The Impact of Fatah's Declaration on Peace on ground Events

With the support of President Abbas... Fatah declares war on

' normalization 'cautions against Palestinian intellectuals and academics

meet with Israelis .

This declaration means that any Palestinian peacemaker who joins on

ground events will be arrested for investigation and may be sentenced for

violation of a declaration supported by the Palestinian president .

I wonder what is the impact of this declaration on peace on ground events

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Permalink Reply by Sussan on December 17, 2011 at 12:33pm

Waleed, have you got some more information about this?

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Permalink Reply by Stewart Mills on December 23, 2011 at 11:02am

Here is one source

It is one thing for people to voluntraily boycott various institutions. It is another to make it law.

Also see the anti-boycott law from Israel

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/israel-anti-boycott-law-...

http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=249842

Fatah declares 'war' on normalization with Israel
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
12/17/2011 21:52

Abbas party's decision comes after week of Israeli, Palestinian meetings being sabotaged by Palestinians.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction has declared war on all informal meetings between Israelis and Palestinians, Hatem Abdel Kader, a senior Fatah official, said over the weekend.

Fatah’s decision came following a series of meetings between Israeli and Palestinian peace activists and academics to promote peace and “normalization” between the two sides.

Last week, Palestinians thwarted an attempt by a group called the Israeli Palestinian Confederation to hold a conference in Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

At the conference, Israelis and Palestinians were expected to vote for a joint parliament that would offer itself as a “third government” for the two peoples.

Palestinian protesters stormed the Ambassador Hotel in Sheikh Jarrah in east Jerusalem and forced the Israeli organizers and hotel management to cancel the event.

The following day, a similar anti-normalization protest in Bethlehem forced the group to cancel a planned conference near the city.

Al-Quds University President Sari Nusseibeh, who was supposed to speak at the conference, had to cancel his appearance after receiving threats from Palestinian activists belonging to Fatah and other groups.

The Fatah leadership fears that the Israeli government would exploit such meetings to tell the world that there is some kind of dialogue going on between Israelis and Palestinians and that the only problem is with the PA leadership, which is refusing to return to the negotiating table, the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper reported.

Abdel Kader, a former PA minister for Jerusalem affairs, revealed that the Fatah leadership has decided to foil all informal meetings between Israelis and Palestinians.

“We will try to thwart any Palestinian Israeli meeting, even if it’s held in Tel Aviv or west Jerusalem,” Abdel Kader said. “In Fatah we have officially decided to ban such gatherings.”

He said that it was inconceivable that such meetings are being held at a time when Israel continues to build settlements and refuses to accept the pre- 1967 lines as the future borders of a Palestinian state.

The PA leadership has repeatedly announced that it won’t resume peace talks unless Israel accepts the two preconditions – cessation of settlement construction and recognition of the pre-1967 lines.

Abdel Kader criticized Nusseibeh for agreeing to meet with Israeli academics, politicians and peace activists “in violation of instructions by the Palestinian leadership” in the West Bank.

“These meetings don’t produce anything [for the Palestinians] and are only used by Israel for political gains,” the Fatah leader explained. “If all the meetings the Palestinian leadership has had with the Americans, Europeans and Quartet representatives haven’t achieved anything, how can these informal meetings lead to any results?”

Abdel Kader also said that Israeli political parties were trying to take advantage of informal meetings to win the votes of “so-called moderates” in Israel.

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Permalink Reply by Ray Hanania on December 23, 2011 at 12:08pm

Palestinians have every right to protest these meetings if they want. It's no different than Netanyahu's war against normalization -- ordering Palestinian leaders arrested, expanding settlements in the face of peace, confiscating Palestinian private lands, denying Palestinians access to Jerusalem -- which is a city under siege and the eye of Big Brother -- and more.

But is it official PNA policy as Khaled falsely claims in his politically driven article. Khaled hates Palestinians and never walks the line on both sides. It's always one side with him. Sad.

I don't support the protests but I understand why people are so passioned about it when the cancer originates with the Israeli government. They have a right to express themselves and protest and even boycott if they want, just as Israelis do all the time, too. But I doubt very much that it is official PNA policy, although I don't doubt that they plan to put pressure on the Israelis and those who are outspoken for peace in order to counter Israel's anti-Peace initiatives.

All Israel has to do is announce that it will withdraw from the occupied territories and stop the settlement expansion, and we would have peace. But Israel's government refuses to do that and the Israeli people are more anti-Normalization than any Palestinians I know.

Ray Hanania

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Permalink Reply by Kingsley Hartman on December 23, 2011 at 3:38pm

Ray

You are confusing the issues. These Arab-Palestinian groups are mostly Jews who are heavily tilted against Israel and are heavily pro Arab. Israel and its people despise these groups yet allows them to function unfettered and these groups are not unlike Mepeace.

Why would Israel want to bow to the Palestinians or these so called peace groups or to the PA? These groups have nothing to do with any Israeli government. I for one could not care less but would like to see Israel put these so called peace groups on a tighter leash. There is no need for them in a Democracy as the people decide in an election that as far as I know whose results have never been disputed or stolen.

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Permalink Reply by Neri Bar-On on December 24, 2011 at 3:41am

Dear Ray (mister president :) )

From my experience the "anti-normalization" ideas are very strong within palestinians and palestinian police arrested my business partners for working with Israeli. The "anti-normalization" are not healthy and they disable us from building business relationship and change reality.

I can understand the "right" to protest, but some cases the threat of people who do want to work with Israelis is far from friendly and has hints on violence toward people who do "noralization"

israel government is not the best we have for the change, but Palestinians has also responsibility to the path they take... from my prespective, as Israeli government building a wall of sement and ideological wall, the "anti-normalization" people are actually cooperating with this idea and their energy contributes to the buildup of more and more violence as the Israeli government do. We cannot resolve a wrong doing by one side by justify wrong doing of the other side.

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Permalink Reply by Kingsley Hartman on December 25, 2011 at 1:00am

Neri.

This is just the tip of the iceberg as far as Palestinians and Arabs go. Peace groups were just hiding their collective heads in the sand , not unlike the ostrich. But blaming this , somehow, on the Israeli government or people just shows the hypocrisy of the peace camp. Israel made me do it is no longer a valid reply or a valid explanation of this phenomenon. So please stop with this false moralizing as that is all it is. When Palestinians hit the street in large numbers and demand peace without resorting to terror and Qassams and Grads that will be the start of a dialogue. Peace groups MUST demand no less than that.

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Permalink Reply by Neri Bar-On on December 23, 2011 at 8:08pm

This is sad and wrong direction, Normalization for palestinians is "acceptance of Zionist entity and occupation", But for the west and majority of people, Normalization is getting a human, peacful relationship.

If Palestinians will not accept Israel existance they are going to live in war. If any of you think that within 50 years the Arab world will make Israel to disapear ... you are supporting the death of many children to be born till then. this in inhumane and shamefull.

We must find that Path to leave together as Normal human live, where Palestinian state and israeli state are the political structure that will enable us, the people who are arabs and Jews to work together for the future of this rigion and build a better place to us all.