ENTERING STOLEN TERRITORY

Mike Pompeo will visit an Israeli settlement in the West Bank
In a first for a secretary of state, ally of Donald Trump will go to the Israeli settlement of Psagot, near the Palestinian city of Ramallah

By JTA November 14, 2020

Mike Pompeo IS A RIGHT WING WHITE CHRISTIAN NATIONALIST

Mike Pompeo is planning to visit an Israeli West Bank settlement, the first time a secretary of state will have made such a visit.

For the visit during the Trump administration’s lame-duck period, he has chosen a settlement that is home to a winery that created a special label in his honour.

The visit, planned for next week, will take Pompeo to the Israeli settlement of Psagot, near the Palestinian city of Ramallah, according to Axios. The visit comes roughly a year after Pompeo annulled a longstanding State Department legal opinion declaring settlements illegal. It also comes after the release earlier this year of the Trump administration’s Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, under whose terms Israeli settlements would be annexed to Israel.

Psagot is not part of the three settlement blocs that, in earlier rounds of peace negotiations, were widely expected to be annexed to Israel. But Pompeo reportedly chose it because, following his annulment of the State Department legal opinion, a winery in Psagot introduced a label named after him.

Pompeo was also the first secretary of state to visit the Western Wall in eastern Jerusalem with Israeli officials, which is also in territory much of the world considers occupied by Israel. This year, he gave a speech at the Republican National Convention delivered remotely from Jerusalem.

Pompeo will also be visiting the Golan Heights, an area that, like the West Bank, Israel captured in the 1967 Six Day War. But unlike the West Bank, Israel formally annexed the Golan Heights, a move recognised by the Trump administration last year.

Also on Thursday, Haaretz reported that Jerusalem is expediting approval of construction in the eastern part of the city in anticipation of the incoming Joe Biden administration. The city fears Biden may freeze construction over the Green Line, the border that separates eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank from Israel proper.

When Biden was vice president, Jerusalem approved building in the city over the Green Line soon after he had a formal dinner with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which became a diplomatic embarrassment. At the time, the Obama administration was pushing for renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Pompeo visit to Palestine settlement 'dangerous'

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wears a protective face mask on 29 September 2020 [ARIS MESSINIS/POOL/AFP/Getty Images]

November 14, 2020 MEMO

The Palestinian Authority (PA)'s Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, Fatah and Hamas agreed on Friday that the planned visit by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank would be too "dangerous".

Reported by Wafa news agency, Shtayyeh believes that the planned visit aims to "legitimise the settlements" and create "a dangerous precedent that violates international law."

Meanwhile, member of Fatah's Executive Committee Hussein Al-Sheikh tweeted: "Pompeo's planned visit is a clear violation of international law," noting that US administration considers settlements illegal.

Pompeo would become the first US secretary of state to visit one of the settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are considered illegal by most of the international community.

Hamas Spokesperson Hazim Qasim expressed: "Pompeo's visit to settlements in occupied West Bank and Golan Heights is an American aggression on the rights of our Palestinian people and Arab nation."

Qasim reiterated "this visit reflects the persistence of US administration on the implementation of the deal of the century," during the last days of President Donald Trump in office.

"This US behaviour reflects the US and Pompeo's aggressive and bullying logic," Qasim concluded.

WHO slams Israel for health violations against Palestine

A Palestinian boy is being a tested for COVID-19 in Gaza City, Gaza on 30 October 2020 

[Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency]

November 13, 2020

The World Health Organisation (WHO) yesterday condemned Israel for its violations of health rights in the Palestinian territories and in the occupied Golan Heights during the coronavirus pandemic.

Representatives from dozens of countries, including Malaysia, Lebanon and Venezuela delivered speeches slamming Israel for harming health rights.

During the session, the Iranian delegation called out Israel for its "inhuman blockade" of the Gaza Strip that had a "profound impact on the health sector."

It stated that "chronic occupation has profound implications for the health of Palestinians. More than 12 years of inhuman blockade has had a profound effect on the health sector, worsening an already dire situation."

The WHO report further criticises Israel for Palestinians' "mental health and psychosocial problems", due to the self-declared Jewish state's "discriminatory planning policies and practices towards Palestinians" in Area C of the occupied West Bank, which is under the Israeli military and administrative jurisdiction. As well as for the violence which Palestinian protesters in the Gaza Strip were faced with during the "March of Return" demonstrations.

Following a 78 to 14 vote, with 32 abstentions and 56 countries absent, the assembly adopted a resolution requiring the same debate be held next year.

READ: 18% of Gaza's prisoners in Israel jails suffer chronic diseases

Moreover, the head of the WHO will be preparing another report on Israel's health violations in the occupied West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and in the occupied Syrian Golan, to be submitted to the 74th World Health Assembly in 2021.

Countries voting in favour of the resolution included, among others, France, India, Ireland and Spain. Meanwhile, Israel, the US, the UK, Australia, Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany, Honduras and Hungary all voted against it.

Israel builds new settler-only road, steals 2sq km of Palestinian land


Illegal Israeli settlement in the West Bank on 10 June 2020 

AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP/Getty Images]

November 13, 2020 

A new road for Israeli settlers is being built illegally by the occupation forces on Palestinian land in the south of the occupied West Bank, Wafa news agency reported.

The new road will run from the illegal Israeli settlement of Avigal and pass through the village of Ma'in and Um-Ishqihan area.

Fouad Al-Amour, a Palestinian official in charge of monitoring Israeli settlement activities in the area, said Israel is building yet a road for use by settlers only and it is stealing Palestinian land to do so.

He told Wafa that Israeli bulldozers began work on a new road for settlers, eating away at more than 2,000 dunums (2 square kilometres) of land belonging to Palestinian residents.

Israel has recently intensified its settlement activities throughout the occupied Palestinian territories, but mainly in the south of the occupied West Bank.

READ: Netanyahu used Trump's time in office to advance settlements

Hundreds of thousands of settlers live in 250 settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, hindering and limiting the lives of Palestinians living under Israel's brutal military occupation.

Israel occupied the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in June 1967. International law views both the West Bank and East Jerusalem as occupied territories and considers all Jewish settlement building activity there illegal.

Arab Israelis banned from visiting the occupied West Bank

Security forces set up a checkpoint in the streets to warn citizens not to go out after a curfew was announced by authorities as a measure against coronavirus (COVID-19) in Ramallah, West Bank on March 23, 2020. [İssam Rimawi - Anadolu Agency]

November 12, 2020 at 5:31 pm

Israelis are banned from entering the occupied West Bank, in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus outbreak.

Israel's Defence Ministry issued the order which limits Arab Israeli citizens from entering Area B of the occupied West Bank, an area which according to the Oslo Accords is under Palestinian civil control and Israeli military control.

According to Ynet news, the ban aims to avoid Arab citizens of Israel from travelling to the West Bank to attend weddings of their relatives.

"Immediate moves must be taken to halt and avoid the spread of the pandemic," the order stated yesterday, and will remain in place for a month.

Report: Over 130 Palestinian prisoners infected with coronavirus in Israel prisons

The second national lockdown in early October saw only seven per cent of Arab Israelis infected with the virus however, the number of infections has again increased dramatically, even as testing across the country has fallen, reported the Times of Israel.

Currently, almost 38 per cent of all coronavirus infections currently are in Arab cities and towns, the Arab Emergency Commission reported on Monday.

The number of death cases reached 2,700, with 8,105 active cases, the Ministry of Health said. While in the occupied West Bank, there are 4,706 active cases and 569 deaths, and in Gaza 3,052 active cases and 43 deaths.

Despite Israel's high number of coronavirus cases, the country is relaxing its quarantine restrictions.

Saudi Embassy contradicts the ambassador and denies clemency for female activists

Saudi activist Loujain Al-Hathloul was arrested by Saudi forces in 2018

 [Prisoners of Conscience/Twitter]

November 12, 2020 at 12:06 pm


The Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in London has contradicted its own ambassador and denied that the Kingdom is considering clemency for jailed female activists ahead of the G20 summit later this month.

The denial came a day after Ambassador Khalid Bin Bandar Bin Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud apparently told the Guardian that the women, including Loujain Al-Hathloul, could be released during the two day summit due to begin on 21 November.

"The G20, does it offer an opportunity for clemency? Possibly. That is a judgment for someone other than me," said Al-Saud. "People ask: is it worth the damage it is causing you, whatever they did? That is a fair argument to make and it is a discussion we have back at home within our political system and within our ministry."

Commenting on the internal debate within the Kingdom over the issue the ambassador added: "There is a variety of views. Some people say it doesn't matter what other people think of us, what is important is to do what is right for our country, and if people knowingly break our laws they should be punished according to those laws. Other people say it isn't worth it, let them out, let them live their lives and ignore them."

READ: Lina Al-Hathloul: 'My sister lives in Hell every day'

Al-Hathloul is one of a number of high-profile women jailed by the Saudi authorities. They have also arrested a number of other human rights activists, including Samar Badawi, Nassima Al-Sada, Nouf Abdel Aziz and Maya Al-Zahrani, allegedly for threatening the Kingdom's security.

The decision to award the 2020 G20 Summit to the Saudis is highly controversial. Members of the US Congress, civil society organisations and human rights group have called for a boycott of the event.

With the W20 Women's Summit also set to take place in Riyadh concurrently with the G20, Human Rights Watch (HRW) blasted the Kingdom for what it described as blatant hypocrisy. While supposedly promoting equality and women's empowerment, argued HRW, it has jailed women's rights activists and, it is alleged, abused them.

#schanfraude

Hezbollah's Nasrallah hails 'Trump's humiliating defeat'

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, Lebanon on 8 February 2002

 [Courtney Kealy/Getty Images]

November 12, 2020

Secretary-General of the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said in a televised speech yesterday that he was pleased about the "humiliating defeat" of US President Donald Trump in the presidential elections but urged regional allies to be on alert for any US or Israeli "folly" during the remainder of his term in office.

The speech coincided with Hezbollah's Martry Day which commemorated in particular the martyrdom operation of Ahmad Kassir who detonated his explosives-rigged car at an Israeli occupation headquarters in Tyre in 1982.

However Nasrallah also commented on the outcome of the contested US presidential elections stating: "I ask those who brag about US democracy to look at this example and assess whether we should emulate it. Look at the living situation in large US cities, people living in tents, without social safety net, huge COVID cases, psychological diseases, addiction, huge numbers of people in jail, unbridled racism." Adding: "This is America they hold up to us as an example!"

READ: Lebanon's Bassil rejects US sanctions as unjust and politically motivated

American regional policy, he continued, would not change regardless of whether the president is a Democrat or a Republican, both remain concerned with the "security and supremacy of Israel". "They all race to strengthen and empower Israel, so from our position there's no difference."

Nevertheless, the Hezbollah leader stated that Trump's administration was "the worst or one of the worst in American history"

"I feel happy with Trump's humiliating defeat because of his blatant crime against Martry Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis" he added in reference to Trump's authorised targeted assassination drone strike at the beginning of the year.

Nasrallah also used the opportunity to reiterate that the movement does not get involved in border demarcation, whether maritime or land as it's not its job to define borders.

"This is rather the responsibility of the state and it falls within its constitutional mechanisms," he said.

Kuwait scholar calls for boycott of Arab companies profiting from ties with Israel


Prominent Kuwaiti scholar Tareq Al-Suwaidan, 15 April 2016

November 12, 2020 

Prominent Kuwaiti scholar Tareq Al-Suwaidan has called for a boycott of Arab companies that deal with the Israeli occupation during a seminar organised by the UAE anti-normalisation group.

Speaking on the "necessity of boycotting the products of the Zionist entity and their supporters" Al-Suwaidan said that the global campaign against Israeli products should be expanded to Arab companies that will profit from the normalisation with the occupying state.

The 66-year-old is a popular figure in the Middle East with a large social media following of nearly ten million on Twitter followers and 8.4 million on Facebook.

Al-Suwaidan urged for divestment from companies from the UAE, Egypt, Bahrain or any other country in the region that cooperates with Israel whether it be in banking, aeronautics, or any other sector. Likewise, products from companies that profit from Israel should be boycotted, he continued.

The Arab people is a powerful force, explained Al-Suwaidan, pointing to the MENA regions' 578 million population. If the Arab peoples boycott companies profiting from the Zionist state, this could lead to a huge loss of some 300 million people including non-Muslim Arabs who will participate around the world in the boycott.

"The Islamic nation as a whole rejects normalisation," claimed Al-Suwaidan "and it is the duty of the people to confront normalisation by inflicting the greatest loss on it by participating in the boycott of the enemy's products."

Timeline: International attempts to boycott BDS

Hollywood star: Concept of Israel is 'antiquated', I was 'fed lies' about it
SETH ROGEN CANADIAN ACTOR

Seth Rogen speaks onstage at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on 8 November 2019 in California, US [Frazer Harrison/Getty Images]

July 29, 2020 

Hollywood's Seth Rogen on Monday said he was fed a "huge amount" of lies about Israel, as Palestinians were left out of the narrative.

In the podcast WTF with Marc Maron, Rogen, who is Jewish himself, sat down with Marc Maron to promote his new film An American Pickle and discuss their shared Jewish heritage, which was described as the "Jewiest talk with Marc that two Jews ever had on this show" and included a trigger warning for anti-Semites. The talk turned to the subject of Israel and the Jewish diaspora.

Rogen said:

I also think as a Jewish person I was fed a huge amount of lies about Israel my entire life. They never tell you that 'oh by the way there were people there', they make it seem like it was just some land sitting there. Like the fucking doors were open.

To which Maron agreed, chiming in: "Ours for the taking."

"Yeah, they literally forget to include the fact to every young Jewish person basically, like, 'oh by the way, there were people there'."

Maron said: "They just want to make sure you were frightened for your own survival to the point that when you get old enough, you will make sure that money goes to Israel, and that trees are planted, and that you always speak highly of Israel, and Israel must survive no matter what."

Rogen replied. "Yeah, and I don't understand it at all. I think for Jewish people especially, who view themselves as progressive, and who view themselves as analytical, people who ask a lot of questions, and really challenge the status quo, like – what are we doing?"

READ: Bella Hadid says 'proud to be Palestinian' after Instagram deletes story showing her father's birthplace

Rogen further expressed support for spreading the Jewish people throughout the world, rather than form the state of Israel, joking that they shouldn't put "all their Jews in one basket".

Maron asked Rogen: "Could you imagine living in Israel? Would you ever go live in Israel?" to which Rogen answered no.

Maron laughed and continued to say that he believed the same.

Rogen went on to describe the concept of Israel as an "antiquated thought process".

He said: "If it's for religious reasons, I don't agree with it, because I think religion is silly, if it for the preservation of Jewish people, it makes no sense, because you don't keep something you're trying to preserve all in one place, especially when that place has proven to be pretty volatile."

READ: Right-wing NGO wants singer banned for criticising Israeli soldiers

"I'm trying to keep all these things safe, I'm going to put them in my blender. That'll do it."

Seth Rogen rose to fame for his role in the film Knocked Up. He has gone on to write, direct, star in, and produce award winning films.

Rogen's film An American Pickle, which follows the story of Jewish immigrant and struggling labourer Herschel Greenbaum who falls into a vat of pickles in 1920 then wakes up 100 years later in modern day New York, having been perfectly preserved by the pickle brine, is released on 6 August.

Bella Hadid expresses love for Palestine in birthday wishes to father

Palestinian-American supermodel Bella Hadid

November 9, 2020 

Bella Hadid shared a series of photos with her father to mark his 72nd birthday on her Instagram story post, with captions paying tribute to her Palestinian heritage.

"Happy birthday to my baba," she said. "I always loved to be with you."

The heartfelt Instagram post consisted of an image showing the American real estate mogul, Palestinian-born Mohammed Hadid with Bella in the kitchen, cooking a selection of Arab dishes such as fatayer and falafel.

Mohamed is outspoken about embracing his Palestinian heritage as well as instilling a sense of Palestinian identity in his children.

"I love learning how to cook Palestinian food with you," wrote Bella. "Thank you for teaching me about our culture. I love Palestine and you so much.£

She added, "Your roots will forever be intertwined within our family line. It's my favorite part about us."

Bella Hadid, along with siblings Gigi, Anwar, have been vocal advocates of Palestinian rights for years, using their platforms to promote the cause.

More recently, 24-year-old supermodel Bella hit out at Instagram after the site deleted a Story post of her father's expired passport, which listed his place of birth as Palestine, saying she's "proud to be Palestinian".

In December 2017, she reportedly spontaneously joined a Palestinian solidarity march in London. While, in the same month, the supermodel condemned the US' recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, writing on Instagram: "Watching the news and seeing the pain of the Palestinian people makes me cry for the many many generations of Palestine… the treatment of the Palestinian people is unfair, one-sided and should not be tolerated. I stand with Palestine."

                                              https://www.instagram.com/p/CHTxVHpAsRX/

The Arab League and regional leaders will forget Arafat's warning at their peril

Palestinians gather at the tomb of Yasser Arafat, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, to commemorate the anniversary of his death, on 11 November 2018 [Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency]

yvonneridley October 26, 2020 

I miss Yasser Arafat. Like many revolutionary leaders he was flawed but he had guts, determination and a courage that reflected the Palestinians he served so well. When challenged by him, the members of the Arab League were either in awe, fear or a combination of both, which led the Palestine Liberation Organisation to be treated as "the sole, legitimate representative of the Palestinian people."

As the anniversary of his death approaches, it has become increasingly obvious that such respect is not commanded by the current Palestinian leader and PLO chair, Mahmoud Abbas. At 85 years old, and having frittered away the goodwill and respect built up by Arafat, he is a pale imitation of his former boss who has led the Palestinian people into a cul-de-sac of despair from which it will be difficult to return. His betrayal of the people he is supposed to serve has come about through a toxic fusion of corruption, incompetence and cowardice. This, I believe, has led to the normalisation deals being agreed between Israel and some members of the Arab League, of which Sudan is the latest, but won't be the last.

The UAE, Bahrain and the supposedly "transitional" government in Khartoum would never have dared to even consider going down the path of normalisation with Israel if Arafat had still been alive. The Palestinian leadership in Ramallah can't even summon an emergency meeting of the Arab League or pull together a condemnatory statement about normalisation, so pitiful is the regard in which it is held by other Arab States.

It's a far cry from March 1979 when Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel in Washington; the League moved swiftly to move its headquarters from Cairo as a punishment to Egypt for signing the agreement with the Zionist State. Arafat is no longer with us, and that is reflected in the lamentable state of affairs whereby some Arab leaders can so easily have their arms twisted by a desperate US President who needs to camouflage his disastrous foreign policy failures in the Middle East ahead of the presidential election on 3 November.

What's even more damning for Abbas and his leadership is that we even have Saudi Arabian Prince Bandar Bin Sultan, the Kingdom's former ambassador in Washington, recycling and inventing history to demonise the Palestinian people and Arafat's legacy. Moreover, he wouldn't have had the guts to do that when Arafat was alive. It is quite clear to anyone who knows Palestinian history that Bin Sultan's unwelcome intervention is simply paving the way for Riyadh's own normalisation with the occupation state.

His claim that the Palestinians rejected the Clinton Parameters proposal, which were guidelines for a permanent peace agreement proposed by US President Bill Clinton in December 2000, is a blatant lie. Arafat accepted the parameters with a few reservations. The shameless Saudi royal also lied when he said that the Palestinians rejected King Fahd's 1982 peace initiative; Yasser Arafat, in fact, accepted it, and it was Israel which rejected and condemned it as "a plan to destroy the Jewish state in stages." Israel subsequently invaded Lebanon to uproot the PLO from its base there.

Those who tell such blatant lies are the same people who justify the occupation and the ongoing persecution and oppression of the Palestinian people. Arafat would turn on anyone who tried to undermine the heroic resistance and legitimate struggle of his people, no matter who it was.

READ: Reconciliation really is the only option for the Palestinians

My abiding memory of the late Palestinian leader is from April 2002 when his compound in Ramallah was under siege and surrounded by Israeli tanks. Defiant as ever, and with a pistol lying on his desk, his message to the world was clear: he was going nowhere and neither were the Palestinians.

In stark contrast. His successor as President, Mahmoud Abbas grovels before members of the Arab League, often expressing his gratitude for their support for the Palestinians. Almost without exception he emphasises his thanks to Saudi Arabia. With Riyadh fast-tracking Sudan's normalisation while contemplating its own, Abbas's obsequiousness has obviously not worked.

Meanwhile, the propaganda and lies spewing out of UAE- and Saudi-run TV stations fool no one. The leaders in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have betrayed the Palestinians and the legacy of their predecessors who gave unqualified support to the people of occupied Palestine. Ordinary people across the region recognise this treachery, even though many are too afraid to challenge it.

The liars who are slandering and demonising the Palestinians while whitewashing the brutal Israeli occupation will never succeed. Deep down, they probably know that, but they have sold their soul to the Zionist devils in Tel Aviv and Washington and history will judge them severely.

READ: It's time to tear up the Oslo Accords

The legitimate rights of the Palestinians to resist Israel's odious occupation and return to their land are accepted around the world. There is still massive support for Palestine in the UN General Assembly, and ordinary citizens are more prepared than ever before to endorse the peaceful resistance promoted by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

As for the Arab League, its craven membership would do well to remember what Arafat told Time magazine after addressing 18 Arab Kings, Presidents, Emirs and other leaders gathered in Morocco in November 1974: "Palestine is the cement that holds the Arab world together, or it is the explosive that blows it apart." The organisation and the Arab capitals considering normalisation ignore the late Palestinian leader's words at their peril.

Yvonne Ridley

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.