31 jan 2020
NSO founder and CEO Shalev Hulio
The FBI was trying to learn whether NSO obtained from American hackers any of the code it needed to infect smartphones, conducting interview with technology experts after Facebook filed a lawsuit accusing NSO of exploiting a flaw in its WhatsApp messaging service to hack 1400 users; NSO said it is not aware of any inquiry
The FBI is investigating the role of Israeli spyware vendor NSO Group Technologies in possible hacks on American residents and companies as well as suspected intelligence gathering on governments, according to four people familiar with the inquiry.
The probe was underway by 2017 when the Federal Bureau of Investigation officials were trying to learn whether NSO obtained from American hackers any of the code it needed to infect smartphones, said one person interviewed by the FBI then and again last year.
NSO said it sells its spy software and technical support exclusively to governments and that those tools are to be used in pursuing suspected terrorists and other criminals. NSO has long maintained that its products cannot target U.S. phone numbers, though some cybersecurity experts have disputed that.
The FBI conducted more interviews with technology industry experts after Facebook filed a lawsuit in October accusing NSO itself of exploiting a flaw in Facebook’s WhatsApp messaging service to hack 1,400 users, according to two people who spoke with agents or Justice Department officials.
NSO said it was not aware of any inquiry.
“We have not been contacted by any U.S. law enforcement at all about any such matters,” NSO said in a statement provided by Mercury Public Affairs strategy firm.
NSO did not answer additional questions about its employee's conduct but previously said government customers are the ones who do the hacking.
A spokeswoman for the FBI said the agency “adheres to DOJ’s policy of neither confirming nor denying the existence of any investigation, so we wouldn’t be able to provide any further comment.”
Reuters could not determine which suspected hacking targets are the top concerns for investigators or what phase the probe is in. But the company is a focus, and a key issue is how involved it has been in specific hacks, the sources said.
Part of the FBI probe has been aimed at understanding NSO’s business operations and the technical assistance it offers customers, according to two sources familiar with the inquiry.
The FBI was trying to learn whether NSO obtained from American hackers any of the code it needed to infect smartphones, conducting interview with technology experts after Facebook filed a lawsuit accusing NSO of exploiting a flaw in its WhatsApp messaging service to hack 1400 users; NSO said it is not aware of any inquiry
The FBI is investigating the role of Israeli spyware vendor NSO Group Technologies in possible hacks on American residents and companies as well as suspected intelligence gathering on governments, according to four people familiar with the inquiry.
The probe was underway by 2017 when the Federal Bureau of Investigation officials were trying to learn whether NSO obtained from American hackers any of the code it needed to infect smartphones, said one person interviewed by the FBI then and again last year.
NSO said it sells its spy software and technical support exclusively to governments and that those tools are to be used in pursuing suspected terrorists and other criminals. NSO has long maintained that its products cannot target U.S. phone numbers, though some cybersecurity experts have disputed that.
The FBI conducted more interviews with technology industry experts after Facebook filed a lawsuit in October accusing NSO itself of exploiting a flaw in Facebook’s WhatsApp messaging service to hack 1,400 users, according to two people who spoke with agents or Justice Department officials.
NSO said it was not aware of any inquiry.
“We have not been contacted by any U.S. law enforcement at all about any such matters,” NSO said in a statement provided by Mercury Public Affairs strategy firm.
NSO did not answer additional questions about its employee's conduct but previously said government customers are the ones who do the hacking.
A spokeswoman for the FBI said the agency “adheres to DOJ’s policy of neither confirming nor denying the existence of any investigation, so we wouldn’t be able to provide any further comment.”
Reuters could not determine which suspected hacking targets are the top concerns for investigators or what phase the probe is in. But the company is a focus, and a key issue is how involved it has been in specific hacks, the sources said.
Part of the FBI probe has been aimed at understanding NSO’s business operations and the technical assistance it offers customers, according to two sources familiar with the inquiry.
By Nathan Thrall
On Tuesday, President Trump released his long-gestating plan for Middle East peace, the so-called “deal of the century.” It calls for a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza; for Jerusalem, including its Old City, to be the undivided capital of Israel; and for Israel to annex all settlements, as well as the Jordan Valley — which makes up nearly a fourth of the West Bank, including its eastern border with Jordan — creating a discontiguous Palestinian archipelago state, surrounded by a sea of Israeli territory.
Mr. Trump announced that the United States will recognize Israeli sovereignty over all the territory the plan assigns to Israel, and shortly after, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel pledged to annex all settlements and the Jordan Valley beginning on Sunday.
Members of the Israeli right and other opponents of a two-state solution celebrated the deal as the definitive end of the possibility of an independent Palestinian state. The Israeli left, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and other supporters of a two-state solution condemned the plan for the very same reasons, calling it the final nail in the coffin of the two-state solution.
So there was agreement among both supporters and detractors that the proposal marked a momentous break from decades of American and international policy. But is the plan truly the antithesis of the international community’s longstanding approach to the conflict? Or is it in fact that approach’s logical fulfillment?
For over a century, the West has supported Zionist aims in Palestine at the expense of the indigenous Palestinian population. In 1917, the British government promised to establish a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine, where Jews made up less than 8 percent of the population.
Thirty years later, the United Nations proposed a plan to partition Palestine: The Jews, who made up less than a third of the population and owned less than 7 percent of the land, were given the majority of the territory. During the ensuing war, Israel conquered more than half the territory allotted to the Arab state; four-fifths of the Palestinians who had lived in what became the new boundaries of Israel were prevented from returning to their homes. The international community did not force Israel to return the territory that it had seized, or to permit the return of refugees.
After the 1967 War, when Israel conquered the remaining 22 percent of Palestine, as well as the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt and the Golan Heights from Syria, Israel illegally established settlements in the territories it occupied and created a regime with separate laws for different groups — Israelis and Palestinians — living in the same territory. In 1980, Israel formally annexed East Jerusalem. As with Israel’s settlement activity, there was some international finger wagging and condemnation, but American financial and military backing for Israel only strengthened.
In 1993, the Oslo Accords granted limited autonomy to Palestinians in a scattering of disconnected islets. The accords did not demand the dismantling of Israeli settlements or even a halt to settlement growth. The first American plan for Palestinian statehood was presented by President Bill Clinton in 2000. It stated that large Israeli settlements would be annexed to Israel and that all Jewish settlements in occupied East Jerusalem would also be annexed. The Palestinian state would be demilitarized and contain Israeli military installations as well as international forces in the Jordan Valley that could be withdrawn only with Israel’s consent. As with the “deal of the century,” this plan, which formed the basis of all subsequent ones, gave the Palestinians increased autonomy and called it a state.
There are now more Palestinians than Jews living in the territory under Israel’s control, according to the Israeli military. Whether in Mr. Trump’s vision or Mr. Clinton’s, American plans have confined most of the majority ethnic group into less than a quarter of the territory, with restrictions on Palestinian sovereignty so far-reaching that the outcome should more appropriately be called a one-and-a-half-state solution.
Mr. Trump’s plan has many severe faults: It prioritizes Jewish interests over Palestinian ones. It rewards and even incentivizes settlements and further dispossession of the Palestinians. But none of these qualities represent a fundamental break from the past. The Trump plan merely puts the finishing touches on a house that American lawmakers, Republican and Democrat alike, spent dozens of years helping to build. During the last several decades, as Israel slowly took over the West Bank, putting more than 600,000 settlers in occupied territory, the United States provided Israel with diplomatic backing, vetoes in the United Nations Security Council, pressure on international courts and investigative bodies not to pursue Israel, and billions of dollars in annual aid.
Some of the Democrats now running for president have spoken of their disapproval of Israeli annexation, even as they propose nothing to stop it. Thus a mainstream Democrat like Senator Amy Klobuchar could declare her opposition to annexation and sign a letter criticizing the Trump plan for its “disregard [of] international law,” when she had also co-sponsored a Senate resolution “expressing grave objection” to a 2016 United Nations Security Council resolution [pdf] that demanded Israel halt illegal settlement activity. Other Democrats, such as Senator Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg, say they would be unwilling to provide American financial support for Israeli annexation.
But that is little more than a slick formulation that allows them to sound tough while threatening nothing, since American assistance to Israel would not, in any event, go directly toward the bureaucratic tasks involved, such as transferring the West Bank land registry from the military to the Israeli government.
Aside from vague references to using aid as a lever, no presidential candidate except Senator Bernie Sanders has put forth proposals that would begin to reduce American complicity in Israel’s violation of Palestinian rights.
Declarations of opposition to annexation ring hollow when they are not accompanied by plans to prevent or reverse it: banning settlement products; reducing financial assistance to Israel by the amount it spends in the occupied territories; divesting federal and state pension funds from companies operating in illegal settlements; and suspending military aid until Israel ends the collective punishment of two million people confined in Gaza and provides Palestinians in the West Bank the same civil rights given to Jews living beside them.
The Trump plan, much like the decades-long peace process that it crowns, gives Israel cover to perpetuate what is known as the status quo: Israel as the sole sovereign controlling the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, depriving millions of stateless people of basic civil rights [pdf] , restricting their movement, criminalizing speech that may harm “public order,” jailing them in indefinite “administrative detention” without trial or charge, and dispossessing them of their land — all while congressional leaders, the European Union and much of the rest of the world applaud and encourage this charade, solemnly expressing their commitment to the resumption of “meaningful negotiations.”
Israel’s defenders like to say that Israel is being singled out, and they are right. Israel is the only state perpetuating a permanent military occupation, with discriminatory laws for separate groups living in the same territory, that self-identified liberals around the world go out of their way to justify, defend and even fund. In the absence of advocating policies with actual teeth, the Democratic critics of the Trump plan are not much better than the president. They are, not in words but in deeds, supporters of annexation and subjugation, too.
Nathan Thrall (@nathanthrall) is the author of “The Only Language They Understand: Forcing Compromise in Israel and Palestine” and the director of the Arab-Israeli Project at the International Crisis Group.
On Tuesday, President Trump released his long-gestating plan for Middle East peace, the so-called “deal of the century.” It calls for a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza; for Jerusalem, including its Old City, to be the undivided capital of Israel; and for Israel to annex all settlements, as well as the Jordan Valley — which makes up nearly a fourth of the West Bank, including its eastern border with Jordan — creating a discontiguous Palestinian archipelago state, surrounded by a sea of Israeli territory.
Mr. Trump announced that the United States will recognize Israeli sovereignty over all the territory the plan assigns to Israel, and shortly after, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel pledged to annex all settlements and the Jordan Valley beginning on Sunday.
Members of the Israeli right and other opponents of a two-state solution celebrated the deal as the definitive end of the possibility of an independent Palestinian state. The Israeli left, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and other supporters of a two-state solution condemned the plan for the very same reasons, calling it the final nail in the coffin of the two-state solution.
So there was agreement among both supporters and detractors that the proposal marked a momentous break from decades of American and international policy. But is the plan truly the antithesis of the international community’s longstanding approach to the conflict? Or is it in fact that approach’s logical fulfillment?
For over a century, the West has supported Zionist aims in Palestine at the expense of the indigenous Palestinian population. In 1917, the British government promised to establish a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine, where Jews made up less than 8 percent of the population.
Thirty years later, the United Nations proposed a plan to partition Palestine: The Jews, who made up less than a third of the population and owned less than 7 percent of the land, were given the majority of the territory. During the ensuing war, Israel conquered more than half the territory allotted to the Arab state; four-fifths of the Palestinians who had lived in what became the new boundaries of Israel were prevented from returning to their homes. The international community did not force Israel to return the territory that it had seized, or to permit the return of refugees.
After the 1967 War, when Israel conquered the remaining 22 percent of Palestine, as well as the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt and the Golan Heights from Syria, Israel illegally established settlements in the territories it occupied and created a regime with separate laws for different groups — Israelis and Palestinians — living in the same territory. In 1980, Israel formally annexed East Jerusalem. As with Israel’s settlement activity, there was some international finger wagging and condemnation, but American financial and military backing for Israel only strengthened.
In 1993, the Oslo Accords granted limited autonomy to Palestinians in a scattering of disconnected islets. The accords did not demand the dismantling of Israeli settlements or even a halt to settlement growth. The first American plan for Palestinian statehood was presented by President Bill Clinton in 2000. It stated that large Israeli settlements would be annexed to Israel and that all Jewish settlements in occupied East Jerusalem would also be annexed. The Palestinian state would be demilitarized and contain Israeli military installations as well as international forces in the Jordan Valley that could be withdrawn only with Israel’s consent. As with the “deal of the century,” this plan, which formed the basis of all subsequent ones, gave the Palestinians increased autonomy and called it a state.
There are now more Palestinians than Jews living in the territory under Israel’s control, according to the Israeli military. Whether in Mr. Trump’s vision or Mr. Clinton’s, American plans have confined most of the majority ethnic group into less than a quarter of the territory, with restrictions on Palestinian sovereignty so far-reaching that the outcome should more appropriately be called a one-and-a-half-state solution.
Mr. Trump’s plan has many severe faults: It prioritizes Jewish interests over Palestinian ones. It rewards and even incentivizes settlements and further dispossession of the Palestinians. But none of these qualities represent a fundamental break from the past. The Trump plan merely puts the finishing touches on a house that American lawmakers, Republican and Democrat alike, spent dozens of years helping to build. During the last several decades, as Israel slowly took over the West Bank, putting more than 600,000 settlers in occupied territory, the United States provided Israel with diplomatic backing, vetoes in the United Nations Security Council, pressure on international courts and investigative bodies not to pursue Israel, and billions of dollars in annual aid.
Some of the Democrats now running for president have spoken of their disapproval of Israeli annexation, even as they propose nothing to stop it. Thus a mainstream Democrat like Senator Amy Klobuchar could declare her opposition to annexation and sign a letter criticizing the Trump plan for its “disregard [of] international law,” when she had also co-sponsored a Senate resolution “expressing grave objection” to a 2016 United Nations Security Council resolution [pdf] that demanded Israel halt illegal settlement activity. Other Democrats, such as Senator Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg, say they would be unwilling to provide American financial support for Israeli annexation.
But that is little more than a slick formulation that allows them to sound tough while threatening nothing, since American assistance to Israel would not, in any event, go directly toward the bureaucratic tasks involved, such as transferring the West Bank land registry from the military to the Israeli government.
Aside from vague references to using aid as a lever, no presidential candidate except Senator Bernie Sanders has put forth proposals that would begin to reduce American complicity in Israel’s violation of Palestinian rights.
Declarations of opposition to annexation ring hollow when they are not accompanied by plans to prevent or reverse it: banning settlement products; reducing financial assistance to Israel by the amount it spends in the occupied territories; divesting federal and state pension funds from companies operating in illegal settlements; and suspending military aid until Israel ends the collective punishment of two million people confined in Gaza and provides Palestinians in the West Bank the same civil rights given to Jews living beside them.
The Trump plan, much like the decades-long peace process that it crowns, gives Israel cover to perpetuate what is known as the status quo: Israel as the sole sovereign controlling the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, depriving millions of stateless people of basic civil rights [pdf] , restricting their movement, criminalizing speech that may harm “public order,” jailing them in indefinite “administrative detention” without trial or charge, and dispossessing them of their land — all while congressional leaders, the European Union and much of the rest of the world applaud and encourage this charade, solemnly expressing their commitment to the resumption of “meaningful negotiations.”
Israel’s defenders like to say that Israel is being singled out, and they are right. Israel is the only state perpetuating a permanent military occupation, with discriminatory laws for separate groups living in the same territory, that self-identified liberals around the world go out of their way to justify, defend and even fund. In the absence of advocating policies with actual teeth, the Democratic critics of the Trump plan are not much better than the president. They are, not in words but in deeds, supporters of annexation and subjugation, too.
Nathan Thrall (@nathanthrall) is the author of “The Only Language They Understand: Forcing Compromise in Israel and Palestine” and the director of the Arab-Israeli Project at the International Crisis Group.
A coalition of Malaysian organizations, led by Al-Quds Foundation Malaysia under the name "Save Al-Quds", on Friday held a press conference in Kuala Lumpur to voice their rejection of the US President Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan, known as the "Deal of the Century".
The coalition said that Trump's deal constitutes a blatant violation of the legitimate rights of the Palestinians, especially the right of sovereignty and return, and supports Israeli apartheid in the Palestinian territories.
Expressing solidarity with Palestinians, the coalition called for a concerted effort by the international community to stop the proposed deal from being materialized.
The group urged the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Arab League, the Non-Aligned Movement and other international forums to act against the deal which, they said, is aimed at completely dropping the rights of the Palestinian people.
They also called on the Malaysian government to push for the UN to convene an emergency meeting as soon as possible to condemn this deal.
For his part, chairman of Al-Quds Foundation Malaysia Sharif Abu Shammala said that the US so-called "peace plan" is clearly aimed at liquidating the Palestinian cause, adding that the Palestinians want an independent state "from the river to the sea".
Abu Shammala thanked the Malaysian organizations taking part in the event and the Malaysian people for their incessant support for the Palestinian people and their struggle against the occupation.
Related: President Abbas receives solidarity message from Turkish counterpart
President receives support call from Jordan’s King
ITUC slams US proposal on Palestine as affront to Palestinian rights, dignity
UN expert alarmed by ‘lopsided’ Trump plan, says will entrench occupation
The coalition said that Trump's deal constitutes a blatant violation of the legitimate rights of the Palestinians, especially the right of sovereignty and return, and supports Israeli apartheid in the Palestinian territories.
Expressing solidarity with Palestinians, the coalition called for a concerted effort by the international community to stop the proposed deal from being materialized.
The group urged the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Arab League, the Non-Aligned Movement and other international forums to act against the deal which, they said, is aimed at completely dropping the rights of the Palestinian people.
They also called on the Malaysian government to push for the UN to convene an emergency meeting as soon as possible to condemn this deal.
For his part, chairman of Al-Quds Foundation Malaysia Sharif Abu Shammala said that the US so-called "peace plan" is clearly aimed at liquidating the Palestinian cause, adding that the Palestinians want an independent state "from the river to the sea".
Abu Shammala thanked the Malaysian organizations taking part in the event and the Malaysian people for their incessant support for the Palestinian people and their struggle against the occupation.
Related: President Abbas receives solidarity message from Turkish counterpart
President receives support call from Jordan’s King
ITUC slams US proposal on Palestine as affront to Palestinian rights, dignity
UN expert alarmed by ‘lopsided’ Trump plan, says will entrench occupation
Adalah: Plan is no more than joint U.S.-Israel effort to impose Israeli government’s vision for territory in flagrant violation of international law, and Palestinian right to self-determination.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Deal of the Century” gives a green light to permanently establish an Israeli apartheid regime in the West Bank, including illegal annexation of massive swaths of the occupied Palestinian West Bank that negates the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.
Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel stresses that Trump’s deal – drawn up in close coordination with Israel’s administration – is no more than an attempt to bypass international legal barriers and to ignore Palestinians’ right to self-determination, as well as United Nations resolutions, and recent statements from the International Criminal Court.
Many aspects of the deal – announced on 28 January 2020 in a live televised press conference by Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – are of grave concern and resemble South Africa’s apartheid government in place between 1948-1994, including: the recognition of historic Palestine as the homeland of the Jewish people only; no recognition of the right of self-determination of the Palestinian people based on the UN charter; and the creation of “self-governing” Palestinian enclaves and bypass roads.
The Trump plan completely fails to recognize the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, violating the principles of the UN Charter. The plan does not envision statehood but a series of enclaves under Israel’s permanent military effective control. All basic pillars of self-determination – including control of border crossings, air space, the sea, territorial integrity and full sovereignty – are denied in order to create “self-governing” enclaves.
The plan envisions Israeli annexation of massive swaths of the occupied Palestinian West Bank; the forced transfer of Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel – a racially-motivated form of demographic engineering; and the negation of the right of return for Palestinian refugees.
Forced Transfer of Palestinian Arab Citizens of Israel
Trump’s plan proposes the forced transfer of over 260,000 Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel living in 10 towns in the Triangle region in the center of the country to a future enclave of Palestine. According to the plan, the residents of the earmarked communities would remain in their homes but Israel’s borders would simply be redrawn to leave them outside its borders:
“Land swaps provided by the State of Israel could include both populated and unpopulated areas. The Triangle Communities consist of Kafr Qara, Ar’ara, Baha al-Gharbiyye, Umm al Fahm, Qalansawe, Tayibe, Kafr Qasim, Tira, Kafr Bara and Jaljulia. These communities, which largely self-identify as Palestinian, were originally designated to fall under Jordanian control during the negotiations of the Armistice Line of 1949, but ultimately were retained by Israel for military reasons that have since been mitigated.
The Vision contemplates the possibility, subject to agreement of the parties that the borders of Israel will be redrawn such that the Triangle Communities become part of the State of Palestine. In this agreement, the civil rights of the residents of the triangle communities would be subject to the applicable laws and judicial rulings of the relevant authorities.” (Trump Plan, p. 13)
This marks the first time a U.S. administration has ever given a green light to the transfer of Israeli citizens to the authority of another state entity.
Adalah sees this move as a racially motivated attempt to forcibly transfer Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel, strip them of their Israeli citizenship, and place them under perpetual Israeli military occupation.
This kind of population transfer, which has been consistently rejected by Palestinian citizens of Israel when proposed by a variety of Israeli right-wing political leaders in the past, is blatantly illegal under international law and attempts to widen the demographic scope of racially-motivated separation.
Israel Annexes West Bank
The Trump administration’s plan grants Israel a stamp of approval to go forward with the annexation and continued colonization of massive areas of the occupied Palestinian West Bank and imposes full Israeli sovereignty over further Palestinian territories.
The UN and other international tribunals have consistently confirmed the status of the West Bank and Gaza as occupied territories and the illegality of Israel’s settlements in the occupied West Bank, including UN Security Council resolution 2334 (2016), the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice on the Wall (2004), and most recently, in late December 2019, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor announced that ongoing Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank constitute war crimes:
“There is a reasonable basis to believe that in the context of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, members of the Israeli authorities have committed war crimes under article 8(2)(b)(viii) in relation, inter alia, to the transfer of Israeli civilians into the West Bank…”
No Right of Return for Palestinian Refugees
The plan explicitly states that there shall be no right of return for any Palestinian refugee to the State of Israel, in blatant violation of UN Resolution 194.
The plan lays out three options for these refugees:
1. Absorption into the State of Palestine (subject to the limitations provided below);
2. Local integration in current host countries (subject to those countries consent);
3. The acceptance of 5,000 refugees each year, for up to ten years, in individual Organization of Islamic Cooperation member countries that agree to participate in Palestinian refugee resettlement.
The plan de facto establishes Israel as the sole full sovereign regime in Israel and in the 1967 Palestinian occupied territories – mandatory Palestine – effectively controlling Palestinian enclaves in that territory, and granting no political rights for most of the Palestinians living in self-governed bantustans in the West Bank and Gaza, and now, also in the Triangle region.
Read the full plan here [pdf].
U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Deal of the Century” gives a green light to permanently establish an Israeli apartheid regime in the West Bank, including illegal annexation of massive swaths of the occupied Palestinian West Bank that negates the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.
Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel stresses that Trump’s deal – drawn up in close coordination with Israel’s administration – is no more than an attempt to bypass international legal barriers and to ignore Palestinians’ right to self-determination, as well as United Nations resolutions, and recent statements from the International Criminal Court.
Many aspects of the deal – announced on 28 January 2020 in a live televised press conference by Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – are of grave concern and resemble South Africa’s apartheid government in place between 1948-1994, including: the recognition of historic Palestine as the homeland of the Jewish people only; no recognition of the right of self-determination of the Palestinian people based on the UN charter; and the creation of “self-governing” Palestinian enclaves and bypass roads.
The Trump plan completely fails to recognize the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, violating the principles of the UN Charter. The plan does not envision statehood but a series of enclaves under Israel’s permanent military effective control. All basic pillars of self-determination – including control of border crossings, air space, the sea, territorial integrity and full sovereignty – are denied in order to create “self-governing” enclaves.
The plan envisions Israeli annexation of massive swaths of the occupied Palestinian West Bank; the forced transfer of Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel – a racially-motivated form of demographic engineering; and the negation of the right of return for Palestinian refugees.
Forced Transfer of Palestinian Arab Citizens of Israel
Trump’s plan proposes the forced transfer of over 260,000 Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel living in 10 towns in the Triangle region in the center of the country to a future enclave of Palestine. According to the plan, the residents of the earmarked communities would remain in their homes but Israel’s borders would simply be redrawn to leave them outside its borders:
“Land swaps provided by the State of Israel could include both populated and unpopulated areas. The Triangle Communities consist of Kafr Qara, Ar’ara, Baha al-Gharbiyye, Umm al Fahm, Qalansawe, Tayibe, Kafr Qasim, Tira, Kafr Bara and Jaljulia. These communities, which largely self-identify as Palestinian, were originally designated to fall under Jordanian control during the negotiations of the Armistice Line of 1949, but ultimately were retained by Israel for military reasons that have since been mitigated.
The Vision contemplates the possibility, subject to agreement of the parties that the borders of Israel will be redrawn such that the Triangle Communities become part of the State of Palestine. In this agreement, the civil rights of the residents of the triangle communities would be subject to the applicable laws and judicial rulings of the relevant authorities.” (Trump Plan, p. 13)
This marks the first time a U.S. administration has ever given a green light to the transfer of Israeli citizens to the authority of another state entity.
Adalah sees this move as a racially motivated attempt to forcibly transfer Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel, strip them of their Israeli citizenship, and place them under perpetual Israeli military occupation.
This kind of population transfer, which has been consistently rejected by Palestinian citizens of Israel when proposed by a variety of Israeli right-wing political leaders in the past, is blatantly illegal under international law and attempts to widen the demographic scope of racially-motivated separation.
Israel Annexes West Bank
The Trump administration’s plan grants Israel a stamp of approval to go forward with the annexation and continued colonization of massive areas of the occupied Palestinian West Bank and imposes full Israeli sovereignty over further Palestinian territories.
The UN and other international tribunals have consistently confirmed the status of the West Bank and Gaza as occupied territories and the illegality of Israel’s settlements in the occupied West Bank, including UN Security Council resolution 2334 (2016), the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice on the Wall (2004), and most recently, in late December 2019, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor announced that ongoing Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank constitute war crimes:
“There is a reasonable basis to believe that in the context of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, members of the Israeli authorities have committed war crimes under article 8(2)(b)(viii) in relation, inter alia, to the transfer of Israeli civilians into the West Bank…”
No Right of Return for Palestinian Refugees
The plan explicitly states that there shall be no right of return for any Palestinian refugee to the State of Israel, in blatant violation of UN Resolution 194.
The plan lays out three options for these refugees:
1. Absorption into the State of Palestine (subject to the limitations provided below);
2. Local integration in current host countries (subject to those countries consent);
3. The acceptance of 5,000 refugees each year, for up to ten years, in individual Organization of Islamic Cooperation member countries that agree to participate in Palestinian refugee resettlement.
The plan de facto establishes Israel as the sole full sovereign regime in Israel and in the 1967 Palestinian occupied territories – mandatory Palestine – effectively controlling Palestinian enclaves in that territory, and granting no political rights for most of the Palestinians living in self-governed bantustans in the West Bank and Gaza, and now, also in the Triangle region.
Read the full plan here [pdf].
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has reportedly sent a note to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, warning that Palestine now feels free to stop security cooperation with the regime as part of the Oslo accords, which are “disavowed” by a contentious US-devised Middle East plan.
Israel’s Channel 12 TV reported, on Wednesday, that a Palestinian Authority delegation, led by Civil Affairs Minister Hussein al-Sheikh, had met with Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and handed him a handwritten letter, in Arabic, from Abbas to Netanyahu.
In his note, the report said, Abbas stressed that the plan US President Donald Trump unveiled on Tuesday, as a proposed solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, disregards the 1993 Oslo accords that divided the West Bank into areas under Israeli, Palestinian and joint controls.
“The plan is an American and Israeli disavowal of the Oslo accords, and so the Palestinian Authority now sees itself as free to disregard the agreements with Israel, including security cooperation,” the report quoted the letter as saying, according to the PNN.
The Palestinian president wanted to inform Israel of his position before he traveled to Cairo to attend an urgent meeting of the Arab League on Trump’s so-called “deal of the century,” according to the report.
Sheikh told Kahlon that Abbas had not only refused to take a call from Trump ahead of the release of his Mideast deal, he had also refused to accept a letter the US president had sent him.
Kahlon, for his part, told Sheikh that he would hand Netanyahu the letter when the Israeli premier returns from a trip to Russia, on Thursday.
The Israeli finance minister also asked Palestinians to temper their response until after Israel’s general elections, in March, claiming that everything could change after the vote.
Trump released his proposed deal during an event at the White House alongside Netanyahu, in Washington, on Tuesday.
Israel’s Channel 12 TV reported, on Wednesday, that a Palestinian Authority delegation, led by Civil Affairs Minister Hussein al-Sheikh, had met with Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and handed him a handwritten letter, in Arabic, from Abbas to Netanyahu.
In his note, the report said, Abbas stressed that the plan US President Donald Trump unveiled on Tuesday, as a proposed solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, disregards the 1993 Oslo accords that divided the West Bank into areas under Israeli, Palestinian and joint controls.
“The plan is an American and Israeli disavowal of the Oslo accords, and so the Palestinian Authority now sees itself as free to disregard the agreements with Israel, including security cooperation,” the report quoted the letter as saying, according to the PNN.
The Palestinian president wanted to inform Israel of his position before he traveled to Cairo to attend an urgent meeting of the Arab League on Trump’s so-called “deal of the century,” according to the report.
Sheikh told Kahlon that Abbas had not only refused to take a call from Trump ahead of the release of his Mideast deal, he had also refused to accept a letter the US president had sent him.
Kahlon, for his part, told Sheikh that he would hand Netanyahu the letter when the Israeli premier returns from a trip to Russia, on Thursday.
The Israeli finance minister also asked Palestinians to temper their response until after Israel’s general elections, in March, claiming that everything could change after the vote.
Trump released his proposed deal during an event at the White House alongside Netanyahu, in Washington, on Tuesday.
The American declaration on peace in the Middle East made on 28/1/020
“Peace, peace, they say when there is no peace” (Jeremiah: 6:14)
Kairos Palestine: The position announced by the U.S. administration regarding what they termed as the ‘deal of the century’ was, in fact, an insult to history, humanity, the Palestinian people, and the American dignity itself.
The American-Israeli proposal is premised on consolidating Israeli control over all of Palestine’s land, making sure that the Palestinian people are subjected to this control, in return for economic promises that are closer to a deal for buying the people and their spirit with money.
This proposal seeks to legitimize the Israeli occupation and revoke the history of the Palestinian people and their legitimate inalienable rights, particularly the right of return for the Palestinian refugees and the right to self-determination in an attempt to eliminate the Palestinian question completely and definitively.
Jerusalem, the core of the conflict, cannot be declared by any human authority as being solely the capital of Israel. It is the capital of God and humankind as a whole, it is the capital for its Palestinian population as well. There can be no solution if that solution did not clearly reiterate the Palestinian right to the city.
Through this declaration, the U.S. has proclaimed itself clearly as a party to the conflict rather than a peace broker, as it considered this deal, that has no reference to the international law or the UN resolutions, as the final offer to the Palestinians holding them fully responsible, should they reject it, for all the ensuing repercussions.
Israel and the U.S. are yet to listen to the voice of God commanding them, here in the Holy Land and in the world as a whole: do not steal, do not kill, in order to stop killing the Palestinian people and stealing away their lands.
Israel and the U.S. are yet to listen to God’s voice, to the voice of conscience, and realize the truth that cannot be subdued: the Palestinian people are alive, consistently demanding their rights over the past hundred years till this date. The Palestinian people will continue to demand their rights until they obtain them. The only path to peace is that of full equality between the two peoples.
Israel peace is preconditioned by Palestinian peace, in fact, Israeli mere survival is based on the just peace for Palestinians. Otherwise, Israel, despite all its power, will live in fear and anticipation of an unknown future. As we already stated in the Kairos document ‘Moment of Truth’, “our and their future are but one. Either a cycle of violence whereby we all perish, or peace whereby we all thrive.”
In his declaration on Tuesday 28/1/2020, President Trump did not offer anything towards this equality but rather consolidated further Israeli hegemony and Palestinians subjugation to it. This means that the conflict will continue, bloodshed will continue, hatred and inhumane treatment will persist.
The money offered to Palestinians is but a slap of insult to every Palestinian and to humanity as a whole, because it is reminiscent of the age of slavery when human beings were being traded, bought and sold for money. Jerusalem is not a good for sale, Palestinians are not for sale.
Peace-making requires Mr. Trump and Israel’s leadership to respect their own humanity, and respect the humanity of Palestinian people, dealing with them on the basis of shared humanity.
It is useless to accuse Palestinians of terrorism in an attempt to silence their own conscience and cover up for the terrorism that they are practicing against Palestinians and in dealing with them.
Finally, peace-making requires the respect of international legitimacy and the implementation of international resolutions taken in the context of this conflict.
It requires the international community to take a firm stance towards the implementation of its decisions as was and is the case with all the other peoples in the region.
The time has come for anyone with the cause of peace in his heart and the desire to ensure security and stability in the Middle East to open his eyes to the truth rather than be disillusioned by military of financial power and strength. Peace is made by people who want peace, who acknowledge that the other party is a human being with equal rights and dignity that was granted by God to all.
Today we ask churches and Christians across the globe to stand up in the face of injustice against the Palestinian people and demand their countries to reject categorically the so-called ‘deal of the century’, reiterating that neither peace nor justice can prevail unless justice is fulfilled, occupation is ended, and Palestinians are granted their full rights.
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About Kairos Palestine:
We are a Christian Palestinian movement, born out of the Kairos Document, which advocates for ending the Israeli occupation and achieving a just solution to the conflict.
The Kairos Document is the word of Christian Palestinians to the world about what is happening in Palestine.
“Our word is a cry of hope, with love, prayer and faith in God. We address it first of all to ourselves and then to all the churches and Christians in the world, asking them to stand against injustice and apartheid, urging them to work for a just peace.”
We proclaim our word based on our Christian faith and our sense of Palestinian belonging – a word of faith, hope, and love.
We declare that the military occupation of Palestinian land constitutes a sin against God and humanity. Any theology that legitimizes the occupation and justifies crimes perpetrated against the Palestinian people lies far from Christian teachings.
“Peace, peace, they say when there is no peace” (Jeremiah: 6:14)
Kairos Palestine: The position announced by the U.S. administration regarding what they termed as the ‘deal of the century’ was, in fact, an insult to history, humanity, the Palestinian people, and the American dignity itself.
The American-Israeli proposal is premised on consolidating Israeli control over all of Palestine’s land, making sure that the Palestinian people are subjected to this control, in return for economic promises that are closer to a deal for buying the people and their spirit with money.
This proposal seeks to legitimize the Israeli occupation and revoke the history of the Palestinian people and their legitimate inalienable rights, particularly the right of return for the Palestinian refugees and the right to self-determination in an attempt to eliminate the Palestinian question completely and definitively.
Jerusalem, the core of the conflict, cannot be declared by any human authority as being solely the capital of Israel. It is the capital of God and humankind as a whole, it is the capital for its Palestinian population as well. There can be no solution if that solution did not clearly reiterate the Palestinian right to the city.
Through this declaration, the U.S. has proclaimed itself clearly as a party to the conflict rather than a peace broker, as it considered this deal, that has no reference to the international law or the UN resolutions, as the final offer to the Palestinians holding them fully responsible, should they reject it, for all the ensuing repercussions.
Israel and the U.S. are yet to listen to the voice of God commanding them, here in the Holy Land and in the world as a whole: do not steal, do not kill, in order to stop killing the Palestinian people and stealing away their lands.
Israel and the U.S. are yet to listen to God’s voice, to the voice of conscience, and realize the truth that cannot be subdued: the Palestinian people are alive, consistently demanding their rights over the past hundred years till this date. The Palestinian people will continue to demand their rights until they obtain them. The only path to peace is that of full equality between the two peoples.
Israel peace is preconditioned by Palestinian peace, in fact, Israeli mere survival is based on the just peace for Palestinians. Otherwise, Israel, despite all its power, will live in fear and anticipation of an unknown future. As we already stated in the Kairos document ‘Moment of Truth’, “our and their future are but one. Either a cycle of violence whereby we all perish, or peace whereby we all thrive.”
In his declaration on Tuesday 28/1/2020, President Trump did not offer anything towards this equality but rather consolidated further Israeli hegemony and Palestinians subjugation to it. This means that the conflict will continue, bloodshed will continue, hatred and inhumane treatment will persist.
The money offered to Palestinians is but a slap of insult to every Palestinian and to humanity as a whole, because it is reminiscent of the age of slavery when human beings were being traded, bought and sold for money. Jerusalem is not a good for sale, Palestinians are not for sale.
Peace-making requires Mr. Trump and Israel’s leadership to respect their own humanity, and respect the humanity of Palestinian people, dealing with them on the basis of shared humanity.
It is useless to accuse Palestinians of terrorism in an attempt to silence their own conscience and cover up for the terrorism that they are practicing against Palestinians and in dealing with them.
Finally, peace-making requires the respect of international legitimacy and the implementation of international resolutions taken in the context of this conflict.
It requires the international community to take a firm stance towards the implementation of its decisions as was and is the case with all the other peoples in the region.
The time has come for anyone with the cause of peace in his heart and the desire to ensure security and stability in the Middle East to open his eyes to the truth rather than be disillusioned by military of financial power and strength. Peace is made by people who want peace, who acknowledge that the other party is a human being with equal rights and dignity that was granted by God to all.
Today we ask churches and Christians across the globe to stand up in the face of injustice against the Palestinian people and demand their countries to reject categorically the so-called ‘deal of the century’, reiterating that neither peace nor justice can prevail unless justice is fulfilled, occupation is ended, and Palestinians are granted their full rights.
—-
About Kairos Palestine:
We are a Christian Palestinian movement, born out of the Kairos Document, which advocates for ending the Israeli occupation and achieving a just solution to the conflict.
The Kairos Document is the word of Christian Palestinians to the world about what is happening in Palestine.
“Our word is a cry of hope, with love, prayer and faith in God. We address it first of all to ourselves and then to all the churches and Christians in the world, asking them to stand against injustice and apartheid, urging them to work for a just peace.”
We proclaim our word based on our Christian faith and our sense of Palestinian belonging – a word of faith, hope, and love.
We declare that the military occupation of Palestinian land constitutes a sin against God and humanity. Any theology that legitimizes the occupation and justifies crimes perpetrated against the Palestinian people lies far from Christian teachings.
Former US President Jimmy Carter said yesterday that Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan, also dubbed the “deal of the century” would violate international law calling the United Nations to stop Israel from annexing Palestinian land.
“The new US plan undercuts prospects for a just peace between Israelis and Palestinians,” said Carter. "If implemented, the plan will doom the only viable solution to this long-running conflict, the two-state solution."
Carter said the plan violates a proposed two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict based on 1967 borders, which has been called for in numerous UN resolutions.
Trump's proposal for a capital of a future state of Palestine, envisioned in the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem on the eastern side of the separation barrier, is in contrast with prior UN resolutions and US proposals.
Carter, 95, the longest-living president in US history, has frequently spoken out on foreign policy since losing re-election in 1980 and has won the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work.
He has repeatedly used the word "apartheid" to describe Israel’s potential future without a peace deal.
“The new US plan undercuts prospects for a just peace between Israelis and Palestinians,” said Carter. "If implemented, the plan will doom the only viable solution to this long-running conflict, the two-state solution."
Carter said the plan violates a proposed two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict based on 1967 borders, which has been called for in numerous UN resolutions.
Trump's proposal for a capital of a future state of Palestine, envisioned in the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem on the eastern side of the separation barrier, is in contrast with prior UN resolutions and US proposals.
Carter, 95, the longest-living president in US history, has frequently spoken out on foreign policy since losing re-election in 1980 and has won the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work.
He has repeatedly used the word "apartheid" to describe Israel’s potential future without a peace deal.