NOVANEWS
Dear Friends,
So much information today. Difficult to decide what to send, what to omit. And I haven’t even begun to check messages in my inbox. Who knows what I’ll find there. These are tumultuous times. In any event, have selected 6 items. But don’t guarantee that later I won’t forward some item from my email when I get to it.
This evening began the Memorial rites for those who died in the Holocaust. It is therefore fitting that you know that the rites however touching they are, are hypocritical. The first item helps explain why I say this. I don’t say that we should not remember the dead. My own spouse lost most of his family in the camps. But I do insist that we should also remember the living, those who survived that horror! Why, in Israel, of all places, do 25% of these aged people live in poverty and isolation? Why! Because the governments of this so-called Jewish country don’t give a damn about the survivors. They only want to work on our emotions so that we will condone the theft of a country and dispossession of its indigenous inhabitants for the sake of Jews. That, I will not do! The way that Israeli governments have treated the survivors of the camps is disgusting and criminal! Likewise regarding the Palestinians.
Most of the remaining items are about current events—Gideon Levy in item 2 scolds the Israel government for not giving Hamas a chance.
Indeed, while much of the world sees the Hamas-Fatah unification (if it holds) as positive, Israel’s leaders bemoan it. Of course! When there were 2 separate entities, Israel’s leaders could shout ‘we have no one to talk to.’ Now, that they might have someone to talk to, they really have a problem! What excuse can they use not to talk. Don’t worry, the government will find dozens of reasons.
Item 3 is one of these. 3a reports that Israel’s finance minister is holding back monies that Israel owes the Palestinians. In item 3b the Palestinians respond that notwithstanding Israel’s act of withholding the cash, the Palestinians will forge ahead.
In item 4 we are told that Israeli leaders are worried that a truce between Hamas and Fatah will not lessen pressure on Israel. And in item 5 we learn that Hamas is ready for peace talks! I can only imagine how Israel’s PM and others in his government are squirming!
Item 6 is a brief run down of recent events in the West Bank
All the best, and hopefully there will be better times some day,
Dorothy
==================================
1. Ynet Sunday, May 1, 2011
Food distribution for Holocaust survivors Photo: Noam Moskowitz
Over 25% of Holocaust survivors live in poverty
Report published ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day indicates some 208,000 victims of Nazi atrocities remain in Israel; poll reveals 40% of survivors feel lonely, while half say they are in need of financial aid
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4062637,00.html
Omri Efraim
A report published Sunday morning ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day reveals that 60,000 out of 208,000 Holocaust survivors living in Israel are indigent, despite a 160% increase in the scope of financial aid given to survivors of Nazi atrocities.
The report, published by The Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims, also shows that some 10% of Holocaust survivors receive nursing aid in addition to a social security pension.
In Memory
According to the data, some 13,000 survivors died in 2011, and the number of survivors is estimated to decrease by more than 30% to about 145,000 by the year 2015.
A recent poll indicates that some 40% of survivors feel lonely frequently, and a similar number find it difficult to leave the house for errands and shopping.
Some 20% of survivors suffer from the cold weather in winter and lack proper equipment to heat their apartment, while 5% reported that they suffer from shortage of food. Half of Holocaust survivors said they require financial aid and some 30% are also in need of nursing.
Following the publication of the report, The Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Chairman Elazar Stern warned that “the younger generation will not forgive us if we don’t give the older generation the proper care it deserves.”
Pua Horovitz, the coordinator of an aid program for Holocaust survivors on behalf of humanitarian aid organization Latet, told Ynet that “survivors suffer from loneliness, which is made much worse by their financial situation. Some live in dire conditions of poverty and deprivation, which are noticeable as soon as you enter their homes.
“After working with survivors for three years, I can confidently say that the State is not involved enough. Some Holocaust victims need to struggle to get recognized as survivors by the state. We need to remember that they are all adult people who cannot fight these bureaucratic wars,” she said.
================================
2. Haaretz Sunday, May 1, 2011
Hamas should be given a chance
Palestinian reconciliation is not good for Israel according to the distorted zero sum game that we have been playing forever: What is good for them is bad for us.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/hamas-should-be-given-a-chance-1.359064
By Gideon Levy
Why should we bother with elections, changing prime ministers and parties? For what do we need all this unnecessary trouble if Israel’s response will always be the same, government after government on autopilot? Why is it that every time there appears to be a chance for positive change,Israel is quick to make a sour face, to scaremonger and hunker down behind its rejectionism. Why? Because that is how we are.
The reporters have not even managed to deliver their stories from the press conference of Azam al-Ahmed and Musa Abu Marzuk, and Benjamin Netanyahu was already in his media room to send out a public sour face. Even before he was done, the national chorus embarked on its song of rejectionism, which has become the national anthem, while in the background the orchestra of threats is playing. Like the wreckage of the school bus that was hit by a missile from Gaza, which is being sent abroad on a “public relations campaign,” the propagandists are now trying to score another fabricated point: Danger – Palestinian reconciliation. There is still no reconciliation, but the cries of the Israeli rejectionists are already being heard.
The texts are the same texts, word for word, like in the ’70s and the ’80s: a terrorist organization with which we will never negotiate. Then it was Fatah and now it is Hamas. The defense minister placed so many conditions on Hamas for it to be regarded as an interlocutor, that he simply means no. And Shimon Peres, who is now in favor of peace without removing settlements, made a presidential declaration: “The reconciliation will prevent a Palestinian state,” – as if this is the Fatah position, as if Israel is about to leave the territories, and only this terrible, last minute development is preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Hamas, not Fatah, changed its position. This is (perhaps ) the good news. It is still too early to assess how serious it is and the burden of proof is on Hamas to show that it has turned moderate. But it should be given a chance. For two years we presented impossible conditions to Mahmoud Abbas, and now we miss him. “It’s either us or Hamas,” Netanyahu declares like some betrayed lover, as if the option of “us” was ever on the table.
The agreement that was initialed includes a promise for democratization and elections. Is that not what we always wanted? That is what the right demanded, is it not? All those who now say that it is a good thing that we did not make peace with the Arab tyrants should now be interested in peace with the entire Palestinian nation and not only with its rulers. This is their chance. All those who complain that Abbas is about to include a radical partner in his government should probably first look at the composition of our government. And all those who said that the Palestinians are divided and Abbas is weak, not a partner, should be pleased with the chance for a representative, powerful government.
But no. Palestinian reconciliation is not good for Israel according to the distorted zero sum game that we have been playing forever: What is good for them is bad for us. Listen to the reverberating words of Noam Chomsky in an interview with Gadi Algazi on Israel Social TV: The basic hypothesis of a democratic Israel must be a chance for a democratic Palestine. Is this not true?
The path to Palestinian reconciliation is still long, and the path to statehood even longer. In the alleys of Jenin and the tunnels of Rafah there is still nothing to celebrate. In Jerusalem and Tel Aviv there is still nothing to worry about, to feel threatened by or even to rejoice about – as if we have been given a public relations “asset.” If a unity government is set up, and if free elections are held, there will be a new possibility. Israel needs to welcome this, with the appropriate reservations.
How depressing was the South African Freedom Day party in Tel Aviv over the weekend. While South African ambassador Ismail Coovadia, a person who knows a thing or two about “terrorist organizations” with which it is “forbidden” to negotiate, and whose representatives have been governing for the past 20 years a free and relatively impressive country, spoke about the chances of Palestinian reconciliation, minister Benny Begin sought to frighten those present about the prospect of democratization in the Arab world, painting as black a picture as possible. That is because we are unchanged. The days go by, a year passes, but the song remains the same.
=========================
3a. Haaretz Sunday, May 1, 2011
Israel freezes cash transfer to Palestinians due to Fatah-Hamas unity deal
Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz says he will hold up transfer of $89 million in Palestinian tax funds and customs fees until it was clear it would not reach Hamas militants; PA condemns the move.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-freezes-cash-transfer-to-palestinians-due-to-fatah-hamas-unity-deal-1.359123
By The Associated Press
Tags: Israel news Hamas
Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz says he is delaying a cash transfer to the Palestinian Authority because of a new unity deal between rival Palestinian factions.
Steinitz says he will hold up the transfer of $89 million in Palestinian tax funds and customs fees that Israel collects on the Palestinians’ behalf.
Steinitz told Army Radio on Sunday that the money was supposed to be transferred this week but would remain in Israeli hands until it was clear it would not reach the militants of Hamas.
Last week the Palestinians announced a new unity deal between the Western-backed Palestinian Authority and the Iran-backed Hamas, which rejects any accommodation with Israel.
The Israeli government says it will not negotiate with a government that includes Hamas.
A senior Palestinian official in the West Bank condemned the move, saying Israel had no right to withhold Palestinian funds.
“Israel has started a war even before the formation of the government,” senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said.
The finance minister said that the issue could be reconsidered “if the Palestinians can prove to us … that there is not a joint fund between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas in Gaza.”
“We ask the entire world not to fund Hamas, so we must not do so, even indirectly,” he said.
Steinitz noted that Israel had withheld the tax revenues in the past, during a Palestinian uprising that began in 2000.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently hinted to a visiting delegation of U.S. Congress members that the United States should consider stopping economic aid to the Palestinian Authority if a Hamas-Fatah unity government did not recognize Israel and renounce terror.
Speaking to the American legislators, Netanyahu quoted remarks by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in April 2009, that Israel would not hold talks with or economically support a Palestinian government, including Hamas, until Hamas recognized Israel and abandoned violence.
————-
3b. Jerusalem Post Sunday
May 21, 2011 16:52 IST
Photo by: REUTERS/Abed Omar Qusini
Fayyad: Israeli suspension of funds to PA won’t stop unity
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=218641
By REUTERS AND JPOST.COM STAFF
01/05/2011
PA prime minister says Israeli economic sanctions in response to Hamas-Fatah reconciliation won’t stop Palestinian unity deal; Erekat: “Israel has started a war even before the formation of the government.”
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad on Sunday said that Israel’s decision to withhold tax revenues from the PA will not prevent the unity agreement between Hamas and Fatah from occurring.
Fayyad said the PA was “in contact with all international influential forces and parties to stop Israel from taking these measures”, the official WAFA news agency reported.
“Threats … will not deter us from concluding our reconciliation process. It is our policy and we must work harder to end our divisions as soon as possible,” added Fayyad.
Earlier on Sunday, Israel said it has suspended tax transfers to the Palestinians in response to PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s bid to forge an alliance with rival Hamas terrorist group who are opposed to peace talks.
A senior Palestinian official in the West Bank condemned the move, saying Israel had no right to withhold Palestinian funds.
Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said he had suspended a routine handover of NIS 300 million ($88 million) in customs and other levies that Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinians under interim peace deals.
In an interview on Army Radio, Steinitz said that Israel feared the money would be used to fund Hamas, an Islamist terrorist group that runs the Gaza Strip and whose founding charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.
Israel had threatened sanctions last week in response to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s surprise announcement of a unity deal with Hamas that envisages the formation of an interim government and elections.
The tax transfer mechanism provides Abbas’s Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, with $1 billion to $1.4 billion annually — two-thirds of its budget.
“If the Palestinians can prove to us … that there is not a joint fund between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas in Gaza, I believe that we will reconsider the matter,” Steinitz said.
“We ask the entire world not to fund Hamas, so we must not do so, even indirectly,” he said.
Asked about Israel’s decision, Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian official, said: “Israel has started a war even before the formation of the government.”
Steinitz noted that Israel had withheld the tax revenues in the past, during the second intifada that began in 2000.
=========================
4. Ynet,
May 1, 2011
Abbas with Haniyeh. For unity Photo: AFP
Officials: Truce will not lessen pressure on Israel
Israeli officials fear Europe opting to give joint Hamas-Fatah government chance, will soon resume pressure on Israel to present plan for peace talks. US support expected to wane by PA statehood declaration in September
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4062599,00.html
Attila Somfalvi
Though Israeli officials had hoped the truce agreement between Hamas and Fatah would lessen international pressure for peace talks, many now fear world leaders – especially in Europe – will soon put the ball back in Israel’s court.
“It seems that it has not been easy convincing the Europeans to adopt the Israeli tack regarding Hamas as a partner in the Palestinian government,” one state official told Ynet Saturday evening.
“The fear is that within a short while the ball will return to our court and Israel will be required to present a plan and clear goals in the field of talks.”
The US has so far toed the line with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s views on Hamas, but officials say this will not last until September – when the Palestinians plan to make a UN-backed statehood declaration.
“The Palestinians will claim that now that there is unity within the authority the declaration of statehood is more appropriate than ever before, because Abbas will need help ahead of the February elections in the (Palestinian) Authority – from the international community as well as from Israel,” one state official said.
“Whoever thought there will now be a few months of calm will be disproven; because the European inclination is to give the truce and unity government a chance – and this will certainly not make life easy for Israel.”
=======================
5. Ynet,
May 1, 2011
‘Hamas ready for peace talks with Israel’
Palestinian billionaire Munib al-Masri, who helped mediate Hamas-Fatah unity pact, says Gaza leadership willing to agree to comprehensive peace deal based on 1967 borders
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4062868,00.html
Elior Levy
While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday continued to warn of the threats behind the Palestinian factions’ reconciliation, one of the mediators in the Hamas-Fatah unity talks expressed surprising optimism.
Palestinian businessman and billionaire Munib al-Masri, who was one of the mediators in the reconciliation talks between Hamas and Fatah, told Ynet that Hamas would be willing to negotiate a peace deal with Israel, based on the 1967 borders.
Peace Talks
“During conversations I had with Khaled Mashal and Mousa Abu Marzook, they said that they want to establish a strong government that can achieve a comprehensive peace based on 1967 border,” said al-Masri, who has been named as a candidate to head the new government.
Al-Masri, second from right (Photo: Elior Levy)
When asked to clarify Hamas’ intentions, al-Masri stressed the Islamic faction does not refer to a “hudna” – a long-term ceasefire that has already been discussed in the past – but rather a comprehensive agreement. However, he did not mention the issue of recognizing Israel.
Inside Palestinian halls of power, al-Masri is considered a plausible candidate to head the interim “technocrats’ government” both by Hamas and Fatah, and is regarded as an distinguished and independent figure in the Palestinian Authority.
When asked if he would accept the position, al-Masri replied, “I am an old man and there are younger people who can do it,” but added that if both sides asked him to assume the role – he will not say no.
The Palestinian billionaire noted that he supports the re-nomination of Salam Fayyad as prime minister. “I hope it happens,” al-Masri said, but noted that Hamas would have to also support to move.
=======================
6 . A Few Events on the West Bank
Palestine Telegraph Sun
May 1, 2011
RSS Palestinian child detained by Israeli forces in Jerusalem Sunday, 01 May 2011 06:45 Samar Mohaisen Hits: 161
http://www.paltelegraph.com/palestine/west-bank/9044-palestinian-child-detained-by-israeli-forces-in-jerusalem.html
West Bank, (Pal Telegraph)-Israeli occupation forces detained yesterday at night a Palestinian child known as Mohammed Houshia, 12, after raiding his house in Jerusalem under the pretext of throwing stones at Israeli soldiers existed near the Separation Wall.
The Palestinian prisoner club confirmed that Israeli army recently escalated its illegal detention of Palestinian children. There are nearly 200 Palestinian children inside Israeli jails who are subjected to different types of tortures.
The prisoner club claimed Israeli ongoing detention that targeted Palestinian children with no sin, demanding the human rights organizations to urgently intervene to stop those violations.
====================================
Palestine News and Information Agency WAFA
Americans for Peace Now Urges Obama to Support Palestinian Reconciliation Date : 30/4/2011 Time : 14:14
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=16011
WASHINGTON, April 30, 2011 (WAFA) – Americans for Peace Now (APN) welcomed on Thursday news of a Fatah-Hamas deal and urged US President Barack Obama and his administration not to squander this opportunity, according to a statement.
APN President and CEO Debra DeLee said that the deal to form a government and to hold new elections “is good news, and we hope that the agreement is implemented.”
She said that “While we still don’t know all the details of the agreement, we know that a Palestinian government representing all Palestinians, with security and governance capacity in both the West Bank and Gaza, is vital to the achievement of a peace agreement.”
APN said that “five years of US, Israeli, and international efforts to sideline Hamas have failed. The reality today is that the Gaza-West Bank split is a hurdle to peace efforts, raising questions about the capacity of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to implement an agreement.”
It said, ‘For years the U.S. has made the mistake of opposing Palestinian reconciliation rather than encouraging it; it should not compound this mistake by wasting this opportunity to engage a new Palestinian government. It should do so making clear that U.S. relations with this government — including decisions about the future of our foreign assistance program for the Palestinians — will be based solely on the positions and actions of the government.”
APN called on Obama to “redouble his own commitment to peace by laying out his own plan for peace — including presenting substantive peace parameters and his plan of action for moving forward.”
It said, “Obama has the opportunity to re-assert credible U.S. leadership, to forestall action at the UN in September, and to take the true measure of both the Israeli and the Palestinian governments’ commitments to peace. He should not miss this opportunity.’
M.A.
===================================
Israeli Forces Injure Two Palestinians near Jerusalem
Date : 1/5/2011
JERUSALEM, May 1, 2011 (WAFA)- Israeli Forces Sunday beat and moderately injured two Palestinian workers near Bethany, east of Jerusalem, according to relatives.
The two Palestinians, one 18 years and the other 26, residents of the village of Al-Obediya, east of Bethlehem, were apparently trying to get to Jerusalem to work when an Israeli border guard patrol spotted them.
The father of the 18-year-old said that the border guards had severely beaten his son and the other worker when they were near the separation wall dividing Bethany from Jerusalem. They were on their way to look for work in Jerusalem, he said.
The two were transferred to Beit Jala hospital for treatment.
Y.Y./M.A.
====================================
[From Es]
On Thursday, April 28, two Israeli military jeeps invaded the village of
Bil’in in the early afternoon, and shot stun grenades and tear gas,
leaving three children injured.
Bil’in in the early afternoon, and shot stun grenades and tear gas,
leaving three children injured.
According to villagers, IOF troups that were stationed at the Apartheid
Wall began shooting life ammunition when children passed near them on
their way home from school. Suddenly, two jeeps sped rapidly into the
area of the village near the mosque and began randomly shooting
rubber-coated steel bullets and stun grenades. They hit one child, who
prefers to remain anonymous, in his hand, 15 year old Nashmi Abu Rahme
in his right foot, and 14 year old Jamal Khateeb in his stomach and in
his mouth, piercing his lip and knocking out three tooth. Nashmi and
Jamal were immediately hospitalized in Ramallah. Nashmi was released
later Thursday evening reportedly with a fracture to one of his toes; he
now walks with the aid of crutches. At the time of writing this report,
Jamal remains in hospital, unable to eat solid food. Reportedly, his
stomach is hard to the touch due to blood under his stomach muscle.
Relatives estimate that Jamal will carry a life-long handicap from this
injury.
