Day: 7 May 2022

Weather today in Palestine is partly cloudy and moderate in the daytime with a rise in temperature, which nevertheless remains 5°C below the seasonal average, according to the Palestinian Meteorological Department (PMD).

Winds are westerly to northwesterly, light to moderate, and sea waves are low.

Temperature in the capital, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem is expected to reach a high of 21°C and a low of 12°C, and in Ramallah and Hebron a high of 20°C and a low of 11°C. In Jericho, the Dead Sea, and the Jordan Valley temperature is expected to reach a high of 29°C and a low of 19°C, while it is expected to reach a high of 26°C and a low of 18°C in Gaza and the coastal areas.

Temperature is expected to rise again on Sunday but remains slightly below the seasonal average.

A significant rise in temperature is expected on Monday approaching 2°C above the seasonal average and again on Tuesday approaching 5°C above the seasonal average, said the PMD.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

The family home of a Palestinian detainee in Israel was demolished early this morning by the Israeli army, according to local sources

They told WAFA that an army unit raided the town of Silat al-Harthiyeh, west of the northern West Bank city of Jenin, and proceeded to demolish the family home of Omar Jaradat, detained in Israel and accused of killing an Israeli settler last December.

Witnesses said the army demolished the walls of the house making it impossible to live in.

Omar Jaradat’s house is the fourth for the same family the army has demolished as a collective punitive measure for allegedly taking part in the killing of the settler.

Three Palestinians were also injured by live bullets following clashes with the soldiers during the raid of the town.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

The United States State Department yesterday criticized Israeli plans to expand the illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories saying they exacerbate tensions and undermine trust between the parties.

“The Biden administration has been clear from the outset. We strongly oppose the expansion of settlements which exacerbates tensions and undermines trust between the parties,” said Jalina Porter, the State Department’s Deputy Spokesperson.

“Israel’s program of expanding settlements deeply damages the prospect for a two-state solution,” she said in a telephone briefing on Israel’s announcement of a meeting on May 12 to advance 4000 new West Bank settlement units.

In answering a question if there will be any repercussions, particularly related to US President Joe Biden’s visit next month to the region, Porter said the US administration has been clear “about the need to avoid unilateral steps that would exacerbate tensions and make it more difficult to preserve the viability of a two-state solution,” refusing to comment about Biden’s upcoming trip.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates today welcomed the position announced by the US State Department regarding the illegality of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, but considered it insufficient and does not rise to the level of the crimes of settlement construction.

The ministry said in a statement in response to the announcement by the Israeli occupation authorities of the approval of building 4,000 new settlement units in the West Bank, demolishing 12 villages in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron Governorate, and seizing 22,000 dunums of land in the Jordan Valley that “these plans are a flagrant violation of international law and the Geneva Conventions, a coup against the signed agreements, inflame tension and undermine trust and the two-state solution.”

It considered them an official Israeli contempt of the positions of the US administration and the international community on settlements, and systematic Israeli sabotage of regional and US efforts to achieve calm.

The ministry held the Israeli government fully and directly responsible for these expansionist colonial plans, and their repercussions on the chances of achieving peace, noting that they rise to the level of a war crime and a crime against humanity held accountable by international law.

It stressed that it is following up on these issues with the International Criminal Court and the United Nations and its councils and specialized organizations with the aim of mobilizing the widest condemnations of these plans, to exert pressure on the Israeli government to stop them immediately and to push the international community to stop the policy of double standards and impose sanctions on Israel for violating its obligations as an occupying power in accordance with the Geneva Conventions.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

A newly published United Nations report highlights the urgency of adopting a more strategic approach to address the economic and fiscal crisis faced by the Palestinian Authority and Government. It urges a coordinated and integrated response to resolve this precarious situation.

The report, issued by the office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO) for the upcoming meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) in Brussels on 10 May, warned of an uncoordinated approach to address the current political, economic and security challenges in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) which only risks perpetuating a continuous cycle of crisis management.

The report notes some improvements in the situation since the last meeting of the AHLC in November 2021. Some trends point to increasing activity and integration between the Israeli and Palestinian economies, particularly with respect to expanded access to the Israeli labor market. The number of workers crossing from the West Bank into Israel has increased to 153,000. Some 20,000 permits for Palestinians in Gaza to enter Israel for work or trade have been approved, with nearly 12,000 issued thus far. Trade in goods from the West Bank and from Gaza are higher than in many years, with this trade going mostly to Israel.

This increase is due to some recent Israeli decisions to make some improvements to access and movement. The report notes that such initiatives will improve Palestinian livelihoods and ease tensions in the short term. Nonetheless, increasing economic integration requires updating the regulatory framework governing the relationship between the Israeli and Palestinian economies, or risks exacerbating asymmetries.

The report also highlights that in the West Bank, the space for Palestinian economic activity, most notably in Area C, does not allow for needed Palestinian economic growth. Israeli movement and land-use restrictions, continued settlement activity and expansion, and the lack of Israeli-issued building permits, which are nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain, underscore this negative development.

Improved Palestinian access to Area C and allowing Palestinians to address their development needs would have a positive impact on Palestinian economic development. The sectors that would benefit most are agriculture, minerals, mining, construction, tourism, and telecommunications.

The report notes that economic steps alone, including Palestinian fiscal reforms and further easing of Israeli access and movement restrictions — while essential and desperately needed — will not sustainably address the multiple crises facing the PA. The report calls on all actors to push beyond a conflict-management paradigm to a conflict-resolution paradigm.

United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, stated that “With this perspective, there are measures that can be taken immediately to improve the situation. There is a need for a package of incremental, durable, and meaningful steps that would reflect a more coherent strategy to strengthen the Palestinian Authority and clearly chart the way toward a two-state solution. Getting there requires political leadership.”

The report urges Israelis, Palestinians, regional States, and the broader international community to concrete steps to encourage the parties to further engage with each other and the international community with this goal in mind.

The Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) serves as the principal policy-level coordination mechanism for development assistance to the OPT. The AHLC is chaired by Norway and co-sponsored by the EU and the US. In addition, the United Nations participates together with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The AHLC seeks to promote dialogue between donors, the Palestinian Authority, and the Government of Israel.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

The Israeli occupation authorities today notified a resident of the village of al-Tuwani, east of the town of Yatta in the southern West Bank province of Hebron, of a military order to demolish a poultry farm he owns within 96 hours.

Fouad al-Imour, a local anti-colonization activist, told WAFA that the Israeli army notified Suleiman al-Adra, a local Palestinian resident, to empty the farm within 96 hours in order to demolish it.

The village is located in an area classified as Area C which makes more than two-thirds of the occupied West Bank under full Israeli military and civil control where construction permits are almost impossible to obtain for the local Palestinian population, forcing many of them to embark on construction despite the risk of possible demolition.

The village is also part of the Masafer Yatta region, where the Israeli Supreme Court recently upheld the demolition of 12 Palestinian hamlets in the region, which could potentially leave over 1,300 Palestinian residents of the area homeless.

Masafer Yatta residents and Israeli rights groups say that many of the Palestinian families have been permanently residing in the 3,000-hectare area since before Israel captured the West Bank in June 1967. Their eviction would constitute a breach of international law.

In a statement, the Israeli rights group B’Tselem, said: “The justices have thus proved once again that the occupied cannot expect justice from the occupier’s court.”

“The decision, weaving baseless legal interpretation with de-contextualized facts, makes it clear that there is no crime which the high court justices will not find a way to legitimize.”

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), which along with Masafer Yatta residents petitioned against the expulsion, said the verdict would have “unprecedented consequences.”

“The Supreme Court has officially authorized leaving entire families, with their children and their elderly, without a roof over their heads,” ACRI said in a statement.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

The Presidency of the State of Palestine strongly condemned today the deadly “terror” attack east of the Suez Canal in the Sinai Peninsula earlier today which resulted in the killing of one Egyptian officer and 10 soldiers.

The Presidency said in a statement, “President Mahmoud Abbas extends his deepest condolences to his brother, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, and to the families of the victims of this heinous crime, which targeted a group of heroes of the Egyptian army.”

The Presidency affirmed “the solidarity of the people and its leadership of Palestine with our brethren in Egypt in their war against terrorism, wishing Egypt, its people and its army continued stability and prosperity.”

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Jordan warns about Israel’s potential eviction of Palestinians in Masafer Yatta

Hardline Israeli settlers today uprooted and chopped off about 30 olive saplings and trees for Palestinian farmers in the town of Kafr al-Dik, in the occupied West Bank province of Salfit, as well as attacked Palestinian homes in the village of Burin in Nablus province, according to local sources.

In Salfit province, witnesses told WAFA that a group of Israeli settlers uprooted and chopped off nearly 30 olive saplings belonging to local Palestinian citizens from the town of Kafr al-Dik.

In Nablus province, Israeli settlers from the illegal settlement of Braha pelted stones at homes of Palestinian civilians in the village of Burin, provoking confrontations with residents. No injuries were reported.

Although violence and vandalism by Israeli settlers are commonplace throughout the year, attacks and acts of vandalism by Israeli settlers intensified during the past six months across the occupied West Bank, especially in the north of the territory.

Israeli settler violence against Palestinians and their property is routine in the West Bank and is rarely prosecuted by Israeli occupation authorities.

There are over 600,000 Israeli settlers living in colonial settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in violation of international law and consensus.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)