- Palestinians threaten to halt security coordination with Israel
- Palestinian Authority decides on actions following death of Ziad Abu Ain
Palestinians threaten to halt security coordination with Israel
Funeral for Ziad Abu Ain in Ramallah on Thursday (AP)
The death of a Palestinian Cabinet minister following a clash withIsraeli police has caused the Palestinian Authority (PA) to make aseries of threats, including a halt to security coordination withIsrael.
The Cabinet minister, Ziad Abu Ain, had been participating in aconfrontation between Palestinian protesters and Israeli soldiers. Atone point, an Israeli grabbed Abu Ain by the throat and pushed him.After the confrontation, Abu Ain spoke to tv cameras, and then collapsed. An autopsy showed that he had a major heart attack. TheIsraelis are saying that he would have had a heart attack sooner orlater anyway. The Palestinians are saying that the heart attack wasthe direct fault of the Israeli soldiers, who caused Abu Ain to haveof organizing protests against Israeli settlements and the West Bankseparation barrier.
The death of Abu Ain has (further) infuriated the Palestinians,leading the PA to threaten to end security cooperation with Israel.If this occurs, it will be a major big deal. It would mean that thePalestinians themselves would not take any further responsibility forany kind of crime occurring the West Bank, and that Israel, as theThe cooperation agreement is very unpopular with the Palestinians,because it often means that Palestinians are prevented by otherPalestinians from violence and protests against Israeli settlements.
Although the PA is making this threat, it’s not thought that PApresident Mahmoud Abbas will go through with it. As I’ve written manytimes, Abbas was born in 1935, and survived the horrific 1948 warbetween Jews and Arabs that following the partitioning of Palestineand the creation of the state of Israel. Like most survivors ofgenerational crisis wars, Abbas has literally devoted his life todoing everything possible to prevent that horrific kind of war fromoccurring again.
In this case, Abbas is well aware that ending the security cooperationagreement with Israel is a sure-fire way to create a lot moreconfrontations between Palestinians and Israelis, may well be allthat’s needed to trigger the new war between Jews and Arabs that Abbashas devoted his life to trying to prevent. AP and CNN
Palestinian Authority decides on actions following death of Ziad Abu Ain
According to senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat, in an interviewon al-Jazeera, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has tentatively decidedto take six actions in response to the death of Ziad Abu Ain (mytranscription, sometimes edited for clarity):
- “We will submit a security council resolution. Our Arab draft resolution specifies a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital, to be established within a specific time frame.”
- “Abbas will sign the accession to the International Criminal Court.” Note: This would make it possible for the ICC to take up the PA’s charges against Israel of crimes against humanity.
- “We’ve asked the higher contracting parties to the Geneva Conventions to convene in Geneva this month to make sure of the applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 to the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.” Note: The Fourth Geneva Convention on Rules of War was adopted in August 1949 in response to Nazi atrocities during World War II. The treaty governs the treatment of civilians during wartime, including hostages, diplomats, spies, bystanders and civilians in territory under military occupation. The convention outlaws torture, collective punishment and the resettlement by an occupying power of its own civilians on territory under its military control.
- “Abbas has sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urging him to establish a special regime for international protection.”
- “The Palestinian leadership decided to define its relations with Israel — meaning and very clearly — cessation of security cooperation, and at the same time asking Israel, the occupying power, to resume its full responsibilities.”
- “We decided to accelerate our [PA/Hamas] reconciliation immediately, because that’s the best way to face such atrocities.”
The Palestinian Authority will meet on Sunday to decide how to moveforward on these actions. Irish Times and Jewish Virtual Library
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Palestinian Authority, Israel,Mahmoud Abbas, Ziad Abu Ain, Saeb Erekat
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