Informing humanitarians worldwide 24/7 — a service provided by UN OCHA

oPt

OPT: Week in Review - Tensions Over Settlement Moratorium Spike; Jerusalem Under Lockdown [September 19- September 25]

Settlers got an early start on Sept. 25 to the end of the construction moratorium set to expire the following day. At least 20 mobile homes were installed outside the Revava settlement in the north West Bank.

Head of the local Palestinian council said the foundation platforms were constructed using heavy equipment which continued to be operated in the area. Israeli officials said they had no information on new settlement activity.

Ongoing peace negotiations between President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu dominated the headlines with Netanyahu's government repeatedly refusing to extend the Sept. 26 deadline saying doing so could jeopardize his ruling coalition.

Against a backdrop of the UN General Assembly meeting this week, the US has been holding marathon discussions with both sides to work out a compromise over settlements. An Israeli official in Jerusalem said Netanyahu was "making intensive efforts to reach such a compromise before the expiry of the moratorium on September 26"

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Abbas in New York on Sept. 24 and 25 to pressure him to not walk out on the strained peace talks if there is no extension to the construction moratorium, and the situation is up in the air about what will happen after the deadline passes.

After their meeting the night of Sept. 24, Abbas reaffirmed his position to leave negotiations if there is no "complete halt" to settlement construction. Yet earlier in the week Abbas signaled in a dinner with American Jewish leaders that renewed settlement construction may not end peace talks.

"I cannot say I will leave the negotiations, but it's very difficult for me to resume talks if Prime Minister Netanyahu declares that he will continue his activity in the West Bank and Jerusalem," he said according to a transcript of the event.

Abbas also met with Israeli Security Minister Ehud Barak while in New York on the 21st to discuss the settlement crisis. They released a statement that both sides were trying to reach an agreement to salvage the "historical opportunity" and emphasized the continuation of security cooperation in the West Bank to prevent "terrorist" operations from jeopardizing the ongoing negotiations.

On Sept. 20th Abbas brushed aside a question about the Israeli demand for Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. "Israel can call itself... the Jewish-Zionist Empire," he said before a meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres. He added that "if Israel wants negotiations in which the Palestinians recognize it, then it must also recognize a Palestinian state."

In the UN General Assembly, US President Barack Obama's Sept 23 address focused largely on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. He remained optimistic, telling world leaders they may welcome an independent Palestine as a new member next year.

Yet he warned of the dangers of failing to realize a final peace agreement, saying, "The hard realities of demography will take hold. More blood will be shed. This Holy Land will remain a symbol of our differences, instead of our common humanity."

Also during the UN's annual meeting, the International Atomic Energy Agency nuclear watchdog narrowly rejected an Arab-backed resolution on Sept. 24 to call on Israel to join the international Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty and submit to inspections of it's nuclear facilities. It had approved a similar resolution expressing concern at "Israel's nuclear capabilities" in a close vote last year.

Additionally, a UN panel of human rights experts accused Israel of war crimes on Sept. 22 for it's deadly seizure of the Gaza-bound Turkish freedom flotilla.

"There is clear evidence to support prosecutions of the following crimes within the terms of Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva convention: willful killing; torture or inhuman treatment; willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health," the report said.

Meanwhile in Damascus, separate reconciliation negotiations between Fatah and Hamas were reportedly making progress over Sept. 23 and 24. The negotiators released a joint statement saying several disputed issues had been resolved and plans were drawn to continue the talks in a series of meetings where outstanding issues would be discussed.

"Talks were held in friendly and brotherly atmosphere showing a true will to end rivalry," a Hamas spokesman said.

In Jerusalem, ongoing unrest has been fomenting since the Sept. 22 shooting of two residents of the flashpoint Silwan neighborhood by an Israeli security contractor for Jewish settlers there. Palestinian sources said four young men were driving in the neighborhood when the guard opened fire on them around 5 a.m. killing two and critically injuring another. The guard was detained and released on bail.

The killing almost immediately sparked violent scuttles between Israeli forces and Palestinian demonstrators that lasted through Friday.

Clashes escalated with hundreds of Israeli troops deployed across east Jerusalem on the 23rd, setting up checkpoints in Arab neighborhoods in the Old City, Silwan, Al-Isawiya, and Shu'fat. Dozens of young Palestinian men were arrested with reports of dozens more wounded.

By the Sept. 24, authorities said more than 3,000 Israeli police and border officers were deployed across east Jerusalem extending a state of alert though the remainder of the Jewish Sukkot holiday which began on the 22nd and runs through the end of September.

On Sept. 24, a Palestinian baby was killed by inhaling tear gas fired by Israeli forces during clashes in the Al-Isawiya neighborhood of east Jerusalem. Muhammed Abu Sneneh, 14 months, suffocated in the gas fired at Palestinian residents.

An Israeli spokesman said they had no reports of the death and police were using minimum force.

In separate incidents on the 21st, in the West Bank eight Palestinians were injured by settlers while picking olives in three villages near Nablus and Qalqilya. Clashes erupted when dozens of settlers raided agricultural land and picked olives belonging to the local Palestinian residents to steal them.

Israeli Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel should be one of the "central issues" to be discussed in negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. Campaigning under the slogan "No loyalty no citizenship," he proposed sending Arab citizens to the future Palestinian state who refuse to swear a loyalty oath to the Jewish state.

In response to Lieberman's remarks, Arab Knesset member Hanin Zuabi declared: "We [Israeli Arabs] represent the only possible democratic option, while Lieberman represents apartheid and ethnic cleansing."

On the Sept. 19 the only Gaza water park was attacked in the middle of the night. Masked assailants tied up the guards and set fire to the park's rides.

A military court handed down a death sentence Sept. 23 for a Khan Younis man arrested as part of a mass round up of suspected collaborators. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights condemned the sentence, set to be carried out by firing squad.

Israeli Naval forces shot and killed a Gaza fisherman on the 24th. Israeli military said a fishing boat sailed too close to the boundary zone and when the boat did not stop after firing warning shots, the navy fired on the boat directly. Palestinians identified the dead fisherman as Muhammad Mansour Bakr, 20.

The Gaza Strip's only power station stopped one of its generators Sept. 25 because of fuel shortages leaving only one generator online. Border crossings into the Strip had been closed for three days in a row according to Gaza Energy Authority spokesman. He said blackouts were eminent for many of the costal strip's neighborhoods.