest assault of the occupation regime. Kanafani, a committed internationalist, urged all to confront imperialism everywhere — just as the Palestine Actionists are doing in Britain, fighting imprisonment to dismantle the Zionist war machine, a battle supported by the Palestinian prisoners’ movement. The imperialist powers are partners in the crimes against Walid Daqqah, all Palestinian prisoners, and the Palestinian people as a whole — which makes actions everywhere critically important. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all to join in the events being organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement between 7 and 15 July, and to take up the struggle to free Walid Daqqah — to honour Ghassan Kanafani, and to stop the assassination of another Palestinian revolutionary in the gunsights of the occupier.

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Ghassan Kanafani, Resistance and Revolution
Ghassan Kanafani, born in Akka, Palestine, on 9 April 1936, was forcibly exiled from Palestine with his family in the 1947-48 Nakba, first to Lebanon and then to Syria. After he was dismissed from Damascus University for political reasons, he taught in Kuwait before returning to Beirut as part of the Arab Nationalist Movement, the pan-Arab revolutionary movement founded by Dr. George Habash. The ANM transformed into the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which Kanafani co-founded, becoming the editor of Al-Hadaf magazine and an international spokesperson of the Front.

While serving the revolution as a political leader and representative, he also designed and drew many of the Front’s early political posters. A revolutionary Marxist-Leninist, Kanafani was greatly inspired by Arab, African and Asian liberation movements, and played a major role in the development of the “Strategy for the Liberation of Palestine.”

Kanafani was a revolutionary intellectual, the first to use the term “resistance literature” to describe Palestinian writing, even as he produced it. His creative writing, alongside his political work, brought the struggles and revolutionary potential of the Palestinian working and popular classes to the forefront, as did his studies and political analysis. Throughout his writing, editing and mentorship, he remained a committed revolutionary and organizer committed to the defeat of Zionism, imperialism and Arab reactionary forces serving the interests of the former, and to the liberation of all of Palestine, from the river to the sea.

However, Kanafani’s revolutionary vision did not limit itself to the borders of Palestine. He was an Arab revolutionary, dedicated to Arab unity and liberation from the ocean to the Gulf, with a keen interest in the development of Arab forces throughout the region to confront imperialism and achieve true self-determination and liberation. Kanafani and his comrades sparked and nurtured Arab resistance from Lebanon to Oman, developing revolutionaries like Georges Abdallah, imprisoned in France for over 38 years. Today’s rising resistance throughout the Arab nation and the region more broadly, particularly the Lebanese resistance that expeled the occupier in May 2000, continues to point a necessary path to victory for Palestine and for the region as a whole.

Ghassan Kanafani was a dedicated internationalist, a Marxist-Leninist who led in shaping the foundational relationships of the Front in the 1960s and 1970s with African, Asian and Latin American movements as well as with the emerging revolutionary forces in Europe, Japan and throughout the imperial core.

Kanafani’s famous quote on internationalism remains an urgent call to action today: “Imperialism has laid its body over the world, the head in Eastern Asia, the heart in the Middle East, its arteries reaching Africa and Latin America. Wherever you strike it, you damage it, and you serve the World Revolution…The Palestinian cause is not a cause for Palestinians only, but a cause for every revolutionary, wherever he is, as a cause of the exploited and oppressed masses in our era.”

Kanafani’s work is not an artifact of history or an intellectual exercise but a call to revolutionary action, to revolutionary engagement with culture, with political organizing and with resistance and revolution, at the Palestinian, Arab and international levels. As we remember Kanafani today, and as we struggle to bring an end to the policy of assassination, it is clear that the road forward is a revolutionary, anti-imperialist approach. It is also clear, more than ever, the bankruptcy of the path of Madrid and Oslo, represented by the Palestinian Authority and its “security coordination” with the occupation regime, that abandoned Jenin to the invaders while arresting and imprisoning resistance fighters, is the same reactionary enemy exposed in Kanafani’s political and creative writing, and exposed constantly by his political and organizational practice.

As Khaled Barakat, Palestinian writer and co-founder of the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement (Masar Badil), writes today:

“The 51st anniversary of the martyrdom of the writer Ghassan Kanafani this year coincides with the victory of the Jenin camp in the seemingly impossible battle led by the youth of the Brigades…The anniversary coincides with the resistance tent raised on a high southern hill in Lebanon, as a sign of victory, spreading awareness, light and challenge, and overlooking occupied Palestine. It is the resistance tent that heralds return and liberation…

The memory of Kanafani’s martyrdom…comes to say: Something great is being born now in the tunnels and tents of the valiant resistance in the south of Lebanon, in Gaza, and in Jenin, and there is a bridge and an embrace that extends between the south of Lebanon and all of Palestine: a small tent, from which the great Arab liberation project will be born, from the ocean to the Gulf.”

On this anniversary, the vision is clear, emerging from the camps, from the resistance, and from the prisoners’ movement, leading and fighting behind bars, and all led by the sons and daughters of the working class and popular forces: All of us have the responsibility to take up the challenge — to strike imperialism, to damage it, and to serve a liberated Palestine and a world revolution.

(Samidoun)

https://orinocotribune.com/from-ghassan ... evolution/

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Save the Children has been working with Palestinian children since 1953. (Image: Save the Children Website)

Caged, stripped, beaten: Latest ‘Save the Children’ report on Palestine makes chilling read
Originally published: Palestine Chronicle on July 10, 2023 by The Palestine Chronicle, MEMO (more by Palestine Chronicle) | (Posted Jul 12, 2023)

The research found that nearly half—42 per cent—are injured at the point of arrest, including suffering gunshot wounds and broken bones.

Worse, some report violence of a sexual nature and some are transferred to court or between detention centers in small cages, the child rights organization said.

New Evidence
The new research comes as the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 presents evidence today to the Human Rights Council on Palestinian children in detention.

It is estimated that there are between 500 and 1,000 children held in Israeli military detention each year.

Jason Lee, Save the Children’s country director in the occupied Palestinian territory, said:

There’s simply no justification for beating and stripping children, treating them like animals or robbing them of their futures. This is a child protection crisis that can no longer be ignored. There must finally be an end to this abusive military detention system.

Save the Children and a partner organization consulted 228 former child detainees from across the occupied West Bank, detained for a period of between one and 18 months, and found that most children are beaten, handcuffed and blindfolded during arrest.

“They are also interrogated at unknown locations without the presence of a caregiver, and are often deprived of food, water and sleep, or access to legal counsel,” according to the research.

The main alleged crime for these detentions is stone throwing, which can carry a 20-year sentence in prison for Palestinian children.

Khalil, who was detained when he was 13 and whose name has been changed, said that he did not receive essential healthcare.

He said,

I had an injury in my leg, I had a cast, and had to crawl to be able to move. I felt my body being torn apart. I had no canes to help me walk, I kept asking soldiers for help during the transfer, but no one helped me.

He continued,

The soldier threatened to kill me when he arrested me for the second time. He asked me, ‘Do you want the same fate as your cousin?’ as he had been killed. He promised me that I would have the same fate and die, but that he would send me to prison first. He told me that he’s coming back for me—and every day, I wait for that day to come.

Some children reported being coerced into falsely incriminating others in order to be freed.

As a result of the abuse, the report warned, children are increasingly unable to fully return to their normal life following release from detention,

.. with the number of children having frequent nightmares rising from 39% to 53% and those suffering from insomnia or difficulty sleeping rocketing from 47% to 73%, compared to the children surveyed in 2020.

Lana, the mother of Mohammed who was detained when he was 14 (both names have been changed), said:

After my son was released… he refuses to leave the house.

Save the Children is calling on the Israeli occupation authorities to respect all children’s rights and international law.

“No children should be prosecuted in military courts or any court that lacks comprehensive fair trial rights and juvenile justice standards,” the rights group has said.

Testimonies
The following are a few excerpts from the report, highlighting brief testimonies from some of the children interviewed.

Hisham—detained when he was 14:

Every day something happens. Two weeks ago, I was hanging out with my friend and then I left him and went home. An hour later I heard that he had been shot and arrested. A few days later, I went to visit another friend, where they announced that he’d been killed. We’re always afraid.

Jamal—detained when he was 15:

You have your whole life planned out but then you get arrested, and it ruins everything. After you are released from prison you start racing against time trying to catch up and trying to do something useful. It feels like all the dreams you had prior to your arrest just passed you by, and you try to catch up to them, but you can’t. Whatever you had in mind before just doesn’t feel attainable anymore. It’s as if this experience robs you of your time and your future.

To view the full report, click HERE. https://resourcecentre.savethechildren. ... -2023.pdf/

https://mronline.org/2023/07/12/caged-stripped-beaten/

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Israel has turned all of occupied Palestine into an open air prison, says UN expert’s report

A report by UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese says that apart from physically arresting over 800,000 Palestinians, including tens of thousands of children, Israel also controls the movement of millions through barriers, permits, and illegal settlements

July 11, 2023 by Peoples Dispatch


UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese.

Calling the Israeli occupation a “carceral regime,” the UN Special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, in a report to the UN Human Rights Council on Monday, July 10, asked the international community to take urgent measures to “abolish the unlawful occupation.”

Albanese said that Israel has been using the Palestinian territories as an “open air prison” through a combination of direct incarceration and also by “hunting them [Palestinians] outside prison.”

“Blockades, walls, segregated infrastructures, checkpoints, settlements encircling Palestinian towns and villages, hundreds of bureaucratic permits and a web of digital surveillance, further entrap Palestinians in a carceral continuum across strictly controlled enclaves,” Albanese said.

Albanese’s report notes that Israel has arrested more than 800,000 Palestinians, including tens of thousands of children, since its occupation of Palestinian territories in 1967, and continues to defy all international norms to pursue its criminal regime.

Occupation’s inherent apartheid
For Albanese, by “bundling Palestinians as a collective ‘security threat’ Israel has used draconian military orders to punish the exercise of basic rights. These measures have been used as tools to subjugate an entire population, depriving them of self-determination, enforcing racial domination and advancing territorial acquisition by force.”

“The widespread and systematic arbitrariness of occupation’s carceral regime is yet another expression of the apartheid imposed on the Palestinians and strengthens the need to end it immediately.”

Underlining that for “over 56 years, Israel has governed the Palestinian territory through stifling criminalization of basic rights and mass incarcerations,” and now attempts “de-Palestinization” of these areas so that it can “incrementally annex” them, Albanese asked the world community to stop these practices and help Palestinians to achieve their right to self determination.


Albanese has been targeted by Israel over her critical stand on its settler colonialism project and apartheid regime. Israel boycotted the presentation of her report on Monday.

The state of Palestine, however, supported Albanese’s conclusions and asked the international community to follow the report’s recommendations.

Arresting and torturing Palestinian Children
The report notes that Israeli occupation authorities arrested around 7,000 Palestinians in 2022 alone, including 882 children. Out of around 5,000 Palestinians inside Israeli jails now, around 155 are children. There are 1,014 Palestinians who have been in prison for months without being charged or tried.

The report also notes that “approximately 10,000 Palestinian children have experienced institutionalized ill-treatment during arrests, prosecutions, and sentencing and the consequent traumas on themselves and their families.”

“Arrest involves transferring children to interrogation facilities like dangerous criminals, blindfolded and hand tied in military jeeps,” the report says.

“During interrogation, Palestinian children endure severe ill-treatment: they are strip searched, kept blind-folded and tightly bound for long hours, insulted and ridiculed, physically abused and denied basic needs including access to toilets and medical care.”

The report also notes that nearly half of the children detained for interrogation by Israel in 2021-22 were subjected to solitary confinement, for an average of 12.5 days in windowless cells constantly illuminated causing immense physical and psychological distress.

According to some studies, the number of Palestinian children arrested by the Israeli occupation since 1967 goes beyond 50,000.

Albanese’s findings about the treatment of Palestinian children in Israeli custody have been substantiated by a recent study published by Save the Children. According to the research, four out of every five children in Israeli jails are beaten by the prison authorities and at least 69% are strip searched.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/07/11/ ... ts-report/

[blindpig]

Making Israel 'Pay the Price': Hamas' strategy in the West Bank



Since 2022, increased coordination between Hamas and Palestinian resistance groups in the West Bank has forced the Israeli occupation to bear the brunt of its aggressions.


Ali Bou Jbara
JUL 28, 2023


“Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) held a high-level meeting this afternoon, attended by political, military, and security officials from both sides. The discussion touched on ways to develop the resistance activity that the two movements adopt and lead and to strengthen cooperation between them on the political, military, and security levels.”

This is how the two Gaza-based factions opened their joint statement following the ‘Unity of Arenas’ battle on 22 August 2022 in the Gaza Strip. Since then, the two leading Palestinian resistance factions have gained significant ground in the West Bank, driving out invading Israeli forces and retaliating against attacks with shocking speed under a strategy known as ‘Pay the Price.’

The genesis of this successful alliance can be traced back to the 7 August, 2022 Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip. With the objective of singling out the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and launching a devastating military strike against the resistance group, Israeli forces sought to break the ‘Unity of Arenas’ equation that had united Palestinian forces in multiple territories since May 2021. Tel Aviv's ultimate goal was to impose Judaization and settlements in occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank while undermining the credibility and capabilities of the resistance in Gaza.

Hamas and PIJ, shoulder to shoulder

In the face of this aggression, the PIJ's Quds Brigade stood resolute, with crucial logistical support provided by Hamas. Though not directly involved in the military confrontation, behind the scenes, Hamas' solidarity and cooperation with PIJ leaders demonstrated a united front against the occupation. Throughout the confrontation, the two movements thwarted Israeli attempts to exploit and sow discord between them by emphasizing brotherhood and unity.

Now the strength of that collaboration has extended beyond the Gaza Strip, reaching deep into the occupied West Bank, where their efforts appear to be closely intertwined. This year, those efforts have reaped rewards: PIJ has led several direct military actions against Israeli forces and took "care" of the Jenin Battalion and other armed groups that have begun to expand across the West Bank.

During this time, Hamas pursued a dual-track approach: Conducting security operations to hold the Israelis accountable for their offenses in the occupied West Bank, and providing financial support to resistance groups for the procurement of weapons.

The ‘Pay the Price’ strategy

This carefully coordinated strategy spawned a number of successful operations by resistance fighters in the occupied West Bank, Jerusalem, and even the 1948 occupied territories. Whenever a Palestinian attack occurred, Hamas' military wing - the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades - promptly claimed responsibility, sending a clear message that any Israeli aggression in Palestine would be met with an “immediate response.”

The most recent of these operations in 2023 was the 6 July attack in Kedumim, east of Qalqilya Governorate, when Ahmed Yassin Hilal Ghaidan exited his vehicle and fired directly at an Israeli soldier, killing him instantly. The attack came immediately after the withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from the Jenin camp, following its 3 July massacre which resulted in the death of 12 Palestinians.

Two days earlier, on 4 July, a run-over and stabbing operation took place on Pinhas Rozan Street, north of Tel Aviv, in which 10 Israelis were injured, 4 of whom were in critical condition.

The double operation near the Eli settlement south of Nablus on 20 June, in which four Israelis were killed – sparking a vast wave of Israeli outrage – came one day after the occupation forces stormed Jenin camp to arrest a Hamas member. During that raid, six Palestinians were killed, and around 100 others were injured.

On 28 January 2023, Khairi Alqam carried out a shooting operation inside the Nabi Yacoub settlement in Jerusalem, killing at least 7 Israelis and wounding 10 others, just one day after the occupation forces committed a massacre in Jenin camp in which nine Palestinians were killed.

The "Pay the Price Strategy" adopted by the two main Palestinian resistance factions demonstrates their ability to inflict pain on the occupying forces and launch effective operations against Israeli soldiers and settlers.

The strategy dates back to 28 April 2022, when the Izz al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades claimed responsibility for an attack on the settlement of Ariel - north of the occupied West Bank - in which an Israeli security guard was killed. The retaliatory attack was part of a series of responses to Israel's desecration and aggression against Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. At the time, Al-Qassam Brigades described the attack as "a start of a new phase of resistance to the occupation in the West Bank."

On 19 October that same year, ten days after carrying out an attack in the vicinity of the Shuafat camp - which killed a female Israeli soldier and injured another - Uday al-Tamimi carried out a shooting operation near the Maale Adumim settlement, east of Jerusalem, in which he was killed.

Hamas' growing footprint in the West Bank

The West Bank's resistance has become increasingly visible and impactful, largely due to the al-Qassam Brigades' unique tactics and discreet activation of military cells. In certain instances, the movement refrains from claiming responsibility for security reasons, in order to ensure their continued capacity to carry out these operations.

A defining moment was the Jordan Valley operation on 7 April 2023, when Hamas members Moaz al-Masri and Hassan Qatanani responded to Israeli attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque. Their attack claimed the lives of three female Israeli soldiers and was accompanied by multiple missile strikes from southern Lebanon, Syria, and the Gaza Strip.

Similarly, on 27 February 2023, Hamas-affiliated Abd al-Fattah Kharousha carried out the "Huwara operation," resulting in the deaths of two Israeli soldiers. The operation intentionally coincided with the Aqaba Summit in Jordan, which hosted US, Israeli, and Palestinian Authority (PA) officials and was drawing the ire of Palestinians everywhere.

The recent wave of resistance operations showcases Hamas' growing sophistication in the art of timing, as well as its ability to assume full control of its targeted arena and deliver some significant and very specific results. By employing this "Pay the Price" strategy, Hamas has forced Israel to bear the brunt of its actions while sending clear warnings to the PA over its “security” collaboration with Tel Aviv under US auspices.

As a high-ranking source in Hamas tells The Cradle:

It is no secret that the Al-Qassam Brigades adopts a strategy of making the enemy ‘pay the price’ and of executing ‘quick responses’ in the face of its crimes, because we do not recognize the rules that the enemy is trying to establish – separating, isolating, and dividing the Palestinian people. We cannot stand idly by while the enemy practices its crimes in the West Bank. Those who carry out operations in the occupied West Bank are from the West Bank, and we seek to provide them with everything they require in order to defend themselves, their people, their land, and their sanctities.

Shifting tactics to gain the advantage

Beyond its lightening-quick retaliatory operations, Hamas has adopted a strategic policy of funding and coordinating with the resistance in the occupied West Bank. On 28 February 2022, the PA accused Musab Shtayyeh, a freed prisoner closely associated with Hamas, of transferring $1 million to the Lion's Den faction to purchase weapons and ammunition.

Al-Araby Al-Jadeed newspaper quotes a PA source who claims that Shtayyeh is primarily responsible for financing the Lion's Den. He added that Palestinian security had discovered ways to transfer money to buy weapons, away from the strict supervision imposed on banks, exchange shops, and merchants.

This financial support has not been limited to local sources. On 25 June, the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar reported that Jordanian authorities thwarted an arms smuggling operation and arrested four Jordanians of Palestinian origin, accused of smuggling weapons to Hamas in the West Bank. This incident strained relations between Jordanian authorities and the resistance movement, resulting in a complete communication breakdown. Israeli authorities also arrested Jordanian Member of Parliament Imad Al-Adwan on 24 April, under suspicion of smuggling weapons and gold to the West Bank.

Israel holds Saleh al-Arouri, Hamas' deputy head of the political bureau, accountable for the movement's activities. According to Israeli Channel 12, under Arouri's leadership, Hamas has been bolstering its operational capabilities from Lebanon, enabling its forces to launch a barrage of 38 missiles in just two minutes during an incident last April. The Israeli newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, wrote:

"Al-Arouri is not known to the Israeli public, but he is the man because of whom war almost broke out during the Passover holiday."

This has marked a significant shift in Hamas' strategy and has challenged the old rules of engagement between Israel and the Palestinian resistance. Per Channel 12: "The head of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, is constantly improving the “multi-front strategy,” which changes the rules of the game.”

"The unity of the arenas is no longer just a slogan, " the broadcaster added, emphasizing that Arouri "has become the most charismatic figure in the organization, and he established contacts from Gaza to Tehran, passing through Beirut and the West Bank, to achieve his ultimate goal of launching a joint attack on Israel across all fronts."

When asked why Israel fixates on Arouri for the spate of West Bank retaliatory operations, the senior Hamas source explains to The Cradle:

The occupation always adopts this policy of deluding the public into thinking that its problem is with a specific individual, in order to distract from the root of the problem – the presence of the occupation itself. The enemy is constantly looking for influential people in the leadership of the resistance, and when it finds one of them, it begins to exaggerate its role by saying that the elimination of this person means the elimination of the resistance within the occupied interior. But they know that those who resist are the people of the West Bank who suffer from the occupation, and that no matter what the enemy does, the Palestinian people will continue to resist the occupation.

Israeli General Yitzhak Brick has conceded that Israel's attempts at implementing a "divide and rule" policy in Gaza have been challenging due to the unified front presented by Hamas and the PIJ.

Now, that coordination and collaboration have begun to bear fruit in the West Bank, a region Israel quietly seeks to annex. As the Palestinian resistance continues to thwart Israeli attempts, the occupation finds itself, time and time again, forced to deploy a substantial portion of its military forces in the West Bank without succeeding in eliminating the armed resistance.

Hamas' strategic mastery and ability to forge resilient alliances and funding networks have not only inflicted significant damage on Israel, but also further emboldened the Palestinian resistance – which will not yield.

https://new.thecradle.co/articles/makin ... -west-bank

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ISRAELIS FEAR THE OUTBREAK OF A CIVIL WAR
Jul 27, 2023 , 11:40 a.m.


Protests in Israel have multiplied since the approval of the first judicial reform law (Photo: Europa Press)

A survey published by the Israeli television channel Channel 13 this past Wednesday, July 26, revealed that more than half of Israelis, 56%, are concerned about the outbreak of a civil war due to the deep social divisions surrounding the plan of judicial reform of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

On the other hand, only 39% of those surveyed stated that they were not concerned, while 9% expressed uncertainty about it. The Cradle website reviewed the survey.

The review law proposed by Israel's Knesset was approved on July 24 and aims to significantly limit the ability of the Israeli judiciary to review actions taken by the government and its elected officials. The controversial legislation, known as the "reasonableness" law , is the first of the entire judicial reform, ratified after a heated dispute between Netanyahu's ruling coalition and the opposition.

This measure has generated strong reactions among the Israeli population. While nationalist religious elements support the motion, more secular segments oppose it. The protests have increased in intensity over the past 29 weeks, becoming the largest in the history of the Zionist entity. In addition, numerous military reservists have threatened to refuse to report for duty if the legislation passes.

Various analysts, military officials, politicians and media commentators have warned of the dangers of a civil war breaking out due to unrest related to the government's judicial reform plan. Israeli Middle East scholar Zvi Barel described the aforementioned approval as a "coup" and likened Netanyahu's government to a "reveler gang" and "a motorcycle gang from hell."

Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called on the government last March to halt the judicial reform, saying the bitter dispute over the measures poses a real danger to the country. Gallant expressed concern about reservists' threats to renounce military duty if the reforms continue, which could weaken Israel's military readiness and national cohesion.

https://misionverdad.com/los-israelies- ... erra-civil

Google Translator

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Iran Says Israel Fingerprints Visible in Acts of Desecration Against Holy Qur’an
JULY 28, 2023


Picture taken in Zanjan on July 21, 2023, shows the people of the northwestern Iranian city protesting desecration of the Holy Qur'an in Sweden. Photo: Fars News Agency.

Iran has said that Israel’s fingerprints can be traced in the acts of desecration that were recently committed against the Holy Qur’an in Sweden and Denmark.

“The Zionist regime’s behind-the-scenes hands are visible in the sedition [that featured] affront against the Noble Qur’an,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan’ani tweeted on Tuesday.

“Of course, this fact does not reduce the responsibility of the governments that facilitated these acts of profanity, and they (these governments) have to be accountable and act responsibly,” he added, referring to the Swedish and Danish governments.

The developments came after a Sweden-based Iraqi refugee, identified as Salwan Momika, desecrated Muslims’ holy book. He committed the sacrilegious act first in front of Stockholm’s biggest mosque in late June, and for the second time outside the Iraqi Embassy in the same city on Thursday, amid strict protection provided by the Swedish police.

And on Friday, members of an Islamophobic Danish group, called Danske Patrioter, desecrated the Qur’an in front of Iraq’s Embassy in Denmark’s capital city of Copenhagen.

Also on Tuesday, the small far-right group set fire to copies of the Qur’an in front of the Egyptian and Turkish Embassies in the Danish capital, in another blasphemous act against the Muslim holy book.

The acts of sacrilege have opened the floodgates of protests across the Muslim world, including in Iran, with all Muslim countries issuing vehement condemnations of the reprehensible profanity.

Kan’ani, meanwhile, advised Stockholm and Copenhagen not to “sacrifice their interests, credit, and reputation for the interests of the Zionist regime.”

Earlier in July, Iran’s Intelligence Ministry said the Iraqi national, who burnt a copy of the Holy Qur’an in Stockholm, was affiliated with the Israeli Mossad spy agency and engaged in espionage activities against resistance groups.

The ministry said in its statement that Momika was born in Iraq in 1986 and was hired by Mossad in 2019, stressing that his notoriety and criminal records in his home country were “accepted and welcomed by Zionists” at the time.

After being recruited by the Israeli spy agency, the Iraqi man “played a major role in spying on the resistance movement and advancing the project of Iraq’s disintegration,” the Intelligence Ministry added.

The ministry underlined that the desecration of the Holy Qur’an by Momika was part of an Israeli project to detract the world’s public attention away from the regime’s atrocities against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, especially in the city of Jenin.

Speaking on Saturday, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Lebanese resistance movement of Hezbollah, warned that if it was confirmed that the Israeli spy agency was behind the desecration of the Qur’an, it would mean that such sacrilegious acts would continue and would be followed by strong popular and official reactions from the Muslim world.

Upon Iran and Iraq’s proposal, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has agreed to hold an extraordinary meeting of the inter-governmental body’s foreign minister on July 31, to address the trend of profanity.

https://orinocotribune.com/iran-says-is ... oly-quran/

[blindpig]

Israel on the Brink of Constitutional Anarchy

Steven Sahiounie

July 30, 2023

With the Supreme Court now sidelined from dissent, the government led by the extremist parties can transform Israel into an authoritarian regime.

Despite massive street protests since January, and international pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to throw out the bill, the judicial reform measure is now law. It passed on a vote of 64-0 amid an opposition boycott. The bill removes the “Reasonability Clause” from being used by the Supreme Court to strike down improper government appointments and executive decisions.

The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the most extreme right-wing religious government in Israeli history. Israelis are fearful that the religious extremists in the Netanyahu ruling alliance will railroad bills through the Knesset which will strip away rights from a mainly secular society. Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, formerly convicted on eight counts of terrorism and hate crimes, threatens this bill is just the beginning in a process to change the secular fabric of Israel.

Activists in women’s rights are most concerned with the prospect of new laws which will make it difficult for a woman to get a divorce, or an abortion. Ben-Gvir and his ultra-religious allies want to institute laws in which Jewish religious law is used for women’s issues instead of the secular civil law and massively expand the power of state-run religious courts. The rabbinic courts would be granted the power to officiate on civil issues for the first time in 15 years, giving them equal status to the secular justice system.

Rabbinic courts do not allow female judges, and at times will not allow female witnesses even in the case of domestic abuse. Abortions had been usually approved by a committee, but the religious parties now in control are against abortion. With the Supreme Court made impotent, women could be stripped of the right to choose.

With the Supreme Court now sidelined from dissent, the government led by the extremist parties can transform Israel into an authoritarian form of government. Netanyahu is powerless to rein in the extremists because his alliance with them is the only thing keeping him out of prison on corruption charges.

Israeli society usually stands united amid Palestinian resistance, but this time the water cannons have been turned on peaceful Jewish protesters, not Arabs. Ben-Gvir described the demonstrators as anarchists who posed a danger to the state and even to the lives of individual politicians, and he ordered a zero-tolerance policy. The new law has split the country, with even the military taking a political position. Hundreds of Israeli military personnel have pledged to not perform their duties in opposition to the judicial reform law, and are joined by the medical association and labor union.

Former President Reuven Rivlin begged Netanyahu to stop the judicial reform law, and warned of impending civil war. Former Prime Minister Yair Lapid, the centrist opposition leader, said “The government has declared a war of attrition against its own citizens.”

Netanyahu, along with his son and brother, have pointed a finger at U.S. President Joe Biden as the instigator and financier of the massive street protests against the law.

Ben-Gvir, known for his radicalism, has been convicted of sedition and membership in a terrorist group. He has called for a religious Jewish state including the Palestinian territories and rejected democracy as ‘un-Jewish’. He hates Arabs and said they must be expelled. He follows a political doctrine that says a fist in the face of a non-Jew is praise to God.

Ben-Gvir and his Jewish Power party advocate ‘total war’ against Israel’s enemies and believe that the Palestinians should be made to leave the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The possibility of mass deportations of Palestinians exists now that the judicial reform bill has passed.

The Biden administration, along with Trump, Obama, and Bush has abdicated any role in the advancement of the Two-State Solution which is a UN resolution, and the official U.S. policy.

The Israeli public has been content to stand by and watch the Palestinians among them suffer the lack of human rights and freedom, but now the table has turned. Palestinians will never have freedom until their Jewish neighbors demand it and are willing to fight for democracy and freedom for all the people living in Israel and the Palestinian Occupied Territories.

https://strategic-culture.org/news/2023 ... l-anarchy/

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Clashes in Palestinian Refugee Camp: 11 Killed, 40 Injured


Armed clashes in the Ain al Hilweh camp in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon. Jul. 31, 2023. | Photo: Twitter/@ElDjazair_Daily

Published 31 July 2023 (11 hours 55 minutes ago)

Armed clashes between rival groups occur frequently in the Ain al Hilweh refugee camp.


The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) reported Monday that armed clashes between members of the Palestinian Fatah movement and Islamist militiamen in southern Lebanon have left 11 dead and 40 injured.

Armed clashes erupted Saturday in the Ain al Hilweh camp in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon. Among the dead were Brigadier General Abou Ashraf al Armoushi of the Palestinian nationalist Fatah movement, three of his bodyguards and several civilians, the Elnashra digital news portal reported.

According to UNRWA's Director of UNRWA Affairs for Lebanon, Dorothee Klaus, the recent armed clashes have caused material damage to two schools of the UN agency in the town, from where more than 2,000 people have had to flee to safe areas.

The director also expressed UNRWA's call to "all parties to fly back to calm immediately and take all necessary measures to protect civilians, including children. We urge all armed actors to respect UNRWA buildings and facilities in accordance with international law."


The secretary of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) factions in Lebanon, Fathi Abu al Ardat, met on Monday with the Palestinian ambassador to Lebanon, Ashraf Dabbour, and the head of the Palestinian-Lebanese Dialogue Committee, Bassel Hassan, to discuss the latest developments.

The clashes erupted three days ago after gunmen attempted to assassinate an Islamist militiaman identified as Mahmud Ali Zubaidat and remain active despite attempts to establish a cessation of hostilities.

Armed clashes between rival groups often take place in the Ain al Hilweh camp, which is the largest Palestinian refugee camp on Lebanese territory, established in 1948.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Cla ... -0023.html

The Zionists laugh and laugh....who is in their pay?

[blindpig]

Gaslighting Gaza: Israel’s deceptive extraction approval prioritizes economics over politics

The Palestinian resistance is drawing inspiration from Hezbollah's approach in dealing with Israel and gas extraction rights, particularly as Tel Aviv seems to be attempting to appease the resistance in order to avoid potential conflicts in the future.


The Cradle's Palestine Correspondent
AUG 1, 2023


Photo Credit: The Cradle

A significant breakthrough has emerged as the Hamas authorities in the Gaza Strip have expressed their willingness, in principle, to grant the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority (PA) access to a natural gas field off the Gaza coast.

This groundbreaking development comes as part of a US-brokered deal that involves the PA, an Egyptian gas company, and Israel. If the plans proceed, the potential benefits are far-reaching, holding the promise of bolstering the economy and improving living standards in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Moreover, this agreement opens up the possibility of indirect negotiations between Hamas and the Israeli occupation, following a path similar to the recent developments in neighboring Lebanon. Notably, Hezbollah has given its approval for the Lebanese government to engage in talks with Israel over maritime demarcation lines, while asserting the country's rights to its natural resources and threatening the use of force to secure it. It appears that Hamas may now be inclined to adopt a pragmatic approach, mirroring Lebanon.

Israeli green light for Gaza gas field

In parallel with the Israeli government’s decision to delegate enhanced powers to pro-settler Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, aimed at expediting settlement procedures, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced on 18 June, preliminary approval for the development of the Gaza Marine gas field.

According to the prime minister’s office, the move will place emphasis “on Palestinian economic development and maintaining security stability in the region.”

The approval paves the way for the Egyptian EGAS company to assume responsibility for the administrative and technical aspects of gas exploration, with plans to transport the gas to the Damietta station for liquefaction and subsequent export to Europe and beyond.

Notably, the agreement between Egypt, the PA, and Israel was announced in October 2022, pending Israeli approval, which has now been granted. However, the announcement did not address the share of the Gaza Strip governed by Hamas, who have remained silent on the matter. Analysts attribute this silence to a potential understanding between Hamas leadership and Egypt regarding a positive approach to the agreement.

One policy for Gaza, another for West Bank

This development poses a challenge as the resistance factions in Gaza have previously warned against any agreement that deprives the Strip's residents of their rightful gas revenues. One Palestinian official was quoted by Reuters as saying: “We are waiting to know what exactly the Israelis have agreed to in detail. We can’t make a position based on a statement to the media.”

Hamas official Ismail Rudwan was also quoted by the news agency as saying: “We reaffirm that our people in Gaza have the rights to their natural resources.” In a rally held last September under the slogan "Our Gas is Our Right," the factions expressed their firm stance on the matter, raising concerns about the potential repercussions.

Suhail al-Hindi, a member of the political bureau of Hamas, commented on the matter on Arabi21, saying: "In no way can Gaza be absent from this natural wealth, and every Palestinian has the right to benefit from the country's wealth, including this field, with emphasis that the Palestinian people have the right to obtain this gas.

Al-Hindi stressed that "the Israeli occupation cannot be allowed to steal Palestinian wealth, and besieged Gaza has the right to live like all cities in the world, and for our people to enjoy their natural wealth."

Discovered in 1999, the Gaza Marine gas field holds significant reserves, estimated at 1.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The British Gas Group and its partners, Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC), were granted a gas exploration license by the PA. Located 603 meters below sea level, approximately 22 miles west of Gaza, the field has a production capacity of 1.5 billion cubic meters annually over a span of 20 years.


Map of gas fields east of the Mediterranean Sea


Economic analyst Muhammad Abu Jayab tells The Cradle that the US implicitly agreed to provide part of the revenues from the Gaza Marine field to Hamas, which explains why the latter did not comment on the recent agreement. According to Abu Jayab "Egypt is at the forefront as a guarantee that Hamas will deal positively with the agreement, due to Cairo's influence on the Palestinian factions."

Nevertheless, the Israeli approval of the Gaza Marine gas field agreement comes at a sensitive time, especially for the resistance factions, as it coincides with the establishment of over 5,000 new illegal settlement units in the face of escalating tensions in the occupied West Bank. Israeli security warnings about the potential consequences of right-wing policies and international opposition, including from the US, further compound the situation.

Plans like the E1 proposal, which connects the Ma'ale Adumim settlement with occupied Jerusalem, and effectively bifurcates the West Bank, have garnered significant criticism due to their potential to impede any future prospects for the so-called two-state solution.

Calm before the storm

Sources close to the decision-making circles of the resistance factions inform The Cradle that the Israeli approval serves as a bargaining chip to buy restraint and non-interference from Gaza Strip resistance groups in events unfolding in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

However, from the perspective of the resistance factions, the cost Israel demands exceeds the economic gains, as recent actions by Hamas underscore its commitment to prioritize resistance over financial incentives.

Mustafa al-Sawaf, a political analyst close to Hamas, tells The Cradle:

"The attack on Eli settlement, which was carried out by two members of the al-Qassam Brigades [armed wing of Hamas] on 20 June, came in response to all attempts to buy calm and silence. It was a clear message from Hamas to all regional and international parties not to dream of exchanging resistance for economic gains."

Lessons from Lebanon

Meanwhile, political researcher Ismail Muhammad points out that all regional and international parties realize that there is no possibility of bypassing Hamas in the gas file. He explains to The Cradle that:

"The resistance in Gaza was inspired by Hezbollah's experience in imposing its conditions and obtaining Lebanon's rights in the Karish field. It sent clear messages, that whatever the pressures, it will not accept being an idle witness while the country’s wealth is stolen before its eyes. The most important conclusions of the Lebanese experience are that investment needs calm, and that none of the Arab or international companies will operate under the threat of fire. At least by disabling it. The resistance possesses the military capabilities that enable it not to bomb the gas fields, but rather to disrupt work in them at least."

Gas deals: A tool for dividing Palestinians

Politically-speaking, Israel's pursuit of gas agreements carries broader political implications beyond immediate security concerns. Political analyst Ziyad Abu Ziyad believes that Israel is leveraging these agreements to foster internal Palestinian divisions.

Egypt’s assumption of management responsibilities for Gaza Marine, in the absence of Palestinian reconciliation, and Israel’s refusal to demarcate the maritime borders with the PA, “reminds us of the solution that Israel previously proposed to the Palestinian leadership: a Palestinian state without borders.”

This approach focuses on improving the Palestinians' economic situation by harnessing their own resources, essentially implementing an economic solution to the conflict without addressing its underlying political dimensions.

The occupation state’s approval of gas extraction from the Gaza Marine gas field has exposed the delicate balance between geopolitics, security, and economic interests in the region. As resistance factions draw inspiration from past experiences and assert their conditions, the path forward remains uncertain, casting doubt on the regional stability that Netanyahu's office claimed would be maintained with the extraction approval.

https://new.thecradle.co/articles/gasli ... r-politics

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Israeli forces kill two Palestinians as raids continue across occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem

Earlier in the week, Israeli forces conducted multiple raids across the occupied West Bank, with settler attacks and other acts of violence against Palestinians also being reported

August 04, 2023 by Peoples Dispatch


Farid Shawqi Al-Zaarir, 15, was shot and killed by Israeli forces in al-Sumou. (Photo: via WAFA)

Israeli forces shot and killed a 15-year-old Palestinian child in the late hours of Tuesday, August 1. Just hours before, a 20-year-old Palestinian man was also killed by them. The killings come amid rampant Israeli raids across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem earlier in the week. At least two Palestinians were arrested and several injured.

The teenager killed was identified by the Palestinian Ministry of Health as Muhammad Farid Shawqi Al-Zaarir. He was reportedly killed by an Israeli soldier near the illegal settlement outpost of Eshtemoa, west of the town of Al-Samou in southern Hebron in the occupied West Bank. Israeli forces claimed that he was shot dead as he was attempting to stab one of the soldiers with a knife. They did not provide any evidence to back their claim. Farid was reportedly studying in the ninth grade and was one of the top students in his class. After shooting at him, the Israeli soldiers reportedly left him bleeding on the ground, preventing Palestinian medics from reaching him in time.

Earlier in the same day, Israeli forces killed 20-year-old Mohammad Suleiman Mazara near the illegal Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim in occupied East Jerusalem. Israeli forces claimed that Mazara had shot at Israeli settlers present in the area at the time, injuring at least six people.

Earlier in the week, Israeli forces conducted multiple raids across the occupied West Bank, with settler attacks and other acts of violence against Palestinians also being reported.

On Tuesday, Israeli settlers, protected by a large contingent of soldiers and two bulldozers, invaded the Joseph’s Tomb in the city of Nablus. The Israeli forces had barricaded several streets in the area and erected military roadblocks to restrict the movement of Palestinians. Those who protested the invasion were subsequently attacked using live fire and tear gas. Dozens of Palestinians were injured, three with live ammunition.

Reports noted that a day later, on Wednesday afternoon, Israeli forces invaded the town of Zababdeh, southeast of Jenin, along with the towns of Qabatiya, Ya’bad, and Arraba, the Masliyeh village, and the Al-Fara’a refugee camp, south of the town of Tubas. Later in the evening, they invaded other areas in the West Bank, including the Al-Mughayyir village, northeast of Ramallah, and the town of Yatta, south of Hebron. They unleashed violence against residents trying to resist the illegal invasions, attacking them with tear gas, rubber bullets, and even live ammunition. Several Palestinians suffered bullet injuries and were taken to hospital for medical treatment.

Since the beginning of this year, Israeli settlers and security forces have killed at least 204 Palestinians, including 36 children. Of these, 167 have been killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem and 36 in the Israeli violence and airstrikes in Gaza. The high rate of killings has made this year already among the deadliest for Palestinians.

According to a report released by human rights group Yesh Din last year, only 1% of Israeli soldiers accused of complicity in such killings and violence against Palestinians have officially been charged with any crime. The group said that military law enforcement authorities “systematically avoid investigating and prosecuting soldiers who harm Palestinians.”

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/08/04/ ... jerusalem/.

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Palestinian Factions Meeting in Cairo Failed Before It Began
AUGUST 3, 2023


Palestinian authority head Mahmoud Abbas speaking during the meeting in Cairo on July 30, 2023. Photo: Alsekeh.

By Resistance News Network – Jul 31, 2023

Yesterday, the Cairo meeting concluded after five hours of discussions between major Palestinian political factions, except those boycotting (PIJ). The emergency meeting was called in the wake of the Fury of Jenin battle, and a major point of contention was the release of the PA’s 50+ political prisoners, many of whom are PIJ leaders.

‘In summary, nothing was gained from the meeting, and no closing statement was agreed upon. In terms of the Palestinian political scene, this is a net positive, as the PA was not able to get its way to enshrine itself as the “representative” of the Palestinian people nor to subdue resistance.

‘PIJ was willing to concede on some points had the PA agreed to release the political prisoners, a demand that Hamas, PFLP, and other factions pressured for as well. This was not achieved, and the result of the meeting was the formation of a “dialogue committee” to follow-up on the discussions, without a set date. This meeting comes following the October 2022 Algiers Accords, in which elections were agreed to be held within a year; however, the Cairo meeting differs in that it is the first of its kind in a long time that included so many factions, all of whom are targeted by the zionist government.

‘Five hours of discussion led to no result, but no result is favorable compared to the negative achievement of the PA seeking to establish “peaceful resistance” and “international legitimacy ” under a back-stabbing Oslo framework. This is especially true in light of the PA’s rabid pursual of resistance fighters (and journalists and students) and security coordination with the zionist entity in recent months following the Aqaba and Sharm El-Sheikh summits, anti-liberation behavior that did not cease despite the major resistance developments of the last year.

‘The PA criminalizes the righteous resistance of the factions, but the factions still agreed to meet to agree to a broad political consensus. The PFLP and Hamas worked hard with other factions to ensure no concessions on resistance would be made. Although PIJ did not attend, it made its position clear that it would not agree to any dialogue without the release of the PA’s political prisoners, a demand that other factions, especially PFLP, rallied around. This demand, and the cessation of political arrests, was summarily rejected by the Palestinian Authority.

‘In summary, Abbas failed to gain any achievement except for the picture of Palestinian leaders sitting side by side, a false illusion of unity in contrast to the true unity on the ground and in the battlefield. Abbas stands with his illegally appointed Central Council members, a move rejected fully by all factions. PFLP led the charge on drafting a final statement and code of honor, which was developed in conjunction with the other factions to develop a unified resistance and representation strategy. What is clear is that mobilization and coordination of factions for a true national consensus is possible, but the US- and zionist-backed Palestinian Authority was and continues to be an obstacle’

https://orinocotribune.com/palestinian- ... -it-began/

Historic Drop in Support for Two-State Solution Among Palestinians, Israelis
AUGUST 4, 2023


A group of children and teenagers hold a vigil at the Gaza port, demanding an end to the Israeli siege. Photo: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle.

This is the largest drop in the support for the two-state solution among Palestinians since 2016.

Support for a two-state solution has dropped amongst Palestinians and Israelis, amid an increasingly deteriorating security situation in the occupied territories.

In a joint poll named the Palestinian-Israeli Pulse, conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) in Ramallah and the International Program in Conflict Resolution and Mediation at Tel Aviv University, found a significant drop in support for a two-state solution among both Israeli Jews and Palestinians.

The drop saw the support go from 43 per cent in September 2020 down to 33 per cent among the Palestinians and 34 per cent among Israeli Jews. Among all Israelis – Jews and Palestinian Arabs – the support amounted to a total of 39 per cent.

The figures represent the lowest level of support for the long-proclaimed political solution among all parties since the beginning of the Pulse poll in 2016.

Open conflict
The poll – which involved 1,270 Palestinian adults who were interviewed face-to-face in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip, and 900 adult Israelis interviewed online – also found support dropping among Palestinians and Israelis on the whole for alternatives to the two-state solution, including a one state with equal rights and one state without rights.

While the majority of Palestinians did not support either solution, more Israeli Jews supported the unequal one state solution than a two-state solution.

Most notably, there was a significant increase in the willingness amongst both sides to resort to open conflict against each other, with 31 per cent of the Palestinians (29 per cent in the West Bank and 34 per cent in the Gaza Strip) and only 30 per cent of Israeli Jews choosing to “reach a peace agreement” as the next step in the crisis.

That is a notable decrease compared to 34 per cent and 41 per cent respectively who chose that option back in 2020.

That openness to conflict was further reinforced by the poll showing that 40 per cent of Palestinians prefer to “wage an armed struggle against the Israeli occupation” compared to 37 per cent just two years ago.

As for Israeli Jews, 26 per cent of them call for “a definitive war with the Palestinians” compared to 19 per cent last year.

https://orinocotribune.com/historic-dro ... -israelis/

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Israel greenlights settler attacks on Palestinians: Army official

On Friday 4 August, a Palestinian was killed by Israeli settler gunfire in the village of Burqa east of Ramallah

News Desk
AUG 6, 2023


(Photo credit: WAFA)

Israeli military official, Reserve Colonel Kobi Merom, said on 5 August that settler attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are greenlit by the government and its ministers, according to Hebrew media.

"What we have seen in recent weeks are dozens of terrorist operations [by settlers] against Palestinian villages, without resulting in arrests,” the general said.

These attacks are “greenlit” and supported by government ministers, Merom added, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and others.

“Minister Smotrich allows the establishment of illegal outposts. Amid the state of collapse that we are spiraling down toward … I am not surprised by the armed incident that took place yesterday in Burqa."

The colonel was referring to the killing of a 19-year-old Palestinian, Qusai Jamal Matan, by extremist settlers east of Ramallah on 4 August.

Armed Israeli settlers had stormed the village of Burqa that day, sparking clashes with residents of the area. Matan was “shot dead by settlers” during the clashes. That same day, an 18-year-old Palestinian was killed by Israeli troops in a military raid on a camp east of Tulkarem.

In response to the settler killing of Matan, Palestinian resistance fighter Kamel Abu Bakr shot and killed an Israeli policeman in Tel Aviv on 5 August, before being killed himself.

"If the prime minister … does not stop this matter and put his foot down at the cabinet table, we are heading toward complete chaos on the ground," the Israeli colonel warned.

According to the UN, around 600 settler attacks against Palestinians have been recorded since the start of 2023.

Settler violence has always been common in the occupied West Bank, but has surged significantly since Israel’s current government came to power.

Following a resistance operation in February, which killed two Israelis, settlers launched a massive assault on Nablus’ village of Huwara – laying waste to the town and resulting in numerous casualties.

Following the attack, Smotrich called for the village of Huwara to be “wiped out.”

Later in June, another shooting in the Eli settlement prompted settlers to launch a five-day rampage across the West Bank. The rampage occurred with the approval of the Israeli military.

https://new.thecradle.co/articles/israe ... y-official

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Israel Lights Up Palestinian Refugee Camp Violence in Lebanon

Steven Sahiounie

August 7, 2023

Netanyahu often has resorted in the past to creating violence among Palestinian groups in an effort to unite his domestic Jewish citizens. However, this time it might backfire on him.

Fierce and deadly clashes between rival factions in Ein el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon have killed two children and 10 others, while at least 56 have been wounded according to sources at Al Hamshari Hospital.

The extremist groups Jund al Sham and Shabab al Muslim have been facing off against Fatah fighters in the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, near the city of Sidon, close to the Israeli border.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, has reported that more than 2,000 people were forced to flee in search of safety since the beginning of the clashes.

The camp was formed in 1948 to shelter Palestinian refugees fleeing the formation of Israel, where they had been forced from their homes, lands and businesses in a program of ethnic cleansing, which is ongoing in the Jewish State of Israel.

The fighting broke out Saturday night, and into Sunday morning, while a cease-fire was reached late Monday, but broke down as new clashes erupted on Tuesday.

The violence began when an unknown gunman attempted to assassinate Mahmoud Khalil, but killed his companion instead. In retaliation, militants assassinated Abu Ashraf al Armoushi, a Palestinian military general from the Fatah group and three escorts.

Israeli Defense Forces Chief of staff Herzi Halevi and President Isaac Herzog made separate trips Wednesday to Israel’s northern border with Lebanon amid heightened tensions.

Ousama Saad, Member of the Lebanese Parliament, blamed Israel for the violence. Saad said, “The Zionist enemy is escalating against Lebanon and Palestine, and we must not help it by fomenting sedition inside Palestinian camps, which is in the Israeli interest.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing a huge domestic political crisis which threatens civil war after a judicial reform bill passed in the most religious extremist government in Israeli history. Netanyahu often has resorted in the past to creating violence among Palestinian groups in an effort to unite his domestic Jewish citizens. However, this time it might backfire on him, as many Israeli military personnel have pledged to not report for duty as a personal form of protest to the law which many say has taken away democracy from Israel.

Palestinian resistance groups in the Occupied West Bank have been carrying out operations to resist the occupation of their land, and the lack of human rights and dignity at the hands of the brutal Israeli military.

On Sunday, factions blazed away with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers and lobbed hand grenades in the refugee camp as ambulances zoomed through its narrow streets to take the wounded to the hospital.

Lebanese reaction

Palestinian Ambassador to Lebanon Ashraf Dabbour met with the commander of the Lebanese army, Gen. Joseph Aoun, on Wednesday to discuss developments in the camps and attempts to secure a new cease-fire.

Some sniper bullets and shells crossed the outskirts of the camp into the nearby neighborhoods in Sidon city, and a “B7” shell exploded near a point where several photographers and media staff were stationed, but no injuries were recorded.

Many Lebanese soldiers were deployed in the area, and Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi stressed that “the army is carrying out all its duties in this region, as in others, despite all the difficult circumstances.”

The Lebanese army said in a statement that a mortar shell hit a military barracks outside the camp and wounded one soldier, whose condition is stable.

Some residents in Sidon neighborhoods near the camp fled their homes as stray bullets hit buildings and shattered windows and storefronts.

UNRWA said two of its schools that serve some 2,000 students were damaged in the fighting, and it had suspended all its operations in the camp.

Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, condemned the clashes. “We call on the Palestinian leadership to cooperate with the army to control the security situation and hand over those meddling with security to the Lebanese authorities,” Mikati said in his statement.

https://strategic-culture.org/news/2023 ... n-lebanon/

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Palestinian resistance operation in Tel Aviv kills Israeli security guard
The attack comes on the anniversary of the Battle of the Unity of the Fields in the Gaza Strip

News Desk
AUG 6, 2023


Police and other emergency personnel at the scene of the resistance operation in Tel Aviv, 5 August 2023. (Photo Credit EPA/Abir Sultan)

A Palestinian resistance fighter opened fire and killed an Israeli police officer on a busy street in central Tel Aviv on 5 August before he was shot dead by a fellow officer, Al-Jazeera reported.

According to i24 News, Israeli police officers on motorcycles identified Kamel Abu Bakr, 22, a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s (PIJ) Saraya al-Quds Brigade, based on his behavior and clothing. When they attempted to question him, he pulled out his gun and shot one of the officers, Chen Amir, 42.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said Amir was critically hurt after being shot in the head. He was taken to the nearby Ichilov Hospital, where he later died.

Videos circulated online of police and civilians on Saturday running through the cafe-lined streets in the seaside metropolis.

Abu Bakr is from the town of Rummanah, near Jenin, a center of Palestinian resistance against occupation in the West Bank. Abu Bakr had been hiding in the Jenin refugee camp for the past six months. According to the Israeli Shin Bet, he had been wanted by Israeli security forces for opening fire at Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank.

On the night of the attack, the Israeli military measured Abu Bakr's home in Rummanah in preparation for its possible demolition.

Israel regularly demolishes the homes of Palestinians accused of carrying out resistance operations as a matter of policy.


Al-Jazeera noted the attack came a day after Israeli settlers rampaged through the West Bank town of Burqa, killing Palestinian Qusai Jamal Maatan, 19. Israeli police said they arrested two Israeli settlers in connection with the killing.

Earlier on Friday, Israeli soldiers shot dead another young Palestinian, Mahmoud Abu Saan, 18, during a pre-dawn raid.

Abu Bakr’s attack in Tel Aviv comes on the one-year anniversary of the fighting in the Gaza Strip dubbed the “Battle of the Unity of the Fields.”

On 5 August 2022, Israel carried out airstrikes killing 13 Palestinians in the first 24 hours, including a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) commander. Nearly half of the casualties were women and children, including five-year-old Alaa Quadma, who was killed in the opening Israeli air strike of the operation.

The PIJ was able to strongly confront Israel during the fighting, firing an estimated 1,175 rockets, mainly toward Israeli communities close to Gaza, and a few toward Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, with logistical assistance from Hamas.

https://new.thecradle.co/articles/pales ... rity-guard

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Palestinian Foreign Minister calls Biden administration weak, hopes China will help with two-state solution

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki also said that he hoped Saudi Arabia will not fall under US pressure and normalize relations with Israel before the end of the occupation

August 04, 2023 by Peoples Dispatch


Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki. (Photo: Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency)

During a press conference held in Ramallah on Thursday, August 3, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said that Palestine is increasingly looking to China to help achieve the goal of national self-determination.

When addressing press, al-Maliki also called the Biden administration weak and accused it of continuing the anti-Palestinian policies initiated under his predecessor Donald Trump, despite assurances to the contrary.

He noted that the Biden administration has failed to reopen the US consulate in Jerusalem which historically attended Palestinians and has refused to allow the opening of the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington DC as promised.

Al-Maliki said that Palestinians are “disappointed with the US administration of President Joe Biden for its failure to keep its promises it pledged to the Palestinians.” He said that the Biden administration had failed to “fulfill its promises to back down from the decision of former US president Donald Trump, who violated US policy and recognized Jerusalem” as the capital of Israel.

He also noted that the Biden administration has continued to remain silent on increasing Israeli violence in the occupied territories, the forced displacement of Palestinians, and the rising number of illegal settlements.

In the last three years, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem have seen an unprecedented and multifold increase in Israeli aggression. Israeli occupation forces have carried out near daily raids inside Palestinian localities, killing an ever increasing number of Palestinians.

Over 200 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli forces in the occupied territories already this year. This is a serious escalation compared to 2022 when a total of 204 Palestinians were killed in the entire year.

Israeli politicians have led or encouraged repeated incursions inside the Al-Aqsa mosque and other religious sites by illegal settlers, increasingly identified as apartheid. A larger number of Palestinians have also been forcefully displaced from their lands across the occupied territories and settler violence has risen drastically.

China should be included in future peace talks
Al-Maliki refuted claims that the US is pushing for fresh peace talks in the region, saying that “there is no peace process in the Middle East” right now. He also said that the Palestinian Authority (PA) would like the participation of China in any future talks.

He claimed that the Chinese are willing to help in the achievement of peace in the region and “Many countries in the world want China’s support as it has become a significant global player.”

PA President Mahmoud Abbas went to China earlier this year where President Xi Jinping announced a strategic partnership with Palestinians and expressed his country’s willingness to help Palestine achieve its goal of national self-determination.

Responding to a question about US pressure on Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Israel, al-Maliki noted that the Saudis have put several conditions for such a move, including the end of the Israeli occupation. He hoped that the Saudis would not capitulate under US pressure, unlike countries like the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan, which signed the so-called Abraham Accords in 2020-21 and normalized relations with Israel.

Al-Maliki regretted the PA’s decision to re-establish relations with the Biden administration, which had been broken during the Trump era, saying that the hope “that they would have the strength and courage to move forward” was never realized.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/08/04/ ... -solution/

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The situation in Israel and Palestine for August 1-9, 2023
August 10, 2023
Rybar



Internal political crisis and protests against government actions

Massive protests continue in Israel against the policies of the far-right government of Netanyahu and judicial reform. Since the beginning of August, rallies have been held in Beer Sheva , Maale Adumim , Tel Aviv , Haifa and other cities.

On Monday, MPs Mai Golan , Yariv Levin and Ofir Katz from the coalition-leading Likud party arrived at the organization's local branch in the city of Afula , where they were greeted with angry chants from demonstrators.

At the same time, the Arab citizens of Israel continue to ignore the protests. In their opinion, the Israeli opposition pays insufficient attention to the West Bank , where, with a coalition of far-right and ultra-Orthodox in Israel, pressure on the Palestinian population is only getting stronger.

In an interview with the Bloomberg news agency, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he was not going to carry out all the judicial reform, but would work on changing the composition of the committee for the selection of judges.

This may seem like some kind of attempt to reach a compromise, but you should not trust Netanyahu's words . The incumbent government had already promised to revise some of the provisions of the reform when it halted progress in March.

In fact, after the authorities got the breathing space they needed, the progress of the reform resumed, and the main points that significantly limited the power of the judiciary did not disappear.

Israeli-Palestinian conflict

In Tel Aviv, an armed Palestinian Kamal Abu Bakr opened fire on Israeli police officers. The Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility for this action .

According to Israeli media, police officers on motorcycles were able to identify Kamal Abu Bakr based on his behavior and clothing. According to the Shin Bet , he was wanted by security forces for opening fire on Israeli troops in the West Bank.

During an interrogation attempt, he took out a pistol and opened fire on the municipal security inspectors. During the attack, policeman Hen Amir was killed and two people were injured, the attacker was also killed.

This action fell on the anniversary of the fighting in the Gaza Strip , called the "Battle for the unity of the fronts", when on August 5, 2022, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced the launch of Operation Dawn against Islamic Jihad.

The IDF conducted a special operation in the city of Jenin , during which armed clashes broke out with Saraya al-Quds (the military wing of Islamic Jihad). As a result of the AoI, one Palestinian was arrested.

Jenin has long been the main symbol of armed Palestinian resistance in the West Bank, especially in recent years after the rise of the Jenin Brigade and other groups associated with Islamic Jihad and Hamas.

In the same context, the Israel Defense Forces carried out raids in the West Bank towns of Beit Furik , Barqa and Beit Fajar . A number of Palestinians were arrested, local residents in response began to throw stones at the Israeli security forces.

Air raid on Syria

Around two o'clock in the morning from August 6 to 7, the Israeli Air Force attacked military facilities of the Syrian Armed Forces on the outskirts of the Syrian capital Damascus . Syrian air defense managed to intercept the attack and shoot down part of the missiles. Four servicemen of the SAR Armed Forces were killed, four more were injured.

According to media reports, the targets of the strikes were the objects of Iranian "proxies" in the SAR, the fight against which against the backdrop of the political crisis helps Israel rally its own population and distract it from internal problems.

diplomatic background

US Deputy Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security Ronald Moultrie visited Israel as part of an American delegation , where he met with the head of the military-political department of the Israeli Ministry of Defense, Dror Shalom , and other key leaders.

During the four-day visit, the parties discussed ways to further strengthen bilateral cooperation in the field of intelligence and defense, and also discussed efforts to counter the activities of Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah group in the region.

In October, Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to China, originally scheduled for July, for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping . Prior to that, the head of the PNA, Mahmoud Abbas, visited Beijing .

In the media space, there are suggestions that there the Israeli Prime Minister may turn to Beijing for help in normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia , since US negotiating efforts on this issue have stalled.

In fact, the interaction between the Israelis and the Saudis, even without the formal establishment of a diplomatic mission. relations are well established: cooperation has been going on for a long time both in the economic plane and through the special services. Mutual opening of the embassy only legalizes the actual state of affairs.

In addition, in the context of the so-called " normalization " of relations between the two states, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said that next March, Saudi Arabia will give the go-ahead for direct flights (from Israel) to Mecca.

https://rybar.ru/obstanovka-v-izraile-i ... 2023-goda/

Google Translator

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HAIFA, ISRAEL – 2023/07/03: Reserve General Amiram Levin holds the Israeli flag during the demonstration outside the sea port of Haifa. Vowing to move ahead with a day of planned protests despite Israel launching a major military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, demonstrators against the government’s effort to overhaul the justice system blocked access to the Haifa port, as dozens of rallies also took place abroad. (Photo: Eyal Warshavsky/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images / The New Arab)

Former Israeli general accuses Israel of ‘war crimes’ reminiscent of Nazi Germany in West Bank
Originally published: The New Arab on August 13, 2023 by The New Arab Staff London (more by The New Arab) | (Posted Aug 16, 2023)

The Israeli army is committing crimes that resemble Nazi Germany in the occupied West Bank, a highly decorated former Israeli general on Sunday.

During an interview with Israel’s public broadcaster Kan Reshet Betradio, Amiram Levin, the former head of the Israeli army’s Northern Command, said of the occupied territories,

there hasn’t been a democracy there for 57 years, it’s total apartheid.

“The IDF, which is forced to exert sovereignty there, is rotting from the inside … it’s standing by, looking at the settler rioters and is beginning to be a partner to war crimes … these are deep processes” Levin continued.

However, it was when Levin was asked to elaborate on the “processes” that the former general invoked Nazi Germany.

“It’s hard for us to say it, but it’s the truth. Walk around Hebron, look at the streets. Streets where Arabs are no longer allowed to go on, only Jews. That’s exactly what happened there [in Nazi Germany], in that dark country,” Levin answered.

Far-right rising
Levin’s comments come after he delivered a scathing attack during a speech at a protest against the Israeli government’s judicial overhaul on Israel’s far-right cabinet ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, claiming they were trying to “drag you [Israelis] into war crimes”.

The general, who was also deputy head of Mossad, pointed to their backgrounds, saying as settlers “they do not know democracy”.

Analysts, human rights groups and international bodies, including those affiliated with the UN, accuse Israel of carrying out systematic apartheid against Palestinians in the illegally occupied West Bank.

The far-right coalition government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu has made Israel’s apartheid-like policies more blatant and harder to deny, with extremist ministers inciting violence and discrimination.

Recent months have seen both a rise in settler violence and Israeli state violence against Palestinians, with hundreds of cases of sometimes deadly settler attacks on Palestinian towns.

The Israeli army has recently carried out a host of deadly raids on locations in the occupied West Bank, with more Palestinians killed so far this year than in all of 2022.

https://mronline.org/2023/08/16/former- ... west-bank/

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Jihadists vs Fatah: The Trojan Horse in Lebanon's Palestinian camps

The recent outbreak of violence in Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp has sparked debate on security concerns, external machinations, Palestinian civil rights, and the fundamental question of the right to return.


Firas Shoufi
AUG 15, 2023


Photo Credit: The Cradle

The deadly clashes that erupted in late July in the Ain al-Hilweh camp, a prominent Palestinian refugee settlement in southern Lebanon, have cast a hot spotlight on the long-neglected issues of Palestinian arms and the rights of Palestinians in Lebanon.

Despite years of relative quiet, Ain al-Hilweh, the largest among the 13 Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, has been no stranger to such clashes over the past two decades.

The Lebanese authorities have erected a formidable concrete barrier around the camp in recent years - drawing comparisons to the Israeli apartheid wall in the occupied-West Bank - which was ostensibly built to fortify security and stymie the infiltration of jihadist elements into Ain al-Hilweh.

Fatah vs jihadists in Lebanon

On the morning of 29 July, in retaliation for the death of his brother, a Fatah gunman opened fire on a group of jihadists who had recently returned from Idlib, Syria. Intent on assassinating militant Mahmoud Khalil, he fatally shot Khalil's comrade instead.

The retaliatory gunfire that followed claimed the life of Fatah Brigadier General Abu Ashraf al-Armoushi and four of his companions in an ambush. The camp swiftly transformed into a battlefield, with Fatah and the Palestinian National Security - a PLO-affiliated military faction that collaborates closely with Lebanese security services - in gunfights against jihadist groups like ISIS, Fatah al-Islam, Jund al-Sham, and the Muslim Youth.

Machine guns roared, and mortars thundered as the clashes ravaged the camp, causing severe damage to Palestinian property. The impact of the skirmish even reached the streets of nearby Sidon, where shells left their mark.

The fighting claimed 13 lives, mostly from Fatah, while over 50 armed combatants and civilians were injured before a truce was declared. In its aftermath, Fatah emerged militarily weakened and disjointed, grappling with substantial losses. While the jihadists fought cohesively and without significant human losses, they depleted part of their weapons stockpile, which is difficult to replace quickly, and have been thrust into the national spotlight and come under increasing security pressure.

The Lebanese military also incurred setbacks in the fray, as a fortified position fell, and Lebanese soldiers sustained injuries, prompting the deployment of special forces around the camp to quell further escalation.

Palestinians caught in legal limbo

In recent years, Ain al-Hilweh has evolved into a haven for jihadists seeking sanctuary from Syria and Iraq's turbulent conflicts, and from clashes with the Lebanese army in the northern city of Tripoli.

Few of these militants are Palestinians; the majority are Lebanese and Syrians. The irony for many Lebanese political parties who spoke to The Cradle is that jihadists continue to infiltrate the camp today, despite the tight security measures around it. Lebanese military sources also confirm that it is impossible to deny entry to people, no matter how stringent the security measures they take.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian population within the camps is ensnared in a labyrinth of "legal" persecution, a plight exacerbated by the reluctance of Lebanese authorities to bestow full civil rights - including citizenship - on Palestinians, in fear that this may inadvertently pave the way for their permanent resettlement within Lebanese borders.

Over the years, numerous laws have been proposed to grant legitimate rights to Palestinians who have lived in Lebanon for generations, but MPs don't dare to bring these to parliament for a vote. The Christian political parties fear that bestowing these rights will further sway Lebanon's demographic in favor of Muslims, given the Muslim majority within the camps.

Beyond the confines of the camps, armed Palestinian factions maintain their presence in stategic locations around Lebanon, mainly in the south. Notable among these is the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), whose combatants are strategically positioned at the Naameh base along the coastal fringes between Beirut and the southern expanse. The group is also present in the Qusaya military base along the Lebanese-Syrian border. Similarly, Fatah al-Intifada, also known as the Abu Musa faction in honor of their founding leader Said al-Muragha who long opposed the leading Fatah faction, occupies positions near the Syrian border.

Pursuing justice and order in camp conflicts

In the past, these Palestinian military encampments served as key locations from which to repel Israeli advances and safeguard the Beirut-Damascus route in the Bekaa region. However, civilian urban growth around these bases, the maturation of Lebanon's own indigenous resistance forces, and Israel's impeded ability to attack Lebanon, have raised questions about the need for their continued presence. These developments have provided Lebanese politicians with a pretext to demand the decommissioning of the Palestinian factions - and even threaten the use of military force against them.

Despite the calm currently prevailing in Ain al-Hilweh, all sides warn that a new round of battles may erupt before control can be reestablished in the camp. Meanwhile, the Joint Palestinian Action Committee, which is made up of all Palestinian factions and enjoys official Lebanese cover, is working to implement the understandings stipulated in the final ceasefire.

In collaboration with the government-sanctioned Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee, they are working to hand over the culprits responsible for the killing of Brigadier General Armoush - the Fatah member whose actions ignited the conflict - along with other individuals wanted by the Lebanese judicial system.

Fatah has publicly accused a group of jihadists of killing Armoushi, and has expressed dissatisfaction with the concord between Hamas and the jihadists. Meanwhile, Hamas blames internal conflicts between Fatah leaders for inciting the outbreak of clashes in the camp.

An Israeli hand in the conflict?

Sources in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) inform The Cradle that the recent events are part of a scheme to sow strife in Palestinian camps to benefit the Israeli enemy. The sources say that the Israelis and their local agents are using inter-Palestinian discord to subvert the Palestinian right of return and help uncover the Palestinian resistance's weapons arsenal.

These sources further connect the latest clashes to the ramifications of the west’s decision to curtail financial support for UNRWA, the UN agency that serves Palestinian camps regionally, whose vital operations significantly waned during the tenure of former US President Donald Trump.

The clashes this time had a major political impact, given the political and security challenges that Lebanon is currently facing, daily violent confrontations with the Israelis in the Occupied Territories, the Fatah-Hamas struggle to control the West Bank, widespread speculation over a Saudi-Israeli normalization deal, and the notable lack of any “formal solution” to the conflict in Palestine.

Invariably, these critical events have also had internal implications on Lebanon’s political scene. Capitalizing on the chaos, traditional right-wing Lebanese Christian factions have renewed their opposition - not only against the weapons arsenals of the Palestinian factions, but also against the arms of the Lebanese resistance.

Last week the Lebanese army confiscated ammunition from an overturned truck belonging to Hezbollah in the Christian town of Kahale area, east of Beirut. Two people were killed after an exchange of fire between Hezbollah members and armed Christian residents.

A well-informed source within Fatah tells The Cradle that external actors orchestrated directives to the jihadist groups, with the explicit intent of provoking Fatah and tarnishing its reputation.

This calculated maneuver, it suggests, is part of an overarching scheme aligned with Israel's objectives to destabilize and eventually dismantle the Palestinian camps in Lebanon:

“In 2007, the Nahr al-Bared camp was demolished after a war between jihadist groups and the Lebanese army. Today they are trying to do it again. Fatah is keen on the security of the camp more than everyone else. However, the wanted persons must be handed over to reduce tension."

Conspiracy to dismantle the camp

Importantly, the jihadist scene within the camps is not monolithic in its intentions. Asbat al-Ansar, a formidable Al-Qaeda affiliate operating in Ain al-Hilweh, has abstained from engaging in acts of violence for several years. It maintains minimal relations with the Lebanese political forces, and enjoys a robust relationship with Hamas.

Mohammad al-Saadi, also known as Abu Mohjen and the de facto leader of this faction, has played a notable role in tempering tensions, despite being sought by the Lebanese judiciary in connection with the mid-1990s slaying of four judges in Sidon.

The increased prominence of jihadist groups in the refugee camps is considered suspicious by many in Fatah and other Palestinian factions, given that it bolsters a narrative that the camps are a haven for terrorists.

Some Palestinian jihadist groups have denied any connection to the killing of Armoushi, saying that the perpetrators are Lebanese jihadists - a claim The Cradle could not independently verify.

A source close to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a pivotal figure who has been closely involved in the truce efforts, informs The Cradle of a plan to destroy the refugee camp and involve the Lebanese army in clashes to undermine the right of return for Palestinians.

Disarmament debate

Regardless of the direct cause of the clashes between the jihadists and Fatah, the fallout invariably casts a pall over Palestinians in Lebanon. Instead of steering discourse toward securing Palestinian rights and integrating their arms into Lebanon's defense strategy, the recent events have renewed calls for a compromising barter between their rights and their weapons.

In practice, civil rights without weapons may embolden Israel and its western allies to believe that the Palestinians have given up their right of return. On the other hand, weapons without rights - and without organizing them within a comprehensive defensive strategy - allow terrorist groups and right-wing forces to incite against the Palestinians.

For parties close to the Lebanese resistance, the demand for Palestinian disarmament is believed to be a prelude to the demand for the disarmament of the Lebanese resistance.

Recently, it was reported that the PFLP-GC handed over some of its weapons to the Lebanese army. But prominent sources in the group confirmed to The Cradle that this transfer involved obsolete weaponry, particularly batches of surface-to-surface missiles. The sources emphasize that handing over Palestinian arms is an issue related to the conflict with the enemy, and not a barter over Palestinian civil rights.

Ain al-Hilweh's legacy of resilience

Members of various Palestinian factions tell The Cradle that, besides Israel, an increasing number of Arab and regional states are seeking to influence important West Asian issues, including that of the Palestinian presence in Lebanon. The financial support of Qatar for the jihadists is but one example; Doha's salaries to these foreign militants, they say, are far higher than salaries paid by Fatah.

Suspicions also swirled around the visit of Palestinian intelligence director Majed Faraj to Beirut, which took place just days before the clashes erupted. These allegations are unsubstantiated, however, with no credible sources affirming a link between the visit and the subsequent turmoil.

Ain al-Hilweh remains an important symbol of resistance. When, in 1982, the Israeli military descended upon Beirut, the camp managed to stand firm against the onslaught, resolutely thwarting Israeli troops while inflicting many casualties upon their ranks.

Today, trapped within the vortex of Fatah-jihadist power dynamics, the question asked by many is: Will the internal clashes destroy the camp when the entire military might of Israel could not?

https://new.thecradle.co/articles/jihad ... nian-camps