Department of Expatriate Affairs PLO Issue 20 27 mars 2017

Tayseer Khaled denounces US Administration Attempts to reach understandings

with Israel on Settlements in Absence of the Palestinian Side

Tayseer Khaled, member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine

Liberation Organization (PLO), Head of the Palestinian Expatriates Affairs
Department ( PEAD ) condemned US attempts to reach agreements with
Israel on settlements in the absence of the Palestinian side. He called on
the US administration to respect the international law and decisions on
Israel's settlement activities in the occupied West Bank including
Jerusalem."

Khaled was responding to the US- Israel mutual statement after latest Washington meeting to reach common understandings on
West Bank Settlements to be later imposed on the Palestinian side as a de facto baseline to resume what the US administration calls
a comprehensive deal to resolve the Israeli- Palestinian conflict.

Khaled added that "Israel's expressed understanding of Trump's concerns about settlements as obstacles, without expressing will to
freeze settlement activities, even in so called illegal construction, according to Israel, is a further reason to double the Palestinian
vigilance against any understandings between the two sides. According to the Israeli sources, Trump's special envoy Jason
Greenblatt, called upon Israel to halt building in random and remote settlement and restrict it to major and Jerusalem settlements,
marking a shift in US stance on settlements; from being illegal and obstacle to peace, into being admissible, and ending of which is
not a prerequisite to resume negotiations.

Khaled renewed his call to inspect what is going on in such deliberations, and warned of consequences of US attitudes as a guardian
or agent for the Palestinians in claiming their rights and occupied lands. He called the US to respect the decisions of International
legitimacy including UNSC 2334 calling for the unconditional discontinuation of settlement building.

"The Palestinian side", added Khaled, "shall not resume any useless negotiations with Israel, of which the latest would use as a cover
to carry on its aggressive settlements activities, and shall not accept negotiations in a regional framework, that could be used by
Israel as a platform to normalize relations with region countries before reaching a comprehensive and just resolution of the
Palestinian and Arab conflict with Israel, that guarantees full withdrawal of all Palestinian and Arab territories occupied in 1967,
deliver security and stability for all peoples and states of the region, including the State of Palestine and East Jerusalem as its capital,
and enshrines the right of return for all Palestinian refugees to their homes, of which they had been expelled by aggressive military
force in 1948.

www.pead.ps Issue 20 Page 1

 One small village tells the big picture story of occupation

The villagers of Umm Al-Khir suffer from endless harassment. This time it takes form of flooding the village with sewage.
The iniquity of the occupation is in the details.

The usual problem with reporting on what happens in the West Bank is lens width, an essential physical problem: you
want to focus on the details, and hence need to narrow the lens. Yet the details themselves are part of a greater picture,
demanding a wider lens.

On the face of it, what happened in Umm Al-Khir in the south Hebron Hills in December 2016 is a minor event barely
worth mentioning. A sewage pipe was built in the settlement of Carmel, causing the settlements waste to pour directly
into land belonging to the Palestinian village of Umm Al-Khir. Technically, its nothing more than an insignificant
squabble between neighbors.

Except these arent your typical neighbors. Umm Al-Khir was built in the 1960s by Bedouin refugees who were expelled
in 1948 from the Tel Arad region. Unfortunately for them, they were re-occupied by Israel in 1967. The village is located
in Area C, which means it is under full Israeli military and civil control. One might have expected that Israel would invest
in the place, since the villagers are under its authority, and since Israel, as is well known, is not an apartheid state.

Of course, that did not actually happen. Israel didnt much care for the small Palestinian village, and in 1981 the
settlement of Carmel was built nearby.

The Civil Administration throughout 2016, came to Umm Al-Khir four separate times, demolishing a total of 16
structures. The last raid took place in last February, which left two structures demolished. And yet, the residents hold on
to the land with everything they have, and for a very simple reason: they have nowhere else to go. Even though they
live in Area C under the authority of the Israeli government, and even though they were there before Israel occupied the
area, they have been offered nothing. Prime Minister Netanyahu spent not a single meeting, not to mention 60% of his
time (as his chief of staff said he did for Amona Outpost ), dealing with the plight of 160 human beings.

Since July 2016, report the villagers, drones have been buzzing above Umm Al-Khir, photographing every attempt by the
villagers to build anything. If something is built, it is quickly demolished. These demolitions do not interest the Israeli
media, and one would be hard pressed to find interviews with people whose lives are actually destroyed because
someone else covets their land.

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 Israel continues settlement activities, establishes
apartheid regime

By: Madeeha Araj

The National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting National Office \ PLO
Settlements said it highly appreciates the UN Economic
and Social Commission for Western Asias report (ESCWA),
which was published on the UNs website, and described
Israel as a State that establishes an Apartheid Regime on
the Palestinian people to dominate their lives, to reflect
part of their daily suffering, and to show the occupation
racial practices and its apartheid policies that violate the
Human Rights International Law, the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights of 1948 and the UNs Charter of 1945 as
well as the 1965 International Convention on the
Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination.

The National Bureau asserted that the resignation of the

Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social
Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), Dr. Reema Khalaf
came as a result of the awful pressures exercised by the
Israeli occupation government and the US administration
on the UN Secretary-General, Antnio Guterres to
withdraw the report.

In its weekly report, the National Bureau noted that the

Israeli government carried out some of its colonists
schemes so as to grab more Palestinian lands, as well as
the Israeli occupation Armys Minister, Liebermans
approval of completing the erection of the Apartheid Wall
around the Beit Eil settlement that built on a Palestinian
land, besides the establishment of a new settlement
outpost on Al-Moghaier, Abu Falah and Kafr Malik villages Likewise Ministers of Culture, Miri Regev, and
lands near Ramallah. Environmental and Jerusalem Affairs, Zeev Elkin had
an encouraging role towards Judaization activities as
Moreover, a series of Judaization measures to empower
they announced the establishment of the Temple
the settlement was noticed over the last week, as the
Mount Fund, which a sum of NIS 2,000,000 will be
Israeli occupation municipality in Jerusalem posted the
yearly allocated to it so as to promote a media
detailed features of its budget for the year 2017, which is
campaign about the Jewish connection with the sacred
the highest ever since the occupation of the city as it
site of the Temple Mount i.e. the Dome of the Rock).
reaches NIS 7.37 billion following the Israeli government
agreed this year to increase the sum by NIS 700,000,000, so Moreover, the Interior Parliamentary Committee at
as celebrate the 50 years on the occupation of the city. the Israeli Knesset also continued its own sessions to
Thus, 11,000 new housing settlement units will be built, 24 enact the (Kminc) racial bill that is to amend the
new structural schemes will be approved and 5,000,000 regulation and construction law of 1965 that aims to
sq.m2 will be levelled for economic and commercial accelerate and facilitate the demolition of Arab houses
settlement projects. in the occupied Green-line and Jerusalem under the
pretext of being illegally built.

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 Israeli ministers to introduce bill aiming for annexation
of massive Maale Adumim settlement

Right-wing Israeli ministers are expected to introduce a

formerly postponed bill to Israel's parliament, the
Knesset, next week which aims to annex the illegal
Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, Israeli media
reported on Thursday.

Israel's ultra-right Education Minister Naftali Bennett has

been keen to introduce the bill, with its introduction
having reportedly been delayed until Trump's
inauguration, as the new American head of state has
come out as a vocal supporter of illegal Israeli
settlements.

However, the bills introduction was postponed earlier

this year at the request of Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu, following pressure from the
administration of US President Donald Trump.
Maale Adumim is the third largest settlement in
population size, encompassing a large swath of land
deep inside the occupied West Bank's Jerusalem district.
Many Israelis consider it an Israeli suburban city of
Jerusalem, despite it being located on occupied
Palestinian territory in contravention of international
law.
Calls to annex the massive settlement -- to pave the way
for the annexation of the majority of the occupied West
Bank -- have gained momentum among reactionary
Israeli lawmakers and ministers following the passage of
a UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements and
reaffirming their clear illegality.
Sponsor of the bill MK Yoav Kish intended for the
legislation to not only annex Maale Adumim, but also
the controversial E1 corridor surrounding it, where Israel
has escalated a vicious demolition campaign against
Bedouin Palestinian communities over the past year.
Settlement construction in E1 would effectively divide
the West Bank in half and make the creation of a
contiguous Palestinian state -- as envisaged by the
internationally backed two-state solution to the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict -- almost impossible.
Last month, the Knesset passed the outpost
Regularization law, which states that any
settlements built in the West Bank in good
faith -- without knowledge that the land
upon which it was built was privately owned
by Palestinians -- could be officially
recognized by Israel pending minimal proof
of governmental support in its establishment
and some form of compensation to the
Palestinian landowners.
The bill has been widely condemned as a
major obstruction to a possibility of a two-
state solution and would set the stage for
Israels annexation of the majority of the
West Bank, a move which has been pushed
by right-wing Israeli ministers for years.
While members of the international
community have rested the solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the
discontinuation of illegal Israeli settlements
and the establishment of a two-state
solution, Israeli leaders have instead shifted
further to the right, with more than 50
percent of the ministers in the current Israeli
government having publicly stated they are
opposed to a Palestinian state.

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 Petition to annul the bill to expropriate private
Palestinian land (the Regulation Bill)

At the beginning of March 2017, 23 Palestinian village

council heads and 13 human rights and left wing
organizations petitioned the Israeli High Court of Justice to
demand the court order the repeal of the law to
expropriate private Palestinian land in the West Bank (The
Regulation Bill). The petitioners also asked the court to
issue a temporary injunction to prevent the State from
advancing land expropriation proceedings.

According to data collected by Peace Now, the law will

lead to the expropriation of over 8,000 dunam (nearly
2,000 acres) of private land upon which structures have
been built illegally and tens of thousands of dunams of
land on which agricultural crops have been planted. The
land designated for expropriation is owned by thousands
of Palestinians, among them many of the residents of the
villages represented in the petition.

Furthermore, the law violates explicit prohibitions of

The petition argues that the law which passed despite
International Humanitarian Law and the laws of
opposition expressed by attorney generals of the
occupation as well as international treaties Israel is a
government, Knesset and Ministry of Defense is
signatory of. Israel is obligated to uphold the human rights
unconstitutional since it constitutes an explicit violation of
of the residents of the occupied territories and must not
the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty; The Regulation
engage in the expropriation of property unless
Bill restricts the authorities discretion and compels them to
absolutely necessary for urgent security purposes. The
prevent Palestinians from realizing their rights to use and
petition emphasized that the implementation of the
administer their private land for an unlimited period of
directives of the law may put civilians and security forces
time. In addition, the law does not give Palestinians any
who are asked to carry out war crimes at risk, as well as
channel for opposing the expropriation proceedings.
members of Knesset who voted in favor of the bill. In
addition, the very legislation of the law constitutes a
deviation from the Knessets authority, as it is not
authorized to regulate property laws in a territory that is
not under Israeli sovereignty.

This is a law that blatantly torments its victims and

awards criminals, the petition states. By legislating the
law, the Knesset is trying to expropriate the rights to lands
that are outside the sovereign territory of the state from
people who are not civilians or residents of Israel, and as
such, have no say and are not represented in a legislative
proceedings that they are the victims of. This is literally
the definition of a tyrannical regime.

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Palestinian prisoners intend to
start hunger strike in 17 April

Palestinian Legislative Council MP, prisoner Marwan al-Barghouthi, member of Fatah

Central Committee, announced on Saturday the intension of Palestinian prisoners and
Fatah captives in Israeli jails to start a hunger strike on the Palestinian Prisoner Day on
April 17.

In a statement published on Saturday, Barghouthi said that the hunger strike aims at
achieving a number of demands, according to Palestinian prisoner society .

The demands include allowing the second visit which was suspended by the
International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) as well as offering regular family visits.

They also demand no visit bans and increasing the visit duration from 45 to 90 minutes.
The captives also ask for allowing prisoners to take photos every three months with their
families during visitations.

Barghouthi also revealed that Fatah detainees demand the closure of Ramleh prison
hospital for lacking the ability to conduct periodical health examinations as well as
urgent surgeries.

Other demands include providing detainees with satellite channels, returning kitchens to
all prisons under the supervision of prisoners, allowing the entry of books, newspapers,
clothes, food, and special goods for female captives.

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Israel issued 183 administrative
detention orders in 2017

183 administrative detention orders were issued by Israeli courts since the start of 2017, 88
among which issued in February alone, the Palestine Prisoners Center for Studies reported.

Media spokesman for the Palestine Prisoners Center, Reyad al-Ashkar, said such arbitrary
administrative orders issued against Palestinian detainees, with neither charge nor trial, are
signs of Israels disregard for international laws.

The administrative terms issued since the start of 2017 prove that Israel uses such a policy
as part of a collective punishment tactic against the Palestinians, noted al-Ashkar.

The sentences issued in February included 23 new terms and 65 renewed terms, all ranging
from two to six months.

Hebron province topped the list with 32 administrative detention orders, followed by 23 in
Ramallah.

The Israeli prison authorities renewed the administrative sentences of three Palestinians for
the fifth time running and of 21 others for the fourth time. 23 prisoners were, meanwhile,
subjected to a renewed sentence for the second consecutive time.

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 Israel trying to criminalize BDS movement,
intimidate activists and stop free speech
A prominent Palestinian human rights defender and
co-founder of the BDS movement, Omar Barghouti,
has for years been subjected to intense threats,
intimidation and repression by various arms of the
far-right Israeli government, particularly after it
considered the movement a strategic threat to its
entire system of injustice against Palestinians.
At a March 2016 conference in occupied Jerusalem, several
Israeli government ministers threatened Omar and key BDS
human rights defenders with severe measures, including
targeted civil elimination a euphemism for civil
assassination.
The Ministry of Strategic Affairs last year established a
tarnishing unit, as exposed in the Israeli daily Haaretz.
This units job is to tarnish the reputation of BDS human rights
defenders and networks.
It is in this context that the Israeli tax departments
investigation of Omar and his wife, Safa, must be understood.
After failing to intimidate them through the threat of revoking
Omars permanent residence in Israel, and after the effective
travel ban imposed on him proved futile in stopping his
human rights work, the Israeli government has resorted to
fabricating a case related to Omars alleged income outside of
Israel to tarnish his image and intimidate him.
The fact that this investigation includes a travel ban and that
it comes a few weeks before Omar Barghouti is scheduled to
travel to the U.S. to receive the Gandhi Peace Award jointly
with Ralph Nader in a ceremony at Yale University proves its
true motive repression.
www.pead.ps
The fact that the Israeli government publicized the
inflammatory fabrications against Omar just 24 hours after he
was taken in for investigation shows beyond doubt that the
investigations real goal is to tarnish his reputation.
No matter what extreme measures of repression Israel wields
against the BDS movement or its human rights defenders and
vast network of supporters, it cannot stop this movement for
human rights.
Bullying and repression can hardly affect a grassroots
movement that grows in peoples hearts and minds,
empowering them to do the right thing to stand on the
right side of history, against Israels fanatic regime of
apartheid, occupation and ethnic cleansing, and for freedom,
justice and equality for the Palestinian people.
This latest desperate chapter of repression and intimidation
by the Israeli government against Omar Barghouti is the
strongest indicator yet of the failure of the Israeli regime of
occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid to slow down
the impressive growth of the BDS movement for Palestinian
rights.
Palestinian BNCs Statement on Omar Barghoutis came as a
reactions on Ongoing Interrogation & Israels Campaign to
Repress the BDS Movement after Israeli tax authorities
barged into the home of Omar Barghouti, the prominent
Palestinian human rights defender and co-founder of the
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement for the
freedom, justice and equality of the Palestinian people.
They detained and interrogated Omar and his wife Safa for 16
hours that first day. Omar is currently enduring a fourth day
of interrogation.
The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) is the largest
coalition in Palestinian civil society. It leads and supports the
global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
Issue 20 Page 8
 Knesset seeks to pass bill hindering leftist
NGOs' access to state information
Israeli lawmakers have introduced a bill to the
Knesset, Israel's parliament, which seeks to affect
left-wing NGOs access to information from
governmental agencies, Israeli newspaper Haaretz
reported on Sunday.
According to the news outlet, all non-governmental
groups in Israel are currently exempt from paying
fees to obtain information from state organizations
through the Freedom of Information Act.
However, the bill, sponsored by MK Shuli Moalem-
Refaeli from the far-right Jewish Home party, would
not only strip this exemption for NGOs which receive
the majority of their funding from foreign
governments, but also make them pay double the
regular fee of 20 shekels ($5.45) per document.
Organizations in Israel that rely on public foreign
funding tend to oppose the governments right-wing
policies and human rights violations in the occupied
Palestinian territory.
www.pead.ps
Theres no logic in allowing organizations that
act as foreign agents in every respect to wear
down the establishment for free, which comes
at the expense of the ordinary citizen, Haaretz
quoted Matan Peleg, the head of far-right
Zionist organization Im Tirtzu, as saying. We
must end the system of the state financing its
enemies.
Israels far-right lawmakers have been cracking
down on leftist organizations in the country in
the past year, notably passing the controversial
NGO law, which compels organizations to reveal
their sources of funding if more than 50 percent
came from public foreign entities, in July.
The legislation was condemned at the time for
seeking to silence criticism of Israel and
delegitimize left-wing groups.
More recently, MKs have submitted a bill
requiring that NGOs receiving more than half of
their funding from foreign governments to
declare this information in all court filings,
Haaretz reported.
Right-wing Israeli organizations, which tend to
depend more on private than public foreign
funding, have not been affected by such
legislation.
The Israeli government has also
increasingly targeted Boycott,
Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS),
with a bill seeking to ban supporters
of the movement from entering Israel
passing its first reading in January.
Issue 20 Page 9
 Law enforcement on Israeli civilians suspected of harming
Palestinians and their property

At the beginning of March, Yesh Din published its annual data sheet regarding law enforcement of Israeli
civilians suspected of committing ideological offenses against Palestinians in the West Bank. The main
conclusion is that the Nationalist Crime Unit of the Judea and Samaria Police, established in 2013 with the
declared mission of protecting Palestinians from nationalist crime, has not led to an increase in solving cases of
this kind.

Out of 289 cases of ideologically motivated offenses Yesh Din has tracked between 2013-2016, only 20 led to
indictments against offenders (8.2 percent of the files whose treatment has concluded.) 225 cases closed upon
completion of the investigation without any indictment. Of those, the police failed in the investigation of 183
files. (75.3 percent of the cases that Yesh Din is aware of their outcomes.) This failure manifests in the incapacity
of police investigators to locate offenders or collect evidence in order to put suspects on trial.

These figures are similar to Yesh Dins figures on the handling of all the investigation it has been tracking since
2005 which is prior to the establishment of the special unit, when only 90 files out of 1,122 (8 percent)
investigation files closed by the end of 2016 led to indictments.

Likewise, according to official data provided by the Israel Police, in 2015 the Judea and Samaria Police
Department opened 280 investigation files regarding suspicion of nationalist crimes committed by Israeli
civilians. These investigations led to 59 indictments in 2015, but it is important to note that in only four of these
cases the victim of the offense was a Palestinian.

Data collected by both Yesh Din and the police reflect a trend of protracted failure regarding investigations into
ideologically motivated offenses committed against Palestinians, a failure Yesh Din has been highlighting since
the unit was established. The fact that the law enforcement authorities manage to put suspects on trial for
nationalist crimes when the victims are not Palestinians demonstrates that these figures are not inevitable, but
rather a product of policy.
This policy ultimately leads to a realty in which less and less Palestinian victims of crimes by Israeli civilians are
willing to file complaints with the Israel Police. We have pointed to this figure in the past. In 33 percent of
ideological offences documents by Yesh Din since 2013, the victims chose not to file a complaint with the police.

www.pead.ps Issue 20 Page 10

 Human rights institutions to launch popular
campaign against siege

Human rights institutions along with activists and media men in Gaza city intend to launch a popular
campaign against occupation and Gaza siege under the hashtag #Save Gaza.

The campaign aims at exposing the Israeli occupations crimes including the Gaza siege which is about
to enter its tenth year. The campaign is held to protest, as well, Israeli violations of international laws
with relation to the freedom of movement and mobility via the closure of border crossings.

Yousri al-Ghoul, one of the campaign organizers, told the PIC that the campaign sheds light on the
crises experienced in the blockaded Gaza Strip.

The events of the campaign are scheduled to be announced in a press conference which is to be held
before the Italian compound that was destroyed in the Israeli 2014 aggression on the besieged
coastal enclave.

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 Finkelstein: The Palestinians have the
right to resist Israel

Noted American intellectual and writer Norman

Finkelstein has said that the Palestinians have all the
right to resist the Israeli occupation at all levels,
whether militarily or politically, in accordance with the
principles of the international law.

Finkelstein made his remarks during a symposium held

by the Palestinian Center for Political and
Development Studies (CPDS) in Gaza to review what
came in his book, Method and Madness: The Hidden
Story of Israels Assaults on Gaza.

The writer criticized all rounds of peace negotiations that had taken place between the Palestinian Authority
(PA) and Israel as a waste of time and effort, stressing that Israel is the biggest beneficiary of such talks.

He explained that Israel takes advantage of any peace talks with the PA in order to dwarf the Palestinian
peoples rights and portray to the whole world that the peace process is ongoing with the occupied people of
Palestine.

According to him, the Palestinians should hold talks with the occupation after winning a field battle and not
before that, citing as an example the South African peoples experience.

In another context, Finkelstein expressed his shock and dismay over the intention of the UN secretary-general
Antonio Guterres to name former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni as his deputy despite her role in
massacring many innocent people in Gaza.

He slammed Guterres for appointing someone who blatantly declared her disregard for the international law.

www.pead.ps Issue 20 Page 12

 The international body had found Israel guilty of
committing a "crime against humanity."

The United Nations ignited a firestorm by acknowledging

the reality of Israeli apartheid.

"The weight of the evidence supports beyond a reasonable

doubt the proposition that Israel is guilty of imposing an
apartheid regime on the Palestinian people, which amounts
to the commission of a crime against humanity," wrote the
U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia in a
report it released on March 15.

"Effectively, Israeli law renders opposition to racial domination illegal," the report continued, noting that
countries "have a legal obligation to act within the limits of their capabilities to prevent and punish
instances of apartheid that are responsibly brought to their attention."

Citing a vast body of international law and forcefully condemning all forms of racism, including anti-
Semitism, the report recommended that "National Governments should support boycott, divestment and
sanctions activities" against Israeli apartheid.

Immediately after the report was released, the United States and Israel went berserk, with both
governments heavily leaning on the U.N. and its senior leadership.

Under intense pressure, U.N. Under-Secretary General Rima Khalaf, who headed the West Asia
commission, was forced to resign from her posts. Khalaf nevertheless made it clear that she still stood by
the accuracy of the report.

Following heavy lobbying from the U.S., the U.N. subsequently tried to scrub the report from the internet,
removing it from the ESCWA website.

The executive summary of the report is archived

https://archive.is/Ftz8u

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