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Hamas calls to revoke presidential decrees criminalising Palestine armed resistance (Middle East Monitor)
"The Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas called on Thursday to cancel the presidential decrees issued in 2007 that criminalise the Palestinian factions' military wings, considering them "illegal militias"."
"Hamas announced in a statement that the decision of Gaza's Ministry of Interior to release 45 Fatah members detained on security charges is a goodwill gesture by the movement and government bodies in Gaza to create a more positive atmosphere ahead of the Palestinian general elections."
"Hamas called on Fatah and the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah to: "Create a positive environment for the peaceful conduct of the elections, stop all forms of prosecution, harassment and summons, and to release political detainees."
"It also called for lifting the ban on media restrictions, stating: "Many media platforms are still banned by governmental or presidential decisions, such as Al-Aqsa TV and others."
"Hamas concluded its statement by urging that the time has come to turn the page on the past and move forwards towards a true Palestinian partnership that rebuilds the Palestinian political system on solid foundations."
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Palestinians condemn Israel’s move to send vaccines overseas (Al Jazeera)
Lina Alsaafin writes: "Palestinian Authority foreign minister denounces Israel sending vaccines to foreign allies as ‘political blackmail’."
"The Palestinian Authority (PA) has condemned Israel’s promise to send coronavirus vaccines to far-away countries while ignoring the five-million-strong Palestinian population living kilometres away under its military occupation as an “immoral measure”.
"On Thursday, Honduras received its first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines from Israel, after Israeli media reported earlier this week the government’s intention to send vaccines to the Central American country, in addition to Guatemala, Hungary and the Czech Republic."
"Israel’s Kan Public Broadcasting reported that 100,000 Moderna vaccines will be shipped to 15 allies, as well as several countries in Africa that have strong or growing ties with Israel. Guatemala followed the United States’s controversial decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem last year, while Honduras has promised to do the same."
"Hungary has set up a trade mission office in Jerusalem, and the Czech Republic has pledged to open a diplomatic office in the city as well."
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Israel is worried about the Palestinian elections. It believes Abbas is too (Middle East Eye)
Yossi Melman writes: "From the perspective of the Israeli security establishment, it would have been better if the scheduled Palestinian elections would not take place at all."
"According to Israeli security officials, Abbas and his top lieutenants are no less concerned than Israel. They say that Abbas was very reluctant to agree to call the elections."
"Abbas's weakening leadership is challenged by Marwan Barghouti, who is considered the most popular leader among Fatah and Palestinian Authority supporters. So far, all attempts by Abbas to persuade Barghouti to drop his candidacy have failed."
"Abbas now faces a dilemma. Without the elections, his attempts to bring national unity and to reinstate Fatah as a significant force in Gaza are doomed to fail. But if the elections take place, Fatah may be defeated again and Hamas would increase its power, not only in its solid base of Gaza but also in the West Bank."
"Israel’s approach is: why rock the boat? However, there is truly little that Israel can do. It cannot openly oppose the elections, and it knows that it has no real measures to influence them."
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Appreciating the majestic mountain: Hamid Dabashi reflects on Edward Said (Mondoweiss)
Omar Barghouti writes: "Hamid Dabashi's new book on Edward Said shows how the Palestinian intellectual became "integral to the very alphabet of our moral and political imagination."
"Dabashi reflects upon a fascinating fact that Edward Said “never turned you into a Saidian but enabled your own thinking on the premise he had mapped out.” In other words, Said never employed his outstanding and revolutionary scholarship to hegemonize or suppress others’ thought, as he was “an enabler, not a guru.”
"But for Said, being out of Palestine meant being out of home, in exile. Palestine, in this sense, became the “quintessence of [Said’s] moral outrage,” argues Dabashi. Not only did the power of his narrative emerge out of his “critical intimacy with [its] national liberation movement,” but Palestine, as a metaphor for injustice and resistance, also informed his defense of all the oppressed."
“Edward Said single-handedly altered the very language of how we speak about the globality of the condition we know as colonialism. He did so by theoretically universalizing the particularity of Palestine.”
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Young Palestinians Are Leaning Into TikTok – Even if Their Content Gets Deleted (VICE)
James Greig writes: "Palestinians are documenting their lives on TikTok, a space they say feels overall more open than other social media platforms."
"When Ahmed Khalifa, 24, started making political TikToks about Palestine, plenty of people tried to warn him that this might not be such a good idea. “Strangers actually reached out to me saying, ‘be very careful. This will hurt your career prospects, your name is going to be tarnished completely.’ And some of them were speaking from experience. But it was a sacrifice that I was willing to make, and continue to be willing to make,” he says."
"He became a member of a growing community. All over the world the world, Palestinians are using TikTok to document their lives, celebrate their culture and, in some cases, protest the human rights violations which continue to take place at home."
"The hashtag “Palestine” has 3.6 billion views, while “freepalestine” has 771.6 million, and in Palestine itself the platform is becoming increasingly popular among young people. For Palestinians, most of whom are barred from returningto their homeland, social media platforms like TikTok can be a way of sustaining a shared cultural life and national identity."
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Anera provides humanitarian assistance and sustainable development to advance the well-being of refugees and other vulnerable communities in Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan.
Anera works on the ground with partners in Palestine (West Bank and Gaza), Lebanon and Jordan. They mobilize resources for immediate emergency relief and for sustainable, long-term health, education, and economic development. |
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