ebrei contro l'occupazione

August 28th 2010

It's useful to remember from time-to-time that the peace process is a joke, whose only aim is to continue. No one who participates in it cares much about a just final settlement. They care about keeping the appearance of caring about a just final settlement visible, while legitimizing ongoing occupation and settlement.

Here is the PA violently breaking up a press conference protesting the renewal of direct talks. When the human rights group Al-Haq attempted to document the attack, its investigators were attacked by PA security forces. "Today's incident is a further example of the increasing climate of violence and intimidation that is effectively transforming Palestinian society into a 'police-state,'" it said. Two weeks ago, eleven Palestinian factions, including the PFLP, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the DFLP, the General Command, among others, attacked direct talks as

an attempt to provide cover for the U.S. and Israel's aggressive plans for the region...in a time of a growing international movement in solidarity with the Palestinian people and their just cause, and increasing isolation of Israel as a racist state, the U.S. and Israel are insisting on direct negotiations in order to provide a lifeline to lift the isolation of the criminal occupation state.

30.08.10

They carried photos of Abbas, but the PA president's office says he had nothing to do with the hundreds of young men who prevented an opposition conference from taking place in Ramallah.

400 young men (according to the conference organizers' estimate ) began shouting and whistling (...).

[T]hugs grabbed cameras, beat the Watan photographer and prevented people from being interviewed (...). The police intervened, voices got louder and a fistfight nearly began. Eventually, everyone dispersed, but the event has been the talk of Ramallah ever since.

An important figure among the conference organizers ran to Abbas' office. "Have you gone mad?" he asked.

Later, spokesmen for the security services and the president's office insisted that they had no idea who the 400 were or who sent them, that they had no connection to the disruptive demonstrators and that they respect freedom of speech. (...)

But conference participants are convinced that those who took over the hall belonged to the Palestinian General Intelligence Service (the Mukhabarat ), along with a few people from the Preventive Security Service. Some recognized faces and recalled names, others had studied with some of the intruders, and some even recognized the commanders. One person identified the group as the newest class of Mukhabarat recruits, who had just finished training.

"I was against the action, but these were the orders I received," one of them whispered to an acquaintance. It was clear they had been instructed not to beat the conference participants.

The conference organizers have no doubts that the order to disrupt the event came from Abbas' office. But Abbas insisted that he has no idea who gave the order. "I don't know which is worse," said one participant, "that he gave the order or that it was given behind his back, by one of his purported well-wishers."

Fatah activists expressed their disgust in private conversations, but the organization did not release an official condemnation, perhaps to avoid strengthening the impression that the one who gave the order to disrupt the conference saw himself as defending Fatah's interests. Similarly, PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad condemned what happened in a closed meeting, but preferred not to speak publicly.

"This is the path to a fascist regime," Dr. Al Aker, who is known for his restrained language, reportedly told Fayyad.