Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

International-UN-NGOs

Palestinians officially relaunch bid to become United Nations member state, US ‘signals opposition’

2024-04-04

[IsraelTimes] Palestine Liberation Organization seeks recognition as state from world body, which granted it observer status in 2012, but vote on application can be vetoed by US.

I’m confused. They keep telling us the Palestinian Authority government is nothing like the PLO, even though PA President Mahmoud Abbas is the current head of Fatah, the largest group in the PLO.

The Paleostine Liberation Organization has officially revived its application to become a full member state in the United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
, according to a letter from its UN envoy dated Tuesday.

The PLO, which has had observer status at the world body since 2012, has lobbied for years to gain full membership, which would amount to recognition of Paleostinian statehood.

In a letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres
...Portuguese politician and diplomat, ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations. Previously, he was the UN High Commissioner for Refugees between 2005 and 2015. He was the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002 and was the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party from 1992 to 2002. He served as President of the Socialist International from 1999 to 2005. In both a 2012 and 2014 poll, the Portuguese public ranked him as the best Prime Minister of the previous 30 years...
, the Paleostinian UN envoy, Riyad Mansour, requested "upon instructions of the Paleostinian leadership" that an application dating back to 2011 be reconsidered this month by the Security Council.

The letter has been transmitted to the council, according to the documents seen by the AFP news agency.

Mansour has repeatedly said in recent months that in the face of Israel’s military offensive in the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
Strip in response to the devastating October 7 onslaught by Hamas
Hamas

...a regional Iranian catspaw,...
, UN membership was a priority for the PA.

A council committee of 15 members first assesses an application to see if it satisfies the requirements for UN membership. The application can then either be shelved or put forward for a formal vote in the Security Council. Approval requires at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the US, Russia, China, La Belle France, or Britannia.

If the council approves the membership request, it then moves to the General Assembly for approval. A membership request needs a two-thirds majority to be approved by the assembly. A country cannot join the United Nations unless both the Security Council and General Assembly approve.

The 2011 application, launched by Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....
, never came before the Security Council for a vote, and the General Assembly voted to grant the PA observer status in November 2012.

The UN Security Council committee assessed the application for several weeks to see if it satisfied the requirements for UN membership. However,
some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go...
the committee was unable to reach a unanimous position and the Security Council never formally voted on a resolution on Paleostinian membership.

Diplomats said the Paleostinians lacked the minimum nine votes needed to adopt a resolution. Even if they had won enough support, the United States had said it would veto the move.

Observers believe the current Paleostinian push for membership is unlikely to reach the assembly as the United States, Israel’s closest ally, could use its Security Council veto power to derail the recommendation.

The League of Arab States, the Organization of the Islamic Conference
OIC is an international organisation with a permanent delegation to the UN, with 57 member states. It represents all countries with substantial Moslem populations (as opposed to the Arab League, which excludes members not of the Master Race) except those which member countries block from joining. These include India, which has more Mohammedans than does Pakistain, whose membership is vetoed by Pakistain...
, and the Non-Aligned Movement sent a letter to Guterres on Tuesday, also seen by AFP, supporting the bid by the PA.

"We wish to bring to your attention that, as of this date, 140 Member States have recognized the state of Paleostine," said the joint letter, which included a list of those countries.

Little progress has been made in achieving Paleostinian statehood since the signing of the Oslo Accords between Israel and the PA in the early 1990s. Among the obstacles are persistent Paleostinian terrorism and incitement against the Jewish state, along with expanding Israeli settlements.

The PA exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank and is Israel’s partner in the Oslo Accords. Hamas in 2007 ousted the Paleostinian Authority from power in the Gaza Strip.

US signals opposition to renewed Palestinian bid for statehood status at UN

[IsraelTimes] State Department says Palestinian state should be established ‘through direct negotiations… not at the United Nations,’ as PLO envoy seeks vote later this month.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

PA in final stages of talks with US to reform ’pay-to-slay’ policy — sources

2024-03-30

[IsraelTimes] One of the holdups has been receiving approval from Israel, which is viewed as critical for getting Congress on board; source fears initial leak of story may torpedo negotiations

The Palestinian Authority is in the final stages of talks with the Biden administration about reforming its controversial welfare policy, which includes payments to terrorists and their families, two sources familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel on Friday.

Drafts of the altered policy have been vetted by the administration’s lawyers and the reform was on track to be announced in the coming weeks, one of the sources said, confirming reporting in Politico.

The altered policy would base welfare stipends that Palestinian security prisoners receive on the recipient’s financial need rather than the length of their sentence, as is currently the case, the source told The Times of Israel, adding that there were a number of outstanding issues still being negotiated.

The White House has sought for months — since well before the outbreak of the war in Gaza — to receive a nod of approval from Israel, worried that its rejection could lead pro-Israel lawmakers in Congress to follow suit, thereby hampering the reform’s legitimacy in Washington, the source said. They indicated that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has been dragging its feet on the matter, even as the premier regularly cites the controversial policy to argue that the PA cannot be trusted.

The effort to coax the PA into implementing the reform was held tightly under wraps for the first three-plus years of the Biden administration, with only a small handful of people involved. But as progress was made in recent weeks and months, the circle of involvement had to be expanded, a second source familiar with the matter said, lamenting that Friday’s leak may well lead to the reform being scuttled entirely, as Ramallah didn’t want it to go public until the initiative was finalized.

The practice of paying allowances to those convicted of carrying out terror attacks and to the families of those killed while carrying out attacks — often referred to by some Israeli officials as a pay-to-slay policy — has been pilloried by critics as incentivizing terror.

Palestinian leaders have long defended the payments, describing them as a form of social welfare and necessary compensation for victims of Israel’s callous military justice system in the West Bank.

The PA initially sought to leverage its willingness to reform the policy in order to secure gestures from Washington, such as the scrapping of congressional legislation from 1987 that labeled the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) "and its affiliates" a terror group.

But Ramallah has long grown disillusioned by the Biden administration, which has failed to keep election promises to re-open missions for the Palestinians in Jerusalem and Washington, and had decided to move forward with the reform without any assurance of gestures from the US in return, a Palestinian source familiar with the matter said.

The source acknowledged that the reform would be domestically unpopular, given the widespread Palestinian solidarity with those imprisoned for confronting Israel’s military rule in the West Bank. However, they noted that the PA is already historically unpopular, and had the move been done at the right time, it had the potential of passing without major pushback, while granting Ramallah a much-needed jolt of international legitimacy as it seeks to return to governing Gaza after the war.

Reforming the welfare policy is designed to bring the PA into compliance with the 2018 congressional legislation known as the Taylor Force Act, which suspended US aid to the PA as long as it continued granting prisoners stipends based on time served.

The US would still be barred from directly funding the PA due to legislation preventing such aid once Ramallah began advancing investigations against Israel in the International Criminal Court. However, if the reform is deemed sufficient to place the PA in compliance with the Taylor Force Act, the US would be able to fund projects that directly benefit the PA.

Since entering office, US President Joe Biden has been largely limited to funding humanitarian projects in the West Bank and Gaza through the US Agency for International Development and donations to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA — though this too was barred following allegations that staffers participated in Hamas’s October 7 onslaught on southern Israel.

Israel also passed legislation similar to the Taylor Force Act that could be scrapped if Jerusalem deems the PA’s reform as credible.

Both the US and Israel will likely require a pilot period to test the reform’s implementation before they reach determinations regarding Ramallah’s compliance.

The welfare policy reform could also make it easier for the US to re-open the PLO diplomatic office in Washington, which was shuttered during the Trump administration. However, obstacles remain given the PLO’s ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a US-recognized terror organization.

As for the US consulate in Jerusalem, which former president Donald Trump also closed down, the Biden administration has been unable to make good on its promise to reopen the mission, citing a lack of cooperation from Israel, which views the move as an encroachment on its sovereignty in the capital city.

Pulling off the reform would be a major diplomatic achievement for Biden, succeeding in an endeavor previous administrations couldn’t pull off.

It would also bolster his vision for post-war Gaza, which includes a reformed PA returning to govern the enclave as part of a pathway to a two-state solution with Israel.

The US has a long list of areas in which it would like to see Palestinian reforms, but some international stakeholders place the welfare payments at the top of their lists.

Asked for comment on the original Politico report, a US State Department spokesperson told The Times of Israel, "From the outset of the Biden Administration, we have consistently made clear that we are strongly opposed" to the PA’s payments to security prisoners.

"We don’t have anything to offer on those reports," the spokesperson added.

Link

Home Front: Politix

US Reps Bush, Tlaib vote no on ‘redundant' bill to ban October 7 terrorists from US

2024-02-02

[Jpost] United States Congresswomen Cori Bush (D-MO) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) were the sole votes against a bill in the US House of Representatives on Wednesday that would bar entry to the United States by members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad, as well as officers of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and anyone who participated in the October 7 attacks but is not a member of a recognized terrorist group. Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL) voted ‘present.’

Representative Tlaib, who represents one of the most Democratic districts in Michigan and is the only Palestinian-American currently in Congress, said that the bill was “redundant” as entry to those who have participated in terrorism, such as the October 7 attacks or who are members of a recognized terrorist group, such as Hamas or Islamic Jihad, is already prohibited. This echoed statements by Democratic leaders, such as the House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, whose statement said the bill was “largely duplicative of existing law.”

The “unnecessary” bill, Tlaib said, is “just another GOP messaging bill being used to incite anti-Arab, anti-Palestinian, and anti-Muslim hatred that makes communities like ours unsafe.” The progressive congresswoman included the bill in a list of four immigration measures up for a vote, all of which she opposed, calling them “racist, fear-mongering bills that do nothing to fix our outdated and inhumane immigration system.”

BILL WAS AMONG A PACKAGE OF MEASURES THAT TLAIB REJECTED AS REDUNDANT, DIVISIVE
The bill was among a package of measures that Tlaib rejected as redundant and divisive.

The other bills in question were H.R. 6678, which would include allegations of social security fraud as grounds for exclusion and deportation – a measure Tlaib opposed on due process grounds; H.R. 6976, which would include DUI convictions as a basis for deportation – which Tlaib said would create a “separate and unequal” system of justice for immigrants; and H.R. 5585, which imposes new criminal penalties for evading Border Patrol, a measure Tlaib rejected because it too is “redundant,” adding, “it’s clear that the point of this bill is simply to demonize migrants and asylum seekers”

Bush called the measure “a redundant, empty messaging bill Republicans are using to target immigrants and incite anti-Palestinian hate.” In a statement to Jewish Insider, Bush’s primary opponent, Wesley Bell, called the vote “shameful and reprehensible,” adding, “Rep. Bush’s vote is offensive and embarrassing to our community. We will never be a haven for terrorists, and we need a Congressperson who knows better.”

Tlaib and Bush, known as part of the progressive ‘squad’ in the House, alongside fellow Democrats such as Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Jamaal Bowman, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have been among the fiercest critics in Congress of Israel’s war in Gaza, and among the few calling for a ceasefire even before Israel’s ground invasion, without conditioning such a ceasefire on Hamas’s surrender or the return of hostages.

ILLINOIS REP. ABSTAINS, CALLING THE BILL REDUNDANT, "A WASTE OF RESOURCES AND TIME"
Ramirez, the one abstention on the measure, said in a statement Wednesday night, “I voted PRESENT because I am done with political games. The majority is wasting time bringing a bill that is already current law. There are ALREADY no immigration benefits for Hamas terrorists.”

Ramirez compared the debate on the bill to the Republican majority’s impeachment proceedings against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, saying: “After participating for 15 hours of a sham impeachment, I could not stomach another bill only introduced to score cheap political points, politicize immigration, and divide our communities.

“Like the Republican’s sham impeachment, this bill does not meaningfully address border security nor further protect our communities. H.R.6679 is unnecessary. It’s a waste of resources and time. And I’m not playing along,” Ramirez’s statement concluded.

Link

Home Front: WoT

‘Squad' members Tlaib and Bush sole votes against bill to bar Oct. 7 attackers from entering US

2024-02-01

[Wash Examiner] Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Cori Bush (D-MO) were the only House members to vote against a bill that would bar Hamas members and those who participated in the attacks against Israel last year from entering the United States.

The House passed the bill, No Immigration Benefits for Hamas Terrorists Act, 422-2-1, on Wednesday evening. Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL) voted present, and Tlaib and Bush were the sole votes against the measure, which now heads to the Senate.

While Hamas and Palestine Islamic Jihad members were already prohibited from entering the U.S. under existing laws, the new bill now expands to officers of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which is the governing body of the Palestinian enclave, and anyone who was involved in the Oct. 7 attacks against the Jewish state who is not listed as a member of a terrorist group.

Tlaib said in a statement that the No Immigration Benefits for Hamas Terrorists Act was "unnecessary" and "redundant."

"It’s just another GOP messaging bill being used to incite anti-Arab, anti-Palestinian, and anti-Muslim hatred that makes communities like ours unsafe," said the Michigan Democrat, who is the only Palestinian American in Congress.

"I made a promise to my residents when they sent me to Congress that I would take meaningful actions to end hateful Trump-era immigration policies, reunite families, welcome migrants and asylum seekers, and reform our immigration system," Tlaib added. "I reaffirm that commitment today, and will always speak truth to power in the face of disgusting attempts by my colleagues to dehumanize our immigrant neighbors."

The Democratic caucus widely approved of the bill, noting that it had the full support of House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jerry Nadler (D-NY).

"This bill is widely duplicative of current law, as Hamas has been designed as a terrorist organization by the State Department since 1997, and any noncitizen who has engaged in or provided material support for terrorism is in admissible to the United States," a notice from House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA) stated.

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Protesters in Cherkessk demanded that refugees from Israel be banned from entering the republic

2023-10-29

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] Participants in the action in Cherkessk demanded that the authorities not allow refugees from Israel into the territory of Karachay-Cherkessia and organize the collection of aid for Palestine.

Why in the name of all that is holy would Jewish Israelis seek refuge in the Caucasus? For that matter, why would Muslim Israelis do so?

They asked the authorities to coordinate a rally on this issue.

As the "Caucasian Knot" wrote, the aggravation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict evoked a response among Muslims in the North Caucasus. Thus, in Chechnya, the official clergy organizes daily mass prayers in support of Palestine, and on October 17, residents of Dagestan tried to hold an action in the central square of Makhachkala, which was dispersed by security forces. On October 19, the Muftiate of Dagestan called on the imams of mosques to pray for an end to the war at Friday prayers. On October 27, mass prayers for Palestinians were held in mosques in Karachay-Cherkessia.

Who and how in the North Caucasus expressed support for Palestine can be read in the “Caucasian Knot” information “ Actions in support of Palestine in the North Caucasus ”.

A rally in support of Palestine took place today in Cherkessk in front of the government house, the Kavkaz.Realii publication reported.

As follows from the video published today in the Telegram channel “New Dosh Magazine,” the protesters spoke with the official in a raised voice. Among those gathered there were a large number of women.

“Can you help us?” one of the women asks the official.

“Look, there is a law..." he begins to answer.

"No, can you?" she insists.

"No one will help," says a voice from the crowd.

"Can you help? Can you evict?" the woman asks again.

"By legal means..." the official begins to say.

"How can we evict them by legal means? Are Palestines being killed by legal means? They throw stones, but these throw missiles, is that normal?” one of the participants in the conversation was indignant.

The conversation between the protest participants and the official was about not allowing visitors from Israel into the region and evicting those already living there, the Baza Telegram channel reported today.

In another video published today on the Telegram channel “ChP Grozny,” a woman behind the scenes reads out the demands of the protesters.

“On behalf of the people of Karachay-Cherkessia, I ask you to limit the entry of refugees from Israel into our territory,” she says, reading a handwritten text on a piece of paper.

“Why restrict, you can’t write ban?” - another woman interrupts her.

“To limit is a ban”? - answers the woman who reads the text.

“And I also ask you not to build a building to receive Jewish refugees. We ask you to organize a collection of aid for the territory of Palestine. We also ask you to approve an authorized rally for us, five hundred or even more gathered. We, 500 people, ask you to respond within two days to our appeal officially. In extreme cases, we will be forced to gather again without permission for a rally on October 31,” the woman read the statement.

The fighting between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement began on October 7 with the firing of hundreds of rockets into Israeli territory, including civilian targets and civilians. The Israel Defense Forces responded by launching the Iron Swords military operation against Hamas, after which Israel announced a blockade of the Gaza Strip: supplies of water, food, electricity, medicine, and fuel were suspended. Thousands of people died on both sides.

Whoops! The Kavkaz-Uzel reporter and his editor forgot to mention the 1400 Israelis and foreigners brutally murdered that day, and the 250 or so of all ages and nationalities kidnapped for pleasure and profit by the Invaders from Gaza under strict orders from Tehran

The Islamic movement Hamas is recognized as terrorist in a number of countries: in particular, France and the European Union added it to the list of terrorist groups after the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. In Russia, the movement has not been declared terrorist, since none of its representatives have been convicted in Russia, the Prosecutor General’s Office said in response to a request from a deputy from St. Petersburg.

Russia has a sentimental attachment to Hamas, because the Palestinian “liberation” movement was fostered and trained in terrorism as a Soviet project. Originally it was the Palestine Liberation Organization, an umbrella group that originally was primarily various flavours of Communist and Socialist, but the group later expanded to include the Islamofascists of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Hamas' actions do not represent Palestinians, Mahmoud Abbas says

2023-10-16

[Jpost] Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said the actions and policies of terrorist group Hamas do not represent Palestinian people, according to official news agency ~~WTF?~~ WAFA.

In a phone call with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Abbas also called the Palestine Liberation Organization the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people," WAFA said.

"The president affirmed his rejection of the killing of civilians on both sides and called for the release of civilians, prisoners and detainees on both sides," added the news agency.
A message to brown girls of the world.

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Pravda writes only the truth

2023-10-15

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.

Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics:
[ColonelCassad] In light of the escalation of the armed conflict in the Middle East, our editors have pulled up issues from previous years from the archives. We wanted to show young readers of Pravda on social networks how similar the events of the past are to those happening now.

For publication, we chose an article that was published exactly 40 years ago in issue 283 (23809) on October 10, 1983 under the title “The occupiers are gaining a foothold. To the events in Lebanon".

Cherry picking for fun and profit?

The material tells about the events of Operation Peace to Galilee, as it is called in Israel, or the First Lebanon War that took place in those days. Then Israel occupied Lebanese territory with the aim of destroying the bases of the Palestine Liberation Organization. In addition, the text contains an information message about a radio speech by US President Ronald Reagan, who tried to justify the presence of American troops in Lebanon, which were essentially occupation troops. The note also assessed Reagan’s “Middle East Initiative,” which in fact became a springboard for interference in the internal affairs of not only Lebanon, but also other Middle Eastern states in order to establish Washington’s dominance in the region.

Our publication received wide distribution on the Internet. In particular, the famous military observer Boris Rozhin (Colonel Cassad) posted it on his channel in the Telegram messenger. About 300,000 subscribers read the material here alone.

But the most valuable thing was the reaction of readers to a note from the past, which turned out to be relevant today:

“The party and the newspaper Pravda didn’t lie to us, but we didn’t believe it, we thought they were exaggerating... And that’s how it turned out...,” writes the user with the nickname Mvvbd.

“In the attic of my grandmother’s house, I found Soviet newspapers from the 50s and 60s. I read it and compared it with what is happening now. It turned out to be the truth,” says a reader with the nickname Mr.X.

“Who would have thought that Pravda wrote the truth…” Evgenia is amazed.

“The longer I live, the more I am surprised: Soviet propaganda did not lie to us about the bestial nature of the imperialists, but we giggled at the cliches,” admits Lyudmila.

“Everything that Soviet propaganda “lied” to us turned out to be true,” states Kozma Cthulhu.

Is Cthulhu a common name in that part of the world?

The name is a Russian Cthulu role playing character.
“Everything that the Pravda newspaper wrote turned out to be true,” Vera Kolesnikova echoes him.

“It turns out that Pravda was telling the truth,” a user with the nickname Goest makes the discovery.

This became the leitmotif of a huge number of messages left by users. We greet such sincere confessions with twofold feelings. On the one hand, it’s joyful because finally, decades later, people have learned the true price of the streams of liberal anti-Soviet lies.

On the other hand, it hurts because understanding came so slowly and came at such a high price. Not everyone survived the collapse of the USSR, the era of “shock therapy”; the present time is also difficult for many with its real “grins of capitalism”, which Soviet citizens previously learned about from articles in Pravda, the Vremya and International Panorama programs.

Everything that Soviet propaganda “lied” turned out to be true: inflation, unemployment, social insecurity, and the hegemony of imperialism with its double standards and constant wars. Everything that the country created by the communists tried to protect its citizens from, free from class struggle, wishing its citizens peace and prosperity and telling them the truth, which not everyone wanted to hear.

Seriously? Wow.

It took more than three decades to understand and learn the truisms long known to communists. We hope that the class approach that underlies all of Pravda’s activities will be adopted much more quickly.

This science is very expensive: to understand what is actually true and what is a lie. Take care, comrades, this knowledge, do not lose it!

Ivan Egorov

I remember that in Soviet times, anti-Soviet propaganda in every possible way promoted the anti-Soviet joke “There is no Izvestia in Pravda, and there is no truth in Izvestia.”As is now not difficult to notice, “everything that Soviet propaganda lied about turned out to be true,” and “the voices of truth from the Voice of America and other similar garbage dumps turned out to be a total lie of Orwellian proportions, which is confirmed on a daily basis with the incredible depths of the bottom being broken through.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Tamir Pardo crossed a red line

2023-09-11

[Jpost] Former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo is the latest in a line of former top officials to cross a line in his desire to bring down Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government.

Playing politics with Israel’s existence, as if another six million dead Jews were not a real possibility.

In an interview with the Associated Press on Wednesday, Pardo claimed that Israel is implementing an "apartheid state" policy against Palestinians in the West Bank.

"In a territory where two people are judged under two legal systems, that is an apartheid state," said Pardo, who was the Mossad chief from 2011-2016.

...The fact that Pardo held such a senior position would appear to add credence to his words. Unfortunately, his comments are factually flawed.

As the Post’s Tovah Lazaroff explained last week, the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), which is home to more than two million Palestinians and half a million Israelis, is divided into three sections, Areas A, B, and C, in accordance with the 1993 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Areas A and B, which comprise 40% of the West Bank, are under the auspices of the Palestinian Authority.

The remainder of the West Bank, some 60%, is under Israel’s military and civilian control. The nearly half a million Israelis who live there are under IDF military rule but maintain the same individual rights as those who live in sovereign Israel. The more than 300,000 Palestinians who live there also do so under IDF military rule, but maintain some rights from the Palestinian Authority.

...This complicated situation has existed since Israel took control of the territories 56 years ago in the Six Day War, a war the Arab world launched on the Jewish state with the stated aim of annihilating it.

The Oslo Accords, signed 30 years ago this month, were an attempt to solve the conflict through agreement but floundered in the subsequent waves of Palestinian terrorism and anti-normalization rhetoric and measures.

How curious that Pardo, who was appointed Mossad head by Netanyahu, agreed to hold such a senior position for so many years when he believed the country he was protecting was morally wrong. The situation he describes is not new; it started long before Netanyahu entered politics.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

~~Two~~ Three dead as renewed clashes rock Ain el-Helweh

2023-09-10

[AnNahar] Two people were killed Saturday in festivities that erupted again after a relatively calm night at the Paleostinian refugee camp of Ain el-Helweh on Sidon's outskirts, official media reported.

Fresh violence broke out late Thursday in Ain el-Helweh, just weeks after deadly festivities pitted members of Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....
' Fatah movement against Islamist bully boys.

Ongoing fighting inside the camp on Saturday killed one person and maimed seven others, Leb
Leb

...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
's official National News Agency (NNA) said.

A source in the camp's Paleostinian leadership told AFP on condition of anonymity that the man killed was an Islamist bully boy.

The NNA said a second person was killed and several others maimed outside Ain el-Helweh by stray bullets.

While calm had largely prevailed overnight, heavy festivities broke out on Saturday morning, an AFP correspondent in Sidon said, reporting the sound of automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenades.

A public hospital directly adjacent to the camp transferred all its patients to other facilities due to the danger, its director Ahmad al-Samadi told AFP.

Ain el-Helweh is home to more than 54,000 registered refugees and thousands of Paleostinians who joined them in recent years from Syria, fleeing war in the neighboring country.

The camp, Lebanon's largest, was created for Paleostinians who were driven out or fled during the 1948 war that coincided with Israel's creation.

In the worst outbreak of violence in the camp in years, five days of festivities that began in late July left 13 people dead and dozens maimed.

Those festivities erupted after the death of an Islamist bully boy, followed by an ambush that killed five Fatah members including a military leader.

The United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
' resident coordinator in Lebanon, Imran Riza, on Friday urged "gangs to stop the fighting in the camp" and to "immediately" vacate schools belonging to the U.N. agency for Paleostinian refugees, UNRWA.

"The use of gangs of schools amounts to gross violations" of international law, Riza said in a statement.

Lebanon hosts an estimated 250,000 Paleostinian refugees, according to UNRWA.

Most live in one of Lebanon's 12 official camps, and face a variety of legal restrictions including on employment.

By long-standing convention, the army does not enter Paleostinian camps -- now bustling but impoverished urban districts -- leaving the factions themselves to handle security.

Al Ahram adds:

Civil defense teams worked alongside the Lebanese army to put out fires caused by the fighting.

The clashes erupted on Saturday despite a ceasefire agreement on Friday evening that sought to put an end to fighting in the camp between the rival groups on Thursday and Friday.

The two days of fighting left nearly two dozen dead in the densely populated, walled-off camp.

Over the years, Islamist militants have established a presence in Ain Al-Helweh, the largest of Lebanon's 12 Palestinian refugee camps.

Its estimated 54,000 residents have been joined in recent years by some 6,000 Palestinians who sought refuge from Syria's civil war, all crammed in an area covering no more than two square kilometres (0.8 square miles).

The camp, with its narrow alleyways, is surrounded by a wall erected by the Lebanese army, whose forces control all four entrances

A 1969 agreement between Beirut and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) stipulated that security in Ain Al-Helweh and the other refugee camps was to be handled by Palestinian factions rather than Lebanese forces.

The Lebanese government annulled the deal in 1987, but the army still does not enter Palestinian camps by long-standing convention.

Fatah, which controls the PLO and the Palestinian Authority, remains the most influential actor in Ain Al-Helweh, though rival factions like Hamas and Islamic Jihad threaten its hegemony.

Parts of the camp have also become bastions of Islamist cells of Lebanese and Syrian nationals, which include some fugitives.

One of the better known of them is Lebanese-Palestinian singer Fadel Shaker, who had been sentenced to 15 years in prison for supporting local Sunni extremist groups.

According to UNRWA, the United Nations' agency for Palestinian refugees, more than 80 percent of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon live in poverty.