By: Walid Zaher
• A sharp rise in number of Jewish fanatics who entered and toured the Muslim holy compound, Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem’s Old City, in May compared to the same month a year ago, a research center said on Saturday. See more at: http://english.wafa.ps/page.aspx?id=NrYNyFa91008525366aNrYNyF
• The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) strongly criticized on Saturday Europe’s support for the nomination of Israel’s United Nations representative, Danny Danon, to the post of vice president of the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). See more at: http://english.wafa.ps/page.aspx?id=NrYNyFa91006621860aNrYNyF Attachment
• Israeli navy Saturday opened fire at Palestinian fishing boats off the Gaza coast forcing the boats to return to shore, said local sources. There were no reports of casualties, however. See more at: http://english.wafa.ps/page.aspx?id=NrYNyFa91005670107aNrYNyF
• The weekly protests in the occupied Palestinian territories as well as the death of a teenager of her wounds were the highlight of the three Palestinian Arabic dailies on Saturday. See more at: http://english.wafa.ps/page.aspx?id=NrYNyFa91004718354aNrYNyF
• The US administration of Donald Trump has shown interest in its predecessor’s proposal to establish a “security plan” between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank, the Haaretz daily reported yesterday. . See more at: http://english.pnn.ps/2017/06/03/haaretz-us-views-obamas-security-plan-for-israel-palestine-peace/ Attachment
• A team of Palestinian diplomats have launched a social media campaign under the hashtag #Occupationis (الاحتلال_هو#) to raise awareness on the realities of Israel’s ongoing occupation of the Palestinian territory, ahead of the 50th anniversary of the occupation on Monday, which Palestinians refer to as “Naksa” day, meaning setback. See more at: http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=777469 Attachment
• Two days after Israeli forces fatally shot 16-year-old Nuf Uqab Abd al-Jabar Infiaat, the girl was laid to rest Saturday in her hometown of Yaabad, southwest of Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank. See more at: http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=777473
• Approximately ten Palestinians, accompanied by 15 solidarity activities from Norway, held Friday the weekly nonviolent procession against the Israeli Annexation Wall and colonies, Bil’in village, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah. See more at: http://imemc.org/article/weekly-nonviolent-protest-held-in-bilin-2/
• Palestinians in the Gaza Strip can no longer enjoy clean water and air on the territory’s beaches due to high rates of pollution, the local Environment Quality Authority (EQA) reported, this week. See more at: http://imemc.org/article/50-of-gaza-beaches-polluted/
PLO critical of Europe’s support to name Israel’s UN ambassador for top post
RAMALLAH, June 3, 2017 (WAFA) – The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) strongly criticized on Saturday Europe’s support for the nomination of Israel’s United Nations representative, Danny Danon, to the post of vice president of the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi described the move in a statement as “tantamount to giving support for the occupation and rewarding Israel’s impunity and lawlessness.”
“Israel has intensified its campaign to assume official positions within UN bodies, emboldened by the support it is receiving from both the Western European and Others Group (WEOG) and the intensive campaign by the US and its representative to harass and intimidate any bodies or states that seek to hold Israel accountable,” she wrote.
“Israel is the one country that continues to maintain a cruel and illegal occupation of another nation; it has been living and acting outside the law, willfully defying international law and international humanitarian law and adamantly refusing to implement any and all UN resolutions pertaining to its military occupation and system of apartheid and colonialism,” said the PLO official.
The WEOG had also previously nominated and supported Israel’s election to chair the UNGA’s Sixth Committee, the legal committee.
Haaretz: US views Obama’s ‘security plan’ for Israel-Palestine peace
Nazareth/PNN/
The US administration of Donald Trump has shown interest in its predecessor’s proposal to establish a “security plan” between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank, the Haaretz daily reported yesterday.
Named “the Allen plan”, after retired US Marine Corps General John Allen who was charged with creating it, the strategy provides the US with the start of what would become a robust proposal to provide the necessary level of security for Israel in the day after a withdrawal from most of the West Bank, if a peace treaty were signed.
Within weeks of taking office, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Jason Greenblatt, met with dozens of officers and experts in the former US administration who worked to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and they recommended he look into the adoption of “the Allen plan”. “Dozens of Israeli officers took part in the negotiations over it, working in a number of different teams. According to multiple Israeli sources, the conversations over the plan were ‘very substantial’ and took place in an atmosphere of ‘openness and transparency’,” Haaretz explained.
The plan, which was shelved three years ago, was never completed but parts of it had been shown to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, and the senior command of the Israel Defense Forces. “It won praise from senior military officers, but was rejected by Ya’alon and criticized by Netanyahu,” Haaretz said.
As part of the terms of the plan, discussions had circulated around the Palestinians having an airport in the West Bank, however this had not been agreed upon.
The de-militarised Palestinian state would have a “special forces” unit which the government could dispatch using police helicopters to provide a “rapid reaction” unit against terrorism. This would require Palestinian pilots to pass annual security clearance checks carried out by American officers with Israeli intervention.
“The plan included an American situation room, sensors, drones, satellite imagery, and a significant strengthening of the existing border fence on the Jordan River.”
Closer intelligence cooperation will be intensified between the United States and Israel. The latter will receive intelligence from the assessment room as well as the reinforcement of the border wall between the West Bank and Jordan, in return for the lack of security control in the Jordan Valley area.
No information has been released about whether the Trump administration will employ any or all the suggestions of “the Allen plan”, however what the plan made clear was that it was there to ensure that Israel’s security was a top priority.
#Occupationis: Palestinians launch campaign on 50th year of Israeli occupation
RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — A team of Palestinian diplomats have launched a social media campaign under the hashtag #Occupationis (الاحتلال_هو#) to raise awareness on the realities of Israel’s ongoing occupation of the Palestinian territory, ahead of the 50th anniversary of the occupation on Monday, which Palestinians refer to as “Naksa” day, meaning setback.
A statement released by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on Saturday said that the campaign was launched by the Palestinian Task Force on Public Diplomacy in commemoration of the anniversary of the 1967 Israeli invasion and occupation of Palestinian land — the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip — that began on June 5, when Israel also invaded and occupied the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights.
According to the statement, the campaign aims to show “the human face of the Palestinian people and a series of narratives encapsulating the impact of the occupation on individual lives,” adding that the organizers also hope to “celebrate the Palestinian spirit of endurance and resilience.”
“We call on each and every person (regardless of nationality) who has experienced the occupation in any way to share his or her personal story by issuing a video, post, or picture on social media under the hashtags: #Occupationis or الاحتلال_هو#,” the statement continued.
The organizers told Ma’an that the campaign is aimed at humanizing the Israeli occupation through the sharing of individual stories to help others understand the Palestinian experience under occupation.
The social media campaign commenced with a 30-second video posted by PLO Executive Committee Member Hanan Ashrawi.
For Ashrawi, occupation is “deprivation and ethnic cleansing.”
She explained that Israeli authorities had revoked her daughters’ Jerusalem IDs and denied them their rights to reside in their “ancestral homeland.” Ashrawi asked: “What has the occupation done to you?”
Meanwhile, several NGOs released statements this week condemning Israel’s continued occupation of the Palestinian territory.
NGO Oxfam slammed the international community’s inaction during the past five decades for its “toothless” condemnations of Israeli violations of human rights and “Band-Aid humanitarian solutions,” for enabling the continuation of the occupation.
The Christian NGO Pax Christi also denounced the occupation, and quoted a statement by UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories Michael Lynk from earlier this month, which detailed the “systemic human rights violations that accompany this occupation — collective punishment, confiscation of property, excessive use of force and unlawful killings, lack of freedom of movement and steady settlement expansion, among others.”
Pax Christi went on to “strongly” recommend a ban on weapons sales to Israel and the Palestinian Authority and an end to any military cooperation with either party, as a means to apply international pressure to obtain a resolution — likely alluding in part to the unprecedented $38 billion American military aid package to Israel signed last September.
Oxfam Country Director Chris Eijkemans also released a statement, saying that “these fifty years have seen thousands of lives and opportunities lost. Families have been separated; people have been denied their most basic rights. We must not let another fifty years pass before a just and peaceful solution is found.”
While the international community does not recognize the legality of the occupation of East Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank since 1967, many Palestinians consider that all historic Palestine has been occupied since the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.
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