Political chaos in Ramallah continues as Palestinian President and George Mitchell are due back
Marian Houk
October 06, 2009
After opening a new Palestinian embassy in Rome on Tuesday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is reportedly heading back toward Ramallah, where he will have to face the music -- anger, outrage, disbelief, frustration and humiliation at the decision to withdraw support for a resolution endorsing the Goldstone report on last winter's Israeli massive military operation in Gaza.
The only explanation given is that the Palestinians came under strong U.S. pressure, or "intense diplomacy". And, this explanation was only made in media reports, and not in any statement to the Palestinian people.
George Mitchell is also reportedly heading for the region to see if he can restart direct Palestinian-Israeli negotiations that faltered in 2008 when it became apparent that the Annapolis process had run its course without achieving its goal of establishing a Palestinian State by the end of '08. It was the Palestinian leadership which officially called off the negotiations, however, during Israel's military offensive against Gaza last winter -- precisely what the Goldstone Fact-Finding Mission, mandated by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Returning to negotiations in the present conditions might be the last straw ... maybe even if the U.S. is ready, as reports in Israel have suggested, to apply "significant pressure" on the Israeli government in exchange for the Palestinian move to withdraw support for the Goldstone report.
It is hard to predict success for Mitchell's efforts, after the Palestinian leadership has been so deeply undermined by the decision itself, combined with what might possibly be a greater failure of leadership in carelessly not explaining to its people what was going on.
These actions, almost everybody in Ramallah seems to believe, are contrary to the Palestinian national interest. Palestinians in Gaza are furious, and the Hamas leadership has warned that this might affect negotiations aimed at Palestinian reconcilation, and next year's expected Palestinian presidential and parliamentary elections.
"In a single phone call to his man in Geneva", Amira Hass (who lives in Ramallah) has written in Haaretz, "Mahmoud Abbas has demonstrated his disregard for popular action, and his lack of faith in its accumulative power and the place of mass movements in processes of change. For nine months, thousands of people - Palestinians, their supporters abroad and Israeli anti-occupation activists - toiled to ensure that the legacy of Israel's military offensive against Gaza would not be consigned to the garbage bin of occupying nations obsessed with their feelings of superiority. Thanks to the Goldstone report, even in Israel voices began to stammer about the need for an independent inquiry into the assault. But shortly after Abbas was visited by the American consul-general on Thursday, the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization got on the phone to instruct his representative on the United Nations Human Rights Council to ask his colleagues to postpone the vote on the adoption of the report's conclusions ... A great deal of political folly and short-sightedness was bared by that phone call". Amira Hass' article can be read in full here.
Also today, Khaled Abu Toameh reported in the Jerusalem Post that "Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is considering firing a number of his top aides who advised him to withdraw a motion to the UN Human Rights Council regarding the findings of the commission of inquiry led by Justice Richard Goldstone into Operation Cast Lead ... A senior PA official in Ramallah claimed that some of Abbas's advisers had misled him into thinking that there wasn't enough support among members of the UN Human Rights Council for the Palestinians' request to endorse the findings of the Goldstone commission. 'Some advisers misled the president and lied to him', the official said. 'They did not tell him the truth'. Abbas was now considering firing the advisers, 'because of the huge damage they caused to the Palestinian Authority's credibility', the official said. He added that Abbas was shocked by the strong condemnations issued by many Palestinians and Arabs in response to his decision. He [Abbas, apparently] was particularly enraged by the response of the Arab League and Egypt, both of which had opposed his decision to withdraw the motion. The PA official did not name the advisers who had allegedly misled Abbas. Meanwhile, sources close to Prime Minister Salaam Fayad strongly denied that he had been involved in the controversial decision. The sources said Fayad had expressed his opposition to the decision to withdraw the motion before it was taken. Fayad is said to have relayed his position to US diplomats who tried to persuade him to withdraw the resolution. Fayad also reportedly expressed discontent with the apparent shift in Washington's policy toward construction in the settlements. The US administration is reported to have abandoned its earlier demand that Israel freeze all construction work in the settlements so as to pave the way for the resumption of peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel". This report can be read in full here.
Palestinian political figures continue to float ideas about UN moves that might remedy the "mistake" made concerning the Goldstone report -- but it is very doubtful that they would readily find support in the UN for any correctional actions at the present time. The international community has agreed to take another look at the Goldstone report in March 2010, and the Palestinian leadership won't be able to change that now.
The Israeli Arab political party, Balad, whose stronghold is in the northern Galilee region of the country, is reportedly about to hold a meeting to call for the resignation of the Palestinian Authority -- even though party members are Israeli citizens and not governed from Ramallah, which is occupied and in fact ultimately ruled by the Israeli Ministry of Defense.
And, Mahmoud Abbas is not only Palestinian Authority President -- he is also the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and of Fatah, the largest Palestinian political party...
Haaretz reported today that "For the first time in history, an Israeli Arab political party challenged the Palestinian leadership on Tuesday, calling for the immediate dismissal of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas has faced harsh criticism over recent days following his decision not to ask the United Nations Human Right Council to vote on the findings of the Goldstone report, which concludes that both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes during Israel's offensive in Gaza last winter ... Members of Fatah, Abbas' own party, have also unofficially asked the Palestinian President to do what must be done to prevent this move from harming the party's standing among the Palestinian public. The head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Ahmed Jibril, openly called on Abbas to 'go home', on Monday. The council of Palestinian organizations in Europe also issued a call for Abbas to step down in light of the damage to the Palestinian public's interests he had caused ... On top of all that, the Palestinian government of Salam Fayyad convened on Monday and issued a statement containing veiled criticism of Abbas. The statement said that 'we mustn't give up the opportunity to go after those who committed war crimes during Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip'." This report is posted here.
A separate report in Haaretz reveals that "Israel, meanwhile, has changed its diplomatic policy on the report, which it had vocally rejected as biased. The Foreign Ministry has instructed Israeli spokesmen not to comment on the report ... The intense criticism of Abbas has apparently prompted some Fatah officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, to call on Abbas to resign 'in light of the damage he is causing to the Palestinian cause'. Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas prime minister in the Gaza Strip, on Monday accused Abbas of betraying the Palestinian people and of being an accomplice in the Israeli plot to neutralize the Goldstone report. At a specially convened press conference in Gaza, Haniyeh went on to call Abbas' actions 'unprecedented'." This Haaretz report is here.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Cook has fleshed out the argument that Israeli threats concerning a telecommunications deal for a second Palestinian mobile telephone operator played a big role in the Palestinian decision to "postpone" discussion on the Goldstone report. In an article published in : "Wataniya´s planned launch earlier this year had to be pushed back and the company has threatened to pull out of the deal if the new October 15 deadline is missed. If it does, the Palestinian Authority will have to repay $140m in licensing fees and could be liable for hundreds of millions more that Wataniya has invested in building 350 communication masts across the West Bank. According to Who Profits?, an Israeli organization that investigates links between Israel and international companies in exploiting the occupied territories, Israel has a vested interest in limiting the success of the Palestinian mobile phone industry and protecting its control over extensive parts of the West Bank it wants for Jewish settlement.
The only existing Palestinian operator, Jawwal, a subsidiary of PalTel, has been blocked from building communications infrastructure in the so-called Area C of the West Bank, comprising 60 per cent of the territory, which is designated under full Israeli control. Instead, four Israeli companies – Cellcom, Orange, Pelephone and Mirs – have built an extensive network of antennas and transmission stations for Jewish settlers in Area C. Mirs, a subsidiary of Motorola Israel, also has an exclusive licence to provide cellular services to the Israeli military. Typically, Palestinians travelling outside the major population areas of the West Bank find a limited or non-existent Jawwal service and therefore have to rely on the Israeli companies. A World Bank report last year found that as much as 45 per cent of the Palestinian mobile phone market may be in the hands of the Israeli companies. In violation of the Oslo Accords, these firms do not pay taxes to the PA for their commercial activity, losing the Palestinian treasury revenues of up to $60m a year. Israeli companies also rake off additional surcharges on connections made by Palestinians using Jawwal, including calls between mobile phones and landlines, between the West Bank and Gaza and many within Area C, and international calls. Dalit Baum, a founder of Who Profits?, said the importance of the telecommunications industry to the Palestinian economy made it a point of leverage over the PA at moments of diplomatic crisis, such as the Goldstone report. She said: 'This case highlights not only how Israel restricts Palestinian economic development through the occupation but also how it uses that control for its own economic and diplomatic advantage'." Jonathan Cook's report can be read in full here.
The only explanation given is that the Palestinians came under strong U.S. pressure, or "intense diplomacy". And, this explanation was only made in media reports, and not in any statement to the Palestinian people.
George Mitchell is also reportedly heading for the region to see if he can restart direct Palestinian-Israeli negotiations that faltered in 2008 when it became apparent that the Annapolis process had run its course without achieving its goal of establishing a Palestinian State by the end of '08. It was the Palestinian leadership which officially called off the negotiations, however, during Israel's military offensive against Gaza last winter -- precisely what the Goldstone Fact-Finding Mission, mandated by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Returning to negotiations in the present conditions might be the last straw ... maybe even if the U.S. is ready, as reports in Israel have suggested, to apply "significant pressure" on the Israeli government in exchange for the Palestinian move to withdraw support for the Goldstone report.
It is hard to predict success for Mitchell's efforts, after the Palestinian leadership has been so deeply undermined by the decision itself, combined with what might possibly be a greater failure of leadership in carelessly not explaining to its people what was going on.
These actions, almost everybody in Ramallah seems to believe, are contrary to the Palestinian national interest. Palestinians in Gaza are furious, and the Hamas leadership has warned that this might affect negotiations aimed at Palestinian reconcilation, and next year's expected Palestinian presidential and parliamentary elections.
"In a single phone call to his man in Geneva", Amira Hass (who lives in Ramallah) has written in Haaretz, "Mahmoud Abbas has demonstrated his disregard for popular action, and his lack of faith in its accumulative power and the place of mass movements in processes of change. For nine months, thousands of people - Palestinians, their supporters abroad and Israeli anti-occupation activists - toiled to ensure that the legacy of Israel's military offensive against Gaza would not be consigned to the garbage bin of occupying nations obsessed with their feelings of superiority. Thanks to the Goldstone report, even in Israel voices began to stammer about the need for an independent inquiry into the assault. But shortly after Abbas was visited by the American consul-general on Thursday, the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization got on the phone to instruct his representative on the United Nations Human Rights Council to ask his colleagues to postpone the vote on the adoption of the report's conclusions ... A great deal of political folly and short-sightedness was bared by that phone call". Amira Hass' article can be read in full here.
Also today, Khaled Abu Toameh reported in the Jerusalem Post that "Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is considering firing a number of his top aides who advised him to withdraw a motion to the UN Human Rights Council regarding the findings of the commission of inquiry led by Justice Richard Goldstone into Operation Cast Lead ... A senior PA official in Ramallah claimed that some of Abbas's advisers had misled him into thinking that there wasn't enough support among members of the UN Human Rights Council for the Palestinians' request to endorse the findings of the Goldstone commission. 'Some advisers misled the president and lied to him', the official said. 'They did not tell him the truth'. Abbas was now considering firing the advisers, 'because of the huge damage they caused to the Palestinian Authority's credibility', the official said. He added that Abbas was shocked by the strong condemnations issued by many Palestinians and Arabs in response to his decision. He [Abbas, apparently] was particularly enraged by the response of the Arab League and Egypt, both of which had opposed his decision to withdraw the motion. The PA official did not name the advisers who had allegedly misled Abbas. Meanwhile, sources close to Prime Minister Salaam Fayad strongly denied that he had been involved in the controversial decision. The sources said Fayad had expressed his opposition to the decision to withdraw the motion before it was taken. Fayad is said to have relayed his position to US diplomats who tried to persuade him to withdraw the resolution. Fayad also reportedly expressed discontent with the apparent shift in Washington's policy toward construction in the settlements. The US administration is reported to have abandoned its earlier demand that Israel freeze all construction work in the settlements so as to pave the way for the resumption of peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel". This report can be read in full here.
Palestinian political figures continue to float ideas about UN moves that might remedy the "mistake" made concerning the Goldstone report -- but it is very doubtful that they would readily find support in the UN for any correctional actions at the present time. The international community has agreed to take another look at the Goldstone report in March 2010, and the Palestinian leadership won't be able to change that now.
The Israeli Arab political party, Balad, whose stronghold is in the northern Galilee region of the country, is reportedly about to hold a meeting to call for the resignation of the Palestinian Authority -- even though party members are Israeli citizens and not governed from Ramallah, which is occupied and in fact ultimately ruled by the Israeli Ministry of Defense.
And, Mahmoud Abbas is not only Palestinian Authority President -- he is also the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and of Fatah, the largest Palestinian political party...
Haaretz reported today that "For the first time in history, an Israeli Arab political party challenged the Palestinian leadership on Tuesday, calling for the immediate dismissal of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas has faced harsh criticism over recent days following his decision not to ask the United Nations Human Right Council to vote on the findings of the Goldstone report, which concludes that both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes during Israel's offensive in Gaza last winter ... Members of Fatah, Abbas' own party, have also unofficially asked the Palestinian President to do what must be done to prevent this move from harming the party's standing among the Palestinian public. The head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Ahmed Jibril, openly called on Abbas to 'go home', on Monday. The council of Palestinian organizations in Europe also issued a call for Abbas to step down in light of the damage to the Palestinian public's interests he had caused ... On top of all that, the Palestinian government of Salam Fayyad convened on Monday and issued a statement containing veiled criticism of Abbas. The statement said that 'we mustn't give up the opportunity to go after those who committed war crimes during Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip'." This report is posted here.
A separate report in Haaretz reveals that "Israel, meanwhile, has changed its diplomatic policy on the report, which it had vocally rejected as biased. The Foreign Ministry has instructed Israeli spokesmen not to comment on the report ... The intense criticism of Abbas has apparently prompted some Fatah officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, to call on Abbas to resign 'in light of the damage he is causing to the Palestinian cause'. Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas prime minister in the Gaza Strip, on Monday accused Abbas of betraying the Palestinian people and of being an accomplice in the Israeli plot to neutralize the Goldstone report. At a specially convened press conference in Gaza, Haniyeh went on to call Abbas' actions 'unprecedented'." This Haaretz report is here.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Cook has fleshed out the argument that Israeli threats concerning a telecommunications deal for a second Palestinian mobile telephone operator played a big role in the Palestinian decision to "postpone" discussion on the Goldstone report. In an article published in : "Wataniya´s planned launch earlier this year had to be pushed back and the company has threatened to pull out of the deal if the new October 15 deadline is missed. If it does, the Palestinian Authority will have to repay $140m in licensing fees and could be liable for hundreds of millions more that Wataniya has invested in building 350 communication masts across the West Bank. According to Who Profits?, an Israeli organization that investigates links between Israel and international companies in exploiting the occupied territories, Israel has a vested interest in limiting the success of the Palestinian mobile phone industry and protecting its control over extensive parts of the West Bank it wants for Jewish settlement.
The only existing Palestinian operator, Jawwal, a subsidiary of PalTel, has been blocked from building communications infrastructure in the so-called Area C of the West Bank, comprising 60 per cent of the territory, which is designated under full Israeli control. Instead, four Israeli companies – Cellcom, Orange, Pelephone and Mirs – have built an extensive network of antennas and transmission stations for Jewish settlers in Area C. Mirs, a subsidiary of Motorola Israel, also has an exclusive licence to provide cellular services to the Israeli military. Typically, Palestinians travelling outside the major population areas of the West Bank find a limited or non-existent Jawwal service and therefore have to rely on the Israeli companies. A World Bank report last year found that as much as 45 per cent of the Palestinian mobile phone market may be in the hands of the Israeli companies. In violation of the Oslo Accords, these firms do not pay taxes to the PA for their commercial activity, losing the Palestinian treasury revenues of up to $60m a year. Israeli companies also rake off additional surcharges on connections made by Palestinians using Jawwal, including calls between mobile phones and landlines, between the West Bank and Gaza and many within Area C, and international calls. Dalit Baum, a founder of Who Profits?, said the importance of the telecommunications industry to the Palestinian economy made it a point of leverage over the PA at moments of diplomatic crisis, such as the Goldstone report. She said: 'This case highlights not only how Israel restricts Palestinian economic development through the occupation but also how it uses that control for its own economic and diplomatic advantage'." Jonathan Cook's report can be read in full here.
Print
Email
