Reports: Kerry to return to Mideast this week

Source : Maan News Agency

JERUSALEM (AFP) -- US Secretary of State John Kerry is to return to the Middle East later this week to resume efforts to draw Israel and the PLO back into direct negotiations, reports said on Sunday.

According to the top-selling Yediot Aharonot daily and the left-leaning Haaretz, Kerry was to arrive in Israel towards the end of the week on what would be his sixth visit to the region in as many months.

On his previous visit, a four-day trip which ended on June 30, Kerry held hours and hours of intensive talks with both sides in a mission which he said had achieved "real progress."

But PLO officials said there had been "no breakthrough" that could lead to a resumption of direct negotiations following a hiatus of nearly three years.

"John Kerry is on his way back: the US secretary of state is expected to arrive in Israel for the sixth time towards the end of the week, in order to try and get the negotiations with the Palestinians to move forward," said Yediot.

In his absence, Kerry left behind two aides to continue his work. Frank Lowenstein, his senior adviser on the peace process, has been meeting "almost daily" with Israeli negotiators Tzipi Livni and Yitzhak Molho as well as with chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erakat, Haaretz said.

"Lowenstein is trying to get the parties to agree to a document that would contain the principles for the renewal of talks but no agreement has emerged," the paper said.

Several days after Kerry's departure, a Palestinian official told AFP that the US top diplomat had presented the two sides with "an initiative to resume direct and intensive negotiations for a duration of six to nine months in order to reach a peace agreement."

Under the proposal, the talks would be based on a 2011 speech by US President Barack Obama in which he called for a Palestinian state on the basis of the lines which existed before the 1967 Six Day War, but there would be no specific reference to a settlement freeze, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Similar details emerged on Saturday in a report by the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper which quoted Western diplomatic sources as saying the talks would take place within a framework of six to nine months, during which there would be a building freeze outside the major settlement blocs.

It also said Israel would agree to the staggered release of 103 Palestinian prisoners who have been held since before the 1993 Oslo Accords, and would allow the Palestinians to develop projects in Area C of the West Bank, around 60 percent of the territory which is currently under full Israeli control.

Israeli officials were not immediately available to comment on either report.

US-brokered direct talks broke down in September 2010 just weeks after they were launched with the two sides locked in a dispute over settlement building. Multiple diplomatic efforts to bring about a renewal of negotiations have so far failed.

Official: Israel to confiscate more land in Nablus

Source : Maan News Agency

NABLUS (Ma'an) -- The Israeli military plans to confiscate 379 dunums of Palestinian land near Bracha settlement in the northern West Bank, a Palestinian Authority official said Wednesday.

Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settlement activities, said Israel's military commander in the West Bank Nitsan Alon issued the decision to confiscate the land in Kafr Qalil.

The land belongs to Muhammad Abu Zarur, Samih Sadqa, Bassam al-Shaqa, Abdul Fattah Kashkash, Muhammad Qani, Kathem Abdul Ghani and Jamil Khader and his brothers, Daghlas told Ma'an.

Daghlas said the Israeli military cited security reasons for the confiscation.

An Israeli military spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Nablus Mayor Jibrin al-Bakri said the Israeli government was speeding up land confiscation in the West Bank, particularly in areas near Israeli settlements.

Al-Bakri said that in recent weeks, Israel had announced the confiscation of over 950 dunums in Nablus villages including Azmut, Huwwara, Awarta, Rujeib and al-Naqura.

He said the issue was an obstacle to peace talks and to US Secretary of State John Kerry's efforts to restart negotiations between Israel and the PLO.

The Nablus municipality is exerting efforts to ease residents' suffering, particularly amid constant attacks by Israeli settlers, the mayor added.

Al-Bakri called on the Israeli government to rein in its settlers and stop their brutality.

55,000 Palestinians displaced from Syria to Lebanon: PLO official

Source : APA

Baku-APA. The number of Palestinians displaced from Syria to Lebanon has reached the mark of 55,000, said a representative of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in Lebanon on Friday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Fathi Abu Al-Ardat called on the UN Relief and Work Agency ( UNRWA) and the international and Arab communities to help shelter the Palestinians, while thanking Beirut for keeping Lebanon's border open and waiving the residence fees for the Palestinian refugees.

He said the PLO has allocated 750,000 U.S. dollars per month for the displaced Palestinians in Syria, 200,000 dollars for people who have fled Syria to Lebanon, 40,000 dollars for those who have been displaced to Egypt and 10,000 dollars for those who headed to Gaza.

The Lebanese authorities, which took strict measures in granting Palestinians residence permits, have eased those restrictions for the displaced Palestinians from Syria, and are granting them monthly residence permits without providing them with any kind of aid as they consider it is the responsibility of the UNRWA.

Israeli soldiers raid West Bank villages, arrest five

Source :   Al Akhbar English

Israeli forces arrested five Palestinian youths, including a 14-year-old, during overnight raids in the West Bank Sunday, local media reported.

The latests arrests come as Palestinian factions wrapped up two days of reconciliation talks in Cairo.

In the West Bank village of Burqaa, near Nablus, soldiers arrested Shadi Abu Omar, Fadi Abu Omar, and Munjed Daughlas at dawn, according to Ma’an news agency.

Israeli forces arrested another man, 24-year-old Moussa Issa Abu Sabha, during a raid on Yatta, south of Hebron.

An Israeli military spokesperson said two others were arrested in Arura, near Ramalla, and another in Beit Kahil, in the Hebron area.

Israeli forces raided the town of Burqeen, west of Jenin, and arrested 14-year-old Mohammed Ghanem. Other residents suffered from asphyxiation after soldiers fired tear gas at them.

WAFA news agency reported that soldiers also summoned two Palestinians, Sami Yousef Shariah, 23, and Mohammed Ali Al-Orouj, 22, for questioning near the illegal Jewish settlement of Ghosh Itsion, south of Bethlehem.

In Cairo, Palestinian rival factions Hamas and Fatah made little progress following two days of talks in Cairo. They remain divided over how exactly to apply a deal the two parties had agreed to more than a year earlier, an official said.

PLO Executive Committee member Wassel Abu Youssef had earlier on Saturday said that the main points of dispute were over the way elections were held for the PNC, as well as other issues relating to legislative and presidential elections in the Palestinian territories.

He also said there was disagreement over the timing of the establishment of a caretaker cabinet, which is supposed to prepare for new elections, and the announcement of a date for such a poll.

Another point of dispute was the type of voting system to be used, officials said.

The Cairo talks were convened by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah faction signed a reconciliation deal with Hamas in April 2011 aimed at ending years of rivalry, but which has never been properly implemented.

(Al-Akhbar, Ma’an, AFP)

Ashrawi praises popular resistance in E1 area

Source : Maan News Agency

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- PLO leader Hanan Ashrawi praised Palestinian activists on Friday after hundreds of people set up protest tents in the controversial E1 corridor area near Jerusalem.

"This initiative is a highly creative and a legitimate non-violent tool to protect our land from Israeli colonial plans," a statement said.

Earlier, Palestinian activists had erected over 25 tents, called Bab al-Shams, or 'Gate of the Sun', in protest against Israeli settlements, a local activist said.

"We will not be silent while settlements and the colonization of our land continues, and confirm that the village will endure until the rightful owners of the land are installed," Said Abdullah Abu Rahma, the coordinator of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements in Bilin, told Ma'an.

Ashrawi lauded the "collective effort initiated by civil society, including youth, social, and political organizations, who came together to support the right of the owners of the land to make use of it as they see fit."

The PLO official said she fully supported and encouraged non-violent popular resistance against Israeli occupation.

The name of the village was inspired by Lebanese author Elias Khoury's novel, which tells the story of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.

Although there was no immediate response from the Israeli authorities, police and soldiers in the past have moved quickly to shut down any such spontaneous Palestinian camps.

"What is happening at Bab al-Shams is a reminder of the apartheid regime that Israel has imposed for the exclusive use of land for Jewish Israeli settlers all over Palestine," Ashrawi added.

In December, Israel announced plans to build some 3,000 settler homes in the E1 corridor near Jerusalem, drawing widespread international condemnation.

Britain, France and several other European countries summoned Israeli envoys to protest the plan, while President Mahmoud Abbas called the E1 area "a red line that cannot be crossed."

Construction in E1 would divide the West Bank and make the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state - as envisaged by the internationally backed two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict - almost impossible