#Gaza-Jericho Agreement

[plitnick]

We didn’t need hindsight to see Oslo as a failure

30 years ago today, Yasir Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin shook hands in front of Bill Clinton on the White House lawn. Imaginations got fired up about a post-Cold War world that even saw peace in the Middle East. Obviously, that didn’t happen. But we didn’t need the benefit of hindsight to see that the Oslo Accords could never do what it was meant to do. We didn’t even need to be as smart and…

[palestinegenocide]

Key developments 

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh blames Israel for lack of truce agreement before Ramadan, says Palestinians want ceasefire.

Netanyahu administration: Israel wants to clear up space in its prisons to be prepared for the arrest of “thousands” more Palestinians in Gaza and occupied West Bank.

Survey: three-quarters of Jewish Israelis support attack on Rafah.

Israeli military and Hezbollah continue to launch offensives and counter-offensives in border fighting.

Gaza Ministry of Health: Exhausted medical personnel starving in northern Gaza.

Euro-Med Monitor: Gaza’s elderly are dying at rapid rates.

The Palestinian city of Jericho in the occupied West Bank names street after the late U.S. airman Aaron Bushnell, who self-immolated last month in protest of the genocide in Gaza. 

Gazans “celebrate Ramadan with no mosques,”  says Palestinian Foreign Affairs Ministry. 

Israeli forces block entrance to Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, attack worshippers, on the first evening of Ramadan. 

Yemen’s Ansar Allah stages military exercises on mock Israeli city, U.S. and UK forces.

Israeli settlers establish a new illegal outpost in the occupied West Bank’s Jordan Valley, reports Wafa.

U.S. charity ANERA demands independent probe into staff member’s killing in Gaza.

[nameinconcept-blog]

"In an interview that the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Watan did not dare to publish."

"Comrade George Habash: We reject the idea of ​​establishing a new PLO, and we represent its charter and program."

"The Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Watan conducted a press interview with Comrade George Habash, Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. About two months passed without Al-Watan publishing it, although the newspaper's correspondent had insisted on conducting it, and stressed before and after the interview that the newspaper was committed to publishing it regardless of the issues it might contain that might differ with its policy. Al-Watan's failure to publish the interview with the comrade Secretary-General exposes the broad-mindedness of this newspaper and its acceptance of discussing other opinions, and exposes the miserable, fanatical position that hides behind false liberal democratic masks, and reveals the truth of its position on the national issue of the Palestinian people."

"From here, we find that the passage of some time since this interview was conducted did not cancel out the opinions, ideas and positions it contained. On the contrary, the period of time between conducting the interview and its publication proves the correctness of the ideas and positions it contained, which time has proven to be correct. The following is its full text:"

"Q: The Palestinian opposition factions are trying to keep up with events without being able to influence them historically... Historically... it is clear that the Palestinian opposition factions have lost the initiative and turned to reaction and are now confused between the shedding of blood that Abu Musa approved and the rhetorical opposition and others... What is your comment?"

"A: Regarding the first part of the question, and I mean by that that the events facing the Palestinian revolution are very, very big events, I naturally agree with this description. I know that what we are facing now is an American, Israeli, Zionist plan that wants a complete and final liquidation of the Palestinian cause. And I know of course that this plan is supported by Europe, Japan, Russia, and China."

"But I do not agree with the other part that says that the reaction rejecting this agreement (the Gaza-Jericho agreement) is a worthless reaction, as the question suggests. If this is the assessment of the newspaper "Al-Watan" of the forces rejecting this agreement as stated in the question, then how do you in "Al-Watan" explain what Clinton says, and the numerous contacts he made, and the phone calls he recorded with a large number of Arab officials, which demand that they work to limit the Palestinian reaction that rejects the agreement?!! How do you explain the statements of Yitzhak Rabin in which he said that the Intifada has weakened but still maintains 50% of its effectiveness?!! Of course, this is what Rabin claims, but what reality confirms and what we say based on the reality of what is happening in the occupied territories is something else. How do you explain the continuation of the Intifada and the growth of heroic and martyrdom operations that occurred after the agreement?!!"

"The continued growth of the Intifada and the escalation of heroic military operations and martyrdom in Jericho, Khan Yunis, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Hebron, and in all the Palestinian territories means that despite all this difficult situation referred to in the question, the will of the Palestinian people rejecting this agreement has embodied itself in a way that worries Clinton and Rabin and angers Yasser Arafat and his team."

"Q: The Palestinian opposition factions have confined themselves to a cocoon, and they do not have options. The military option is not possible in Lebanon except within 6 borders linked to the peace process in Lebanon, and the armed option is not possible in Syria due to Damascus' understanding of the balance of power and its awareness of the limitations of this option. There is no option from Iraq or Libya, and both are drowning in their own state and concerns. The establishment of the (PLO) has failed from the beginning, and the organization, as is the fedayeen work and the armed factions, have lost their historical justifications, so what about establishing a new organization?!!"

"A: There is no doubt that I agree that the developments that have occurred in the international situation and on the official Arab level have reflected negatively on the phenomenon of armed struggle from abroad, but this phenomenon has not ended and we hope through our alliance with Hezbollah and other national and Islamic resistance forces that this phenomenon will continue and continue on the Palestinian and Arab levels. However, even if we accept for the sake of argument that the phenomenon of armed struggle from outside the borders has ended, this phenomenon has not ended inside the occupied territories. It is ongoing and growing. Otherwise, what do we say about the Intifada, and what do we say about the heroic and martyrdom-seeking military operations inside Palestine?!!"

"What is important for us is to inflict losses on the enemy through armed struggle and through the continuation of the uprising and the continuation of revolutionary violence whether from outside the borders of Palestine or from within. This is our understanding of the nature of our struggle with the enemy and the nature of our confrontation with him until he is forced in the end to surrender our fixed and legitimate national rights."

"With our fixed and legitimate national rights. The hostile forces, as well as the hesitant forces, which are between understanding this fact, must understand that our Palestinian people are determined to regain all their legitimate rights by all means of struggle approved by international legitimacy."

"It is true that the phenomenon of armed struggle from abroad has weakened, and I do not say that it has ended as a result of the changes that have occurred on the international and official Arab levels, but this phenomenon still exists internally and embodies itself practically through heroic and martyrdom operations, and through the heroic uprising, stabbing operations, and other means of revolutionary violence, and by using all available and possible weapons in resisting the occupation."

"As for the second part of the question, which suggests that we have no choice but to surrender and that the PLO has ended, my answer is that the PLO expresses the hopes and aspirations of the Palestinian people, the goals of the Palestinian people, the unity of the Palestinian people, and the identity and character of the Palestinian people. This explains why all the Palestinian people, wherever they are, have rallied around the organization. The Palestinian feels that the PLO is his national character and that it expresses his goals, and for this reason he feels a special feeling towards it. This issue has not ended because the organization was established on the basis of an objective need, such as the need to eat, drink, and so on. The Palestinian people are hungry, want freedom, want liberation, want independence, and want to struggle to regain their legitimate national rights. This issue has not ended because the agreement did not achieve the hopes and aspirations of the Palestinian people, and did not achieve their goals and unity. Therefore, the PLO will remain a necessity and an objective need and will not end."

"A leadership came to head the organization that did not achieve the goals on which the PLO was established. Therefore, the Palestinian people see that this leadership, which did not achieve the goals on which the organization was established, is not the leadership that they gave confidence to. Therefore, the PLO is one thing and the leadership that deviated from the goals of the organization and the goals of the Palestinian people is another thing."

"As for the idea of ​​establishing a new PLO, we reject this idea and say that Yasser Arafat and his team are the ones who left the PLO and its charter and national program. Therefore, we are the ones who represent the PLO, its charter and its program, and we represent the goals of the people, because the one who represents the organization is the one who adheres to its charter and its program, and to the goals for which our Palestinian people struggled. This is our vision for the Palestine Liberation Organization."

"Q: The old style of rejection, based on boycott and negativity, has lost its luster at this stage and has become a discourse of defeat and the past. The withdrawal of opposition trends from the official institutions of the PLO will certainly facilitate Yasser Arafat's task and relieve him of the trouble of dealing with the opposition. What is your comment?"

"A: First of all, I am happy to ask this question because it addresses questions raised in the Palestinian arena."

"Let us objectively review, away from emotions and subjectivity, these experiences and the positions taken by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in particular, because the Popular Front was the address that alerted the Palestinian people to the danger of continuing the approach of this leadership. Let us review these positions and what results they produced. Reviewing the process indicates that the results produced by these positions are completely different from the results suggested by the question."

"First, I would like to emphasize that the Popular Front did not leave the organization or the National Council. The Popular Front left the Executive Committee for the first time in 1974 because of the political position that Yasser Arafat's leadership followed after that. When did it return and on what basis?!! It returned to the Executive Committee after the failure of the political line that Arafat had bet on and after the political program of the PLO was established in 1979. Now, were these positions that you described in your question as negative, and all these years of the Popular Front's struggle against wrong political bets without results?!! The truth is no, as the result was the establishment of the political program, and this is what resulted from those positions and all the years of struggle that the Front wagered since its exit from the Executive Committee in 1974 until its return in 1979, because the value of this political program lies in the fact that it established the correct tactic, as it linked the issue of establishing the Palestinian state to the right of return. This topic is very important because the right of return and insisting on it is not an easy matter for the Zionist entity and the future of its existence, as this step shakes the foundation of the Zionist entity and its existence in Palestine. Also, this position taken by the Popular Front in 1974 led to the National Council approving the organizational program of the organization, and this issue is one of the basic issues if the factions of the revolution were able to embody this program and insist on adhering to it and being bound by it by the influential leadership. The second time was in 1984 when the Popular Front left the Executive Committee as a result of the February 11 agreement known as the Amman Agreement. When did it return? After this agreement was canceled in April 1987, meaning that this position and this struggle that the Front waged since its departure from the Executive Committee until its return in 1987 resulted in the cancellation of the Amman Agreement."

"This is the objective assessment of the Front's progress and its positions in this regard, and therefore I do not agree with you in saying that these positions that you described in your question as negative did not lead to anything. This is because these positions and the struggles that accompanied them against the wrong political positions led to correcting the progress."

"The Palestinian arena has known three lines within the opposition to Arafat's approach, namely the Popular Front line, which is based on a scientific principle that calls for "struggle and unity", because the stage we are living in is a stage of national liberation, and therefore the battle against the right is based on this law. To the right of this line stood other factions that condemned the Front's position and considered it extremist and did not agree with it. In contrast, there were positions to the left of the Front that criticized the principle of unity and struggle, which the Front considered a correct scientific law that it practiced and always struggled on the basis of in order to correct the course. Here I hope that those who criticize us today from the opposition will remember that in the National Council in 1979, the Popular Front was the main organization that stood insistently demanding the establishment of the national program and the necessity of its implementation, while the majority of the other organizations proceeded in the context of Arafat."

Photos and Texts from the Palestinian magazine “الهدف” year 1994 issue 1175.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 5.4 (after 1950)

1953 – Ernest Hemingway wins the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea. 1959 – The 1st Annual Grammy Awards are held. 1961 – American civil rights movement: The "Freedom Riders" begin a bus trip through the South. 1961 – Malcolm Ross and Victor Prather attain a new altitude record for manned balloon flight ascending in the Strato-Lab V open gondola to 113,740 feet (34.67 km). 1970 – Vietnam War: Kent State shootings: The Ohio National Guard, sent to Kent State University after disturbances in the city of Kent the weekend before, opens fire killing four unarmed students and wounding nine others. The students were protesting the Cambodian Campaign of the United States and South Vietnam. 1972 – The Don't Make A Wave Committee, a fledgling environmental organization founded in Canada in 1971, officially changes its name to "Greenpeace Foundation". 1973 – The 108-story Sears Tower in Chicago is topped out at 1,451 feet (442 m) as the world's tallest building. 1978 – The South African Defence Force attacks a SWAPO base at Cassinga in southern Angola, killing about 600 people. 1979 – Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. 1982 – Twenty sailors are killed when the British Type 42 destroyer HMS Sheffield is hit by an Argentinian Exocet missile during the Falklands War. 1988 – The PEPCON disaster rocks Henderson, Nevada, as tons of Space Shuttle fuel detonate during a fire. 1989 – Iran–Contra affair: Former White House aide Oliver North is convicted of three crimes and acquitted of nine other charges; the convictions are later overturned on appeal. 1989 – Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on mission STS-30 to deploy the Venus-bound Magellan space probe. 1990 – Latvia declares independence from the Soviet Union. 1994 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat sign a peace accord, granting self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho. 1998 – A federal judge in Sacramento, California, gives "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski four life sentences plus 30 years after Kaczynski accepts a plea agreement sparing him from the death penalty. 2000 – Ken Livingstone becomes the first Mayor of London (an office separate from that of the Lord Mayor of London). 2002 – One hundred three people are killed and 51 are injured in a plane crash near Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano, Nigeria. 2007 – Greensburg, Kansas is almost completely destroyed by a 1.7-mile wide EF5 tornado. It was the first-ever tornado to be rated as such with the new Enhanced Fujita scale. 2014 – Three people are killed and 62 injured in a pair of bombings on buses in Nairobi, Kenya. 2019 – The inaugural all-female motorsport series, W Series, takes place at Hockenheimring. The race was won by Jamie Chadwick, who would go on to become the inaugural season's champion. 2023 – Nine people are killed and thirteen injured in a spree shooting in Mladenovac and Smederevo, Serbia. It is the second mass shooting in the country in two days.

[disco-cola]

ok im gonna rant. it was really interesting for me to learn today that the 1993 so called "peace" efforts oslo accords between israels then-prime minister yitzhak rabin and the PLO did not actually aim at a sovereign palestinian state, like the contract would've expected the PLO to fully recognize israel, however in return, all israel offered was to accept the PLO as the representative for the palestinian people, but not actually a full-on independent palestinian state. in 1994 rabin signed the gaza-jericho-agreement which would only give the PLO limited self-rule over certain parts of the west bank and gaza, those certain parts being designated by israel. some israeli settlements would've stayed intact in parts of gaza and the west bank, too even though it's not even a secret fact that the occupation of the west bank, gaza and the golan heights - latter belong to syria actually - since 1967 does not abide by international law, not then and still not now (and yeah some people say but gaza is not occupied today well they are still being controlled and extremely limited by a state they technically aren't a part of so what is then)... the interim accord signed in september 1995 (2 months before rabin was shot by a rightwing radical israeli jew bc of his "peace" efforts with the PLO, btw netanyahu also held several hate rallies against rabin and called him a traitor for it and rabins widow co-blamed bibi for her husbands assassination) aimed at dividing the west bank into specific areas A, B, and C with only area A giving exclusive control to a palestinian authority, without israeli settlements, but it would've only made up 18% of the west bank, and area B would've still been under co-control with israel while area C would've continued to stay under israeli occupation including settlements and total control, that area C alone making up a whopping 61% of the entire west bank. that area also includes almost all natural reserves of that piece of land, including forests and many wells and springs. those remaining palestinian residents in area C could not and still cannot build a house without a permit and applications are expensive and almost always still get denied which is why they have built and still build houses "illegally" (as in illegal under israeli law) which results in that ever present demolition of palestinian houses through the israeli army there. also in 2000 israel then put in order the right to enter into area A for "operational needs" meaning they again effectively control all the west bank including areas under what was supposed to be palestinian authority. honestly i now fully understand why hamas were against the oslo accords because they would've not even been the bare minimum. i think it's wrong to say they have "always been against peace" because THAT would certainly not have brought justice and peace long-term. so literally what former black panther kwame ture said: "“there’s a difference between peace and liberation, is there not? you can have injustice and have peace. you can have peace and be enslaved, so peace isn’t the answer—liberation is the answer. ‘peace’ is the white man’s word." that quote applies so much to this situation as well. kwame ture was also an anti-zionist btw.

rabin in my opinion is so wrongly considered a "peace figure" because he also was the one who ordered idf soldiers to immobilize palestinian protestors during the 1st intifada by systematically breaking their bones. today, that order is still somewhat effective and is showing itself through idf soldiers oftentimes specificially targeting the legs and especially knees of palestinians, particularly youths, in "hopes" of disabling and permanently immobilizing them - because otherwise they continue to pose a "threat." so much for he was one of the good ones. even the "left" in israel is extremely zionistic and thus holds nationalistic discriminating values. like literally even the left is still right lmao... idk i learned this today and it's been on my mind ever since and i wanted to share it to internalize it further and maybe it also helps someone understand better along the way too as it did with me.

[jewish-privilege]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has set Wednesday [July 1, 2020] as the date when he might begin a process of unilaterally annexing sections of the West Bank — land that Palestinians see as illegally occupied and the heart of their future state.

It is more than 2,100 square miles that has been fiercely disputed through decades of failed diplomacy, and many international experts see the potential annexation as a death knell to the two-state solution. Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan after it came under attack during the 1967 war, and has since blanketed  parts of it with settlements housing nearly 500,00 Israeli Jews. But under the Oslo Agreements of the mid-1990s, Israel and the Palestinian Authority divide governance in the area.

Netanyahu’s announced plan to formally exert Israeli sovereignty over the territory came after President Donald Trump in January unveiled his peace plan, including permission for Israel to annex up to 30 percent of the West Bank. More recently, the White House has been sending mixed signals about its support for any such unilateral moves, nearly 200 pro-Israel members of Congress have signed a letter urging the Israeli government to reconsider.

...It remains unclear whether Netanyahu’s coalition will actually move forward, as defense and economic officials have been warning against annexation, citing the mayhem that could follow. The Palestinian leadership has promised to respond to even partial annexation by abandoning Oslo, forcing Israel to take direct responsibility for 2.7 million Palestinian residents of the West Bank.

...During this time of extreme uncertainty and anxiety, we asked six Palestinians to share their perspectives on this phase of the long-running conflict.

Mahmoud Hmedat, a civil engineer in the West Bank city of Jericho, does not like the term annexation.  “It’s re-occupation, not annexation,” he said.

For Hmedat, who is 26, the uncertainty of the moment is hard to bear: “It’s like something totally unknown hurtling towards us.”

Most of all he’s worried. Worried about the economic fallout – will farmers around Jericho be able to get enough water?  Worried about confiscation of Palestinian land.

Until Trump entered the White House, Hmedat said, he had held out hope that a two-state solution might being in reach. Now it seems like an impossible dream.

Whether a resolution comes in one-state or two-state form matters ultimately matters less to him at this point, he said, than what he calls “freedom for all people.”

“We want justice for everyone and by that I mean the Palestinians, the Israelis,” he said. “We need to offer everyone the same rules, the same services, the same conditions – that’s the only way peace will ever be possible.”

...Hamada Jaber, 37, who lives in the West Bank city of Ramallah and is the co-founder of the One State Foundation, sees opportunity in this moment. He is hoping the Palestinian leadership will adopt a new strategy and abandon the two-state solution in favor of one-state for two peoples, with equal rights for all.

...“Israel and now Trump is essentially telling everyone, there is no two-state solution,” he said.

“Netanyahu said even if he annexes areas where there are Palestinian inhabitants, we will not have any rights or citizenship in Israel. In my opinion this will create an officially kind of an apartheid state of Israel – an official one recognized by law as it exists as it is already.”

This is where the opportunity comes in, he argued, saying what should come next is that the Palestinian Authority dissolve. Jaber believes this would force Israel into an unflattering international spotlight of controlling Palestinians it does not enfranchise and force the hand of the only solution he sees as viable: one state for Jews and Palestinians.

“We live in it already — this one state reality, what we need to do is give equal rights to everyone,” he said. “That means the end of the Jewish state and the start of one democratic state with equal rights for all.”

How to make this palatable to Jewish Israelis? His answer: a strategy of non-violence in which the Palestinian Authority would not only stop governing parts of the West Bank but would also  turn in all Palestinian weapons and send the message that Palestinians don’t want to fight or kill anyone, but do demand their rights.

...Husam Jaber works as a tour guide in the West Bank city of Bethlehem — or he did until the coronavirus hit. After months being out of work because tourism has vanish, Jaber, 49, sees annexation only adding to the economic hardship of the moment.

“People’s main concern is the economy, they want to live in peace and have money,” he said.

“I don’t think there is much I can do,” Jaber added, “and I feel sad, helpless that on both sides people are suffering. If there is violence, more people will suffer.”

Jaber is also angry with the Americans:  “Americans OK’ing it does not make it legal,” he said of annexation. “What Israel is doing is illegal by all standards.”

He’s agnostic on the form a future solution should take.

“Identity is something constructed – I don’t think of nationality, I am more focused on whether or not my kids will have equal rights,” said Jaber, a father of four. “That’s better than having a nationality.”

...Ashraf al-Masri is  a 45-year-old taxi driver in the Beit Hanoun neighborhood of the Gaza Strip whose three-story home was flattened during Israeli bombing raids in 2013.  He said that he is still trying to hold onto the idea the Palestinians might have their own state alongside Israel, but that the increasingly real prospect of annexation is testing his resolve.

...“Palestinian land is the West Bank and Gaza, so if Israel takes the land of the West Bank, where does that leave us?” Al-Masri asked. “If Netanyahu does this, I only see war next, both in the West Bank and Gaza. From here in Gaza, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad will not let Israel steal the land for nothing.”

Palestinians like himself, in Gaza, will pay an economic price as well, Al-Masri fears. If the  Palestinian Authority, based in the West Bank, dissolves itself the aftermath of annexation as President Mahmoud Abbas has promised, that would mean halting payments to workers and institutions in Gaza. If that happens, he worries that Hamas, the Islamist faction that rules Gaza, would be unable to pay thousands of people’s salaries and the economy, which is already in dire straits, could  completely crash.

..As mayor of al Aqaba, a town in the Jordan Valley, Sami Sadiq, 63, has a lot to lose if Netanyahu pushes ahead with annexation: his part of the West Bank is among the most likely to be annexed at some point.

“If Netanyahu wants peace – why is he doing this? Where are the Palestinian people supposed to go?” asked Sadiq, 63, whose family has lived in the small village for generations. “We want peace.”

He said he has been in a wheelchair since 1971 when, as a 16-year-old, he was struck by three bullets shot by Israeli soldiers training nearby.

“I don’t know what the future will be if Netanyahu constantly refuses to go towards peace,” he added, pointing to the guest house in his village, and explaining that he is always urging Israelis to visit — usually without luck.

“They say they are afraid,” he said. “But you can’t have peace if you don’t know each other.”

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

On 15 January 2019, we will mark the 17th anniversary of Sa’adat’s arrest by the Palestinian Authority in the context of “security cooperation” with the Israeli occupation. After a violent attack on the PA’s Jericho prison in 2006, where Sa’adat was held under United States and British guards, Ahmad Sa’adat and his comrades are serving lengthy sentences in Israeli prisons. Sa’adat was sentenced to 30 years in prison, convicted in an Israeli military court of leading a prohibited organization and “incitement.”

Sa’adat is a leader in the Palestinian prisoners’ movement and the Palestinian national liberation movement. He is a figure of international importance and political clarity, targeted behind bars in an attempt to isolate him from his political role. He stands alongside nearly 6,000 fellow Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails on the front lines of the liberation struggle. As such, he is a symbol of Palestinian, Arab and internationalist resistance to capitalism, racism, apartheid and colonization.

The case of Ahmad Sa’adat also clearly highlights the complicity of international powers in the occupation and colonization of Palestine. He and his comrades were held for years under U.S. and British guards in a Palestinian Authority prison – and those guards moved away in a prearranged agreement to allow the Israeli occupation army to attack Jericho prison in 2006. The support of the United States, Britain, Canada, the European Union, Australia and others for the Israeli colonial project continues to perpetuate its impunity as it carries out land confiscations, home demolitions, mass imprisonment, extrajudicial executions, the ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem, the siege on Gaza and further crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The Palestinian Authority kidnapped Sa’adat under false pretenses and imprisoned him for four years before its prison was attacked by the Israeli occupation. This is part and parcel of the policy of “security coordination” that has led to the repeated imprisonment of Palestinians for their political involvement by the PA. Despite critical words, the policy remains firmly in place – with devastating and deadly consequences for Palestinians, as seen in the case of Basil al-Araj.

On 15-22 January 2019, join us in a collective call for the freedom of Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian Prisoners. Join us to build the global grassroots campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions from Israel and complicit corporations. Join us to fight for an end to aid and support for the Israeli occupation that has been confiscating land and lives for over 70 years.

We urge you to organize events, actions and protests in cities, campuses, communities, towns, campuses and all other public spaces. When we raise our voices, we can help to break the Israeli isolation of Ahmad Sa’adat and his fellow Palestinian prisoners. Free Ahmad Sa’adat! Free all Palestinian Prisoners! Free Palestine!

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat

[quotidiantimes]

Oslo Accords Fast Facts | CNN

Oslo Accords Fast Facts | CNN

CNN  —  Here’s a look at what you need to know about the Oslo Accords, a series of agreements between Israel and the Palestinians signed in the 1990s. Oslo I is formally known as the Declaration of Principles (DOP). The pact established a timetable for the Middle East peace process. It planned for an interim Palestinian government in Gaza and Jericho in the West Bank. After the signing,…

[expatimes]

Obituary: Erekat, negotiator, public face of Palestinian cause

Saeb Erekat, a familiar face in Palestinian politics for 40 years, has died from the novel coronavirus, said Palestinian party Fatah. He was 65.

Erekat, a veteran peace negotiator and prominent international spokesman for the Palestinians for more than 30 years, died weeks after testing positive for COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

In a statement, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said: “The departure of a brother and a friend, of the great fighter, Dr Saeb Erekat, is a great loss for Palestine and our people, and we are deeply saddened.”

The senior Palestinian official's infection was complicated by a history of health issues. He underwent a lung transplant in 2017 and suffered from a weak immune system and a bacterial infection in addition to COVID-19.

Erekat witnessed tumultuous events from an early age. He was 12 years old when Israeli tanks rolled into his hometown of Jericho.

In 1967, he witnessed a war that would last just six days, but which shaped the entire Middle East in the decades since. For Erekat, it would inform the decisions he made for the rest of his life.

Erekat said he had to grow up quickly under Israeli occupation in the West Bank. His first arrest at the age of 13 was not his last.

He attended university in the United States and moved to England to complete a PhD in conflict resolution. It was the beginning of his fight for Palestinian statehood through negotiation - advocating a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders.

It was a compromise and a major concession. But throughout his life, Israelis would accuse him of being an “extremist” and sowing division, while Palestinians would call him a traitor to the Palestinian cause, giving away too much.

Erekat was one of the Palestinians' most recognized faces over the decades, serving as a senior negotiator in talks with Israel and making frequent media appearances. He was also a senior adviser to Arafat and current President Mahmoud Abbas.

At the Madrid peace talks in 1991, he insisted on wearing the Kuffiyeh, the symbol of Palestinian national identity. He was a hero to many back home, but at the conference, it caused a stir.

Two years later, he was left out of final talks on the Oslo Accords - negotiated by then-Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

But Erekat would rise to become the chief Palestinian negotiator in 1995. Over the years, he resigned from the post several times before eventually being reinstated.

Controversy surrounded Erekat with the 2011 publication of the Palestine Papers by Al Jazeera.

The leaked documents included more than 1,600 confidential records of meetings, emails, and communications between Palestinian, Israeli and US leaders covering the years 2000-2010.

The documents also detailed huge concessions offered by Palestinian officials to the Israeli government, without securing Israeli guarantees on key issues such as occupied East Jerusalem and the fate of refugees.

Erekat resigned after the papers quoted him as boasting of offering the Israelis “the biggest Yerushalayim [the Hebrew word for Jerusalem] in history ”- which entailed the annexation of all major Israeli settlements except for one in East Jerusalem. Under international law, Israeli settlements are illegal.

'New dark age'

His strength was as the public face for the Palestinian cause, communicating across language barriers to explain their position to the English-speaking world, while also being an acceptable voice of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to Israel.

But over the years he described a growing pessimism - at Israel's failure to deliver on its undertakings; at the building of yet more illegal Israeli settlements; increasing numbers of checkpoints; brutality against Palestinians; and the Israeli separation wall now more than 700 kilometers (430 miles) long.

The peace talks - he would say - were out of sync with the reality for Palestinians on the ground.

He remained loyal to Arafat, even through his power struggle with Abbas, and held on to his seat in the 2006 election, which Hamas won by a landslide.

But as Israel imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip the following year, and waged three offensives on the coastal enclave, the chances for an agreement waned.

Erekat described it as the “new dark age” saying leaving the Middle East's most emotive conflict unresolved was simply fueling a regional descent into chaos and violence.

He turned his attention to the United Nations and was instrumental in the successful campaign to gain observer status for the State of Palestine within the UN. It was part of a strategy to force Israel to face trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) as an occupying force.

'Status quo apartheid'

Throughout, Erakat remained convinced the two-state solution based on the 1967 borders was still possible.

“To those who want to bury the two-state solution, [what is] the real alternative to a two-state solution, the real alternative to the State of Palestine living side by side with the State of Israel in peace and security on the 1967 lines as one democratic secular state where Jews, Muslims, Christians can live with equal voice, ”Erekat said in February 2017.

“Those who believe they can undermine the two-state solution and replace it with what I call one-state, two Systems, maintaining the status quo now, apartheid, I don't think in the 21st century they will get away with it. It's impossible. ”

In August, Erekat was among the most critical voices of the US-sponsored “normalisation deals”, which saw the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain establish full ties with Israel. He described the deal as “the birth of Arab Zionism”, accused the US, the UAE and Israeli leaders of “killing the two-state solution” and called the agreement “a poisoned dagger stabbed into the Palestinians' back.”

Erekat fought for a deal between Israelis and Palestinians for decades, but in his last few years was fighting his own battle - lung disease kept at bay by an experimental drug. Eventually, he would need a transplant of both lungs, a dangerous condition for patients with coronavirus, to which he eventually succumbed.

In 2007 he said he would hate to be a grandfather living under Israeli occupation. He was not able to change that.

. #world Read full article: https://expatimes.com/?p=13707&feed_id=15745

[bigyack-com]

A Look at Davos Through the Years

1971

The first meeting of the World Economic Forum, then called the European Management Symposium, convened in Davos, Switzerland, organized by Klaus Schwab, in collaboration with Hilde Stoll. (They married shortly afterward.)

1973

Aureilo Peccei, an Italian industrialist, delivered a speech calling for balancing economic goals with environmental concerns.

1974

Political leaders were invited for the first time, and the European Energy Commissioner asked the United States to cut fuel consumption by 5 to 10 percent.

1976

In an effort to engage with society at large, the conference began inviting a wider slate of speakers, including Ralph Nader, the consumer rights advocate.

1980

Henry A. Kissinger, a former secretary of state, warned that the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan posed a fundamental challenge to the United States.The Economist wrote: “Europe’s industrialists are never happier than arguing with such folk what is wrong and what is right with free enterprise. After all, any economic system that gives you a tax-deductible week in Davos at the height of the ski season must have something to recommend it, mustn’t it?”

1981

In a harbinger of the Iran-contra affair, the Austrian chancellor warned that the United States’ support of dictatorships in Latin America could harm its relations with European powers.Lt. Col. Oliver North before a hearing on the Iran-contra affair in the House Foreign Affairs Committee in 1986.Credit...Chris Wilkins/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

1982

A Saudi prince, Saud ibn Faisal, said the United States and Europe should address the wrongs done to the Arab world, including brokering the establishment of a Palestinian homeland.

1984

China announced a $1 billion plan to import Western technology. The New York Times reported, “Diplomats at the meeting here said China’s growing demands for modern Western technology raised strategic problems for the Western countries.”

1985

“The key word you hear at the Davos sessions is disintervention,” The Financial Post reported. “What that means is downsizing government, selling off public-sector companies, reducing government regulations, lowering tax burdens, and encouraging success rather than subsidizing failure.”

1986

The Greek prime minister, Andreas Papandreou, and Prime Minister Turgut Ozal of Turkey averted war with a face-to-face meeting.

1987

Hans-Dietrich Genscher, the foreign minister of West Germany, urged the West to be receptive to the perestroika and glasnost initiatives begun by Mikhail S. Gorbachev in the Soviet Union.

1988

Asher Edelman, the managing general partner of Plaza Securities Co., gave a blistering speech, decrying business leaders “who are not only unethical but immoral,” and was met with loud booing.

1989

Carlo Rubbia, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1984, said the consumption of fossil fuels was a significant threat to life on earth and urged investing in nuclear fusion reactors to counteract the greenhouse effect.

1990

The East German prime minister, Hans Modrow, and Chancellor Helmut Kohl of West Germany met just two months after the fall of the Berlin Wall.The Guardian reported: “A spiritual breakfast with Mother Teresa, a contact lunch with Ted Heath, dinner with the Prince of Darkness, Richard Perle, and a fiesta mexicana paid for by one of the most indebted countries, were among the delights available here yesterday as some of the most important people in the world (some might say self-important) assembled for an annual bout of networking.”

1992

Nelson Mandela, the head of the African National Congress, and South Africa’s president, F.W. de Klerk, shook hands, in their first meeting outside their country.

1994

Shimon Peres, the Israeli foreign minister, and Yasir Arafat, the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, reached a tentative agreement on settlements in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.

1995

Russia assured world leaders that it was committed to a market economy after the fall of the Soviet Union. “The course of reform won’t turn back,” said the first deputy prime minister Anatoly Chubais.

1996

Bill Gates addressed Microsoft’s competitive landscape, saying: “There’s still a chance for Apple. It’s tough, though. It will take a great leader to stop the downward spiral.”

1997

The Swiss president, Arnold Koller, expressed regret for his country’s role in the Holocaust to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. “We’re serious when we say we want the full truth also about the troubling time of our history,” Mr. Koller said.

1998

The gathering that later became known as the Group of 20 was assembled for the first time at Davos.

2000

In the wake of protests in Seattle the previous fall, Mike Moore, director general of the World Trade Organization, said as he went to Davos, “For the first few months of this year, the W.T.O. will adopt the posture of the swan serene on top of the water and paddling furiously under the water.”

2002

In a show of solidarity after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the World Economic Forum was held in New York, at the Waldorf Astoria, the first time outside Davos.

2003

As the United States laid the groundwork for war in Iraq, world leaders were harshly critical at Davos, saying the case for war had not been fully made.” I think the evidence is there, and I think the evidence is clear,” Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said.

2004

The economist Samuel Huntington coined the term “Davos Man.”

2005

Bono, Angelina Jolie and Sharon Stone were among the celebrity attendees.During a panel discussion on the relative success of the Iraq war, Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism analyst leading the Washington office of the RAND Corporation, said: “In terms of perception, we’ve already lost the war. I believe that a cult of the insurgent has emerged from Iraq.”The British prime minister, Tony Blair, voiced support for the Kyoto Protocol, which the United States had declined to sign on to. “There are differences that need to be reconciled,” he said. “And if they could be reconciled or at least moved forward, it would make a huge difference to the prospects of international unity, as well as to people’s lives and our future survival.”

2006

A report on avian flu published at Davos stated that the disease’s “impact on society might be as profound as that which followed the Black Death in Europe in 1348. That plague caused a fundamental transformation of socio-economic relations in Europe.”

2007

Nouriel Roubini, chairman of Roubini Global Economics, warned at a panel of the increased use of derivatives as financial instruments. “The amount of leverage in the system is growing at rates that are scary,” he said. “We don’t know if derivatives are diffusing risk or concentrating it. The risk of something systemic happening is rising.”Thomas Russo, chief legal officer of Lehman Brothers, disagreed, saying, “Risk is spread out in the financial services industry now much greater than ever before.”

2008

George Soros said that systemic failure might already be upon us, and that the current state was “not a normal crisis but the end of an era.” Fred Bergsten, the director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, nevertheless said a global recession was “inconceivable.”

2009

After the global credit-market meltdown and the failure of several major banks in the United States, the mood at Davos was described in news reports as “subdued,” “shaken,” “resigned” and “a little humbled.”During a debate over fighting in Gaza with the Israeli president Shimon Peres, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister of Turkey, stormed off the stage and vowed never to return to Davos.

2010

The director James Cameron said in a speech: “I always used to turn down invitations to Davos, since I know plenty about making movies, but nothing about economics. This year, I changed my mind — after all, we’ve seen from the last year that it turns out no one here knew anything about economics either.”The Google chief executive, Eric Schmidt, said the company would stop censoring its search results in China. “We love what China is doing as a country and its growth,” he said. “We just don’t like the censorship. We hope to apply some negotiation or pressure to make things better for the Chinese people.”

2011

The Greek prime minister, George Papandreou, said inequality could lead to long-term social unrest. “Politically, I believe we are at a turning point,” he said. “There are signs in Europe of more nationalism, more racism, anti-Muslim, anti-Semitism, fundamentalisms of all types.”

2012

In a speech, Klaus Schwab said that capitalists “have sinned” and that “people feel it’s a difficult time. They are irritated.”Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, was the event’s only female co-chair.

2013

The World Economic Forum offered a free extra spot to any company bringing a female delegate, but as one veteran female attendee told The Observer, “Lots of firms just don’t have a woman senior enough to send.”Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said that pay for executives and bankers must be cut to avoid another crash. “Excessive inequality is corrosive to growth; it is corrosive to society,” she said. “I believe that the economics profession and the policy community have downplayed inequality for too long.”

2014

Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, promised not to evacuate the West Bank settlements.Delegates participated in a “Refugee Run,” meant to simulate the conditions of being a displaced person. Orders like “Get down on the ground, heads down!” “Get up, into the tent, go to sleep!” were yelled at them.

2015

More than 100 attendees observed 10 minutes of silence in a conference room, as part of a presentation on mindfulness. “Even Goldman Sachs is doing it,” Bill George, a member of that company’s board, said of meditation. He added, “Here we are in this beautiful country, and has anyone bothered to look up at the mountains?”

2016

Leonardo DiCaprio accepted the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award for his environmentalism, saying in his acceptance speech: “We simply cannot afford to allow the corporate greed of the coal, oil and gas industries to determine the future of humanity. Those entities with a financial interest in preserving this destructive system have denied, and even covered up, the evidence of our changing climate.”Leonardo DiCaprio at Davos in 2016.Credit...Remy Steinegger/World Economic Forum

2017

The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, said “no country would emerge the winner from a trade war.”

2018

President Trump delivered a speech, declaring the United States “open for business.” He said: “The world is witnessing the resurgence of a strong and prosperous America. I’m here to deliver a simple message. There has never been a better time to hire, to build, to invest and to grow in the United States.”

2019

Greta Thunberg, the teenage Swedish environmental activist, delivered a speech beginning: “Our house is on fire. I am here to say, our house is on fire.” She added: “At places like Davos, people like to tell success stories. But their financial success has come with an unthinkable price tag. And on climate change, we have to acknowledge we have failed.” Read the full article

[fionaharnett]

Throughout history, the sea was considered the primary outlet for the Gaza Strip. This small coastal enclave has acquired many habits from the sea and developed itself through this maritime resource. Today, even with Israel’s acts of aggression and occupation, the sea is still considered vital for Gazan life. The fishing trade has always been an important aspect of the economy in Gaza. However, there was a dramatic decrease in production due Israeli-imposed restrictions because of the siege. According to United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), the number of fishermen has declined from about 10,000 in the year 2000, to only 3,500 in 2013—about 95% of whom receive international aid. Israel unilaterally enforces a three-nautical-mile fishing limit, preventing Palestinians from access to 85% of the maritime areas they are entitled to according to the 1994 Gaza Jericho Agreement. Fishermen are routinely shot at, arrested and have their boats confiscated when they approach that limit. Besides fishing, the sea provides other jobs, such as making hooks and nets, building boats, and making ice for fish that has been caught to keep it fresh. During summer, the city is empty because of the unbearable heat, unlike the shore which becomes a vital area for people in their daily life. It even becomes very hard to walk around on the beaches because of the crowds. Here in Gaza, the sea brings all people together. If you visit the beach of Gaza City any day in the summer, you will find all kinds of people there swimming, relaxing, making barbecue, kids riding bicycles, motorbikes racing on the street near the beach, people selling snacks and other businesses. In winter, fishermen launch their boats and face the cold weather in addition to the Israeli warships. Despite the cold, many people still visit the shore, watching the strong waves colliding with the rocky shore. I was born and raised in Gaza. For me the sea is so important because this the only place where I can feel free and just have fun. As every other person living here, I cannot get enough of it. Generations have passed on their love of the coast which has shaped the nautical character of the city and its people—especially when it comes to traditions and food. Gaza has many delicious and spicy seafood dishes that represent the taste of this city, such as: zibdiya (shrimps bowl), syadiya, sardine kofta, grilled and smoked fish, and spicy grilled crabs. Gaza’s land borders, which include many green and open areas, are enforced by the Israeli military as “no-go” zones and remain very dangerous and inaccessible for Palestinians. As the Gaza Strip has few open areas where people can relax, Palestinians are constantly looking for a place where they can feel independent and happy. The shore is this special place. So imagine this city without a sea! Photos & Text: Basel Yazouri Editing: Keren Manor, Mareike Lauken Text Editing: Ryan Rodrick Beiler

[the-plough-and-the-stars]

PFLP: October 17 remains a heroic example of resistance

PFLP: October 17 remains a heroic example of resistance

SOURCE: PFLP The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, issued a statement on the 16th anniversary of the October 17 operation, emphasizing that those forces that attack the resistance and defend the enemy are on a criminal path, because the path to achieving the Palestinian dream and promise of liberation is that of resistance and…

[micaramel]

Artist: Sharif Waked

Venue: CCA Tel Aviv

Exhibition Title: Sharif Waked: Balagan

Date: February 18 – June 20, 2020

Curated By: Nicola Trezzi

Click here to view slideshow

  



Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump.

Images:

Videos:



Sharif Waked, Just A Moment No. 4 (Away From You), 2011. Video, 00:01 min (loop), 16:9 (widescreen), black and white, silent, 28:36

  

Sharif Waked, Just A Moment No. 21 (Shit), 2018. Video, 00:06 min (loop), 16:9 (widescreen), color, silent, 08:31

  

Sharif Waked, Bath Time, 2012. Video, 02:12 min, 16:9, color, sound

  

Sharif Waked, Just A Moment No. 19 (Nimrod), 2018. Video, 00:30 min (loop), 16:9 (widescreen), color, sound, 05:38

  

Sharif Waked, Just A Moment No. 17 (Smiley), 2016. Video, 02:16 min (loop), 16:9, color, silent

  

Sharif Waked, MoM – Museum of Mosul, 2017. Video, 03:30 min, 16:9 (widescreen)

  

Sharif Waked, Just A Moment No. 5 (Jericho First), 2012. Two-synchronized-channel video, 00:01 min (loop), 16:9 (widescreen), color, silent

  

Sharif Waked, Just A Moment No. 5 (Jericho First), 2012. Two-synchronized-channel video, 00:01 min (loop), 16:9 (widescreen), color, silent

  

Sharif Waked, Contribute A Better Translation No. 1, 2011. Video, 04:50 min (loop), 16:9 (widescreen), color, sound

  

Sharif Waked, Just A Moment No. 15 (Pa-Pa- Pa), 2016. Video, 02:16 min (loop), 16:9, color, sound

  

Sharif Waked, Beace Brocess No. 5, 2012. Video, 01:28 min (loop), 16:9 (widescreen), color, sound, in artist frame, 37.5 × 47 cm

Images courtesy of CCA, Tel Aviv

Press Release:

Through sustained reflection on aesthetics and politics, Sharif Waked (*1964, Nazareth; lives and works in Nazareth and Santa Barbara, California) has consistently pierced the absurdities of reality with playful and estranged encounters between various temporalities, cultural-historical products, and political events. On the occasion of his solo exhibition at CCA – Center for Contemporary Art Tel Aviv, the artist adopted the word Balagan, as its title. This word, which means chaos, disarray and confusion, originally comes from the Persian word “balchan” and it traveled across borders to other languages such as Russian, Yiddish, Lithuanian and Hebrew. Following the artist’s unique modus operandi – which is rooted in the conception of single artworks, often based on appropriated images, which are then “incarnated” (and numerated) several times through different media, formats and techniques – the exhibition includes both existing and recent pieces, linking different bodies of Waked’s work over time.

Just A Moment No. 4 (Away From You) (2011), appropriates footage featuring the Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum, while she sings her iconic song Away From You, focusing on the stamping of her left foot just underneath the dress scraping her heal. While in Bath Time (2012) the artist restaged what would be the end of the day for the “zebra” – in fact a donkey disguised as a zebra – of the Zoo in Gaza, in Just A Moment No. 21 (Shit) (2018), outtakes of the aforementioned work shows its star performing the mainstays of everyday life: eating and shitting.

In Just A Moment No. 19 (Nimrod) (2018) Yitzhak Danziger’s iconic sculpture Nimrod meets the mosquito that in the Islamic narrative entered Nimrod’s ear and made their way into his brain to drive him mad, while in Just A Moment No. 17 (Smiley) (2016) an army of contemporary emojis struggle to save their smiling ancestor from destruction. Who are you? (2014) are twelve abstract figures based on Muammar Gaddafi’s outfits, titled after a fragment of the last speech of the late Libyan leader, in which he promised to hunt his opposition down to the last alley; in Tugra No. 5 (2013), the artist infiltrates Israeli soldiers’ most common directive in Hebrew-inflected Arabic – “rukh min hun!” [Get out of here!] – inside the sixteenth century calligraphic monogram (tughra) of Suleiman the Magnificent.

Crop Marks (2016) sees the artist’s self-portrait in an orange suit subjected to the print-house’s “guillotine,” cut at his neck and along the crop marks of printing and design conventions, whereas in MoM – Museum of Mosul (2017) the footage of ISIS’s destructive actions is reproduced as a promotional film for a now-rebranded museum. While in Contribute A Better Translation No. 1 (2011) an archive of slogans of the Palestinian struggle undergo mechanized translation against a backdrop of visual iconography, in Contribute A Better Translation No. 2 (2011) the Palestinian Declaration of Independence, written by Mahmoud Darwish, is transformed into Yiddish via Google Translate.

Just A Moment No. 15 (Pa-Pa-Pa) (2016) is based on the claim of Israeli criminologist and politician Anat Berko, who said there is no Palestine because there is no P in Arabic, and in Beace Brocess No. 5 (2012) a clip from the Camp David II 2000 peace talks is refracted into the era of silent film. In Just A Moment No. 5 (Jericho First) (2012), the Oslo Agreements of the 1990s meet a detail of a mosaic from the eighth century Umayyads Caliphate. Search (2016), exposes the questions haunting Google Israel, whereas in Jamal Al Mahamel (2016) the barefoot carrier lifting the weight of Jerusalem on his back depicted in Suleiman Mansour’s eponymous work is absent and the city gives to gold dots.

Balagan is also the title of a work on display in the exhibition. It is part of the series Arabesque (2016-ongoing) and in it along with the series dot.txt (2016-ongoing) – Waked disassembles the building blocks of images to reconstruct what appear as geometric abstract surfaces. In these series, Waked questions the division between the visual and the verbal, perception and deception, the visual traditions of the past and the digital manipulations of the present, to deliver in a rather formalistic fashion the questioning, breaking, and remaking of meaning. Following these premises, the exhibition offers a bird’s eye view of Waked’s art, surveying his work as a comprehensive whole.

“Sharif Waked: Balagan” is curated by Nicola Trezzi and it is accompanied by a printed matter in Hebrew, Arabic and English. The exhibition is supported by Mifal HaPais Council for the Culture and Arts. Hospitality kindly provided by OUTSET.

Link: Sharif Waked at CCA Tel Aviv

  from Contemporary Art Daily https://bit.ly/3cPmGNL

[mastcomm]

A Look at Davos Through the Years

1971

The first meeting of the World Economic Forum, then called the European Management Symposium, convened in Davos, Switzerland, organized by Klaus Schwab, in collaboration with Hilde Stoll. (They married shortly afterward.)

1973

Aureilo Peccei, an Italian industrialist, delivered a speech calling for balancing economic goals with environmental concerns.

1974

Political leaders were invited for the first time, and the European Energy Commissioner asked the United States to cut fuel consumption by 5 to 10 percent.

1976

In an effort to engage with society at large, the conference began inviting a wider slate of speakers, including Ralph Nader, the consumer rights advocate.

1980

Henry A. Kissinger, a former secretary of state, warned that the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan posed a fundamental challenge to the United States.

The Economist wrote: “Europe’s industrialists are never happier than arguing with such folk what is wrong and what is right with free enterprise. After all, any economic system that gives you a tax-deductible week in Davos at the height of the ski season must have something to recommend it, mustn’t it?”

1981

In a harbinger of the Iran-contra affair, the Austrian chancellor warned that the United States’ support of dictatorships in Latin America could harm its relations with European powers.

Lt. Col. Oliver North before a hearing on the Iran-contra affair in the House Foreign Affairs Committee in 1986.Credit…Chris Wilkins/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

1982

A Saudi prince, Saud ibn Faisal, said the United States and Europe should address the wrongs done to the Arab world, including brokering the establishment of a Palestinian homeland.

1984

China announced a $1 billion plan to import Western technology. The New York Times reported, “Diplomats at the meeting here said China’s growing demands for modern Western technology raised strategic problems for the Western countries.”

1985

“The key word you hear at the Davos sessions is disintervention,” The Financial Post reported. “What that means is downsizing government, selling off public-sector companies, reducing government regulations, lowering tax burdens, and encouraging success rather than subsidizing failure.”

1986

The Greek prime minister, Andreas Papandreou, and Prime Minister Turgut Ozal of Turkey averted war with a face-to-face meeting.

1987

Hans-Dietrich Genscher, the foreign minister of West Germany, urged the West to be receptive to the perestroika and glasnost initiatives begun by Mikhail S. Gorbachev in the Soviet Union.

1988

Asher Edelman, the managing general partner of Plaza Securities Co., gave a blistering speech, decrying business leaders “who are not only unethical but immoral,” and was met with loud booing.

1989

Carlo Rubbia, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1984, said the consumption of fossil fuels was a significant threat to life on earth and urged investing in nuclear fusion reactors to counteract the greenhouse effect.

1990

The East German prime minister, Hans Modrow, and Chancellor Helmut Kohl of West Germany met just two months after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The Guardian reported: “A spiritual breakfast with Mother Teresa, a contact lunch with Ted Heath, dinner with the Prince of Darkness, Richard Perle, and a fiesta mexicana paid for by one of the most indebted countries, were among the delights available here yesterday as some of the most important people in the world (some might say self-important) assembled for an annual bout of networking.”

1992

Nelson Mandela, the head of the African National Congress, and South Africa’s president, F.W. de Klerk, shook hands, in their first meeting outside their country.

1994

Shimon Peres, the Israeli foreign minister, and Yasir Arafat, the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, reached a tentative agreement on settlements in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.

1995

Russia assured world leaders that it was committed to a market economy after the fall of the Soviet Union. “The course of reform won’t turn back,” said the first deputy prime minister Anatoly Chubais.

1996

Bill Gates addressed Microsoft’s competitive landscape, saying: “There’s still a chance for Apple. It’s tough, though. It will take a great leader to stop the downward spiral.”

1997

The Swiss president, Arnold Koller, expressed regret for his country’s role in the Holocaust to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. “We’re serious when we say we want the full truth also about the troubling time of our history,” Mr. Koller said.

1998

The gathering that later became known as the Group of 20 was assembled for the first time at Davos.

2000

In the wake of protests in Seattle the previous fall, Mike Moore, director general of the World Trade Organization, said as he went to Davos, “For the first few months of this year, the W.T.O. will adopt the posture of the swan serene on top of the water and paddling furiously under the water.”

2002

In a show of solidarity after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the World Economic Forum was held in New York, at the Waldorf Astoria, the first time outside Davos.

2003

As the United States laid the groundwork for war in Iraq, world leaders were harshly critical at Davos, saying the case for war had not been fully made.” I think the evidence is there, and I think the evidence is clear,” Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said.

2004

The economist Samuel Huntington coined the term “Davos Man.”

2005

Bono, Angelina Jolie and Sharon Stone were among the celebrity attendees.

During a panel discussion on the relative success of the Iraq war, Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism analyst leading the Washington office of the RAND Corporation, said: “In terms of perception, we’ve already lost the war. I believe that a cult of the insurgent has emerged from Iraq.”

The British prime minister, Tony Blair, voiced support for the Kyoto Protocol, which the United States had declined to sign on to. “There are differences that need to be reconciled,” he said. “And if they could be reconciled or at least moved forward, it would make a huge difference to the prospects of international unity, as well as to people’s lives and our future survival.”

2006

A report on avian flu published at Davos stated that the disease’s “impact on society might be as profound as that which followed the Black Death in Europe in 1348. That plague caused a fundamental transformation of socio-economic relations in Europe.”

2007

Nouriel Roubini, chairman of Roubini Global Economics, warned at a panel of the increased use of derivatives as financial instruments. “The amount of leverage in the system is growing at rates that are scary,” he said. “We don’t know if derivatives are diffusing risk or concentrating it. The risk of something systemic happening is rising.”

Thomas Russo, chief legal officer of Lehman Brothers, disagreed, saying, “Risk is spread out in the financial services industry now much greater than ever before.”

2008

George Soros said that systemic failure might already be upon us, and that the current state was “not a normal crisis but the end of an era.” Fred Bergsten, the director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, nevertheless said a global recession was “inconceivable.”

2009

After the global credit-market meltdown and the failure of several major banks in the United States, the mood at Davos was described in news reports as “subdued,” “shaken,” “resigned” and “a little humbled.”

During a debate over fighting in Gaza with the Israeli president Shimon Peres, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister of Turkey, stormed off the stage and vowed never to return to Davos.

2010

The director James Cameron said in a speech: “I always used to turn down invitations to Davos, since I know plenty about making movies, but nothing about economics. This year, I changed my mind — after all, we’ve seen from the last year that it turns out no one here knew anything about economics either.”

The Google chief executive, Eric Schmidt, said the company would stop censoring its search results in China. “We love what China is doing as a country and its growth,” he said. “We just don’t like the censorship. We hope to apply some negotiation or pressure to make things better for the Chinese people.”

2011

The Greek prime minister, George Papandreou, said inequality could lead to long-term social unrest. “Politically, I believe we are at a turning point,” he said. “There are signs in Europe of more nationalism, more racism, anti-Muslim, anti-Semitism, fundamentalisms of all types.”

2012

In a speech, Klaus Schwab said that capitalists “have sinned” and that “people feel it’s a difficult time. They are irritated.”

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, was the event’s only female co-chair.

2013

The World Economic Forum offered a free extra spot to any company bringing a female delegate, but as one veteran female attendee told The Observer, “Lots of firms just don’t have a woman senior enough to send.”

Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said that pay for executives and bankers must be cut to avoid another crash. “Excessive inequality is corrosive to growth; it is corrosive to society,” she said. “I believe that the economics profession and the policy community have downplayed inequality for too long.”

2014

Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, promised not to evacuate the West Bank settlements.

Delegates participated in a “Refugee Run,” meant to simulate the conditions of being a displaced person. Orders like “Get down on the ground, heads down!” “Get up, into the tent, go to sleep!” were yelled at them.

2015

More than 100 attendees observed 10 minutes of silence in a conference room, as part of a presentation on mindfulness. “Even Goldman Sachs is doing it,” Bill George, a member of that company’s board, said of meditation. He added, “Here we are in this beautiful country, and has anyone bothered to look up at the mountains?”

2016

Leonardo DiCaprio accepted the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award for his environmentalism, saying in his acceptance speech: “We simply cannot afford to allow the corporate greed of the coal, oil and gas industries to determine the future of humanity. Those entities with a financial interest in preserving this destructive system have denied, and even covered up, the evidence of our changing climate.”

Leonardo DiCaprio at Davos in 2016.Credit…Remy Steinegger/World Economic Forum

2017

The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, said “no country would emerge the winner from a trade war.”

2018

President Trump delivered a speech, declaring the United States “open for business.” He said: “The world is witnessing the resurgence of a strong and prosperous America. I’m here to deliver a simple message. There has never been a better time to hire, to build, to invest and to grow in the United States.”

2019

Greta Thunberg, the teenage Swedish environmental activist, delivered a speech beginning: “Our house is on fire. I am here to say, our house is on fire.” She added: “At places like Davos, people like to tell success stories. But their financial success has come with an unthinkable price tag. And on climate change, we have to acknowledge we have failed.”

from WordPress https://mastcomm.com/business/a-look-at-davos-through-the-years/

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 5.4

1256 – The Augustinian monastic order is constituted at the Lecceto Monastery when Pope Alexander IV issues a papal bull Licet ecclesiae catholicae. 1415 – Religious reformers John Wycliffe and Jan Hus are condemned as heretics at the Council of Constance. 1436 – Assassination of the Swedish rebel (later national hero) Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson 1471 – Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Tewkesbury: Edward IV defeats a Lancastrian Army and kills Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales. 1493 – Pope Alexander VI divides the New World between Spain and Portugal along the Line of Demarcation. 1626 – Dutch explorer Peter Minuit arrives in New Netherland (present day Manhattan Island) aboard the See Meeuw. 1686 – The Municipality of Ilagan is founded in the Philippines. 1776 – Rhode Island becomes the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III. 1799 – Fourth Anglo-Mysore War: The Battle of Seringapatam: The siege of Seringapatam ends when the city is invaded and Tipu Sultan killed by the besieging British army, under the command of General George Harris. 1814 – Emperor Napoleon arrives at Portoferraio on the island of Elba to begin his exile. 1814 – King Ferdinand VII abolishes the Spanish Constitution of 1812, returning Spain to absolutism. 1836 – Formation of Ancient Order of Hibernians 1859 – The Cornwall Railway opens across the Royal Albert Bridge linking Devon and Cornwall in England. 1869 – The Naval Battle of Hakodate is fought in Japan. 1871 – The National Association, the first professional baseball league, opens its first season in Fort Wayne, Indiana. 1886 – Haymarket affair: A bomb is thrown at policemen trying to break up a labor rally in Chicago, United States, killing eight and wounding 60. The police fire into the crowd. 1904 – The United States begins construction of the Panama Canal. 1910 – The Royal Canadian Navy is created. 1912 – Italy occupies the Greek island of Rhodes. 1919 – May Fourth Movement: Student demonstrations take place in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, protesting the Treaty of Versailles, which transferred Chinese territory to Japan. 1926 – The United Kingdom general strike begins. 1927 – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is incorporated. 1932 – In Atlanta, mobster Al Capone begins serving an eleven-year prison sentence for tax evasion. 1942 – World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea begins with an attack by aircraft from the United States aircraft carrier USS Yorktown on Japanese naval forces at Tulagi Island in the Solomon Islands. The Japanese forces had invaded Tulagi the day before. 1945 – World War II: Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg is liberated by the British Army. 1945 – World War II: The German surrender at Lüneburg Heath is signed, coming into effect the following day. It encompasses all Wehrmacht units in the Netherlands, Denmark and northwest Germany. 1946 – In San Francisco Bay, U.S. Marines from the nearby Treasure Island Naval Base stop a two-day riot at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. Five people are killed in the riot. 1949 – The entire Torino football team (except for two players who did not take the trip: Sauro Tomà, due to an injury and Renato Gandolfi, because of coach request) is killed in a plane crash. 1953 – Ernest Hemingway wins the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea. 1959 – The 1st Annual Grammy Awards are held. 1961 – American civil rights movement: The "Freedom Riders" begin a bus trip through the South. 1961 – Malcolm Ross and Victor Prather attain a new altitude record for manned balloon flight ascending in the Strato-Lab V open gondola to 113,740 feet (34.67 km). 1970 – Vietnam War: Kent State shootings: The Ohio National Guard, sent to Kent State University after disturbances in the city of Kent the weekend before, opens fire killing four unarmed students and wounding nine others. The students were protesting the Cambodian Campaign of the United States and South Vietnam. 1972 – The Don't Make A Wave Committee, a fledgling environmental organization founded in Canada in 1971, officially changes its name to "Greenpeace Foundation". 1973 – The 108-story Sears Tower in Chicago is topped out at 1,451 feet as the world's tallest building. 1978 – The South African Defence Force attacks a SWAPO base at Cassinga in southern Angola, killing about 600 people. 1979 – Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. 1982 – Twenty sailors are killed when the British Type 42 destroyer HMS Sheffield is hit by an Argentinian Exocet missile during the Falklands War. 1988 – The PEPCON disaster rocks Henderson, Nevada, as tons of Space Shuttle fuel detonate during a fire. 1989 – Iran–Contra affair: Former White House aide Oliver North is convicted of three crimes and acquitted of nine other charges; the convictions are later overturned on appeal. 1990 – Latvia declares independence from the Soviet Union. 1994 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat sign a peace accord, granting self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho. 1998 – A federal judge in Sacramento, California, gives "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski four life sentences plus 30 years after Kaczynski accepts a plea agreement sparing him from the death penalty. 2000 – Ken Livingstone becomes the first Mayor of London (an office separate from that of the Lord Mayor of London). 2007 – Greensburg, Kansas is almost completely destroyed by a 1.7-mile wide EF5 tornado. It was the first-ever tornado to be rated as such with the new Enhanced Fujita scale. 2014 – Three people are killed and 62 injured in a pair of bombings on buses in Nairobi, Kenya.

[oneguywithaniphone]

May 04, 1994: Rabin and Arafat sign accord for Palestinian self-rule

On May 4, 1994, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat reached agreement in Cairo on the first stage of Palestinian self-rule.

The agreement was made in accordance with the Oslo Accords, signed in Washington, D.C.on September 13, 1993. This was the first direct, face-to-face agreement between Israel and the Palestinians and it acknowledged Israel’s right to exist. It was also designed as a framework for future relations between the two parties.

The Gaza-Jericho agreement signed on this day in history addressed four main issues: security arrangements, civil affairs, legal matters and economic relations. It included an Israeli military withdrawal from about 60 percent of the Gaza Strip (Jewish settlements and their environs excluded) and the West Bank town of Jericho, land captured by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967. The Palestinians agreed to combat terror and prevent violence in the famous “land for peace” bargain. The document also included an agreement to a transfer of authority from the Israeli Civil Administration to the newly created Palestinian Authority, its jurisdiction and legislative powers, a Palestinian police force and relations betweenIsrael and the Palestinian Authority.

The Israeli Defense Forces withdrew from Jericho on May 13 and from most of the Gaza Strip on May 18-19, 1994. Palestinian Authority police and officials immediately took control. During the first few days there was a spate of attacks on Israeli troops and civilians in and near the Strip. Arafat himself arrived in Gaza to a tumultuous, chaotic welcome on July 1.

As time went on,timetables stipulated in the dealwere not met, Israel’s re-deployments were slowed and new agreements were negotiated. Israeli critics of the deal claimed “Land for Peace” was in reality “Land for Nothing.”

The momentum toward peaceful relations between Israel and the Palestinians was seriously jolted by the outbreak of the 2000 Palestinian uprising, known as “Second Intifada.” Further strain was put on the process after Hamas came into power in the 2006 Palestinian elections.

from History.com - This Day in History - Lead Story https://ift.tt/10xSMzO