10 june 2019
They call it the Manama workshop, and it is titled “Peace for Prosperity”. It is due to be held in Bahrain on June 25 and 26 and will be attended by representatives for the world governments and finance ministers. It will include Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, according to Israeli media. The workshop will present investment ideas and opportunities in the region to business people and investors from Arab countries as well as from countries around the world for them to contribute to the economic side of the American peace plan known as the deal of the century. The workshop also aims to encourage attendees to invest in the Palestinian territories and mobilize regional and international support to increase the economic investments that could be offered by the awaited American peace plan, which is expected to be announced in the coming months.
First of all, I am wondering why it is being called a workshop, not a conference. Is this part of the misguidance and deception scheme they have been plotting since they announced the shameful deal of the century? Or is it because they are too ashamed to officially announce the normalized relations between the Arab and Israeli governments and the liquidation of the Palestinian cause? However, this shame has wholly faded in recent years, since Donald Trump took office in the US, and everything has been out in the open rather than under the table, not directly stated by leaders. We are in a time of exposure and revelation of all those who plotted and conspired against Palestine and the entire Arab nation. All the masks have been removed, and everyone’s real face has been exposed, without any makeup or beautification. This may have been the only benefit we gained from this painful time in our nation’s history!
We must go back and examine the essence of the deal of the century to understand why the Manama Workshop will be held and why it was decided that Bahrain would host it? The answer to this question could be taken directly from the mouth of the political analyst for Israel’s Channel 13, Barak Ravid, who said that the reason Bahrain was chosen was due to the close ties between Israel and Bahrain, that developed considerably recently.
This cursed deal aims to end the conflict between the Arabs and Israel without resolving the conflict itself and reaching a fair solution. To achieve this, normalization must be established between the Arabs and Israeli enemy using financial bribes in the form of economic investments and deals in the occupied Palestinians territories that would raise the low economic level and living standards of the Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza. These citizens are suffering from financial hardships imposed on them by the Israeli enemy. Hence, the Israelis have replaced the political aspect of the Palestinian cause with the economic aspect, i.e. trading in the political path for economic development and financial path for the Palestinians. This is the main aim in the American peace plan, as they believe that this money, which will be Gulf money, will blind the Palestinians and make them lose their minds. They also think that it will tempt the countries hosting Palestinian refugees to settle them in their county as an alternative homeland, thus altogether cancelling the right of return. We must keep in mind that last year, Trump decided to cut all funding to the UNRWA and asked other countries to also cut their aid to the organisation specializing in refugee affairs in their miserable camps, including food, education, health, etc.
To understand the importance of this organisation and the role it is tasked with, we must go back to its founding. The UNRWA was established in 1948, i.e. after the Nakba and the expulsion of at least 800,000 Palestinians from Palestine. The label “refugees” applies to the Palestinians who left Palestine in 1948, including their children and grandchildren, whose numbers now reach about 5.4 million according to UNRWA statistics. The American administration considers this to be the most significant obstacles hindering alleged peace between the Palestinians and Israel. This is why Washington began accusing the organisation of corruption, while Netanyahu called for the shutdown of the UNRWA and claimed the agency was reinforcing the Palestinian refugee problem. He also claimed it was exaggerating the number of refugees.
Meanwhile, UNRWA Director in Gaza, Matthias Schmale, warned that the decision to cut funding to the agency would lead to the deterioration of the Palestinian refugees’ humanitarian situation. He also called on decision-makers to fund the organisation and separate political issues from humanitarian issues. Schmale believes that Trump’s decision was punishment for the Palestinians for rejecting his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moving the American embassy to Jerusalem. It is worth noting that the US contributes about $350 million a year in aid to the agency and is the biggest funder of the agency, which has a total budget of $1.2 billion. This may cause us to wonder what this small amount represents for the wealthiest countries in the world and its value compared to the $600 billion Saudi Arabia pumped into the US Treasury during his visit to Saudi Arabia?
These were the first measures taken in the context of this bad deal. The purpose of Trump’s decision was to end to the refugees’ issue, which is the most complicated and complex issue on the negotiations table, thus removing the “right of return” file from the negotiations. Hence, the Zionist, Jared Kushner, Trump’s son in law and advisor, tasked with the Palestinian-Israeli issue, seeks to eliminate the UNRWA and strip the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip of refugee status, thus reducing the 5.4 million refugees registered in the UN records, to less than 500,000 refugees. This is where the idea to resettle Palestinian refugees in surrounding Arab countries, which is actually an old idea that dates back to the 1950s but was completely rejected by the Arab countries in the past to preserve the Palestinian identity. Therefore, these countries did not give refugees citizenship in the countries they resided in and instead considered them guests in their country to preserve the right of return. This decision was made by the Arab League when it was still alive!
We cannot separate all of this from the law issued by Israel last year, called the Nation-State Law, which showed Israel’s ugly racist fact. This law declared Palestine a state and homeland for the Jewish people alone and asserted the right to self-determination as the right of the Jewish people alone. The law made Hebrew the only official language in the country and made the Arabs a minority. Hence, it forces the Arabs in Palestine to choose between two options: either leave the country or accept being lesser than and become a minority that does not have the right to demand citizenship and equal rights. This reinforces the great lie promoted by the Zionists for a century, that Palestine is the land of the Jewish people alone, the Promised Land granted to them by God and therefore they cannot let it go. It also means that the Palestinian presence in the country has been in the form of occupation and that the war in 1948 was a war of liberation from the Palestinian occupier. It would also mean that the land they are building settlements on in Jerusalem and the West Bank is not occupation, but expansion in the Israeli state. Therefore, the law stipulated that “the state views the development of Jewish settlement as a national value and will act to encourage and promote its establishment and consolidation” and that immediate citizenship is granted only to Jews.
Netanyahu supported the law, as he told the Knesset after it passed the law, “This is a defining moment in the history of Zionism and the history of the state of Israel… 122 years after Herzl (founder of the Zionist project) published his vision of a Jewish state, we have stated by law the basic principle of our existence.”
This would mean the complete elimination of the right of return, and therefore, the US quickly welcomed and supported this heinous racist law. The US had already recognized the Israeli settlements built in the West Bank, which houses about 650,000 Jews. The deal of the century aims to raise the number of settlers to 1.5 million by establishing new settlements. The US has even called on other countries to recognize them.
All of the measures taken by both the US and Israel, beginning with the recognition of Jerusalem as the unified capital of Israel to the decision to the annexation of the Golan Heights to Israel and the nation-state law, have all been preliminary steps paving the way to implementing the deal of the century, which aims to liquidate the Palestinian cause.
The Manama workshop came to culminate this deal with the economic aspect and swallow the political aspect which is scheduled to be announced in the future. Regardless of the unannounced details, which we have heard nothing about except through leaks in the media from time to time, the deal reinforcing the Israeli occupation in Palestine and eliminates the rights of the Palestinians. No free Palestinian or Arab would accept this deal, as there is no way that the economic aspect can be achieved at the expense of their national project and the restoration of their right to establish an independent state. Instead, the political element must come before the economic aspect, and the economic projects, investments, and prosperity for the Palestinians must stem from it.
This reminds me of the words of the late poet Amal Donqol, in his poem “Do not reconcile”, in which he says, “Do not reconcile/even if they give you gold. I wonder/if I were to gouge out your eyes/and replace them with two gems/would you see? These things are priceless.”
This is what the US does not understand. It is convinced that the Palestinians would be happy with economic incentives as an alternative to the independent state they are demanding as a condition for any lasting peace negotiations with Israel.
The Manama workshop has fallen into the quagmire of shame and disgrace, and it will never escape it. The bad deal of the century will not be passed, as the nation still has a pulse and refuses to concede historical Palestine. The resistance in Gaza has bared its teeth and will not concede or compromise in the matter of its homeland Palestine. Peace will not be achieved without the Palestinians receiving all of their rights and the establishment of a free independent state.
- Dr Amira Abo el-Fetouh is a political commentator. Her article appeared in MEMO.
First of all, I am wondering why it is being called a workshop, not a conference. Is this part of the misguidance and deception scheme they have been plotting since they announced the shameful deal of the century? Or is it because they are too ashamed to officially announce the normalized relations between the Arab and Israeli governments and the liquidation of the Palestinian cause? However, this shame has wholly faded in recent years, since Donald Trump took office in the US, and everything has been out in the open rather than under the table, not directly stated by leaders. We are in a time of exposure and revelation of all those who plotted and conspired against Palestine and the entire Arab nation. All the masks have been removed, and everyone’s real face has been exposed, without any makeup or beautification. This may have been the only benefit we gained from this painful time in our nation’s history!
We must go back and examine the essence of the deal of the century to understand why the Manama Workshop will be held and why it was decided that Bahrain would host it? The answer to this question could be taken directly from the mouth of the political analyst for Israel’s Channel 13, Barak Ravid, who said that the reason Bahrain was chosen was due to the close ties between Israel and Bahrain, that developed considerably recently.
This cursed deal aims to end the conflict between the Arabs and Israel without resolving the conflict itself and reaching a fair solution. To achieve this, normalization must be established between the Arabs and Israeli enemy using financial bribes in the form of economic investments and deals in the occupied Palestinians territories that would raise the low economic level and living standards of the Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza. These citizens are suffering from financial hardships imposed on them by the Israeli enemy. Hence, the Israelis have replaced the political aspect of the Palestinian cause with the economic aspect, i.e. trading in the political path for economic development and financial path for the Palestinians. This is the main aim in the American peace plan, as they believe that this money, which will be Gulf money, will blind the Palestinians and make them lose their minds. They also think that it will tempt the countries hosting Palestinian refugees to settle them in their county as an alternative homeland, thus altogether cancelling the right of return. We must keep in mind that last year, Trump decided to cut all funding to the UNRWA and asked other countries to also cut their aid to the organisation specializing in refugee affairs in their miserable camps, including food, education, health, etc.
To understand the importance of this organisation and the role it is tasked with, we must go back to its founding. The UNRWA was established in 1948, i.e. after the Nakba and the expulsion of at least 800,000 Palestinians from Palestine. The label “refugees” applies to the Palestinians who left Palestine in 1948, including their children and grandchildren, whose numbers now reach about 5.4 million according to UNRWA statistics. The American administration considers this to be the most significant obstacles hindering alleged peace between the Palestinians and Israel. This is why Washington began accusing the organisation of corruption, while Netanyahu called for the shutdown of the UNRWA and claimed the agency was reinforcing the Palestinian refugee problem. He also claimed it was exaggerating the number of refugees.
Meanwhile, UNRWA Director in Gaza, Matthias Schmale, warned that the decision to cut funding to the agency would lead to the deterioration of the Palestinian refugees’ humanitarian situation. He also called on decision-makers to fund the organisation and separate political issues from humanitarian issues. Schmale believes that Trump’s decision was punishment for the Palestinians for rejecting his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moving the American embassy to Jerusalem. It is worth noting that the US contributes about $350 million a year in aid to the agency and is the biggest funder of the agency, which has a total budget of $1.2 billion. This may cause us to wonder what this small amount represents for the wealthiest countries in the world and its value compared to the $600 billion Saudi Arabia pumped into the US Treasury during his visit to Saudi Arabia?
These were the first measures taken in the context of this bad deal. The purpose of Trump’s decision was to end to the refugees’ issue, which is the most complicated and complex issue on the negotiations table, thus removing the “right of return” file from the negotiations. Hence, the Zionist, Jared Kushner, Trump’s son in law and advisor, tasked with the Palestinian-Israeli issue, seeks to eliminate the UNRWA and strip the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip of refugee status, thus reducing the 5.4 million refugees registered in the UN records, to less than 500,000 refugees. This is where the idea to resettle Palestinian refugees in surrounding Arab countries, which is actually an old idea that dates back to the 1950s but was completely rejected by the Arab countries in the past to preserve the Palestinian identity. Therefore, these countries did not give refugees citizenship in the countries they resided in and instead considered them guests in their country to preserve the right of return. This decision was made by the Arab League when it was still alive!
We cannot separate all of this from the law issued by Israel last year, called the Nation-State Law, which showed Israel’s ugly racist fact. This law declared Palestine a state and homeland for the Jewish people alone and asserted the right to self-determination as the right of the Jewish people alone. The law made Hebrew the only official language in the country and made the Arabs a minority. Hence, it forces the Arabs in Palestine to choose between two options: either leave the country or accept being lesser than and become a minority that does not have the right to demand citizenship and equal rights. This reinforces the great lie promoted by the Zionists for a century, that Palestine is the land of the Jewish people alone, the Promised Land granted to them by God and therefore they cannot let it go. It also means that the Palestinian presence in the country has been in the form of occupation and that the war in 1948 was a war of liberation from the Palestinian occupier. It would also mean that the land they are building settlements on in Jerusalem and the West Bank is not occupation, but expansion in the Israeli state. Therefore, the law stipulated that “the state views the development of Jewish settlement as a national value and will act to encourage and promote its establishment and consolidation” and that immediate citizenship is granted only to Jews.
Netanyahu supported the law, as he told the Knesset after it passed the law, “This is a defining moment in the history of Zionism and the history of the state of Israel… 122 years after Herzl (founder of the Zionist project) published his vision of a Jewish state, we have stated by law the basic principle of our existence.”
This would mean the complete elimination of the right of return, and therefore, the US quickly welcomed and supported this heinous racist law. The US had already recognized the Israeli settlements built in the West Bank, which houses about 650,000 Jews. The deal of the century aims to raise the number of settlers to 1.5 million by establishing new settlements. The US has even called on other countries to recognize them.
All of the measures taken by both the US and Israel, beginning with the recognition of Jerusalem as the unified capital of Israel to the decision to the annexation of the Golan Heights to Israel and the nation-state law, have all been preliminary steps paving the way to implementing the deal of the century, which aims to liquidate the Palestinian cause.
The Manama workshop came to culminate this deal with the economic aspect and swallow the political aspect which is scheduled to be announced in the future. Regardless of the unannounced details, which we have heard nothing about except through leaks in the media from time to time, the deal reinforcing the Israeli occupation in Palestine and eliminates the rights of the Palestinians. No free Palestinian or Arab would accept this deal, as there is no way that the economic aspect can be achieved at the expense of their national project and the restoration of their right to establish an independent state. Instead, the political element must come before the economic aspect, and the economic projects, investments, and prosperity for the Palestinians must stem from it.
This reminds me of the words of the late poet Amal Donqol, in his poem “Do not reconcile”, in which he says, “Do not reconcile/even if they give you gold. I wonder/if I were to gouge out your eyes/and replace them with two gems/would you see? These things are priceless.”
This is what the US does not understand. It is convinced that the Palestinians would be happy with economic incentives as an alternative to the independent state they are demanding as a condition for any lasting peace negotiations with Israel.
The Manama workshop has fallen into the quagmire of shame and disgrace, and it will never escape it. The bad deal of the century will not be passed, as the nation still has a pulse and refuses to concede historical Palestine. The resistance in Gaza has bared its teeth and will not concede or compromise in the matter of its homeland Palestine. Peace will not be achieved without the Palestinians receiving all of their rights and the establishment of a free independent state.
- Dr Amira Abo el-Fetouh is a political commentator. Her article appeared in MEMO.
by Ali Abunimah
On Wednesday morning, a private jet chartered by the US government landed in Tel Aviv.
On board was Abdelhaleem Ashqar, a Palestinian business professor who ran for the presidency of the Palestinian Authority in 2005.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were attempting to secretly deport him to Israel, which would then transfer him to the West Bank.
But contrary to the plan, the aircraft was met by a US embassy official who told the ICE agents on board that they could not hand Ashqar over.
Pursuant to an emergency order issued by a federal judge back in Virginia, Ashqar had to remain on the plane in US custody.
He would sit on the grounded plane for more than a day while a legal drama unfolded back in the US.
This account was provided to The Electronic Intifada by Patrick Taurel, Ashqar’s attorney.
Ashqar told Taurel and members of his family what happened, following his return to the United States late Thursday US time.
Ashqar’s return capped an extraordinary 72 hours in which ICE deliberately lied to Ashqar and his lawyer before essentially abducting him and putting him on the jet bound for Tel Aviv.
It was only the intervention of US District Judge T.S Ellis III that ensured that Ashqar was brought back to the US after his ordeal.
It involved a late-night hearing by telephone in which the judge demanded to know if the government could land the plane in any other country before it reached Tel Aviv, or return it to Vienna where it had stopped to refuel.
Ashqar is now being held at a detention center in Bowling Green, Virginia.
Acquitted of “terrorism” charges
To understand the almost unbelievable chain of events of recent days, we have to go back to 2003, when Ashqar reached an agreement with ICE to voluntarily leave the United States.
If he did not comply, he would be ordered deported to Jordan.
Ashqar had a job offer to teach abroad and was planning to leave the US, but US authorities prevented him from complying with the agreement: Immediately after he signed it, the government summoned him to appear before a grand jury in Chicago.
Ashqar refused to testify and in 2007 the government indicted him for conspiracy and obstruction of justice.
He was the co-defendant of Muhammad Salah in a 2007 “terrorism” trial in Chicago that was part of the US government’s post-9/11 nationwide crackdown on Palestinian activists as part of its “war on terror.”
Ashqar and Salah were acquitted by a federal jury on all the charges supposedly linking them to fundraising for Hamas.
Salah, who died in 2016, was nonetheless convicted of a single count of obstruction of justice and spent less than a year in prison.
Ashqar was convicted on one count of criminal contempt of court for his refusal to testify before US grand juries and received an extraordinarily harsh sentence of 11 years.
Ashqar completed his federal sentence on 13 June 2017 and was immediately turned over to ICE detention for removal.
But no country would take him. The US Supreme Court has ruled that the government cannot hold someone indefinitely for the purposes of deportation if there is no realistic prospect of that happening.
So in May 2018, Ashqar’s lawyers filed a writ of habeas corpus challenging his indefinite detention.
Habeas corpus is a fundamental legal recourse used to challenge unlawful detention – it essentially demands that the detaining authority produce the person before a court.
According to Taurel, sworn testimony in that case revealed how three governments – Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority – were resisting requests to issue Ashqar with travel documents.
Ashqar, who is 60, was born in the West Bank when it was under Jordanian rule.
“Routine” check-in
But while the habeas corpus case was pending, the government voluntarily released Ashqar on 18 December 2018.
By doing so, the government got the case dismissed and avoided what would have been a damaging precedent from its perspective: a court order to release Ashqar.
“Ashqar went home, and for the first time in more than 11 years he slept in his own bed,” Taurel said.
Ashqar also returned to a semblance of normal life, with his wife Asma, and his son who is in his early twenties. He also received much-needed medical care, including a total knee replacement in April.
On 18 May this year, Ashqar and his wife received notices from ICE asking them to appear for a check-in on 4 June. They had previously been given later, and separate check-in dates.
Ashqar asked Taurel to see if ICE would agree to a delay, both because of Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan, and because Ashqar was still recuperating from his knee surgery.
Taurel got in touch with ICE, who initially did not respond.
But on 29 May, the lawyer received an email from a supervisory detention and deportation officer at ICE’s Washington field office stating that “We will be issuing Mr. Ashqar an order of supervision at his next appointment.”
That order would mean that he would be allowed to continue living at home instead of in immigration detention – that nothing would change.
ICE requested more medical records and promised to look into the possibility of postponing the check-in.
On 31 May, Taurel received another email from the same officer stating that the Ashqars’ appointment could not be rescheduled, but that “we understand that it is the last day of Ramadan and assure you that when the Ashqars report they will be in and out quickly.”
“That was the last communication I had with them until 4 June,” Taurel said.
ICE lied
Taurel did not go to ICE with the Ashqars on Tuesday, “because I believed ICE was telling the truth. I’ve never been lied to by ICE about something like this.”
But as a precaution, Taurel requested that Ashqar’s son go with them. The family went in as scheduled at about 8 a.m.
In fact what happened is that as soon as Ashqar entered the ICE facility he was shown an order revoking his release, dated 28 May.
Taurel points out that this meant that the entire time ICE claimed that the 4 June visit would just be a routine check-in, the agency knew this was not true.
Ashqar told his lawyer on Friday that he was immediately whisked to an airport in Manassas, Virginia, and was in the air by 9:45 a.m.
Ashqar had no idea where he was going until he overheard someone at the airport say the flight had been given clearance to land at Tel Aviv.
But all this was unknown to Ashqar’s lawyer and his family as it was happening.
Just before 11 a.m. on 4 June, Taurel received a frantic call from Ashqar’s son, saying his father had been handcuffed.
Taurel managed to get hold of a senior official – an assistant field director at ICE – who continued to reassure him that this was simply protocol, that Ashqar was just going to be fingerprinted, given his supervision order and sent on his way home.
But then at around 12:45 p.m., Taurel received another frantic call, this time from Asma, who said, “I was just told they deported him to Israel.”
That ICE lied to Ashqar and Taurel is not a matter of dispute.
An order issued by Judge Ellis on Wednesday recites as fact that on 29 May, “the government’s agents falsely represented to petitioner and his counsel that petitioner would be issued an order of supervision at his next appointment and requested additional documentation regarding the knee surgery.”
The judge also wrote that “Indeed, at this time, it appears that respondents [the government] had already decided and planned to remove petitioner, but did not advise the petitioner of this fact.”
The judge also states that even after Ashqar’s family informed the lawyer that Ashqar had been handcuffed, government agents “once again falsely represented” that Ashqar was “merely being taken to a secure area for fingerprinting.”
“In fact,” the judge’s order states, the government “placed petitioner on a chartered aircraft and removed him from the United States.”
Judge asks to turn plane around
The fact that the government lied prevented Taurel from filing an emergency motion to stay the deportation with the Board of Immigration Appeals, where Ashqar had a pending request to reopen his case.
Taurel filed an emergency motion anyway, but learned from the board that it could do nothing since the aircraft had taken off and Ashqar was no longer on US soil.
So the legal team that evening filed an emergency habeas corpus petition in federal court against ICE, the Department of Homeland Security and the US attorney general.
Taurel also spoke with an assistant US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, who informed him that Ashqar was on a private plane chartered by the US government.
The plane was scheduled to land in Vienna to refuel at about 10 p.m. US time on Tuesday and then take off an hour later for Tel Aviv. Ashqar would then be escorted to Ramallah, the government lawyer said.
Judge Ellis scheduled an emergency hearing by telephone at 10 p.m. Tuesday night. Taurel was on the phone representing Ashqar, along with lawyers Thomas K. Ragland and Denyse Sabagh.
The government was represented by two attorneys from the Eastern District of Virginia.
According to Taurel, the judge was troubled by what he was hearing and wanted to know if the government could stop the plane. He asked if it was still in Vienna, or if not, whether it could turn back to Vienna or land somewhere else.
The government lawyers claimed that it was impossible and the plane had to proceed to Tel Aviv.
A key question for the judge was whether he had jurisdiction to hear the case. He asked the lawyers for both sides to submit motions to him on that issue by 11 a.m. Wednesday.
But in the meantime, he wanted to freeze the status quo and he issued a verbal order to the government that Ashqar must be kept in US custody and not handed over to the Israelis.
Meanwhile, on board the plane, Ashqar was initially fully shackled by his arms and legs.
Gradually, the agents freed his legs, then his arms and then his hands – one at a time. Ashqar told his lawyer that he was not allowed to have his prescribed painkillers, but there was a nurse on board who gave him what he was told was Tylenol.
“Under penalty of perjury”
On Wednesday afternoon, Ellis issued his written order: he decided that he did not have jurisdiction with respect to the habeas corpus petition.
But critically, the judge noted that under the original 2003 removal order, Ashqar can only be deported to one country: Jordan.
He therefore ruled that the court would “maintain jurisdiction of this case to ensure that respondents are complying with the removal order and the court’s order of this date prohibiting respondents from delivering petitioner to the Israelis.”
He also ordered the government’s lawyers and agents who carried out the deportation to provide him with affidavits “under penalty of perjury” attesting to “whether they adhered to the removal order by delivering petitioner to Jordan and that they did not turn petitioner over to any entity or person associated with the Israeli government.”
Taurel recalls that from about 5 p.m. on Wednesday, 5 June, until 11 a.m. the following morning, “we had no idea what was happening with Dr. Ashqar. We had no communication with him.”
Taurel asked a government lawyer to try to arrange a confidential call with Ashqar, but did not hear back.
“And then at 11 a.m. on 6 June, I received an email from the assistant US attorney that Dr. Ashqar is en route back to the United States,” Taurel said. “Needless to say we were extremely relieved.”
Taurel can only speculate what happened. He thinks that the government interpreted the judge’s order to mean that they could only deport him to Jordan, and since that was impossible, they decided to bring him back to the United States.
Ashqar told Taurel that during the entire time he was on the ground in Tel Aviv, no Israeli boarded the plane. But Ashqar said he thought he saw cars belonging to Israel’s Shin Bet secret police around the aircraft – recognizable by their long antennas.
Ashqar also tried to inquire of the ICE agents whether the Palestinian Authority had issued travel documents for him – he never saw any – but was told it wasn’t his concern.
Taurel does not know what the government’s next moves will be and Ashqar’s legal team is looking at all options.
Taurel says lawyers have already filed an appeal with the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit of Judge Ellis’ order that he does not have jurisdiction over crucial parts of the case.
On Friday they also filed for a stay of Ashqar’s deportation order.
The clerk of the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals informed Taurel on Friday that the government has undertaken not to try to deport Ashqar again until at least 14 June, giving the court time to hear the case.
Throughout his long detention by the US, Ashqar has been classified as a low security prisoner.
Now he’s being held in a medium to high security facility, a move that Taurel thinks may be punitive.
“Extreme injustice”
To give some perspective to the ordeal endured by Ashqar, in 2007, Lewis Libby, chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted of lying to a federal grand jury about the disclosure of the identity of a CIA agent.
Libby was sentenced to two and a half years, but didn’t spend a day in prison because President George W. Bush commuted his sentence.
Last year, President Donald Trump pardoned Libby altogether.
Ashqar, who wasn’t accused of perjury but of simply refusing to testify, spent more than a decade in prison.
Michael Deutsch, Muhammad Salah’s lawyer during the trial of Ashqar and Salah, wrote for The Electronic Intifada in 2008 about the “extreme injustice perpetrated on Abdelhaleem Ashqar by the US government and the federal court in Chicago culminating in a draconian sentence of 135 months for nonviolent acts of civil disobedience.”
Deutsch wrote that Ashqar’s “refusals to testify before investigative grand juries about his work and relationships with other Palestinians – in effect to become an informer against his people and his liberation movement – was part of a long history of resistance by activists in this country to ‘naming names’ of political associates before government investigative bodies.”
Indeed, Deutsch noted that in 1998, Ashqar spent eight months in prison for civil contempt “resulting from his unequivocal refusal to inform on others before a grand jury sitting in New York.”
“He was released after a judge found that his refusal was based on deeply held principles which would not be affected by further incarceration.”
Yet despite this, the US government continued to pursue, prosecute and persecute Ashqar, culminating in his indictment and incarceration.
Even after Ashqar completed his harsh sentence, the US continues to subject him to extreme injustice.
~Days of Palestine
(Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of “The Battle for Justice in Palestine”, now out on Haymarket Books.)
On Wednesday morning, a private jet chartered by the US government landed in Tel Aviv.
On board was Abdelhaleem Ashqar, a Palestinian business professor who ran for the presidency of the Palestinian Authority in 2005.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were attempting to secretly deport him to Israel, which would then transfer him to the West Bank.
But contrary to the plan, the aircraft was met by a US embassy official who told the ICE agents on board that they could not hand Ashqar over.
Pursuant to an emergency order issued by a federal judge back in Virginia, Ashqar had to remain on the plane in US custody.
He would sit on the grounded plane for more than a day while a legal drama unfolded back in the US.
This account was provided to The Electronic Intifada by Patrick Taurel, Ashqar’s attorney.
Ashqar told Taurel and members of his family what happened, following his return to the United States late Thursday US time.
Ashqar’s return capped an extraordinary 72 hours in which ICE deliberately lied to Ashqar and his lawyer before essentially abducting him and putting him on the jet bound for Tel Aviv.
It was only the intervention of US District Judge T.S Ellis III that ensured that Ashqar was brought back to the US after his ordeal.
It involved a late-night hearing by telephone in which the judge demanded to know if the government could land the plane in any other country before it reached Tel Aviv, or return it to Vienna where it had stopped to refuel.
Ashqar is now being held at a detention center in Bowling Green, Virginia.
Acquitted of “terrorism” charges
To understand the almost unbelievable chain of events of recent days, we have to go back to 2003, when Ashqar reached an agreement with ICE to voluntarily leave the United States.
If he did not comply, he would be ordered deported to Jordan.
Ashqar had a job offer to teach abroad and was planning to leave the US, but US authorities prevented him from complying with the agreement: Immediately after he signed it, the government summoned him to appear before a grand jury in Chicago.
Ashqar refused to testify and in 2007 the government indicted him for conspiracy and obstruction of justice.
He was the co-defendant of Muhammad Salah in a 2007 “terrorism” trial in Chicago that was part of the US government’s post-9/11 nationwide crackdown on Palestinian activists as part of its “war on terror.”
Ashqar and Salah were acquitted by a federal jury on all the charges supposedly linking them to fundraising for Hamas.
Salah, who died in 2016, was nonetheless convicted of a single count of obstruction of justice and spent less than a year in prison.
Ashqar was convicted on one count of criminal contempt of court for his refusal to testify before US grand juries and received an extraordinarily harsh sentence of 11 years.
Ashqar completed his federal sentence on 13 June 2017 and was immediately turned over to ICE detention for removal.
But no country would take him. The US Supreme Court has ruled that the government cannot hold someone indefinitely for the purposes of deportation if there is no realistic prospect of that happening.
So in May 2018, Ashqar’s lawyers filed a writ of habeas corpus challenging his indefinite detention.
Habeas corpus is a fundamental legal recourse used to challenge unlawful detention – it essentially demands that the detaining authority produce the person before a court.
According to Taurel, sworn testimony in that case revealed how three governments – Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority – were resisting requests to issue Ashqar with travel documents.
Ashqar, who is 60, was born in the West Bank when it was under Jordanian rule.
“Routine” check-in
But while the habeas corpus case was pending, the government voluntarily released Ashqar on 18 December 2018.
By doing so, the government got the case dismissed and avoided what would have been a damaging precedent from its perspective: a court order to release Ashqar.
“Ashqar went home, and for the first time in more than 11 years he slept in his own bed,” Taurel said.
Ashqar also returned to a semblance of normal life, with his wife Asma, and his son who is in his early twenties. He also received much-needed medical care, including a total knee replacement in April.
On 18 May this year, Ashqar and his wife received notices from ICE asking them to appear for a check-in on 4 June. They had previously been given later, and separate check-in dates.
Ashqar asked Taurel to see if ICE would agree to a delay, both because of Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan, and because Ashqar was still recuperating from his knee surgery.
Taurel got in touch with ICE, who initially did not respond.
But on 29 May, the lawyer received an email from a supervisory detention and deportation officer at ICE’s Washington field office stating that “We will be issuing Mr. Ashqar an order of supervision at his next appointment.”
That order would mean that he would be allowed to continue living at home instead of in immigration detention – that nothing would change.
ICE requested more medical records and promised to look into the possibility of postponing the check-in.
On 31 May, Taurel received another email from the same officer stating that the Ashqars’ appointment could not be rescheduled, but that “we understand that it is the last day of Ramadan and assure you that when the Ashqars report they will be in and out quickly.”
“That was the last communication I had with them until 4 June,” Taurel said.
ICE lied
Taurel did not go to ICE with the Ashqars on Tuesday, “because I believed ICE was telling the truth. I’ve never been lied to by ICE about something like this.”
But as a precaution, Taurel requested that Ashqar’s son go with them. The family went in as scheduled at about 8 a.m.
In fact what happened is that as soon as Ashqar entered the ICE facility he was shown an order revoking his release, dated 28 May.
Taurel points out that this meant that the entire time ICE claimed that the 4 June visit would just be a routine check-in, the agency knew this was not true.
Ashqar told his lawyer on Friday that he was immediately whisked to an airport in Manassas, Virginia, and was in the air by 9:45 a.m.
Ashqar had no idea where he was going until he overheard someone at the airport say the flight had been given clearance to land at Tel Aviv.
But all this was unknown to Ashqar’s lawyer and his family as it was happening.
Just before 11 a.m. on 4 June, Taurel received a frantic call from Ashqar’s son, saying his father had been handcuffed.
Taurel managed to get hold of a senior official – an assistant field director at ICE – who continued to reassure him that this was simply protocol, that Ashqar was just going to be fingerprinted, given his supervision order and sent on his way home.
But then at around 12:45 p.m., Taurel received another frantic call, this time from Asma, who said, “I was just told they deported him to Israel.”
That ICE lied to Ashqar and Taurel is not a matter of dispute.
An order issued by Judge Ellis on Wednesday recites as fact that on 29 May, “the government’s agents falsely represented to petitioner and his counsel that petitioner would be issued an order of supervision at his next appointment and requested additional documentation regarding the knee surgery.”
The judge also wrote that “Indeed, at this time, it appears that respondents [the government] had already decided and planned to remove petitioner, but did not advise the petitioner of this fact.”
The judge also states that even after Ashqar’s family informed the lawyer that Ashqar had been handcuffed, government agents “once again falsely represented” that Ashqar was “merely being taken to a secure area for fingerprinting.”
“In fact,” the judge’s order states, the government “placed petitioner on a chartered aircraft and removed him from the United States.”
Judge asks to turn plane around
The fact that the government lied prevented Taurel from filing an emergency motion to stay the deportation with the Board of Immigration Appeals, where Ashqar had a pending request to reopen his case.
Taurel filed an emergency motion anyway, but learned from the board that it could do nothing since the aircraft had taken off and Ashqar was no longer on US soil.
So the legal team that evening filed an emergency habeas corpus petition in federal court against ICE, the Department of Homeland Security and the US attorney general.
Taurel also spoke with an assistant US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, who informed him that Ashqar was on a private plane chartered by the US government.
The plane was scheduled to land in Vienna to refuel at about 10 p.m. US time on Tuesday and then take off an hour later for Tel Aviv. Ashqar would then be escorted to Ramallah, the government lawyer said.
Judge Ellis scheduled an emergency hearing by telephone at 10 p.m. Tuesday night. Taurel was on the phone representing Ashqar, along with lawyers Thomas K. Ragland and Denyse Sabagh.
The government was represented by two attorneys from the Eastern District of Virginia.
According to Taurel, the judge was troubled by what he was hearing and wanted to know if the government could stop the plane. He asked if it was still in Vienna, or if not, whether it could turn back to Vienna or land somewhere else.
The government lawyers claimed that it was impossible and the plane had to proceed to Tel Aviv.
A key question for the judge was whether he had jurisdiction to hear the case. He asked the lawyers for both sides to submit motions to him on that issue by 11 a.m. Wednesday.
But in the meantime, he wanted to freeze the status quo and he issued a verbal order to the government that Ashqar must be kept in US custody and not handed over to the Israelis.
Meanwhile, on board the plane, Ashqar was initially fully shackled by his arms and legs.
Gradually, the agents freed his legs, then his arms and then his hands – one at a time. Ashqar told his lawyer that he was not allowed to have his prescribed painkillers, but there was a nurse on board who gave him what he was told was Tylenol.
“Under penalty of perjury”
On Wednesday afternoon, Ellis issued his written order: he decided that he did not have jurisdiction with respect to the habeas corpus petition.
But critically, the judge noted that under the original 2003 removal order, Ashqar can only be deported to one country: Jordan.
He therefore ruled that the court would “maintain jurisdiction of this case to ensure that respondents are complying with the removal order and the court’s order of this date prohibiting respondents from delivering petitioner to the Israelis.”
He also ordered the government’s lawyers and agents who carried out the deportation to provide him with affidavits “under penalty of perjury” attesting to “whether they adhered to the removal order by delivering petitioner to Jordan and that they did not turn petitioner over to any entity or person associated with the Israeli government.”
Taurel recalls that from about 5 p.m. on Wednesday, 5 June, until 11 a.m. the following morning, “we had no idea what was happening with Dr. Ashqar. We had no communication with him.”
Taurel asked a government lawyer to try to arrange a confidential call with Ashqar, but did not hear back.
“And then at 11 a.m. on 6 June, I received an email from the assistant US attorney that Dr. Ashqar is en route back to the United States,” Taurel said. “Needless to say we were extremely relieved.”
Taurel can only speculate what happened. He thinks that the government interpreted the judge’s order to mean that they could only deport him to Jordan, and since that was impossible, they decided to bring him back to the United States.
Ashqar told Taurel that during the entire time he was on the ground in Tel Aviv, no Israeli boarded the plane. But Ashqar said he thought he saw cars belonging to Israel’s Shin Bet secret police around the aircraft – recognizable by their long antennas.
Ashqar also tried to inquire of the ICE agents whether the Palestinian Authority had issued travel documents for him – he never saw any – but was told it wasn’t his concern.
Taurel does not know what the government’s next moves will be and Ashqar’s legal team is looking at all options.
Taurel says lawyers have already filed an appeal with the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit of Judge Ellis’ order that he does not have jurisdiction over crucial parts of the case.
On Friday they also filed for a stay of Ashqar’s deportation order.
The clerk of the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals informed Taurel on Friday that the government has undertaken not to try to deport Ashqar again until at least 14 June, giving the court time to hear the case.
Throughout his long detention by the US, Ashqar has been classified as a low security prisoner.
Now he’s being held in a medium to high security facility, a move that Taurel thinks may be punitive.
“Extreme injustice”
To give some perspective to the ordeal endured by Ashqar, in 2007, Lewis Libby, chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted of lying to a federal grand jury about the disclosure of the identity of a CIA agent.
Libby was sentenced to two and a half years, but didn’t spend a day in prison because President George W. Bush commuted his sentence.
Last year, President Donald Trump pardoned Libby altogether.
Ashqar, who wasn’t accused of perjury but of simply refusing to testify, spent more than a decade in prison.
Michael Deutsch, Muhammad Salah’s lawyer during the trial of Ashqar and Salah, wrote for The Electronic Intifada in 2008 about the “extreme injustice perpetrated on Abdelhaleem Ashqar by the US government and the federal court in Chicago culminating in a draconian sentence of 135 months for nonviolent acts of civil disobedience.”
Deutsch wrote that Ashqar’s “refusals to testify before investigative grand juries about his work and relationships with other Palestinians – in effect to become an informer against his people and his liberation movement – was part of a long history of resistance by activists in this country to ‘naming names’ of political associates before government investigative bodies.”
Indeed, Deutsch noted that in 1998, Ashqar spent eight months in prison for civil contempt “resulting from his unequivocal refusal to inform on others before a grand jury sitting in New York.”
“He was released after a judge found that his refusal was based on deeply held principles which would not be affected by further incarceration.”
Yet despite this, the US government continued to pursue, prosecute and persecute Ashqar, culminating in his indictment and incarceration.
Even after Ashqar completed his harsh sentence, the US continues to subject him to extreme injustice.
~Days of Palestine
(Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of “The Battle for Justice in Palestine”, now out on Haymarket Books.)
US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has accused Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to get the Congress to scrap a bipartisan — Republican and Democratic — resolution supporting a “two-state solution” to the Mideast conflict.
“Endorsing a two-state solution while simultaneously attempting to block a Palestinian state is what Netanyahu has been doing for decades,” Omar said in Twitter remarks.
“Now he is trying to block a simple bipartisan resolution. For progress sake, let’s hope Congress stands firm,” she added.
According to US news websites, Netanyahu has embarked recently on trying to water down the planned resolution, which was jointly introduced by senators Chris Van Hollen and Lindsey Graham.
In this regard, Netanyahu instructed his ambassador to the US to work on having the term “two-state solution” removed from the bill.
“Endorsing a two-state solution while simultaneously attempting to block a Palestinian state is what Netanyahu has been doing for decades,” Omar said in Twitter remarks.
“Now he is trying to block a simple bipartisan resolution. For progress sake, let’s hope Congress stands firm,” she added.
According to US news websites, Netanyahu has embarked recently on trying to water down the planned resolution, which was jointly introduced by senators Chris Van Hollen and Lindsey Graham.
In this regard, Netanyahu instructed his ambassador to the US to work on having the term “two-state solution” removed from the bill.
A group of Palestinian and Arab experts and academics have called for resisting the US deal of the century and boycotting the Bahrain economic conference slated for late June.
This came in a recent symposium held by the Arab Thinking Forum in London.
The participants condemned the deal of the century as a plan portending a new Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) and a conspiracy targeting the Palestinian cause.
They discussed the options that the Palestinians and Arabs should adopt to confront the deal and stressed the importance of finding solutions to the inter-Arab division and the internal crises in some Arab countries in order to address the challenges.
Head of the Forum Mohamed Ameen stressed the importance of holding such symposiums in light of some Arab regimes’ hasty rapprochement with Israel.
Ameen accused some Arab regimes of trying to make their communication with the Israeli occupation state a natural development and treating it as a regional partner while considering the Palestinians an enemy.
He urged the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to seize the moment and call for a national dialog aimed at reorganizing and reuniting the Palestinian house.
This came in a recent symposium held by the Arab Thinking Forum in London.
The participants condemned the deal of the century as a plan portending a new Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) and a conspiracy targeting the Palestinian cause.
They discussed the options that the Palestinians and Arabs should adopt to confront the deal and stressed the importance of finding solutions to the inter-Arab division and the internal crises in some Arab countries in order to address the challenges.
Head of the Forum Mohamed Ameen stressed the importance of holding such symposiums in light of some Arab regimes’ hasty rapprochement with Israel.
Ameen accused some Arab regimes of trying to make their communication with the Israeli occupation state a natural development and treating it as a regional partner while considering the Palestinians an enemy.
He urged the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to seize the moment and call for a national dialog aimed at reorganizing and reuniting the Palestinian house.
In response to U.S. ambassador to Israel’s remarks that “Israel has the right to annex some of the occupied West Bank”,the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates announced that it is considering filing a complaint to the International Criminal Court.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman’s statement, the ministry claimed “is a reflection of the broad U.S. policy that is totally biased with the Israeli occupation and colonial policies.”
In a press release, the Palestinian ministry posed the question; “In what logic does Friedman think that Israel has the right to annex parts of the West Bank?, On what reality did he base his conviction? Or international law prohibiting the annexation of territory by force? Or the reality imposed by the occupation authorities?”
The ministry proclaimed that Friedman “is illiterate in politics, history and geography, and belongs to the state of the settlements… has nothing to do with logic, justice or law, unless they serve the occupation state, which he is eager to defend by all means.”
According to International Law, taking over or annexing land through military force is prohibited, Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, and has ruled militarily there, since that time.
“These statements prove that Friedman is the ambassador of colonization and hostility targeting the Palestinian rights, including the right to self-determination and independence.”
– Palestinian Authority Spokesperson Ibrahim Milham
“U.S. has its foreign policy determined by people who are politically immature and extremist in their ideologies, such as Kushner, Greenblatt and Friedman. These men are playing politics as if they are in a circus.”
– Palestinian Authority Spokesperson Ibrahim Milham
“Friedman’s statements are direct incitement against the Palestinian people, and are filled with lies that aim at justifying the Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people.”
– Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization,
Dr. Hanan Ashrawi.
In response to Friedman’s statement that even if peace is achieved, the Israeli military would need to continue its military occupation of the West Bank, “this would constitute an annexation of occupied territory, which is a war crime according to international law.”
– Chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat.
More Palestinian officials have condemned the recent statement by US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman.
“the vision of the American side to annex occupied territories is a war crime according to the international law.”
– Secretary General of Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee, Saeb Erekat, (Twitter)
“President Trump’s ambassador provides enough background in order for everyone not to attend the Manama meeting: Their vision is about annexation of occupied territory, a war crime under international law.”
– Saeb Erekat, (Twitter)
Friedman told the New York Times that he blamed the Palestinian Authority for the current stalemate in the peace process with Israel.
All statements of the US ambassador “are totally rejected by all the Palestinians.”
– aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and veteran Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath, (Voice of Palestine Radio)
“We won’t accept any American or Israeli steps and measures, Palestinians are sticking to their territories and will carry on with their struggle until they topple all the plots that aim at eliminating the Palestinian cause.”
– Nabil Shaath, (Voice of Palestine Radio)
“Practically, Israel still occupies area C in the West Bank, and any Israeli measures will be a violation of international law.”
– Nabil Shaath, (Voice of Palestine Radio)
“US President Donald Trump protects and encourages the Israeli side to keep occupying other people’s territories and violate the international law, and “any peaceful solution must end the Israeli occupation.”
Nabil Shaath, (Voice of Palestine Radio)
U.S. Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman’s statement, the ministry claimed “is a reflection of the broad U.S. policy that is totally biased with the Israeli occupation and colonial policies.”
In a press release, the Palestinian ministry posed the question; “In what logic does Friedman think that Israel has the right to annex parts of the West Bank?, On what reality did he base his conviction? Or international law prohibiting the annexation of territory by force? Or the reality imposed by the occupation authorities?”
The ministry proclaimed that Friedman “is illiterate in politics, history and geography, and belongs to the state of the settlements… has nothing to do with logic, justice or law, unless they serve the occupation state, which he is eager to defend by all means.”
According to International Law, taking over or annexing land through military force is prohibited, Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, and has ruled militarily there, since that time.
“These statements prove that Friedman is the ambassador of colonization and hostility targeting the Palestinian rights, including the right to self-determination and independence.”
– Palestinian Authority Spokesperson Ibrahim Milham
“U.S. has its foreign policy determined by people who are politically immature and extremist in their ideologies, such as Kushner, Greenblatt and Friedman. These men are playing politics as if they are in a circus.”
– Palestinian Authority Spokesperson Ibrahim Milham
“Friedman’s statements are direct incitement against the Palestinian people, and are filled with lies that aim at justifying the Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people.”
– Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization,
Dr. Hanan Ashrawi.
In response to Friedman’s statement that even if peace is achieved, the Israeli military would need to continue its military occupation of the West Bank, “this would constitute an annexation of occupied territory, which is a war crime according to international law.”
– Chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat.
More Palestinian officials have condemned the recent statement by US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman.
“the vision of the American side to annex occupied territories is a war crime according to the international law.”
– Secretary General of Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee, Saeb Erekat, (Twitter)
“President Trump’s ambassador provides enough background in order for everyone not to attend the Manama meeting: Their vision is about annexation of occupied territory, a war crime under international law.”
– Saeb Erekat, (Twitter)
Friedman told the New York Times that he blamed the Palestinian Authority for the current stalemate in the peace process with Israel.
All statements of the US ambassador “are totally rejected by all the Palestinians.”
– aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and veteran Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath, (Voice of Palestine Radio)
“We won’t accept any American or Israeli steps and measures, Palestinians are sticking to their territories and will carry on with their struggle until they topple all the plots that aim at eliminating the Palestinian cause.”
– Nabil Shaath, (Voice of Palestine Radio)
“Practically, Israel still occupies area C in the West Bank, and any Israeli measures will be a violation of international law.”
– Nabil Shaath, (Voice of Palestine Radio)
“US President Donald Trump protects and encourages the Israeli side to keep occupying other people’s territories and violate the international law, and “any peaceful solution must end the Israeli occupation.”
Nabil Shaath, (Voice of Palestine Radio)
9 june 2019
The Hamas Movement has strongly denounced US ambassador David Friedman for saying Israel has the right to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, affirming his remarks reflected “consistency with Israel’s far-right vision.”
In a press release, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said that Friedman’s remarks vindicated further the depth of the US administration’s complicity in the aggression against the Palestinian people and their national cause.
Qassem stressed the need for a united Palestinian position to confront the US efforts to liquidate the Palestinian cause, calling on the Palestinian Authority leadership to “leave the waiting square and take the initiative in confronting the deal of the century.”
He called for responding to Friedman’s remarks through giving the Palestinian resistance a free hand in the West Bank, which he described as the most targeted arena, and renouncing the policy of security coordination with the Israeli occupation.
In a press release, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said that Friedman’s remarks vindicated further the depth of the US administration’s complicity in the aggression against the Palestinian people and their national cause.
Qassem stressed the need for a united Palestinian position to confront the US efforts to liquidate the Palestinian cause, calling on the Palestinian Authority leadership to “leave the waiting square and take the initiative in confronting the deal of the century.”
He called for responding to Friedman’s remarks through giving the Palestinian resistance a free hand in the West Bank, which he described as the most targeted arena, and renouncing the policy of security coordination with the Israeli occupation.
