Middle East Press On: Gaza, Lebanon, Hezbollah, and Hamas: New Age Islam's Selection, 19 February 2025
By New Age Islam Edit Desk
19 February 2025
1. Israel’s partial pullout from Lebanon is a warning to Hezbollah and Hamas
2. Should Gaza be governed by an international player after Hamas?
3. Jewish anti-Zionists weaponize rituals to undermine Israel
4. Kol Israel calls for unity in WZO elections amid Orthodox-liberal tensions
5. Why can't Israel’s opposition challenge the current government?
6. The PA’s delusions are dangerous for Palestinians
7. Israel’s violations of Palestinian culture in East Jerusalem
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Israel’s Partial Pullout From Lebanon Is A Warning To Hezbollah And Hamas
By Jpost Editorial
February 19, 2025
The IDF withdrew most of its troops from Lebanon on Tuesday, 4½ months after launching its ground invasion targeting Hezbollah on October 1. The exception: five strategic areas just inside Israel’s northern neighbor, where new outposts were built and troops will remain for the time being.
Exactly how long will depend on Lebanon, and the degree to which the Lebanese Army acts against Hezbollah and prevents it from again turning southern Lebanese villages into armed fortifications in civilian disguise, housing heavy weaponry and hosting terrorists primed and ready to attack the Jewish state.
The withdrawal is part of the ceasefire agreement that took effect on November 27. The five remaining outposts are to ensure that Hezbollah cannot entrench itself in the border area.
Lebanon, according to a statement issued by the Lebanese Presidency, will consider any remaining IDF presence on its territory an “occupation” and reserve the right “to employ all means” to ensure Israel’s full withdrawal.
Well, here’s a creative way to ensure that withdrawal: uphold the terms of the ceasefire agreement.
Why did Hezbollah gain power?
This means ensuring Hezbollah fighters withdraw north of the Litani River, dismantling Hezbollah’s military infrastructure in southern Lebanon, and deploying the Lebanese army to southern Lebanon and the border.Once that happens, Israel can consider pulling back fully behind the international border in accordance with the ceasefire deal. But not before.
Israel has had unfortunate experience with troop withdrawals from Lebanon, having done so already on two separate occasions. The first was in a rushed and chaotic manner in May 2000, the second in 2006 under the auspices of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 that put an end to the Second Lebanon War.
Both turned out to be disasters. Hezbollah, with Iran’s generous assistance, quickly filled the vacuum Israel left behind, turning the territory into a launching pad for future attacks.
This happened for several reasons. Chief among them: Israel’s reluctance, after withdrawing, to take significant steps to prevent Hezbollah from taking over, not wanting to get pulled back into the “Lebanese morass.”
This was especially true following the Second Lebanon War. UN Security Council Resolution 1701 explicitly called for Hezbollah to move north of the Litani and be disarmed, but none of those conditions were implemented. The resolution was openly and blatantly disregarded, yet Israel did nothing. Instead, it stood by as Hezbollah forces moved into villages within rock-throwing distance of Israeli border communities, and watched as Hezbollah’s rocket and missile arsenal ballooned ten-fold from some 15,000 before the 2006 war to an estimated 150,000 at the start of the recent round of fighting.
If this pattern of failed withdrawals is to change, then things must be fundamentally different this time. The decision to keep the five IDF outposts inside Lebanon until the Lebanese live up to their part of the agreement indicates Israel has internalized that lesson.
Upon the military’s withdrawal of troops from southern Lebanon, Defense Minister Israel Katz declared on Tuesday: “The IDF will continue to enforce [the ceasefire] vigorously and without compromise against any Hezbollah violation.”
We fervently hope this is not an empty promise. Only determined action will prevent past mistakes from repeating.
So far, the signs are encouraging. According to an Army Radio report Tuesday, Israel identified some 230 violations since the ceasefire went into effect. “The vast majority” of these infringements were dealt with by the Lebanese Army after Israel complained to the US-chaired enforcement mechanism established under the ceasefire agreement. Those not dealt with by the Lebanese army? Israel took care of them itself.
The determination that the Jewish state shows here will also have ripple effects elsewhere. If it proves that it will enforce agreements to the letter, the message will be clear not just to Lebanon, but to Hamas as well: Jerusalem will not allow past mistakes to repeat, and any violation of a deal reached that threatens Israeli security will be dealt with immediately and with deadly force.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-842732
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Should Gaza Be Governed By An International Player After Hamas?
By Ruth Wasserman Lande
February 19, 2025
One year ago, in an op-ed I had written, I suggested that on the “Day After” in Gaza, after the IDF returns all of our hostages and eliminates Hamas rule from the enclave, an international role player such as the US should govern Gaza temporarily.
Most commentators felt this was nothing more than wishful thinking. Who, indeed, would agree to entrench themselves in the Gazan mud? Today, several weeks after the inauguration of US President Donald Trump, my thoughts have been significantly strengthened.
Trump spoke of turning the Gaza Strip into an American asset – either temporarily or otherwise. He even went further to say there is a dire need to remove the Gazan population of approximately two million people to an alternative place to allow for the enclave’s development and to solve, once and for all, the endless terrorism it breeds against Israel, Egypt, and its very own population, via its leadership.
Whether this solution is realistic or not is secondary. The very fact that such words have been uttered publicly by the president of the United States of America is significant, as they lend an idea not yet visited the legitimacy and weight needed to think out of the box and to contemplate original and creative solutions, which may go against the grain.
This is particularly significant given that what has been considered regarding Gaza thus far has simply not worked.
Gaza's history
Not the potential peace, which was envisioned by former prime minister Ariel Sharon when he unilaterally withdrew from it in 2005-6, nor the work permits, which had been given to tens of thousands of Gazans to work within Israel in the homes and farms of precisely those people whose lives they then ravished on October 7.
Operation Cast Lead in 2008 and Operation Protective Edge in 2014 also failed to achieve the sought-after results.
Moreover, the current Israel-Hamas War, which began after the October 7, 2023, massacre, has also not stopped the breeding of the horrid hatred, incitement, and terror within the Gaza Strip.
The possibility of replacing Hamas’s leadership with the Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas)-led Fatah is an absolute waste of time, as history had already proved, in 2007, when Hamas took over the Gaza Strip and slaughtered their Palestinian brethren – those same Fatah officers in the Gaza Strip.
Likewise, the idea of placing the heads of several large and prosperous families in the enclave, “Hamoulas,” in charge of several areas within Gaza during the current war only lasted a few short days as they were murdered by Hamas and their operatives.
WHAT THE war in Gaza has made crystal clear is the need to destroy Hamas’s infrastructure both above ground and below – namely, the entire underground tunnel network throughout the enclave. This cannot be achieved without the removal of the population of Gaza, either temporarily or otherwise.
It is also very clear that Hamas’s extreme Islamic ideology has, since 2006, entered every home and every school book in Gaza. Hence, an entirely new educational system needs to be introduced and supervised – something which cannot occur if it stays in power and/or Fatah takes its place.
After all, the hatred, incitement, and indoctrination are as much part of the messaging in Judea and Samaria under Mahmoud Abbas and the Fatah party as they are in the Gaza Strip.
The optimal role player that could possibly enact a reformed and new educational system is the United Arab Emirates, which has already proved it was able to execute far-reaching reforms in its own educational system. But they would never even consider it if Hamas remained in power, as they could not operate within Gaza without being endangered.
Without residents, Hamas will not be able to continue its terror activity for several reasons.
First, it would not be able to embed itself in the civilian population who serve as human shields.
Second, it could not move closer and closer to the north of the enclave, amid throngs of civilians, to a position that would serve as a launching pad to attack nearby Israeli villages and towns. Third, without civilians, Hamas cannot lean upon the excuse of attacking Israel to “protect” the Gazans, as they would no longer be there.
When Yasser Arafat and the Palestinians were banished from Lebanon after they had turned the country into a hotbed of terror and participated in the periodical massacre of hundreds and thousands of Christian Lebanese, the world was silent.
After the Palestinians were banished from Kuwait for celebrating Iraq’s occupation of the country despite the Kuwaitis’ warm hospitality toward them, the world was silent. When the Palestinians were massacred in Jordan in “Black September” in 1970 by the Jordanian king after they had committed terror attack after terror attack in the kingdom, the world remained silent.
If Palestinians are banished from Gaza, temporarily or otherwise, the world would not remain silent as this time, Israel would be involved. However, the continued hostilities in the form of open and unapologetic hatred and genocidal zest, which are clear in every statement made by Hamas leadership in Arabic, cannot continue as they have been until now.
Where would Palestinians go?
THE QUESTION is, where should the Palestinians go? Is Egypt the right venue? No. Not because there is no space in the Sinai Peninsula; there is plenty of space there. Yet, that would mean exporting the problem from one mutual border with Israel to another. Furthermore, the panic that has awakened among the Egyptian leadership in the face of such a possibility is legitimate.
Why? The Egyptians, much like the Jordanians, understand well what it means to import approximately two million Palestinians.
Even though this would be a tiny percentage of their own 110 million-strong population, they remember Hamas murdering their soldiers in Rafah in 2012, the attempts made by the terror group to coordinate moves with terrorist entities in the Sinai Peninsula to undermine the Egyptian central regime, as well as their close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Egyptians understand that every country that has accepted Palestinians has suffered from terrorism and instability. History has proved that, and it is, after all, a legitimate fear.
Jordan is a similar example, only smaller and less stable. The king already faces a huge Palestinian portion of his population easily incited by external factors, such as the Islamic Republic of Iran, to undermine the Jordanian leadership. He does not need another two million Palestinians, who will not only further destabilize his regime but also destabilize the already fragile Jordanian economy and infrastructure.
On top of all that, Jordan shares a border with Israel that is over 330 km. long. With two million more Palestinians in its vicinity, the problem would simply have changed its geography.
Qatar comprises approximately 11,000 sq.km. – about half of the State of Israel. Only 300,000 Qataris live in that geography, alongside the upper echelon of Hamas, which has been lavishly living there for years, in tremendous prosperity.
Why would this country, which is practically the self-declared sponsor of Hamas, not take in the two million Gazan civilians who currently make do with merely 365 sq.km. in Gaza, a territory 30 times smaller in size than Qatar?
The distance from Israel is also significant enough to nullify border skirmishes, and the Egyptians and Jordanians could certainly breathe more easily with that solution.
Instead of hospitality for Palestinians, the latter could offer, in return for continued financial aid from the United States, the much-needed reform in their educational systems, their media, and the general messaging, which could undoubtedly be made more inclusive, tolerant, and multicultural.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-842720
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Jewish Anti-Zionists Weaponize Rituals To Undermine Israel
By Yisrael Medad
February 19, 2025
Jewish anti-Zionists have been gnashing their teeth in uncontrollable grimacing these past years in reaction to the IHRA’s (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) working definition of antisemitism.
The definition includes denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, that Israel’s existence is a racist endeavor, comparing Israeli policy to that of the Nazis, or aiding the harming of Jews in the name of an extremist view of religion.
Those elements negate most of the essentials of Palestinianism, especially the version promoted by Hamas.
Psychotherapist Mark Golden, from Newton, Massachusetts, published a column in The Boston Globe on February 13 positing that criticizing Israel is not being antisemitic. Moreover, as a Jew, Golden asserted he is “offended when legitimate critiques of Israel’s violent campaign in Gaza are branded as antisemitic.”
He fears he may be silenced. All, of course, depends on the criticism’s content.
Jewish anti-Zionists
A decade ago, Richard Landes wrote that “forms of Jewish self-criticism need to be understood” as they can cross over “into pathology” when shared by Jew-haters and deniers of Jewish national identity who “would use it to promote demonizing and scapegoating narratives.”
And that is what has happened.
Golden’s column is in harmony with the recent “Stop the Ethnic Cleansing” advertisement published in The New York Times, which displayed the names of 350 rabbis and a few actors and public figures. According to the Vatican News, the ad was financed by progressive donors affiliated with the In Our Name Campaign.
This collective of Jewish philanthropists seeks to raise $10 million for organizations that support efforts to “build self-determination in Palestine.”
Their signatures were nowhere to be seen on a similar advert in 2005 when more than 8000 Jews, including corpses, were ethnically cleansed from Gaza. Nor will you see their signatures on petitions protesting a planned ethnic cleansing of 725,000 Jews from Judea & Samaria and post-1967 Jerusalem neighborhoods.
And despite the claim of IfNotNow, that “as Jews for Shared Safety, we know our history demands that we take a stand against ethnic cleansing – wherever it happens,” their stand is only about the location of any “cleansing.”
At present, we are witnessing the anti-Zionist Jew, occupied by Palestine, who asserts he is the better, more knowledgeable, more ethical Jew. This Jewish anti-Zionism was evident at Columbia University this past week.
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) had invited students to join a “Tu Bishvat teach-in and seder” to learn about “greenwashing in occupied Palestine,” the tactic of misleading people to assume operations are environmentally friendly but concealing their harmful results.
What they are doing is literally turning Judaism and Jewish culture, customs, and practices upside down to wash their own anti-Zionism. The 15th of Shvat, a date fixed in the Talmud, to mark the new agricultural cycle for the purpose of biblical tithes, a commandment based on the sanctity of the Land of Israel, is upturned and disordered to serve the cause of pro-Palestinianism.
Moreover, this date, which serves a religious purpose in Jewish agriculture in determining the age of a fruit-bearing tree, is enlisted to prop up a group of people who have burned the trees and fields planted by Jews over decades. During the 1936 Arab disturbances, the Jewish National Fund composed a special Yizkor prayer for “chopped down trees.”
How ridiculous are their actions? We need only recall that during the 16th century in Safed, the kabbalist Rabbi Yitzhak Luria instituted the first Tu Bishvat seder, tasting all the fruit growing in Israel at the time. Were he and his disciples “settler-colonialists”?
We can recall other inversions employed by the new Jewish anti-Zionists, such as the 2018 saying of Kaddish for Gazans killed fighting Israel at England’s Parliament by the Na’amod movement; the “Jewish-Palestinian Freedom Seder” ceremony held by the anti-Zionist IfNotNow movement, in which “Next year in Jerusalem” is declared; and there was the “Tisha B’Av Fast,” for which Rabbi Mónica Gomery, of the T’ruah movement, composed a prayer “to be read preceding or following the sounding of the shofar” (which is not sounded on that day).
Jewish rituals and customs become putty in impure hands. The chutzpah of the Jewish anti-Zionists to take elements of Jewish ritual, prayers, and ceremonies and employ them, with so much in-your-face affront, in a corrupt fashion is immeasurable immorality. And therein lies the antisemitism.
Coming back to psychotherapist Golden, to his thinking, “Zionism was promoted without any concerns for the potential negative impact on the Palestinian people.” In America, he asserts support for Israel became “almost synonymous with being Jewish.”
Of course, for Golden and fellow travelers, Abraham heading off to Moriah, the children of Israel marching across the desert to the Land of Israel, the words of Psalm 137 of the exiles in Babylon sitting and weeping when they remembered Zion, and the subsequent 2500 years of returning and yearning since then are inconsequential and somehow non-Jewish.
That the returnees to Zion of the 19th and 20th centuries needed to literally purchase back their national homeland while constantly offering compromises is ignored.
Golden discovered that “Jewish self-determination” has become “associated with colonial oppression,” including accusations of “apartheid-like policies, land confiscation, and the abuse of Palestinians” that began to take hold.
Criticism of Israel, especially during this Gaza campaign, “seems more justified than ever,” he wrote. What these anti-Zionists ignore is a simple matter: Are these claims true? Furthermore, are these claims equally applied to the Arabs on the other side of the conflict?
Could Arabs have been the actual settler-colonialists, coming out of the Arabian Peninsula during the seventh century to conquer large swaths of territory, including Judea, then ruled by Roman-cum-Byzantine imperialist occupiers?
It is Golden’s wish that legitimate criticism of Israel be separated from allegations of antisemitism, used “as a tool to silence dissent,” which, he believes, is the “real danger.” Alas, his views are the real danger.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-842728
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Kol Israel Calls For Unity In Wzo Elections Amid Orthodox-Liberal Tensions
By David Yaari, Fleur Hassan-Nahoum
February 19, 2025
A recent Times of Israel article highlighting the Orthodox-liberal struggle in the upcoming World Zionist Organization elections reveals a troubling trend that we believe must be addressed head-on. That is, the old, tired divisions threaten to undermine the very foundation of our shared Zionist vision.
When we allow ourselves to be defined by narrow sectarian interests – whether they be ultra-Orthodox, Modern Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, or secular – we diminish the mighty, unifying force Zionism has been for the Jewish people for over a century. In this unnecessary battle between religious ideologies, the big loser is Zionism itself.
The WZO elections should not be reduced to a contest for religious control over resources and recognition. Rather, they should serve as an opportunity to advance a more inclusive and expansive view of our connection with Israel – one that transcends denominational lines and embraces the full diversity of Jewish people worldwide.
As a party focused exclusively on representing the interests of Jewish communities outside of Israel, Kol Israel stands for a broader vision that rejects simplistic binary choices between religious and secular, between Orthodox and Liberal, and between Right and Left.
Rather, we believe that our strength as a people lies in our ability to honor our differences and work toward shared goals. The question we should be asking is not which stream of Judaism will dominate the WZO, but how all streams can contribute to strengthening our collective bond with Israel – and with each other.
Tone-deaf Israeli politics
Moreover, it has always seemed a little tone-deaf to have domestic Israeli political parties like the Likud, Labor, Shas, Yisrael Beytenu, Meretz, and Yesh Atid running in Zionist elections outside of Israel.
These parties are rightly focused on the domestic agenda in Israel. They give little mention and little focus to issues outside of Israel and, for the most part, use the National Institutions as a way to give their political allies cushy jobs and budgets.
As Jews around the world prepare to vote in these crucial elections, we urge them to consider what kind of Jewish future they envision and how best to connect with Israel. Do we want an Israel that belongs only to certain segments of our people? Or do we want an Israel that serves as a spiritual and cultural home for all Jews, regardless of their religious practice?
The horrors of October 7 struck us all as Jews, not as religious or secular, Orthodox or Reform. Our enemies make no such distinctions, and neither should we in response. It is our obligation as a people to emerge from this tragedy changed, with a renewed commitment to unity and mutual respect for one another.
We believe that we can disagree on matters of religious practice and still stand shoulder to shoulder in support of Israel and the Jewish people. We can debate theological issues and work together to ensure Jewish security and continuity. We can maintain our distinct identities and recognize that what unites us is far stronger than what divides us.
What are we doing to help our own people in this time of crisis? Are we building walls or bridges? Are we using our resources to heal or to divide? If we cannot find ways to overcome our ideological differences for the greater good, then we have failed not only ourselves but generations to come.
The upcoming WZO elections offer us a choice: we can perpetuate the polarization, or we can chart a new course toward a more inclusive Zionism, one that celebrates our diversity as a source of strength, rather than weakness.
And we can imagine a next wave of dynamic Zionism that puts forth bold new ideas and rallies our people to achieve them. Let us adapt the Start-up Nation ethos and apply it to new Zionist ideas. We intend to launch an office of Zionist innovation that will create a Zionist accelerator to encourage and fund new ideas.
Together, let us reject the politics of division and embrace a vision of Jewish unity that honors our differences. We invite all (North American) Jews – regardless of denomination or level of observance – to join us in affirming our shared destiny and ensure that Zionism remains the vibrant, unifying force it should be for the Jewish people.
The time has come to move beyond the tired old struggles to focus on what truly matters: our collective responsibility to each other, to Israel, and to the future of the Jewish people.
David Yaari is the chairman of Kol Israel, a party of the World Zionist Congress, and vice chairman of Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF). Fleur Hassan-Nahoum is the secretary-general of Kol Israel and Israel’s special envoy for trade & innovation.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-842714
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Why Can't Israel’s Opposition Challenge The Current Government?
By Shahaf Zamir
February 19, 2025
Two months ago, the government of Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor and Social Democratic Party leader, was ousted in a no-confidence vote initiated by the largest opposition party, following a public campaign that exposed the government’s inadequacy in dealing with inflation and rising energy prices.
Almost simultaneously, Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister for the last nine years, announced his resignation, likely leading to elections in the coming months.
This followed the opposition criticism of the government’s handling of inflation and demands for investigation into government contracts. While the immediate causes in both countries were coalition breakdown or internal party tensions, these moves wouldn’t have occurred without opposition parties acting against the government both inside and outside the parliaments.
Although the opposition almost never has a majority, its role in parliamentary democracies is central. It needs to represent minority opinion, oppose government legislation or policy, supervise and criticize it, and perhaps most importantly – present a credible alternative for the government. Academic literature argues that since the opposition faces almost no restrictions, the issues it raises compel the government to respond and sometimes alter its policies.
In contrast to this theory and to the oppositional energy in other countries, the current parliamentary opposition in Israel appears pale, leaderless, and represents a limited understanding of opposition members’ role. This is particularly evident given past experience during the Bennett-Lapid government when there was a strong opposition – led by Benjamin Netanyahu – that succeeded in toppling the government and forming an alternative one.
Incompotent oppostion
An example for the current opposition incompetence is that during the war, from October 7, 2023, to the end of October 2024, only 361 parliamentary questions were submitted to ministers. Two hundred and seventy one of these were from opposition members – an average of six questions per opposition MK, representing only a fifth of their allowed quota of 30 questions per session. The use of motions for the agenda is equally lacking. Opposition members submitted 458 motions – 32 fewer than coalition MKs, despite having a much larger quota.
The data regarding opposition leaders emphasizes this disregard – Yair Lapid, the opposition leader, was only present for 359 hours in the Knesset during this period (ranking 107th out of 120 members) and Benny Gantz only for 247 hours (ranking 114th).
The Israeli public clearly sees this malfunction. A survey by the Institute for Liberty and Responsibility in January 2025 (conducted via iPanel among 811 respondents) reveals that 76% believe that the opposition parties do not perform well. Remarkably, there were almost no differences between voters from both sides – 77% of opposition party voters and 74% of coalition voters shared this view. Voters from both camps give the current opposition a failing grade.
Moreover, while 58% of coalition party voters are satisfied with their party’s performance, only 35% of opposition voters feel the same.
The main problem with the opposition in Israel is that it fails to cooperate and present a unified critique of government. Its basic modus operandi is that its has lost the elections and lacks a majority, it acta sluggishly. It’s unclear how the oppositions expect to constitute a credible alternative with this approach.
If its members don’t cooperate – including with Arab MKs – challenge the government, propose alternative policies, and simply come to work, they will continue to lose their support base.
More seriously, while opposition members complain that the coalition is damaging Israeli democracy with its predatory legislation, in their disregard for their role as a brave and militant opposition, they are no less responsible for the erosion of the democratic structure of Israel’s regime.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-842711
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The Pa’s Delusions Are Dangerous For Palestinians
February 18, 2025
“Whoever believes that he can impose a new deal of the century, or displace our Palestinian people and seize any inch of our land is delusional,” said Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas at the 38th African Summit in Addis Ababa on Saturday. Such words would have resonated well had Abbas been a revolutionary leader, but he isn’t. He’s a willing accomplice of Israeli colonialism.
As things stand, Abbas’s words stand our precisely because his actions depict otherwise. He can take the podium and attempt to wrest away the anti-colonial struggle from the Palestinian people, but the Palestinians know that while the genocide was raging in Gaza, Abbas was focused on making Jenin vulnerable to Israel’s raids. And he did nothing while Israel continued to “seize” much more than an “inch” of Palestinian land for illegal settlements.
When the PA targets the Palestinian resistance and collaborates with the colonial occupation state, it is delusional to call the coloniser delusional.
Abbas, of course, has no new approach. And while there is no matching Israeli-US culpability in destroying Palestine, the PA-Israeli and PA-international community collaborations are also part of the colonial process that enables Israel to appropriate Palestinian territory through various forms of forced displacement.
He called out US President Donald Trump’s call to displace Palestinians as a tactic to divert attention away from the genocide and the annexation of the occupied West Bank. However, Abbas failed to mention that under cover of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the PA aided Israel in its raids of the Jenin refugee camp, thus contributing to the forced displacement of the Palestinian people.
Last month, the PA did its utmost to suppress news of its crackdown on the Palestinian resistance in Jenin. Now that 26,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced by Israel from Jenin, the PA’s official news agency Wafa is reporting on Israel’s violations, without mentioning the PA’s role in laying the groundwork for them.
And, of course, while Abbas portrays himself selectively as championing the Palestinian resistance, while failing miserably to do anything of the kind, the two-state paradigm remains his only constant. That alone should be enough to pit the PA against the Palestinian resistance. The two-state “solution” was never viable because the intent was never to create two states. And yet, despite it becoming defunct, Abbas is still urging world leaders to participate in the Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution and to attend yet another peace conference scheduled for June this year.
In essence, Abbas is urging world leaders to continue denying Palestinians their right to land, liberation and political autonomy, just as the PA does with the Palestinian people on behalf of Israel. The international community determined that Palestinians should be pawns in the two-state diplomacy but that doesn’t mean there is legitimacy in the paradigm. The 1947 UN Partition Plan and what happened afterwards are ample proof of this.
Constantly repeated, the two-state paradigm also urges the international community to remain complicit in Israel’s expulsion of Palestinians from their land (by all means, one can now add). Diplomatic dissociation is not a novelty. However, even by the PA’s low standards, Abbas’s speech at the African Summit is nothing but an open call for colonisation, if we read his words and analyse his actions.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250218-the-pas-delusions-are-dangerous-for-palestinians/
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Israel’s Violations Of Palestinian Culture In East Jerusalem
Daoud Kuttab
February 18, 2025
While Israel has been accused of war crimes and alleged genocidal intentions in Gaza, as well as enacting a harsh and repressive military policy against Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank, East Jerusalem has become a focal point for ongoing Israeli cultural violations affecting Palestinians. These actions in the hoped-for capital of Palestine have sparked international concern, as they threaten the preservation of Palestinian identity and heritage in the area.
Jerusalem, the cradle of the three Abrahamic religions, has long been a cultural and religious hub for Palestinians. It is home to highly respected cultural institutions, artists and scholars. While Israel, which annexed East Jerusalem following its occupation in 1967, initially gave its residents a wide range of cultural space, the Oslo process that began in 1993 caused a major Israeli reversal.
In addition to the huge concrete wall Israel erected around the city, barring the rest of the West Bankers open access to the city, it has also cracked down on various symbols of cultural expression. Using the false claim of connectivity to the Palestinian national center in Ramallah, Israeli policies have increasingly restricted Palestinian cultural activities, often under the guise of security concerns. Palestinian cultural events have routinely faced disruption. The Israeli authorities have imposed restrictions on festivals, performances and artistic gatherings, severely limiting the ability of Palestinians to celebrate and preserve their cultural identity.
Palestinian cultural institutions in East Jerusalem have experienced frequent raids and closures. In June 2013, Israel ordered the cancellation of a children’s puppet festival at a Palestinian theater in East Jerusalem, claiming the eight-day event had been unlawfully sponsored by the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian National Theatre, also known as El-Hakawati Theatre, had been running an annual festival for children continuously for 18 years. It was previously barred by a military order based on the 1945 British Emergency Regulations.
Similar orders have been issued to stop what Israel considers national events, or if Tel Aviv believes that the Ramallah-based Palestinian government is involved in either funding, sponsoring or giving its blessing to such events. Using draconian decades-old laws inherited from the time of the British mandate, Israel has ordered the stoppage of events such as art exhibitions, music festivals and even the screening of a film about drug abuse in Jerusalem and an event to celebrate high school students’ accomplishments.
More recently, this month’s raid on the Educational Bookshop and its owners’ arrest illustrate the ongoing Israeli attempts to suppress intellectual freedom by confiscating literature deemed provocative. As Nathan Thrall, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American author, commented regarding the bookstore incident: “To have a country ban books with the word Palestine in them is an outrage.”
Palestinian Minister of Culture Emad Hamdan emphasized the impact of the bookshop raid. “This attack is part of a systematic policy aimed at destroying the Palestinian cultural and educational structure in Jerusalem. These actions not only hinder cultural expression but also aim to fragment Palestinian society within Jerusalem,” he said.
Cultural leaders and intellectuals frequently face harassment and arrest. These acts are perceived as attempts to silence influential voices advocating for Palestinian rights and cultural preservation. As writer and cultural consultant Rania Masri noted: “The suppression of cultural expression is not just a violation of rights; it is an attack on the very fabric of Palestinian identity.” Such measures contribute to a climate of fear and self-censorship, discouraging public expressions of Palestinian identity.
The cultural violations in East Jerusalem have drawn international condemnation from human rights organizations, diplomats and academics. Many argue that these actions violate international laws protecting cultural rights and heritage. The organization Index on Censorship called this month’s arrest of the booksellers a “brazen attack on freedom of expression.” It called for immediate action to halt the oppressive measures and advocate for the protection of Palestinian cultural and intellectual freedom.
Despite these adversities, Palestinians in East Jerusalem are striving to preserve their cultural heritage. Community organizations, artists and intellectuals continue to find innovative ways to express their identity, often supported by international solidarity movements. As celebrated Palestinian musician Omar Kamal remarked: “In the face of oppression, our art becomes a powerful declaration of our existence.”
The ongoing cultural violations against Palestinians in East Jerusalem highlight a significant challenge: the preservation of a community’s identity in the face of systemic suppression. While the dream of an independent Palestinian state continues to be quashed by Israeli actions, the artist community has been a major source of hope. Addressing these issues is essential not only for the sake of cultural heritage, but also for ensuring that fundamental human rights and freedoms are upheld.
As the international community continues to watch, the hope remains that renewed efforts will advocate for a more just and culturally inclusive future for all of Palestine, as well as for its people and its proposed capital, East Jerusalem.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2590680
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