Palestinians slam Pompeo over pro-settlement efforts
Palestinians slam Pompeo over pro-settlement efforts/node/1767446/middle-east
Palestinians slam Pompeo over pro-settlement efforts
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, walks with U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman as he prepares to board a plane at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Friday, Nov. 20, 2020. Pompeo is en route to the United Arab Emirates. (AP)
Palestinians slam Pompeo over pro-settlement efforts
US actions ‘will not change international consensus,’ says former UN envoy
Updated 24 November 2020
Daoud Kuttab
AMMAN: Palestinian officials have downplayed the effectiveness of a statement by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during his recent visit to Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
The statement included a move to allow products made in the occupied territories to be labeled “Made in Israel,” a clear contradiction to recent UN Security Council resolutions and efforts by the EU to reject such labeling.
Nasser Al-Kiddwa, former Palestinian envoy to the UN, told Arab News that the US efforts are “dangerous,” despite being ineffective.
“This is a dangerous move even though it will not have much of an effect and is reversible,” he said.
In harsh comments, Al-Kiddwa said that, while President Donald Trump’s administration is keen to help Israelis and settlers, the country’s efforts constitute helping Israel “commit a war crime.”
“While the Trump team wants to support settlements and settlers, their action makes the US an accomplice in a war crime,” he said.
Al-Kiddwa said the Pompeo statement violates UN Council Resolution 2334, which calls for differentiating between the West Bank and Israel. He said it was also a clear violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Jamal Dajani, a lecturer at San Francisco State university, said the Trump administration is not “recognizing the reality on the ground,” but rather creating its own fictitious reality by implementing Benjamin Netanyahu’s settler-colonial vision.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s statement violates UN Council Resolution 2334, which calls for differentiating between the West Bank and Israel.
Nasser Al-Kiddwa, Former Palestinian envoy to UN
Dajani, who previously served as director of strategic communications and media in the Palestinian prime minister’s office, said the “true reality on the ground” is that Area C in the West Bank is an internationally recognized occupied territory. He added that the presence of Israeli colonial settlements in the region is a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”
Al-Kiddwa, who is a member of the Fatah Central Committee, told Arab News that the US action will not alter the international consensus. “This is a biased administration that does not care about international law or the future of the region.”
He called on the newly elected administration in the US to reverse the decision.
“As a world citizen, I believe that the new administration must reverse all the decisions that were carried out without coordination with the US Congress, which are in clear violation of the way things are carried out,” he said.
Wadie Abunassar, a Haifa-based political analyst and the director of the International Centre for Consultations, told Arab News that the Trump administration has ignored the more than 7 million Palestinians to the west of the Jordan River.
“This administration repeatedly damaged US chances to be perceived as an honest broker by the vast majority of Middle East residents. The US would do well by respecting international law and encouraging Israel to do so.”
Senior Palestinian officials contacted by Arab News said that the gifts being bestowed on the Netanyahu government will not change anything on the ground.
“Trump and Pompeo are playing in lost time and their actions will not change anything regarding the occupied territories.”
Biden’s remarks on Gaza hostages ‘setback’ for negotiations: Hamas
“We endured three days that can be considered hell,” said Mohammed Hamad, a 24-year-old resident of eastern Rafah who was among the 300,000 Palestinians that Israel says have fled the fighting
Israel has killed more than 34,700 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory
Updated 19 sec ago
AFP
GAZA: Remarks by US President Joe Biden that a ceasefire in Gaza would be possible if Hamas released its hostages are a “setback” to negotiations, the Palestinian goup said Sunday.
“We condemn this position by the US president, we consider it a setback from the outcomes of the latest round of negotiations, which led to the movement’s agreement to the proposal put forward by mediators,” Hamas said in a statement.
Biden said on Saturday that a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war would be possible “tomorrow” if Hamas gave up hostages seized in its Oct. 7 attack.
The US president raised the topic of the hostages during a speech in Seattle after warning Israel he would stop supplying artillery shells and other weapons if it sent ground troops into the city of Rafah.
Negotiations between Hamas and Israel for a truce and hostage exchange deal, mediated by Egypt, Qatar, and the US, appear to have stalled amid Israeli military action in the southern Gaza city.
Hamas said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had “rushed to overturn” the talks by launching an offensive in Rafah.
The militant group accused the Israeli government of “escalating their brutal massacres in various areas of the Gaza Strip” and “reaffirming their pursuit of continuing the genocidal
war in Gaza.”
Israel defied international opposition this week and sent tanks and troops into eastern Rafah, effectively shutting a key aid crossing.
On Saturday, the Israeli military expanded an evacuation order for eastern Rafah and said 300,000 Palestinians
had left the area.
War-weary Gazans flooded toward coastal areas of the Gaza Strip’s southern city of Rafah, fleeing heavy bombardment in eastern zones after Israel ordered them to evacuate.
“We endured three days that can be considered hell,” said Mohammed Hamad, a 24-year-old resident of eastern Rafah who was among the 300,000 Palestinians that Israel says have fled the fighting.
Eastern parts of the city have been heavily bombarded in recent days, according to witnesses, as Israel sent tanks and ground troops into the areas in “targeted raids.”
“They were among the worst nights for us since the beginning of the war,” Hamad said from Al-Mawasi, an area Israel has designated a “humanitarian zone” despite aid groups warning that it is unprepared for such an influx.
Rafah’s population had swelled to around 1.4 million after hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled fighting in other areas of the Gaza Strip and sought shelter there during more than seven months of war.
“They started by distributing flyers in the morning, and immediately began brutal artillery and aerial bombardment without giving people a chance to think or organize their belongings properly,” Hamad said.
AFP photographers saw dozens of families loading furniture and household items on trucks and fleeing from Rafah, many heading for Khan Yunis, the main city in the south of the Palestinian territory.
Many people, especially women and children, lingered on streets outside their homes before moving out.
Greek premier to visit Turkiye in quest for better relations
President Erdogan says he wishes to ‘raise the level of bilateral ties to a new level’
Updated 45 min 28 sec ago
AFP
ISTANBUL: Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will be received on Monday in Ankara by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in the latest sign of warming relations between the NATO neighbors.
Diplomats said the day-long visit marks a new phase in their relations after decades of tensions, occasionally broken by brief reconciliation periods.
It follows Erdogan’s trip to Greece in December.
In an interview published on Sunday in the Greek newspaper Kathimerini, Erdogan said talks would focus on “resolving problems” between the two neighbors.
“It falls to us to calm relations between the two countries and ensure that peace and tranquility reign forever on both sides of the Aegean Sea,” the Turkish leader said.
He added he wished to “raise the level of bilateral relations to a new level.”
In December, the regional rivals — divided over the island of Cyprus and dealing with migration through their respective waters — signed a declaration calling for “friendly and good neighborly relations, recognizing the importance of mutual respect and peaceful coexistence.”
But this appeasement, also helped by solidarity after an earthquake killed more than 50,000 in southeastern Turkiye in February 2023, has been undermined by Turkiye converting another former Byzantine church into a mosque.
After four years of restoration, the former Kariye Orthodox church in Istanbul reopened as a mosque on May 6.
The 2020 decision to convert the church came after Muslim services resumed at the 6th-century former Byzantine cathedral of Hagia Sophia. The landmark building has been a museum since 1935.
The changes were part of Erdogan’s efforts to galvanize his more conservative and nationalist supporters.
“There’s no shortage of mosques in the city. That is no way to treat cultural patrimony,” Mitsotakis said a week ago, although he has also said that “channels of conversation must remain open.”
Mitsotakis told Greek television station Alpha TV on Saturday that he will use Monday’s talks to push Erdogan to “reverse” Kariye’s conversion.
Last Monday, Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis called the move a “provocation” but reiterated that “Athens is seeking as long a period of calm as possible in Greek-Turkish relations.”
Last December’s meeting did lead to some breakthroughs, such as new special visas for Turks to visit Greek islands near the Turkish coast. That has led to a tripling of Turkish visitors.
And Erdogan has not repeated any of his earlier threats to invade Greek islands to prevent their supposed militarization — threats that led the US Congress to block deliveries of F-16 fighters to Turkiye.
That veto was lifted in January, while the US approved the delivery of F-35s to Greece.
Since Turkiye’s military moves in 1974, disagreements remain over Cyprus, which is divided into the internationally recognized state of Cyprus in the south and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is recognized only by Turkiye.
Turkiye and Greece have also struggled to cooperate on migration.
Migrants from Asia and Africa use the seas around both countries to reach Europe.
Frankly Speaking: Where will Gazans go after Rafah’s invasion?
Arab League assistant secretary general says Israel “mean and malignant” in seeking to drive Palestinians out and take the land for itself
Hossam Zaki also sets out expansive agenda of the upcoming Arab League summit in Bahrain
Updated 56 min 33 sec ago
Arab News
DUBAI: If Arab countries really cared about Gaza, they would throw open their borders to Palestinian refugees. That is a claim made repeatedly by Israel since the Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7 last year sparked the conflict in the Gaza Strip.
According to Ambassador Hossam Zaki, assistant secretary-general to the Arab League, this argument is deeply flawed — ignoring the fact that Arab nations already host millions of Palestinian refugees.
Furthermore, Zaki believes this argument ignores the stark reality that once the people of Gaza are displaced, the Israeli government is unlikely to permit their return — opting instead to seize the land for the state of Israel.
“If we really want the truth, the Israeli wish is to see that the Palestinian population would disappear from the Occupied Territories,” Zaki told Katie Jensen, host of the Arab News current affairs program “Frankly Speaking.”
Hossam Zaki, assistant secretary-general of the Arab League, appearing on “Frankly Speaking.” (AN photos)
He added: “From the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, they would love for the Palestinians just to vanish. We all know that, because we know that they want the land. They want to grab the territory. They want to annex the territory to their state.”
In a wide-ranging interview, in which he discussed the forthcoming Arab League summit in Bahrain on May 16, efforts to halt Israel’s assault on Rafah, and the diminishing prospects for a two-state solution, Zaki said previous mass displacements would not be repeated.
“The Palestinians have learned from the mistakes of the past — from the 1948 war and 1967 war — that once they move out of their territory, the territory is confiscated by Israel, taken under control by Israel. And it seems to be such an uphill battle to get it back,” he said.
“The hope of getting back territory is ever so pale. So, what we are doing is, we are assisting the Palestinians to hold on to their territory, to hold on to their land, and not to move out of the land, because they know the consequences of moving out.”
Zaki was equally vehement in his rejection of the Israeli suggestion that the Arab states had failed to offer sanctuary to Palestinian refugees.
“They (the Israelis) can criticize us all they want,” he said. “We have Palestinians living in all Arab countries, some in refugee camps — very, very few — but most living like the normal citizens of these countries.
“In Egypt and in the Gulf countries, in Jordan, in North Africa, all Arab countries, you have Palestinians living.
“Normally, that is a criticism that we are willing to take, because we know that whatever is said in this regard means only to evacuate the territory for the benefit of the Israelis who want to grab it.”
Since the war in Gaza began seven months ago, the Arab League has been actively involved in trying to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, to arrange for sufficient aid to enter the enclave, and to keep the goal of Palestinian statehood on the agenda.
Hossam Zaki, assistant secretary-general of the Arab League, speaks to “Frankly Speaking” host Katie Jensen. (AN photos)
Zaki said the Arab League and its “heavyweight members” — including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, and Jordan — had continued to promote the Arab Peace Initiative, first unveiled 20 years ago, and were working to stop the “killing madness” continuing.
“But nothing has been successful so far,” he said. “Even the only resolution that the UN Security Council was able to adopt in order to stop the war, to cease the fire, was not implemented. It’s been adopted since, what, one month now? Nothing. As if there is nothing.”
Zaki believes Israel has been allowed to act with impunity owing to the protection and largesse of the US.
“Israel is basically a country that is pampered by the US, pampered by many of its allies, accomplices, so-called friends in the West,” he said.
“They condone what it is doing and they cannot stop it. They cannot stop this madness. Unfortunately, they gave it a carte blanche since the beginning and this is where we are.
“Seven months in this war — this criminal war — and nothing is happening. They are not capable of reigning in this country, this government of extremists.”
Asked whether the Arab League itself shares part of the blame for failing to bring an end to the conflict, Zaki laid responsibility entirely on Washington.
“Why would we — how could we — blame the Arab League?” he said. “The Arab League is not an accomplice in this. The Arab League is not giving bombs to Israel. The Arab League is not giving ammunition to Israel. The Arab League is not funding the Israeli aggression.
“The Arab League is a regional organization, a respectable regional organization, that is seeking peace, that is talking politics. It’s a diplomatic organization. We are willing to engage with whomever is seeking peace as well on the other side.
“Why do we say the US and the West? Because it is the US that’s funding Israel. It keeps transferring money to Israel, aid to Israel, munitions, bombs, weapons, whatever — you name it.”
Israel’s months-long bombardment and strangulation of aid flows has devastated Gaza’s infrastructure. Zaki believes Israel has deliberately sought to make Gaza inhospitable to compel the Palestinian population to abandon their land and accept refugee status abroad.
“The Israelis, in the nasty, very nasty, war against the Palestinians in Gaza, what they’re trying to do is not only to kill Palestinians … they did something which is much more nasty, actually: They have destroyed the infrastructure of the Gaza Strip,” he said.
“They’ve destroyed the health infrastructure, the education infrastructure, the water infrastructure, the electricity infrastructure. This is mean and malignant, and they want to make it a point for the Palestinians who remain in the Gaza Strip — most of the inhabitants — to find this place uninhabitable.
“When the war ends, all the Palestinians would look around and see that this has become totally uninhabitable, so they would want to leave. But surprise to them, I would tell you from now — and mark my words — that is not going to happen.
“They’re going to reconstruct their state, their country. They’re going to reconstruct Gaza, and the Arabs are going to help them. You bet on that. And the international community has enough decent people, enough peace-loving people, who believe in Palestinian rights and who will help them rebuild their country after all the crimes that Israel has committed there.”
Furthermore, Israel has threatened to take over the Philadelphi Corridor — a narrow strip of land along the Gaza-Egypt border, established under the Philadelphi Accord in 2005 and which authorized Egypt to deploy 750 border guards to police its side of the border.
If Israel were to seize control of the Philadelphi Corridor, it could undermine the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty, in which Israel agreed to withdraw from the Sinai in exchange for peace with Egypt and created the current border that bisects Rafah.
“They are playing with fire, and I think they know that,” said Zaki, himself an Egyptian diplomat.
“Those who are taking decisions on the Israeli side are taking a big risk. I do not think that, in their right mind, they would want to see an undermining of the main pillar of peace in the region, which is the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty of 1979.”
Preparations are underway for the 33rd Arab League summit, during which the leaders of the 22 member states will discuss common challenges facing the region.
With multiple conflicts blighting the Middle East and North Africa, Zaki said there would be “a hefty agenda” this year. “Obviously the issue of the war on Gaza is going to be left, right and center in all of this,” he said.
“Sudan is a big issue for us. The war on Sudan has not receded. It’s been going on for more than a year. It’s unfortunate. We need to address that. The situation in Libya. The situation with Yemen is still a problem. Syria is still an issue for us.
“And, we have a set of other socioeconomic resolutions that are prepared for the leaders to adopt in their meetings. So we do have quite a hefty agenda for our summit this year.”
High on that agenda will no doubt be the prospects of reviving the two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“There is no alternative to that solution,” said Zaki. “The Palestinians should have their own state. They should have their own independent contiguous state. Nothing should stand in their way and nothing, really, should justify assisting Israel in diluting this solution.”
But, given the destruction in Gaza, the ongoing spread of settlements in the West Bank, and the deep hostility felt on both sides, some might argue the region is moving further away from the two-state solution.
“No, we’re not moving further away,” said Zaki. “I think the world — which has pretty much paid lip service to this two-state solution for a couple of decades now — is now realizing that, well, lip service is not useful anymore, and we should really engage in active steps, like many European leaders have been saying, active steps.
“Even US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that several months ago. We should all engage in active steps to make true the Palestinian state — to make it come about and to make it a reality.
Hossam Zaki, assistant secretary-general of the Arab League, speaks to “Frankly Speaking” host Katie Jensen. (AN photos)
“This is going to happen in the UN; one step closer, one step closer to Palestinian statehood. And things are going to move in this direction.
“The Israelis will have to resist that as they want to, and as they refuse to engage in peace talks, and they refuse to agree on Palestinian statehood. But it’s not up to them.
“We are trying to convince the rest of the world, especially the Western world, that Palestinian statehood should not be subject to an Israeli veto. Because if we do give the Israelis the veto over this, I think they will never agree on it. And a Palestinian state will never see the light of day.”
Kuwait forms new government headed by Ahmad Abdullah Al-Sabah
Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah dissolved parliament on Friday in a televised speech
Updated 17 min 50 sec ago
Arab News
RIYADH: Kuwait formed a new cabinet headed by Ahmad Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, Kuwait News Agency reported on Sunday.
Imad Mohamed Abdulaziz Al-Atiqi, Anwar Ali Abdullah Al-Mudhaf and Abdullah Ali Abdullah Al-Yahya retained their posts as oil, finance and foreign ministers respectively.
Sheikh Fahad Yousef Saud Al-Sabah also held onto his deputy prime minister and minister of interior and defense portfolio, as did Minister of Health Dr. Ahmad Abdulwahab Ahmad Al-Awadi.
Abdulrahman Badah Al-Mutairi retained his Minister of Information and Culture role, as did Adel Mohammad Al-Adwani who remains Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research.
Nora Mohammad Al-Mashaan retained her Minister of Public Works and Minister of Municipality Affairs post.
Amthal Hadi Al-Huwailah was appointed Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Minister of Social Affairs, Family and Childhood Affairs.
Omar Saud Abdulaziz Al-Omar was appointed Minister of Commerce and Industry and Minister of State for Communication Affairs.
Shereeda Abdullah Al-Moushejri was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs.
Mohammad Ibrahim Al-Wasmi was appointed Minister of Justice and Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs.
Mohammad Abdulaziz Bushehri was appointed Minister of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy and Minister of State for Housing Affairs.
Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah dissolved parliament on Friday in a televised speech.
Donors pledge over $2 billion for Gaza at Kuwait conference
The conference said the funds would be dispersed over two years, with the possibility of an extension
The initiative is designed “to mobilize efforts to support life-saving humanitarian interventions in the Gaza Strip”
Updated 12 May 2024
AFP
KUWAIT CITY: A conference of international donors in Kuwait pledged over $2 billion in aid to Gaza Sunday as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an “immediate” ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.
The conference, organized by the International Islamic Charitable Organization (IICO) and UN humanitarian coordination agency OCHA, said the funds would be dispersed over two years, with the possibility of an extension.
The initiative is designed “to mobilize efforts to support life-saving humanitarian interventions in the Gaza Strip, and to support the prospects for early recovery for the population,” IICO general manager Bader Saud Al-Sumait said.
It would be applied on five different tracks — “life-saving interventions, shelter, health, education, and economic empowerment,” Sumait said as he read the conference’s final statement.
Guterres urged an immediate halt to the war, the return of hostages held in Gaza and a “surge” in humanitarian aid to the besieged Palestinian territory.
“I repeat my call, the world’s call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages and an immediate surge in humanitarian aid,” Guterres said in a video address.
“But a ceasefire will only be the start. It will be a long road back from the devastation and trauma of this war,” he added.
Israeli strikes on Gaza continued on Sunday after it expanded an evacuation order for Rafah despite an international outcry over its military incursion into eastern areas of the city, effectively shutting a key aid crossing.
“The war in Gaza is causing horrific human suffering, devastating lives, tearing families apart and rendering huge numbers of people homeless, hungry and traumatized,” Guterres said.
Meeting Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah, the UN chief accepted an honorary shield “on behalf of the United Nations, and especially on behalf of the almost 200 members of the UN that were killed in Gaza.”
On Friday in Nairobi, Guterres warned that Gaza faced an “epic humanitarian disaster” if Israel launched a full-scale ground operation in Rafah.
Gaza’s bloodiest-ever war began following Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched a retaliatory offensive that has killed more than 35,034 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
