10-1-2019Israel quietly lets in Gaza workers in bid to ease tensions - FARES AKRAM AP

https://www.apnews.com/2da01bd000ef47f484e548e47caf9f98

Israel is quietly allowing thousands of Palestinians to enter from the Gaza Strip to conduct business and work menial jobs, apparently as part of understandings with the ruling Hamas militant group aimed at preventing a fourth war in the blockaded territory.  Israel effectively revoked thousands of work permits when it joined Egypt in imposing a crippling blockade on Gaza after Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007. The blockade, along with three wars between Hamas and Israel, has devastated the economy in Gaza, where unemployment is over 50%.  In recent months, Israel has quietly provided some relief as part of an unofficial, Egyptian-brokered truce with Hamas, in exchange for reduced rocket fire from the territory and the scaling back of weekly protests along the border. It has allowed Qatar to deliver millions of dollars in cash to allow Hamas to pay its civil servants and has allowed the United Nations to step up aid efforts.  Now it appears Israel has expanded a program in which it had long provided hundreds of permits to business owners to travel to Israel and the West Bank for commerce. Palestinian officials say it is now providing some 5,000 so-called merchant permits and awarding them to Palestinians working as laborers in construction, agriculture and manufacturing…

 

Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2-19-2020 ‘We gave up on historic Palestine in exchange for nothing’ Bassem Tamimi, who has led popular protests in Nabi Saleh for more than a decade, says the two-state solution is 'no longer an option.' - Oren Ziv +972

https://www.972mag.com/bassem-tamimi-one-state/   …"Why did [his 16 year old daughter] Ahed slap that soldier?" Tamimi asks rhetorically, in a meeting with journalists from Israel. "Because I didn't. That's the reality: We need new ideas, and we cannot expect different results if we continue on the same path. We need to be focused on a goal and change our methods accordingly, not the other way round.   "We don't want to live in an illusion," Tamimi continues. "The peace process began in Madrid in 1992, but the 'Deal of the Century' finished that process off. But the current situation is better than what they're proposing [in Trump's plan], which offers no right of return and no territorial contiguity — just population transfer, and total control for Israel."… T amimi, a longtime Fatah member, now believes that a one-state solution is the only way. ...
Read more

8-15-2020 | Liz Axtell book review of "The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: by Rashid Khalidi

  The Hundred Years' War on Palestine--A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017 by Rashid Khalidi   Review by Elizabeth Axtell   As I think Rashid Khalidi makes clear in this book, the history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a history of colonialism in the creation of present day Israel.  He describes his personal experiences related to the conflict, but also the involvement of members of his family in the history.  While in Jerusalem, Professor Khalidi had access to the private libraries of some of the oldest families in the city, including the Khalidi family.   Yusuf Diya-al-Din Pasha al-Khalidi was Professor Khalidi's great-great-great uncle.  He was a well educated ...
Read more

4-2-2014 House warns Palestinian aid may be cut - Julian Pecquet Al-Monitor

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/04/palestine-un-aid-cuts-peace-talks-abbas.html# US lawmakers are threatening to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in US aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) if President Mahmoud Abbas goes through with his stated intention to sign on to 15 UN treaties.   Congress sought to tie funding for the PA to preservation of the status quo at the UN in this year's omnibus spending bill. While it's not clear Abbas' decision violates the letter of the law, appropriators have made it clear they think its spirit has been trampled on.... Maen Areikat, their ambassador to Washington, said the PA agreed to put its UN applications on hold in exchange for Israel releasing 104 Palestinian prisoners, some of them accused of deadly attacks against Israelis, as called for under Kerry's peace talks framework. When Israel reneged on releasing the last batch of 26 prisoners...
Read more