Winair?s board members have not resigned as yet

AIRPORT--Despite statements by Prime Minister Sarah Wescot-Williams and Michael Ferrier that the board members of Winair have agreed to voluntarily resign, the members have not done so thus far and, according to well-placed sources, have no intention to do so either.

Ferrier, who was acting on behalf of the PM who is also shareholder representative of Winair, last week announced that the members of the Supervisory Board of Winair have been asked to tender their resignation in a move that should facilitate the establishment of a change in the management team, a new management and operational structure in an effort to rescue the financially strapped airline.

Ferrier said he met with Dutch Representative Lars Walrave and the board last week Thursday at which time the resignation request was made. Walrave represents the shares of Saba and Statia.

According to Ferrier, the board complied with the request. The current board members are Fernando William, Melissa Doncher and Vernon Jacobs. Winair also has a representative from Saba on its board. That person was not addressed by St. Maarten as "we didn't appoint her," Ferrier said.

It is understood that board members are questioning the reasons that the PM and Ferrier asking them to resign before their terms are up. Government, to date, has also not sought the advice of the Corporate Governance Council on its resignation request to the board members.

Ferrier is at the head of a fact-finding team that was appointed by the Prime Minister to get hold of the precarious situation at Winair. This team also includes financial and aviation expert Robert Gibbs formerly of the Execl Aviation Group that was interested in purchasing Winair; Michael Cleaver, a veteran former airline executive with American Airlines and attorney Jeroen Veen.

The report that was compiled by this team and echoed by the Dutch aviation expert that was dispatched to St. Maarten in October 2010 to study Winair, concluded that in order for Winair to regain operational profitability the airline must, as a start, go back to its core calling of servicing minimal destinations (Saba, Statia, St. Barths) before expanding to new destinations.

Additionally, Ferrier said the report outlined that Winair must find ways to increase income structurally, decrease expenditures structurally, re-examine the type of aircraft it utilises and how many aircraft it has in service and what the airline realistically requires in terms of human resources.

Source: http://www.thedailyherald.com/islands/1-islands-news/12459-winairs-board-members-have-not-resigned-as-yet.html

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The Papers of Opprobrium

By Mohamed El Mokhtar

The recent damming documents, consisting of minutes of negotiations, memos, diplomatic correspondences, and maps dating from 1999 to 2010, secretly obtained and publicly released by Al Jazeera satellite TV channel eloquently laid bare the material evidence attesting and conforming, beyond any reasonable doubt, the direct complicity of the Palestinian Authority in the continuing rape and criminal destitution of the Palestinian land and people.

It, alas, sadly reveals the absolute meaninglessness, and Kafkaesque character, of this farcical comedy erroneously called the peace process. Moreover, it shows, unashamedly and very clearly, the degree to which the so-called Palestinian negotiators are willing to go in terms of humiliating surrender and outright capitulation of the legitimate rights of their people for the sole purpose of pleasing their benefactors, or more accurately their masters, in Washington or indulging the paranoiac whims and endless nonsensical demands of their Israeli puppeteers.

This is just the latest grotesque episode in a long series of tragic acts, replayed with the same travestied characters wearing different costumes, starting with of the Oslo Accords parody, then the Washington striptease show and ending, God knows, where!

If, for instance, Cyril Ramaphosa, Oliver Thambo or Thabo Mbeki were as obsequious and complacent regarding the inalienable rights of black south-Africans as Saeb Erekat, Ahmed Qurai, or Yasser Abed Rabo are with the rights of the Palestinian people, would then the ruling Afrikaners have conceded anything meaningful during the negotiations leading to the end of the Apartheid regime? Would the Apartheid system have ended the way it did? Would South Africa have extraordinarily transformed itself from a racist despicable regime to a free and proud rainbow nation providing equal political rights to all of its citizens? Would the Black Africans have gotten anything more than few scattered, non viable, dusty Bantustans located at the periphery of their own historical native land?

It is indeed awkward, if not morally insulting, to even think of such an awful scenario because Thabo Mbeki, Cyril Ramaphosa, Oliver Thambo and their many other prestigious comrades, unlike these other despicable corrupt characters, were free and noble men; yes, they were free men who acted, despite the great imbalance of powers, with honor and dignity. They knew they were materially weak and no match with the military power of the Apartheid regime but they had the unbreakable conviction till the end that they were morally standing in higher ground. Therein lies the real difference between the two.

To even reflect about this issue makes you sick in your stomach much less to write about. Despite the nauseating feelings of disgust and indignity in the face of such withering spectacle of unparalleled treason, outright capitulation and historical betrayals, we are going to try to shed some light on some of the things that were revealed in these self-indicting documents. Let’s start first with the least dishonest and more candid camp, i.e., the Israeli side:

Tzipi Livni, the then-Israeli Foreign Minister, is quoted in a 2007 meeting providing a rather candid description of Tel Aviv’s negotiating strategy whose main goal is the prevention of a viable Palestinian state. “The Israel policy is to take more and more land day after day and that at the end of the day we'll say that is impossible, we already have the land and we cannot create the [Palestinian] state,” she said.

Another similar assessment as to the deceitful character of the “peace process” was offered by a former Israeli negotiator, Daniel Levy, in an interview with the British newspaper the Guardian:

“What's so striking is not so much the nature of the concessions, it's that year after year they’re pursuing the same strategy which not only shows itself to have failed but showed itself to be on a slope of constant Palestinian slippage,” said the ex-negotiator, and added: “They knew that the Israelis were pocketing whatever they gave, building more settlements and then saying: we need more land.”

He, then, continued: “The Palestinians never extracted themselves from that structurally losing proposition, especially the expectation that the Americans would deliver Israel because the Palestinians thought they were the ones being reasonable in the negotiations. But it didn’t happen and it didn’t happen. The Americans constantly sided with the unreasonable side and the Palestinians kept digging themselves deeper and deeper in to this losing proposition.”

The current Israeli government seized upon the opportunity of these revelations to immediately brand- and I don’t blame them!- public demands by the Palestinian Authority for a freeze on construction in East Jerusalem as “ridiculous since it is clear that they had already conceded the aforementioned neighborhoods in negotiations during Olmert’s tenure, “said the Israeli daily Haaretz quoting Israeli officials.

The generous offers, or rather stupid capitulations, that were, secretly and illegally shall I underscore, made by the unelected PA, which, by the way, were condescendingly–how humiliating!-rejected by the Israeli side as being too little, included, among other things, a near total capitulation on the issue of East Jerusalem with all settlements approved of except one, a complete surrender on the issue of refugees and their legitimate right to return  (Israel even rejected  a modest proposal allowing the symbolic return of 10,000 refugees spread on the course of 10 years) etc.

Worse of all they showed that the Palestinian Authority was given an advance warning of the 2008-2009 murderous assault on Gaza. Now let’s imagine the following hypothetical scenario: the ANC being informed in advance of an attack to destroy the headquarters of the Communist party in Soweto and the civil area surrounding it! That type of vile collaboration and criminal complicity would certainly have killed forever the ANC and fatally jeopardized the South African struggle for liberation!

In light of all of this, it seems that the only outcome morally acceptable, albeit utopian at this stage of the evolution of the conflict, is a truly democratic bi-national state where all the inhabitants of that land can live in peace with equal rights under the protection of the law. The available alternatives are a lot worse: either a truncated, non viable, Bantustan-like Palestinian state or an exclusivist supremacist, apartheid-based, Zionist entity that soon or later will have to deal with the devastating winds and tides of history.

Instead of working now to solve what is primarily, and still is, a political problem over an illegally occupied land, Israel will have to face in the future the terrible consequences of its current intransigence, short-sidedness and a blind arrogance that will increasingly make the issue a religiously-based dispute and, therefore, face 25 years from now the grim prospect of opposing 2.2 billion Muslims. Against which current of history will the Israeli political leadership swim? Only time will tell! And time is unforgivably swift and unpredictable!

- Mohamed El Mokhtar Sidi Haiba is a political analyst. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.

Source: http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16599

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Tunisian leader returns from exile

London, (Pal Telegraph) - Rachid Ghannouchi, leader of the previously banned al-Nahda party, returns home after 21 years in the UK.

Source: http://www.paltelegraph.com/world/middle-east/libya/8356-tunisian-leader-returns-from-exile.html

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General Aoun after meeting PM Mikati: No one can claim that we are followers of any sort or to any other state

General Michel Aoun met with Prime Minister designate Najib Mikati in his Rabieh residence on January 26, and made the following statement after the visit:Our meeting was a brief overview of the situation and the main discussions will happen tomorrow during the consultations.�Our meeting was positive since we nominated prime minister designate Mikati and this is the first time we ever nominate a prime minister who is constitutionally assigned to form a government.I would like today to comment on reports in the international press and some foreign reactions, especially American reactions, to the situation in Lebanon. These reactions are a mixture of threats and expectations. We act as an independent state and no one can claim that we are followers of any sort or to any other state. We are seeking everybody?s friendship: we are open to the West, we speak its language and we have made our studies in its schools. I, personally, have done military training in France, where I stayed 18 years, and the US. I have lived with the Americans and they are good people. But I don?t know why the US Administration keeps addressing us with an aggressive tone. What we aim for is to build a modern and clean state free of corruption, to boost our national unity, and to get rid of the rumors they have spread to come between the different components of the Lebanese social fabric. Despite all the rumors unfortunately spread by the media, we are capable of unity. We are not against our fellow Sunni countrymen, we are against a policy that we deem wrong, and tomorrow its mistakes will be revealed more and more. No one should judge us through rumors. Our national history and attitude bear witness to us and I have always repeated the motto of Michel Chiha: the ones who try to destroy a community are destroying Lebanon itself. Our priority is national unity and a policy that comprises all the players; if they don?t want to participate in power, they are free to do so. But the Sunni community will. �

Source: http://www.tayyar.org/Tayyar/News/PoliticalNews/en-US/Michel-Aoun-mt-9593530.htm

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Palestinians: Don't Get Mad, Get Even

By Stuart Littlewood – London

See this embarrassment as your big chance - a God-sent opportunity to sweep away the shameful Palestinian Authority. Then make a fresh start.

Bypass Israel and its twisted backers and deal direct with those responsible, the United Nations.

Don't think that you are the only ones with traitors in your midst. We too have our quislings. They have given away our sovereignty to the EU and Brussels, sold off our national assets to foreign corporates and shackled us to the US-Israel 'axis of greed'. They have even abused the trust and loyalty of our troops by committing them to illegal wars that have nothing to do with defence of the realm and everything to do with advancing the crazed ambition of foreign "allies" to get their dirty mitts on other people's resources.

Following the latest revelations, courtesy of Aljazeera, about the antics of PA negotiators behind closed doors, the PA's normally invisible man in London, Manuel Hassassian, made a surprise appearance on the BBC's Newsnight programme. He explained that the negotiations in question (involving Condoleezza Rice, the then-US secretary of state and Tzipi Livni, the then-Israeli foreign minister) were not considered to be negotiations at all. They were “an exchange of ideas, informal talks”.

Hassassian said: “Always the Palestinians have been the underdog. We never had a symmetrical relationship in terms of negotiations. All the time we have been dictated to by the US government and the Israelis because they have had the upper hand."

Welcome, then, to the brave new world of Palestinian negotiations, where  the underdog sits down to asymmetrical talks, which are not serious talks, and gives away his most important bargaining chips before the real asymmetrical talks begin... knowing full well that they are strictly non-negotiable.

No International Law in the 'Negotiations'

The Palestinian embassy in London defended the bumbling negotiators by posting words of praise by United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Robert Serry, on its shiny new website. Serry said: “I can personally attest to the commitment of the Palestinian leadership to secure the legitimate rights and interests of the Palestinian people, based on international law and UN resolutions.”

This was reinforced by an official press release from the negotiating team saying: "We seek to establish a sovereign and independent Palestinian State along the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital and to reach a just solution to the refugee issue based on their international legal rights, including those set out in UNGA 194.  What an accurate record will show is that we have insisted that any solution be grounded in principles of international law, which Israel has consistently refused to accept or recognize.

"Even though many ideas have been discussed by the two sides as part of the normal negotiations process, including some we could never agree to, we have consistently said any proposed agreement would have to gain popular support through a national referendum. No agreement will be signed without the approval of the Palestinian people."

The awful truth is that international law has never been a feature of the talks. So why is the PA engaging in this farce in the first place?

Another scandalous disclosure is the British plan to collude with the PA and Israel in "degrading the capabilities of the rejectionists", detaining key middle-ranking officers of Hamas and other armed groups, and recommending temporary internment with EU funding - all utterly unlawful of course.

As The Guardian points out, the documents highlight the intimate level of military and security cooperation between Palestinian and Israeli forces. "The bulk of the British plan has since been carried out by the West Bank-based PA security apparatus which is increasingly criticised for authoritarian rule and human rights abuses, including detention without trial and torture."

I have asked my MP, who is a Foreign Office minister, for the truth about the role of British intelligence in drawing up a secret plan to crush Hamas, and asked if anyone in the Foreign Office can explain what threat a resistance movement fighting illegal occupation poses to the UK.

I don't expect a sensible answer as the British government is stuffed with Zionist supporters from the prime minister down.

The disclosures also seem to show that PA leaders have been obsessed by their hatred for political rival Hamas, which trounced them in the 2006 elections, and by their determination to remain the dominant force against the people's wishes. They even tried to tighten the blockade on their own countrymen by complaining to the Israelis that not enough was being done to destroy the tunnels under the border between Gaza and Egypt. As if that wasn’t enough they invited Israel to reoccupy that border zone.

In short, they did everything possible to widen the gulf of internal division, with Israeli and American help, and of course played straight into Israel's hands.

Negotiations 'Only Serve Israel'

A few months ago Hamas’s strategy for ending the Zionist occupation and restoring Palestinian rights was set out by Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal.  The key points were these:

- Hamas only employs “legitimate resistance” – i.e. against the enemy occupying Palestinian land and holy places. 

- Hamas believes negotiations right now would only benefit Israel. Peace cannot be made when one party is so powerful and the other so weak. For the Palestinians negotiation under these circumstances means surrender.

- Hamas does not recognise Israel. Doing so would effectively legitimise the occupation and the rest of Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people, and would be unacceptable in terms of international law and human values.

- Hamas is not looking for recognition by the West. It already has the legitimacy of the ballot box.

- There will be no peace in the region until the powers deal with Hamas and respect their interests and rights and quit favouring Israel at Palestine’s expense.

- Hamas is in no great hurry.

Meshaal is clear that Palestinians entering into negotiations must be united. Negotiation today – under the current balance of power – serves only the enemy. The situation on the ground has not yet reached a stage where Israel is forced to resort to negotiation; it still refuses to withdraw from Palestinian lands, and does not recognise Palestinian rights.

Just as there is currently no parity in the field of confrontation, there is also no parity around the negotiating table. In these circumstances negotiation is a "fruitless gamble".

As regards the incessant demands for Hamas to recognise Israel, Meshaal said: “We refuse to recognise the legitimacy of Israel because we refuse to recognise the legitimacy of occupation and theft of land.”

All this chimes remarkably well with a report some two years ago by the Palestine Strategy Group called 'Regaining the Initiative - Palestinian Strategic Options to End Israeli Occupation', funded with EU money. It reminded Palestinians what their strategic objectives should be and urged them "to seize their destiny in their own hands” by refusing to enter into peace negotiations unless the international community dealt first with issues relating to national self-determination, liberation from occupation, individual and collective rights, and enforcement of international law. 

Only when these priorities are met, says the report, can peacemaking and state-building begin.

That, surely, is the line to take. You don’t negotiate with an armed occupier’s jackboot on your neck, nor should the international community expect it. And why do Palestinians need to do deals with Israel when borders and other matters were defined by UN resolutions and international law long ago?

The study also spelled out the need for national unity. "A house divided against itself cannot stand… Palestinian strategic action is impossible if the Palestinian nation is unable to speak with one voice or to act with one will."

Its concluding remarks are very appropriate right now:

“What Palestinians must be prepared to undertake is nothing less than a final and conclusive strategic battle with Israel. Palestinians should not be deterred by the past, but should look with confidence to the future… Palestinians have more strategic cards than they think – and Israel has fewer.”

It's a pity the PA and its leaders never read the report. Maybe it just didn't suit their deluded purpose. Either way, those losers are not part of the future.

What it would take to turn the situation round is a matter for urgent discussion and action. It’ll certainly require incorruptible unity leadership, tactical courage, a bold communications strategy inside and outside the Middle East to mobilise worldwide support, and resolute determination of the highest order.

And with great respect to Hamas, if it is to be a leading player (which is surely inevitable) it really should be persuaded to re-write its charter straightaway.

- Stuart Littlewood is author of the book Radio Free Palestine, which tells the plight of the Palestinians under occupation. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com. Visit: www.radiofreepalestine.co.uk.

Source: http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16586

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Disruption likely today at schools, Govt offices

�Teachers, civil servants to 'meet' during school, work hours�

PHILIPSBURG--School classes and services at government offices are likely to be disrupted today, Thursday, as teachers and civil servants plan to hold an "urgent" and "very important" session with their unions starting at 7:30am.

The workers will be discussing a proposal made by Finance Minister Hiro Shigemoto in a meeting with representatives of the Windward Islands Teachers Union (WITU), ABVO civil servants union and Windward Islands Civil Servants Union/Private Sector Union (WICSU/PSU) on Wednesday.

WITU President Claire Elshot told The Daily Herald Wednesday night all members of WITU, ABVO and WICSU/PSU have been asked to attend the meeting at John Larmonie Centre.

Teachers and civil servants, including some Immigration officers, gathered outside the Government Administration Building Wednesday in a silent demonstration in support of WITU, ABVO and WICSU/PSU representatives who were meeting with Shigemoto on some of their grievances. Two teachers were seen with placards bearing the words "We are humans too," and "It's our money and we want it now," matching occasional chants.

Elshot told this newspaper Wednesday night that the minister had been asked to submit his proposal in writing. It will be used as a basis for today's discussions.

The union was originally set to meet its members late yesterday at the WIFOL building, but that meeting could not take place, as the Pelican workers were already in a meeting with their union there. WITU attempted to meet its members in the parking lot, but mosquito-like insects called midges disrupted the meeting.

Proposal

Shigemoto told the unions he was not in a position to grant the workers' request to pay their full cost-of-living adjustment in February, as the decision to split the previously agreed payment over two years had been "passed" by the Council of Ministers and by the St. Maarten Parliament.

Elshot said Shigemoto had told the union that Parliament's decision cannot be changed because he was still awaiting approval of the budget from the Committee for Financial Supervision CFT, which was expected around February 17.

The 5.3 per cent payment, which had to be paid in full this year, was split to help cover a deficit in the 2011 budget. In keeping with the split, workers would be paid two per cent this year and 3.3 per cent in 2012 ? an arrangement over which the workers and their unions are in uproar.

Elshot told the workers their Parliamentarians, a number of whom were in the crowd, had voted for the split in the payment. Several National Alliance (NA) Members of Parliament (MPs), including Hyacinth Richardson, were quick to point out that the NA had voted firmly against the 2011 budget that contained the changes to split the cost-of-living adjustment for the workers.

United People's (UP) party MP Romain Laville told reporters after the meeting that he did not have all the information at hand and that he would gather information on it. He said it was time to take the business of the people seriously (see related story).

Elshot said Shigemoto had told the union it could approach him again in four to six months to see whether the additional 3.3 could be paid earlier than 2012. This announcement from Elshot drew a sharp reaction from the gathering of workers, who shouted, "No, no, no!"

"Can we stay home for six months?" one worker asked.

"Can the minister pay my loan at WIB?" shouted another.

Elshot said the union had not been notified by government that "our pockets will be pickpocketed" before the decision had been taken to breach the agreement to pay the adjustment. She said the other Dutch islands were not experiencing "austerity measures" like those to which workers in St. Maarten were being subjected.

The union was told that the two per cent adjustment had been incorporated into the salaries of teachers and would be paid along with their January salaries this Friday.

The union had also requested that the Department of Salary and Wages be supplied, within one week, with personnel from within the internal government structure to fill the critical vacancies, to speed up the processing of wages and the changes to the wages of the workers in a timely fashion starting February.

Shigemoto said during yesterday's meeting that someone was already being trained for this department, Elshot said. He considered this point "carried."

On the issue of overtime, the Elshot said the minister had informed the union that workers would not be paid for overtime taken without the expressed consent of the Secretaries General of their ministries. Elshot advised the workers not to take overtime without first informing their bosses. "Don't take it upon yourself to work overtime," she said.

The unions had requested that Government "respect the laws" on overtime and that those workers from the Salary and Wages Department and all other departments who had worked overtime in December 2010 be duly compensated for their work based on provisions in the law.

On the issue of vacation allowance, Elshot said the minister had informed the union that the six per cent vacation allowance would be paid in June. The union had requested that the vacation allowance be paid to all workers in the second half of June based on the minister's letter to the unions dated January 23.

Elshot also updated members on the automatic compensation to be paid to those in salary scales equal to those in the teaching profession, based on the fact that the performance management evaluations had not been done with all civil servants in all departments.

Workers present were not too pleased with the minister's proposal. Several of them said they were not satisfied with the outcome of the meeting.

Source: http://www.thedailyherald.com/islands/1-islands-news/12938-disruption-likely-today-at-schools-govt-offices-.html

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PJIA closes for two hours after Winair bomb threat

AIRPORT--Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA) was closed for about two hours on Thursday after Winair was informed by its Nevis station that a call had been received stating that a bomb was on one of the airline's Twin Otter aircraft that had arrived from Nevis.
Winair Managing Director Edwin Hodge said the call had been received around 12:18pm, after which "we immediately informed the airport authorities, who advised the local authorities." A search was carried out on the aircraft by airport emergency and fire personnel and no explosive devices were found on board the aircraft.
The area around the aircraft was cordoned off and access to PJIA was restricted. "We had two aircraft on the ground at that time and normal service was resumed subsequent to having clearance from the airport authorities. Winair's security department is conducting an investigation at this time and the Nevisian authorities will be contacted for a deeper inquiry," Hodge said.
Reports indicated that the call had been a hoax and the person who had made the call in Nevis sounded like a child. Nevertheless, airlines and airports take no chances with bomb threats and they followed stipulated protocols.

Source: http://www.thedailyherald.com/islands/1-islands-news/11946--pjia-closes-for-two-hours-after-winair-bomb-threat.html

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Online petition for improved immigration service at PJIA

PHILIPSBURG--An online petition has been started in the hopes of bringing positive change to the way some Immigration officers treat guests arriving at the Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA).

"Citizens for a better St. Maarten" described themselves as a non-political/non-partisan group whose sole purpose is to "shine a light on the areas that we feel need the urgent attention of everyone who loves this wonderful island. Anyone from anywhere can join us and hopefully as our numbers grow we will be heard."

Their goal is acquire 1,000 digital signatures. A check on Friday night showed that 20 signatures had been acquired thus far. Persons who sign the petition can also leave a comment on the Web page and suggestions on how the service can be improved.

Interested person can log on to

www.thepetitionsite.com and search for "St. Maarten." The petition thread on improving Immigration service will be the first result that can be clicked on.

"These officers unfortunately overshadow the good work and professionalism of their co-workers and something must be done to fix this problem. Through comments from business leaders, the SHTA, the Minister of Justice and hundreds of people around the world we realise that many feel there is a problem here and Country St. Maarten should try to do something about it," the group said.

"Airport Immigration is often the first point of contact for people vacationing on the island and since the founders of this group have been working at the airport for many years we have heard hundreds of complaints of the way people are being treated as they enter the country and very few complimentary remarks, so we decided to create this petition," they said.

Source: http://www.thedailyherald.com/islands/1-islands-news/12193-online-petition-for-improved-immigration-service-at-pjia.html

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The Break-up of Sudan

By Mohamed El Mokhtar

On the one hand one cannot but express a sigh of relief and share the joy and happiness of the peoples of south Sudan who are, now, freely exercising their legitimate right to self-determination and defining, at last, the configuration of their own independent, and let’s all hope viable, state after decades of prolonged wars, senseless bloodletting, large scale displacements and all kind of undeserved suffering.

On the other hand, it’s quite sad and heart-breaking indeed to see, or contemplate powerlessly, these days, an unusual Arab country as original and potentially promising as Sudan falling apart in this manner and for such preposterous reasons as religious intolerance, racism and exclusion.

Sudan, this rare masterpiece of ethnic diversity endowed with unparalleled assets (geo-strategic centrality, important arable landmass, plenty of water, huge reserves of oil, lot of minerals…); this exceptional and colorful land, this rare kaleidoscope of ancient cultures, of civilizations and traditions, this awesome mosaic of peoples and languages, living under an ecological rainbow of beauty; this sub-continental country, a true jewel of nature, provided with such a talented intelligentsia, could not, after half a century of political independence, nurture a sense of common national identity, or cultivate a modern concept of citizenship; worse, it could not keep, intact, its territorial integrity for simply not have been capable of valuing, on time, that uncommon treasure : Its rich diversity.

Thus, despite its natural potential, Sudan is, alas, finally breaking up. After decades of autocratic rule and mismanagement, after a long night of nefarious plots and foreign interference, after a long succession of man-made disasters, this amazing country is, at last, splitting into two separate entities, and maybe even more, divided along ethnic and religious lines.

Beyond the fact that this hodgepodge of manufactured frontiers was, in large part, a legacy of British colonialism, there is no doubt that the current painful outcome is primarily the result of an enormous political failure; a failure of governance; a failure of leadership; a failure of integration, a failure of co-existence. It is, also and mainly, the outcome of a much deeper, and sinister, reality: The overall impotence of the Arab World.

The breakup of Sudan is not just an internal Sudanese problem. It is much bigger than that. It is an extension of a structural impotence; it’s the tragic expression of a low point of powerlessness and helplessness gripping for so long the entire region. It epitomizes, if need be, a common point, a whole mark of today’s Arab leaders: lack of vision, and worst of all, the total absence of political legitimacy. The long-term deliberate neglect of Egyptian rulers, the current ailing and senile head of state in particular, of their own southern flank, i.e., their most important geo-tragic depth, is an eloquent indication of an indisputable fact: The indifference of autocratic rulers to the wellbeing and vital interest of their own peoples.

If Mubarak were truly representative of the will of his people would have he acted as though Sudan did not exist or represent anything of vital to Egypt, to its vital national security and long term strategic interests? That’s the question. Therein lies, perhaps, the source of the problem. On cannot watch, indifferently and carelessly, its brotherly neighbor slowly drown and, all of a sudden, begin screaming heavens falling, like “Chicken Little”, after the body has sunk, as exactly has done the Egyptian political leadership as regard Sudan.

National leaderships that are inherently illegitimate and rule by illegal coercive security means are never at ease with themselves; therefore they can never think beyond the immediate horizon of their political survival. Like animals they behave in accordance with their gut feelings or survival instinct. They often camouflage their impotence by a veil of jingoistic slogans and stultifying demagoguery. They can care less about the future of their own country or its long term interests. Their sole focus is the power they have stolen and are illegally holding; staying in charge or perpetuating the incumbency of the political regime is their only and unique preoccupation. Any other task is secondary.

To get a better sense of this obsession with power, let’s ponder this grim, and really pitiful, spectacle: Hosni Mubarak, that ailing and senile autocrat, is pathetically clinging, come hell and high water, to an evanescent seat, by all means (coercion, fraud and corruption) instead of retiring, like a respected Mandela or a perceptive Senghor, and enjoying his last remaining days; doing so he hopes to delegate, before his death, the presidency of Egypt to his preferred would-be heir, the corrupt and hated son who is now a multi-billionaire, thanks to his unscrupulous business deals and paternal connections, in a country where 20% of the people live under the threshold of poverty, namely with less than a dollar a day.

When citizens are kept outside the equation of power or the process of political decision-making, when they cannot hold accountable their rulers, when they cannot get involved in shaping their own future, the result is what we see in Sudan and many other Arab countries: chronic domestic vulnerabilities, record of underachievement, sectarian violence, foreign intermingling, wide-open wounds…

But the plight of Sudan, like anywhere else, is, first of all, the result of the actions of the Sudanese themselves. One can blame, at will, the British and their colonialism, the Egyptian and their negligence, the Libyans and their past nefarious intermingling, Israel and its infinite plots, the US and its neo-imperialist plans, but none of that can take hold had it not been the mistakes of the Sudanese ruling elites themselves. From Numeiri to Turabi to El Bashir, they all set an unprecedented record of underachievement, a litany of socio-political fiascos, the least of which is the lack of a sound consensus-based and participatory system of governance.

The fact that the citizens of the country were for so long, in the South in particular, oppressed and completely disfranchised, undoubtedly explains a great deal of what is happening now. Nationhood is not an abstract phenomenon. It is a work continuously in the making; a work that requires effort and dedication, vision and leadership; most importantly, it requires the collective free will of the people. Today’ world is different from XIX century Italy or Germany or Napoleonic France where force could be used, at will, to unify a vast land or impose a cultural or linguistic identity upon a diverse group of peoples.

To forge a free nation today you need the assent of all. No identity can be unduly imposed anymore. Moreover, everyone should have a stake in the decision making process of the collectivity. The role of the state is to manage those differences not to impose blindly a mythical idea of uniformity. Its main task is to nurture a notion of collective belonging, a culture of civic citizenship, a sense of ownership, of national entitlement regardless of ethnic origin or economic class. That’s how modern statehood should be conceived and constructed.

Unfortunately that democratic ideal has been so lacking in the Arab world where as Rami Khouri put it: “The modern Arab state has been transformed heavily into a security apparatus and a facilitator of shopping malls and real estate investments because the alternative route to national stability and sustained, equitable development -- democratic participation and the consent of the governed -- have never been attempted on a serious basis.”

Let’s hope that the “Jasmine Revolution” in Tunisia will be the linchpin for the long-awaited awakening of this great Nation from the Atlantic to the Euphrates; and its liberation from the chains of tyranny, the yoke of foreign domination, and the shackles of economic misery.

- Mohamed El Mokhtar Sidi Haiba is a political analyst. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.

Source: http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16590

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UPFA suffers early setback in LG polls, over 20 nominations rejected

The UPFA suffered an early setback in the local elections with more than 20 of its nominations including the nominations in the entire Jaffna district being rejected today.

Nominations in respect of 16 councils in the Jaffna district were rejected as the UPFA had failed to get the translation of the name Alliance correct.� The translation gave the party name as 'Front' instead of alliance.

In the Nuwara Eliya PS sabhawa the party fielded only 28 candidates when the required number was 29 candidates.� The UPFA nominations for the Lindula- Thalawakele PS was rejected as one of the canidates who had been declared that he had been born in 1974 had an identity card starting with 79 indicating he was born in 1979.

The UPFA nominations for the Akmeemana, Hingurakgoda, Monaragala and Siyabalanduwa PSs were also rejected� while the UNP nominations for Welikanda, Baddegama and Homagama were also rejected.
More details on the rejection of� nomination papers were coming in.�

�

Source: http://www.sundaytimes.lk/latest/4363-upfa-suffers-early-setback-in-lg-polls-over-20-nominations-rejected

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Huge bush fire burns out of control

SUCKER GARDEN--A huge fire burned out of control on the hill to the left (West) of the road between Sucker Garden and Defiance last night.

It was fanned by a brisk wind, causing it to race upwards and spread laterally to the left and right. Very soon, the fire covered the entire face of the hill and spread out across its base approximately 200 yards.

The fire raced up and over the peak of the hill and started to burn down the other side by 10:30pm. It cut a swathe through the bush that was visible from miles away.

Houses facing Madame Estate on the hill area had to be evacuated.

The fire was clearly beyond the resources of the Fire Department, which could not tackle the blaze due to lack of accessibility and water.

The main focus of concern for the Fire Department was to try to secure the safety of houses and residents. At press time it was not yet known how many houses might be damaged or lost completely.

The heat of a bush fire fanned by wind is intensified due to the increase in available oxygen without which no fire can survive. Increased oxygen levels can raise the temperatures to in excess of 1,000 degrees.

Police officers blocked off the road from the Sucker Garden area by Gas King and only emergency services vehicles were allowed to pass. Members of the press also were not allowed to pass the area on foot due to thick smoke that at times was blown back down the hill. An officer explained that they were concerned that people might become affected by smoke inhalation, such was the density of smoke emitted from the fire.

As the flames raced onwards unchecked they started to approach the area of Arch Road where many wooden shacks are located. It was unknown at press time how many shacks were located in the bush areas and whether any homes had been destroyed.

Source: http://www.thedailyherald.com/islands/1-islands-news/12988-huge-bush-fire-burns-out-of-control.html

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No salary cut for MPs with 2nd job

PHILIPSBURG--Nothing in the laws governing Members of Parliament (MPs) states there would be a cut in the MP's salary if they maintained and functioned in the job they had prior to being appointed to Parliament, President of Parliament Gracita Arrindell said Tuesday.

The post of MP is a full time one, but it is not explained as such in the law, she said, adding that an MP is entitled to their full compensation, in spite of having another job.

If an MP has another job, as long as it does not affect the attendance to meetings and does not impede their decision-making ability or that of the Parliament, Arrindell said there is no issue.

The issue of MPs holding two jobs has come into the spotlight in recent weeks because of MP Jules James of the United People's party (UP) who is also the General Manager of Pelican Resort. The resort has undergone a change of management which has been causing some issues for the workers.

Now that the matter has arisen in the public, Arrindell was asked if she sees the need for the law to be amended so that MPs must give up any other job once elected. Her response was that in a small community it is difficult to find people willing to serve in public office and therefore incentives are necessary.

"We live in a small society ... in order to attract persons who are qualified to work in government or even the private sector you have to have an incentive to give them. Right now, we still lack more personnel in all levels for the critical functions of St. Maarten," the Parliament President said.

She added, "We would be doing ourselves a disservice if we react emotionally [to this issue] and not just take a step back and look at the fact, and say OK, there are ways to solve these problems in these small communities."

Source: http://www.thedailyherald.com/islands/1-islands-news/12310-no-salary-cut-for-mps-with-2nd-job-.html

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Report on Gamal Mubarak departure denied

� 2011 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)

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Source: http://www1.albawaba.com/main-headlines/report-gamal-mubarak-departure-denied

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Meyers has ?fruitful? meeting with SCDF

PHILIPSBURG--St. Maarten Carnival Development Foundation (SCDF) met with Minister of Tourism Franklin Meyers on Tuesday to discuss a number of issues specifically focused on a new structure of subsidy allotment for SCDF.

The foundation was represented by its president Stuart Johnson and secretary Michael Granger. These discussions on a new structure, which will include Culture Minister Rhoda Arrindell, are in the early stages, so details cannot be divulged yet. However, Johnson stressed it was in the best interest of the further development of Carnival.

The foundation also apprised Minister Meyers on the progress thus far in preparing for Carnival 2011. It was explained to the minister that regulating SCDF's finances was of utmost priority for the foundation, in particular with paying prizes to stakeholders.

"The minister [Meyers] instructed us to continue working on getting the financial report completed [and] submit that to the government in order to have the outstanding subsidy released," Johnson said. "We will continue the discussions about a new structure in the weeks ahead. The minister was very open and to the point with us and we appreciated the time he dedicated to informing us on his plan forward with regard to Carnival."

Johnson said Meyers had said government's position was that SCDF is the recognised organising body of Carnival and government would do its part to support the foundation and Carnival, which can be utilised as a marketing tool that benefits the island across the board.

"We are pleased to know that we have his support and the support of Minister Arrindell, who is keen on enhancing our culture in Carnival. We will also be meeting with Minister Arrindell in the near future," Johnson concluded.

Source: http://www.thedailyherald.com/islands/1-islands-news/12083-meyers-has-fruitful-meeting-with-scdf-.html

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Beyond Hezbollah: What?s at Stake in Lebanon

From: Tracy Chamoun, Grandaughter of former Lebanese President Camille Chamoun (1952-1958) and daughter of assassinated Lebanese leader Dany Chamoun.Tracy is a published author. Her book ?Au Nom de Pere?, ?In the name of the Father? received the ?Prix Verite? for best work of non-fiction about the Lebanese civil war in 1992, in France. She is a peace advocate and a public speaker. She presently lives in Florida.To the Editor, New York Times.A comment in response to the article ?For Hezbollah, Claiming Victory Could Be Costly? -- New York Times, January 14, 2011.In regard to the recent collapse of the government in Lebanon, it should be noted that Hezbollah ministers were not the only ones to resign bringing about its dissolution. Christian ministers as part of the opposition also left their posts. It is important to realize that there is a general malaise tainting Lebanon at this time. The concept of The Special Tribunal for Lebanon is at the root of this problem. Firstly, the UN tribunal is seen as being sponsored by Western forces, namely the United States and France, and therefore is perceived as a form of legal hegemony that irritates Lebanese sensitivities at their very core, having been a country occupied by various foreign nations throughout its short history of sporadic independence.In addition, the Special Tribunal has lost much of its credibility among the Lebanese people since its indictment of four popular Lebanese generals five years ago. These gentlemen were respected officers in the Lebanese army and their imprisonment and subsequent release for lack of evidence after a long incarceration has inflamed a sense of mistrust for any outcome derived from the findings of this tribunal and has left people thinking that its discoveries, as a result, will be politically directed.In addition, it must be realized that in September 2007, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon estimated that the tribunal would cost 120 USD million over three years and that the yearly budget will range between 50 and 65 Million Dollars. This by any standards seems excessive especially since the results after 5 years have been inconclusive, and certainly in the case of the generals, misdirected. This kind of expenditure, for a country whose per-capita income rarely exceeds $500 per month, will always be suspect.The Lebanese Judicial system, like any other, is the third arm of the government; The role of the Special Tribunal has completely invalidated its function and has also undermined the very mechanism of self regulation within the country. Self regulation is at the heart of any country?s sovereignty ? and Lebanese sovereignty is really what is at issue.Generally, there is a feeling among Lebanese of too much foreign meddling. The politicians who have staked their candidacies on foreign representation -- Saudi, Iranian, Syrian, or even American -- have added to the sense of fatality over the outcome of any decision or verdict that may affect their lives. Trust must be brought back in the Lebanese legal system and the process of adjudication and investigation returned to the Lebanese people. Foreign involvement will continue to inflame mistrust and will exacerbate feelings of political gamesmanship.I can testify to the validity of the Lebanese justice system. Although the trial of the assassination of my father Dany Chamoun, his wife Ingrid, and my two brothers in 1994 ? 1995 has often been distorted by propagandist efforts, I was present every day for two years during the trial proceedings and witnessed firsthand the integrity of the Lebanese Supreme Court. During that time, late Prime Minister Rafic Harriri completely supported the work of the Lebanese justice system. It is therefore ironic that the investigation of his assassination has been taken out of their hands.It is overly simplistic for the international media to make this recent collapse of the government only about Hezbollah. This is not about defending Hezbollah or supporting any of their tactics that could lead to the undermining of the nation, but it is about realizing the complexity of the Lebanese psyche and their struggle for independence both militarily and ideologically. For progress to be made, the atmosphere of powerlessness must be transformed and the ground for renewed of trust among the Lebanese community re-harnessed. Otherwise, the stalemate that is presently contaminating all progress will escalate into a conflagration that will have ripple effects on the whole region. The present crisis in Lebanon underscores the Lebanese people?s need for peace and autonomy in the regulation of their own internal affairs.

Source: http://www.tayyar.org/Tayyar/News/PoliticalNews/en-US/Tracy-Chamoun-mt-01238380.htm

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Pelican employees offered 1-year employment contracts

�Corso outlines series of events�

PHILIPSBURG--The new owner of Pelican Resort Club has offered, through Workers Institute for Organised Labour (WIFOL), a full-year employment contract (no trial period) to every employee of the previous employer Pelican Resort Club.

The new offer came after lengthy negotiations between the new owner and WIFOL, which represents 200 employees. The initial intention was to put permanent employees on insecure six-month labour contracts, an arrangement WIFOL President Theophilus Thompson said was unacceptable to the union and to the workers.

Thompson said WIFOL would study the proposal and submit its counterproposal.

CEO of Royal Resorts Caribbean, the firm that manages Pelican, Richard Corso, stated on Friday that it was important that everyone understand the facts surrounding Pelican Resort. "In recent months, many false claims, malicious statements, and personal attacks have been made ? often published in the local newspapers and the Internet by anonymous parties," Corso said.

He also outlined a timeline of the events leading up to the current situation, contending that "all of these statements are indisputable."

He gave the following timeline:

* In 1996 Pelican Resort was purchased by the timeshare owners through the Tenant's Association Pelican Resort Club (TAPRC).

* In 1997 TAPRC signed a three-year contract with Royal Resorts (RR) to operate the Pelican Resort Club.

* From 1997 to 2009 Pelican Resort emerged from bankruptcy and progressed with an effective working relationship between TAPRC and RR.

* In April 2010, the TAPRC board initiated legal demands against RR.

* On December 3, 2010, a St. Maarten judge handed down a verdict against TAPRC and completely in favour of RR.

* On December 14, 2010, a St. Maarten judge handed down a second verdict against TAPRC and completely in favour of RR.

* On December 16, 2010, Pelican Resort Club and Pelican Marina Residences were auctioned and purchased by only interested bidder at auction.

* On December 18, 2010, RR notified TAPRC of the duties and responsibilities for orderly termination and no response was ever provided by TAPRC.

* On December 20, 2010, RR was notified by the TAPRC board that its chairman Christine Schlunz had resigned. No new Chairman has been presented.

* On December 22, 2010, the TAPRC board's USA attorneys froze all Pelican bank accounts.

* On December 30, 2010, management company RR pleaded with Windward Islands Bank (WIB) on behalf of Pelican Resort Club to allow the payroll to be paid. WIB denied access to funds.

* On December 30, 2010, Pelican employees could not be paid due to frozen bank accounts at Windward Islands Bank.

* On January 6, 2011, Jules James solved the payroll challenge and all employees were paid.

* On January 7, 2010, through WIFOL, the new owner offered a full-year employment contract (no trial period) to every employee of the previous employer Pelican Resort Club.

Source: http://www.thedailyherald.com/islands/1-islands-news/12191-pelican-employees-offered-1-year-employment-contracts.html

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Shigemoto: SHTA and Van Vliet interpretation of the law incorrect

PHILIPSBURG--Finance Minister Hiro Shigemoto says St. Maarten Hospitality and Trade Association's (SHTA) interpretation of the changes to the turnover tax (ToT) law are incorrect, as is the analysis by Paul van Vliet of PricewaterhouseCoopers (see related story).

Shigemoto said in a press statement that he also had taken note of the SHTA's letter to Ombudsman Nilda Arduin-Lynch sent on Sunday in connection with the amendment of the ToT Law approved by Parliament on December 23.

"This misinterpretation and misinformation to the business community and the public at large will only lead to confusion and unnecessary worry. The Ministry of Finance has provided an elaborate explanation to Van Vliet with respect to the changes to the law," the minister said.

In its letter, SHTA stated that the association believes that while the increase was presented to the public as merely a change from three to five per cent in the existing legislation, the now published legislation introduces drastic changes to the turnover tax, depicting a completely different picture. SHTA is surprised that the Council of Ministers and Parliament would ratify legislation that is so drastically different from a simple increase of two per cent in the existing TOT.

The Ministry of Finance explained on January 7 in an "elaborate" e-mail to Van Vliet, who is also a member of the SHTA board and the Foundation Tax Committee, that his interpretation of Articles V and XI was not completely correct.

"There is indeed an omission in the ordinance, but that would be solved via what is known as a 'reparatiewet' or corrective law. Even if this reparatiewet was not done, which it will be done, even in such a situation the current law would not have led to the undesired situation as presented by the SHTA in its explanation in a letter to the ombudsman.

"The law operates under a clause known as the 'hardheidsclausule' whereby taxpayers can appeal their case when the law leads to consequences which were clearly not intended by the legislature. Any tax advisor would know this," Shigemoto said Sunday evening.

Commenting on the SHTA letter, the minister said: "I find it difficult to understand why the SHTA, after receiving an explanation from the Ministry of Finance, still decided to write a letter to the National Ombudsman complaining about the lack of cooperation with the SHTA with the compilation of the Ordinance on the Turnover Tax.

"Although as Minister of Finance I explained in detail to the SHTA the unfortunate, but realistic circumstances under which the government was forced to come to this temporary solution, still at this stage such an action is undertaken."

The ordinance has been established in compliance with all constitutional requirements and is therefore legal, he added. "Moreover, 'goods' are also taken up in the old Article V, paragraph three (3). The amendment will therefore only be applicable to services, in order to restore the level playing field. For 'goods,' the old situation will be maintained," the minister pointed out.

An information campaign will commence soon with representatives of the Ministry of Finance providing information to the community about the ToT increase from three to five per cent.

"The provision of information is essential in order to avoid situations of misinformation. Professional organisations as well as other well known personalities within our community should have all the facts at hand and a complete understanding of the issue before making public statements, which only creates confusion."

Government looks forward to working with all social partners to reach an understanding where all interests are taken into consideration leading to a new tax regime that covers the budget, Shigemoto said.

He added, "The basis of the relationship has to be on the principles of trust. If there is no trust and we choose to communicate in such a manner, then how will this help to lead to a professional, productive and constructive environment which should serve as a working platform between government and its social partners in coming to a better tax system for country St. Maarten?"

Source: http://www.thedailyherald.com/islands/1-islands-news/12226-shigemoto-shta-and-van-vliet-interpretation-of-the-law-incorrect.html

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78 lights for Back Street

PHILIPSBURG--According to Minister of Infrastructure Theo Heyliger, about 78 new street lights will be placed on Back Street and will be financed by utility company GEBE. He did not disclose any figures. The new lights will be mounted on concrete bases which should guard against damage by vehicles and pedestrians. The previous light fixtures were of cast iron and damaged easily.

Heyliger said Front Street and the Great Bay beach promenade will also receive similar light fixtures. The Minister also said that government is working on an island wide lighting policy which will address how far apart lights are placed, possible conversion to LED lights etc.

Regarding the state of other fixtures on Front Street and Back Street, Heyliger said a different design will be explored for the bollards along the road, some trees will be replaced and bricks fixed. "A total inventory of the area is being taken and the Ministry of VROM will be looking to address these issues in the off-season," the Minister said.

Source: http://www.thedailyherald.com/islands/1-islands-news/12846-78-lights-for-back-street.html

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Egypt: Riots resume after Friday prayers

Protests erupted in Egypt following Friday prayers, with tens of thousands of demonstrators calling for the ouster of president Mubarak. In the port city of Alexandria, protesters streamed out of mosques to chant slogans against the government. Police used tear gas and rubber bullets.

According to Reuters, there were clashes between protesters and police outside a mosque in Cairo. Protesters reportedly threw stones at the police.

Clashes and riots reported from other cities and provinces across the country. 

 

� 2011 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)

Source: http://www1.albawaba.com/main-headlines/egypt-riots-resume-after-friday-prayers

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Palestine Papers: Israel's Peacemakers Unmasked

By Jonathan Cook - Nazareth
 
For more than a decade, since the collapse of the Camp David talks in 2000, the mantra of Israeli politics has been the same: 'There is no Palestinian partner for peace.'
 
This week, the first of hundreds of leaked confidential Palestinian documents confirmed the suspicions of a growing number of observers that the rejectionists in the peace process are to be found on the Israeli, not Palestinian, side.

Some of the most revealing papers, jointly released by Al-Jazeera television and Britain’s Guardian newspaper, date from 2008, a relatively hopeful period in recent negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
 
At the time, Ehud Olmert was Israel’s prime minister and had publicly committed himself to pursuing an agreement on Palestinian statehood. He was backed by the United States administration of George W Bush, which had revived the peace process in late 2007 by hosting the Annapolis conference.
 
In those favourable circumstances, the papers show, Israel spurned a set of major concessions the Palestinian negotiating team offered over the following months on the most sensitive issues in the talks.
 
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, has tried unconvincingly to deny the documents’ veracity, but has not been helped by the failure of Israeli officials to come to his aid.
 
According to the documents, the most significant Palestinian compromise – or “sell-out”, as many Palestinians are calling it – was on Jerusalem.
 
During a series of meetings over the summer of 2008, Palestinian negotiators agreed to Israel’s annexation of large swaths of East Jerusalem, including all but one of the city’s Jewish settlements and parts of the Old City itself.
 
It is difficult to imagine how the resulting patchwork of Palestinian enclaves in East Jerusalem, surrounded by Jewish settlements, could ever have functioned as the capital of the new state of Palestine.
 
At the earlier Camp David talks, according to official Israeli documents leaked to the Haaretz daily in 2008, Israel had proposed something very similar in Jerusalem: Palestinian control over what were then termed territorial “bubbles”.
 
In the later talks, the Palestinians also showed a willingness to renounce their claim to exclusive sovereignty over the Old City’s flashpoint of the Haram al-Sharif, the sacred compound that includes the al-Aqsa mosque and is flanked by the Western Wall. An international committee overseeing the area was proposed instead.
 
This was probably the biggest concession of all – control of the Haram was the issue that “blew up” the Camp David talks, according to an Israeli official who was present.
 
Saeb Erekat, the PLO’s chief negotiator, is quoted promising Israel “the biggest Yerushalayim in history” – using the Hebrew word for Jerusalem – as his team effectively surrendered Palestinian rights enshrined in international law.
 
The concessions did not end there, however. The Palestinians agreed to land swaps to accommodate 70 per cent of the half a million Jewish settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and to forgo the rights of all but a few thousand Palestinian refugees.
 
The Palestinian state was also to be demilitarised. In one of the papers recording negotiations in May 2008, Erekat asks Israel’s negotiators: “Short of your jet fighters in my sky and your army on my territory, can I choose where I secure external defence?” The Israeli answer was an emphatic: “No.”
 
Interestingly, the Palestinian negotiators are said to have agreed to recognise Israel as a “Jewish state” – a concession Israel now claims is one of the main stumbling blocks to a deal.
 
Israel was also insistent that Palestinians accept a land swap that would transfer a small area of Israel into the new Palestinian state along with as many as a fifth of Israel’s 1.4 million Palestinian citizens. This demand echoes a controversial “population transfer” long proposed by Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s far-right foreign minister.
 
The “Palestine Papers”, as they are being called, demand a serious re-evaluation of two lingering – and erroneous – assumptions made by many Western observers about the peace process.
 
The first relates to the United States’ self-proclaimed role as honest broker. What shines through the documents is the reluctance of US officials to put reciprocal pressure on Israeli negotiators, even as the Palestinian team make major concessions on core issues. Israel’s “demands” are always treated as paramount.
 
The second is the assumption that peace talks have fallen into abeyance chiefly because of the election nearly two years ago of a rightwing Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu. He has drawn international criticism for refusing to pay more than lip-service to Palestinian statehood.
 
The Americans’ goal – at least in the early stages of Mr Netanyahu’s premiership – was to strong-arm him into bringing into his coalition Tzipi Livni, leader of the centrist opposition party Kadima. She is still widely regarded as the most credible Israeli advocate for peace.
 
However, Ms Livni, who was previously Mr Olmert’s foreign minister, emerges in the leaked papers as an inflexible negotiator, dismissive of the huge concessions being made by the Palestinians. At a key moment, she turns down the Palestinians’ offer, after saying: “I really appreciate it”.
 
The sticking point for Ms Livni was a handful of West Bank settlements the Palestinian negotiators refused to cede to Israel. The Palestinians have long complained that the two most significant – Maale Adumim, outside Jerusalem, and Ariel, near the Palestinian city of Nablus – would effectively cut the West Bank into three cantons, undermining any hopes of territorial contiguity.
 
Ms Livni’s insistence on holding on to these settlements – after all the Palestinian compromises – suggests that there is no Israeli leader either prepared or able to reach a peace deal – unless, that is, the Palestinians cave in to almost every Israeli demand and abandon their ambitions for statehood.
 
One of the Palestine Papers quotes an exasperated Mr Erekat asking a US diplomat last year: “What more can I give?”
 
The man with the answer may be Mr Lieberman, who unveiled his own map of Palestinian statehood this week. It conceded a provisional state on less than half of the West Bank.
 
- Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. His latest books are “Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East” (Pluto Press) and “Disappearing Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair” (Zed Books). He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com. Visit: www.jkcook.net. (A version of this article originally appeared in The National - www.thenational.ae - published in Abu Dhabi.)

Source: http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16583

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MPs have full day of committee meetings

Democratic deficit to be discussed Friday

PHILIPSBURG--Members of Parliament (MPs) have a full day of committee meetings, today Wednesday. The eight permanent committees will meet for the first time and will also tend to the appointment of their chairpersons and deputy chairpersons.

President of Parliament Gracita Arrindell announced the day of meetings that run from 9:00am to 3:00pm during a press conference on Tuesday afternoon in the old Parliament Building.

The eight groups are the committee on Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure; committee for Public Health, Labour and Social Affairs, Justice Committee; Finance Committee; committee for Education, Culture, Youth and Sports; the committee on Tourism, Economic Affairs and Transportation; committee for Kingdom Relations and the committee on Petitions.

She said the committees would have to establish their action plans and get to work by either tackling topical issues or matters they deem important such as the need for better regulation of the Rental Committee.

From these meetings, the committees can prepare advices to be sent on for deliberations in the Central Committee and then, if necessary, to the General Session of Parliament if some decision or law needs to be approved.

Arrindell has also prepared a preliminary meeting schedule for 2011 and expects the input from the rest of the MPs about additions or changes.

On Parliament's agenda for the rest of this week are meetings dealing with the Ombudsman on Thursday and first session of the ad hoc committee to review the Rules of Order of Parliament on Friday.

The Committee for Kingdom Relations and Internal Affairs will also meet on Friday morning to discuss the democratic deficit in the Kingdom about which a report had been prepared some years ago.

Arrindell explained that there is some urgency to deal with the issue of Democratic Deficit as a meeting of the Parliaments of the Kingdom is slated for April in The Hague. She added that Dutch Second Chamber Chairwoman Gerdi Verbeet had requested the early handling of the matter in lieu of the upcoming meeting.

The Parliaments of St. Maarten, Cura�ao and Aruba are expected to meet on the Democratic deficit prior to the meeting in The Hague.

Another Central Committee meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday, January 25 at 9:00am for MPs to get and request information on the Penal Code and the draft Law on Special Investigation Powers for law enforcement. Professor H. den Doelder has been invited to talk on these two matters.

Asked if she would invite Justice Minister Roland Duncan to the session as he has strong opinion on the draft law and what it would mean for privacy, Arrindell said this was a parliamentary session for the legislators and dualism was in effect.

Source: http://www.thedailyherald.com/islands/1-islands-news/12309-mps-have-full-day-of-committee-meetings-.html

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The Palestine Papers: Offering Palestine

By Ramzy Baroud

The Palestine Papers had damaged whatever little credibility the Ramallah-based authority still enjoyed among Palestinians The Palestine Papers, the 1,300 leaked documents that Aljazeera began publishing starting January 23, are the Palestinian response to the Israeli ‘generous offer’, an Israeli diplomatic ruse that was aimed at discrediting Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat following the collapse of the Camp David talks of July 25, 2000.

But unlike the fictitious Israeli ‘generous offer’, the Palestinian offer, as revealed by Aljazeera, was barely a testament to the spirit of the famed Arab generosity, but a series of decided and embarrassing concessions that, at times, took even the Israelis by surprise.

Over a decade has passed since Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak reportedly made his ‘generous offer”, only to be met by “Arafat's recalcitrance” (L.A. Times editorial, April 08, 2002) and “Palestinian rejectionism” (Mortimer Zuckerman, U.S. News & World Report, March, 22, 2002, as referenced by Seth Ackerman in Fair.org).

The invented offer, which turned out to be a term coined by Israeli officials merely to discredit Arafat and absolve Israel from any commitment under previously signed agreements, was described as “extraordinary and “far-reaching” by leading American newspapers. Every attempt at dispelling that myth largely failed before immovable US-Israeli official discourses, which often, if not always, define mainstream narratives.

But now Aljazeera had courageously followed in the footsteps of Wikileaks, verifying and revealing hundreds of documents, spanning from 1999-2010, which expose the extent of the Palestinians’ ‘generosity’, that is truly extraordinary and far-reaching, if not a cause of utter shame to many of those involved, along with their die-hard supporters.

What The Documents Reveal...

The Palestine Papers are too many and represent a final indictment of the PA, and its willingness to meet, and at times, exceed the expectations of the Israeli government, at the expense of the Palestinian people

The Palestine Papers revealed much about the skewed nature of the relationship between two parties – Israel and the Palestinian Authority - who are purportedly in a state of conflict, if not war. But as it turned out, the Palestinian leadership seemed to negotiate and offer the very opposite of what the Palestinian public truly wants, including the right of return for Palestinian refugees, as enshrined in international law, contiguous borders for the proposed Palestinian state, dismantling of all illegal Jewish settlements and more. The extent of the Palestinian compromises has in fact exceeded the most cynical of estimations.

According to one leaked document, Saeb Erekat for example who holds the weighty title of the ‘Chief Negotiator’, gave away most of Occupied East Jerusalem with little hesitance. On June 30, 2008, in a meeting that included Tzipi Livni, the then Israel foreign minister, Ahmed Qurei, top Fatah official and former PA prime minister, Erekat declared: “It is no secret that on our map we proposed we are offering you the biggest Yerushalayim (the Hebrew word for al-Quds or Jerusalem) in history.”

Erekat’s personal offer was an extension of one proposed by Qurei himself, in a meeting two weeks earlier, on June 15. Qurei “proposed that Israel annexes all settlements in Jerusalem except Jabal Abu Ghneim (Har Homa). This is the first time in history that we make such a proposition; we refused to do so in Camp David.”

To leave no doubt in Israeli officials minds that the Palestinians truly mean ‘all settlements’, Erekat “went on to enumerate some of the settlements that the PA was willing to concede,” reported Gregg Carlstrom in Aljazeera. They are “French Hill, Ramat Alon, Ramat Shlomo, Gilo, Talpiot, and the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem’s old city. Those areas contain some 120,000 Jewish settlers. (Erekat did not mention the fate of other major East Jerusalem settlements, like Pisgat Ze’ev and Neve Ya’akov, but Qurei’s language indicates that they would also remain a part of Israel.)”

As for Haram al-Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary (the third holiest of Muslim shrines anywhere and a sight that saw much violence as a result of desperate Palestinian attempts at defending the holy site in the face of Israel fundamentalists backed by Israeli army and police), Erekat offered ‘creative’ solutions, such as placing the Palestinian Muslim shrine under international supervision, thus ceding almost complete control over the occupied city.

This is barely the tip of the iceberg. The compromises are plentiful and brazenly contradict international law, Palestinian national aspirations, Arab consensus, and even the declared official position of the Palestinian Authority itself.

Selling Out the Refugees

The Palestine Papers also confirm that both sides are in agreement regarding the Palestinian people’s right to return, that, more or less, such a right will not be carried out. A summary of an August 2008 meeting indicated an Israeli offer of a land swap that would guarantee that the majority of illegal Jewish settlers remain in the occupied West Bank. It included a proposal by then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to allow a total of 5,000 Palestinian refugees (out of nearly six million) to return to their homes over the course of five years.

In an October 21, 2009 meeting with US diplomat and Special Envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell, the Chief Palestinian Negotiator, Erekat seemed to have no qualms with the proposal. “Palestinians will need to know that five million refugees will not go back. The number will be agreed as one of the options. Also the number returning to their own state will depend on annual absorption capacity.” In another leaked document dated January 15, 2010, Erekat told US diplomat David Hale that the PA offered Israel the return of ‘a symbolic number’ of refugees. Until then, the refugees, according to Erekat will have no voting rights on any peace deal with Israel. Aljazeera also quoted Ziyad Clot, a legal adviser to Palestinian negotiators on refugee issues, saying: “President Abbas offered an extremely low proposal for the number of returnees to Israel a few weeks only after the start of the process.”

The Palestine Papers are too many and represent a final indictment of the PA, and its willingness to meet, and at times, exceed the expectations of the Israeli government, at the expense of the Palestinian people.

Out of Context?

Following Aljazeera’s release of some of the documents, PA officials went on the offensive, attacking the news network, instead of contending with the damning message. Some of their accusations contradicted each other, the same contradictions that are marring the Palestinian official narrative altogether.

“Fabrication... lies,” screamed Erekat; “out of context,” said Abbas. As for senior PLO leader Yasser Abd Rabbo, he spent nearly half an hour in a Ramallah press conference on Monday, January 24, heaping insults and accusations on Aljazeera. Considering all of this, it was only expected that some 200 Fatah supporters (who reportedly included many plain-clothed PA security personnel) attacked and vandalized Aljazeera offices in Ramallah, ironically shouting “Aljazeera is a Zionist channel!”

The other irony is that a few days earlier, on Wednesday, January 20, the PA reportedly refused to grant permission for a Palestinian rally to celebrate the overthrow of Tunisia’s authoritarian president and to stand in solidarity with the Tunisian people.

It’s hard to believe that there are many Palestinians – aside from those who directly benefit from the current regime – who truly believe that the Authority of Mahmoud Abbas has the interests of the Palestinian people at heart. The Palestine Papers had damaged whatever little credibility the Ramallah-based authority still enjoyed among Palestinians.

Propped by US funds, sustained by European and American political validation and secured by the Israeli military occupation in the West Bank, it is unclear how long the PA will continue to serve a purpose in the West Bank. It is certain, however, that the purpose is not exacting Palestinian rights or preserving the national integrity of the Palestinian people and territorial integrity of a Palestinian state. The Palestine Papers made this very clear, and lashing out at Aljazeera changes nothing.

- Ramzy Baroud is an internationally-syndicated columnist and the editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story (Pluto Press, London), now available on Amazon.com. You can visit his website through this link: www.ramzybaroud.net.

Source: http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16585

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Price of Dignity: Palestine's Political Prisoners

By Kim Bullimore – The West Bank

Currently there are more than 11,000 Palestinian political prisoners locked up in Israel's jails. This week, I found out that my friend Hasan (not his real name) is one of them. When in Ramallah, I mentioned to a mutual friend that I had planned to ring him to let him know I was in Palestine. Our mutual friend informed me that Hasan was being held under “Administration Detention” and had been in prison for three months.

I last saw Hasan more than a year ago, when I was last in Palestine. A year previous to this last meeting, he had emailed me to apologise for not answering my phone calls and emails when I had tried to contact him when I was in Palestine. Unfortunately, he apologised, he had been in prison for seven months held without charge or trial by the Israeli military under an Administrative Detention order. 

When I met him last year in a local Ramallah coffee shop, he looked the same but different.  In his early to mid-twenties, Hasan, who I had met him several years before, had always had a lean but strong build, but now he was thinner than I remembered him. He was also smoking more and his demeanour was different. He was still as politically sharp as I remembered him, but his youthful, upbeat enthusiasm had been tempered and he was much more cynical and world-weary than before. I could see that the seven months he spent in Israel’s prisons had taken a definite toll on him. Hasan told me that he had been repeatedly tortured while in prison but it had made him stronger and more committed to his people’s struggle.

Hasan with wry humour, also recounted the toll his imprisonment had also had on his family, particularly his mother. An atheist himself, Hasan, comes from a Christian Palestinian family and upon his release from Administrative Detention; he came home to find that his mother, a believer, had hung a crucifix on his bedroom wall and left a small crucifix on his study table. For the first few weeks, he told me, he out of love and deference for his mother he allowed the Cross on the wall to remain but would put the small one on his table away. However, every time he returned home from being out, he again would find the small cross had reappeared on his table, placed there by his concerned mother. Our mutual friend, when she told me of Hasan’s re-incarceration, also recounted to me that his mother after his release from his first imprisonment woke at 3 am every morning, the time the Israeli military had raid the family’s home to kidnap Hasan. His mother, terrified that the Israeli military would again raid her home and take either one or both of her sons, woke at this time each morning to check they were safely in their beds. 

Hasan’s imprisonment, our mutual friend informed me, came at a time when he was finally getting over the horrors of his first imprisonment and torture and was much more like his “old-self”. As I write this article, I worry that my friend is being tortured and that his family is suffering, like so many other Palestinian families who are experiencing the same horrendous situation. 

Since 1967, more than 650,000 Palestinians or twenty percent of Palestinian population of the Occupied Palestinian Territories have been detained by Israel. According to the Palestinian prisoner's support and human rights association, Addameer, most of those detained are male.  Addameer notes that this translates to more forty percent of the total male Palestinian population of the Occupied Palestinian Territories being incarcerated since 1967.

Since 1967, when Israel illegal seized and occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, more than 1500 military regulations have been issued by Israel’s military to “govern” the West Bank, while more than 1400 have been issued to “govern” the besieged Gaza Strip. These military orders can be issued on the whim of an Israeli military commander and do not need to be publicised. As a result, the Palestinians and the wider public, including the media and legal services, only become aware of the existence of such orders when they are implemented. In 1970, Israel issued Military Order 378, which authorised the military commanders of regions to issue “Administrative Detention” orders. These orders allow Israeli occupying forces to detain and arrest large numbers of Palestinian civilians without charge or trail. In 1988, Military Order 378 was amended by Military Order 1229 in the Occupied West Bank and Military Order 941 in the Gaza Strip, with these amendments allowing military orders to be issued for Administrative Detention without designating a maximum period of time for incarceration without charge or trail.

According to the first paragraph of Military Order 1229: “If a Military Commander deems the detention of a person necessary for security reasons he may do so for a period not in excess of 6 months, after which he has the right to extend the detention period for a further six months according to the original order. The detention order can be passed without the presence of the detainee...”

Under this regime, 22% of persons held under administrative detention are held for less than 6 months, while 37% have been held between 6 months to 1 year.  Another eight percent have been held for 2-5 years. The longest period an individual has been held under administrative detention without then being charged is 8 years.

Israeli human rights group, B'Tselem notes that the highest number of Palestinians held under administrative detention was during the First Intifada, with almost 1800 Palestinians detain in November 1989. During the early to mid 1990s, between 100-350 Palestinian political prisoners were detained under administrative detention at any given moment. By the second year of the Second Palestinian Intifada, approximately 1000 Palestinians were detained under Israel's regime. B'Tselem notes that as of August of 2010, 189 Palestinians were being held under administrative detention.

B’Tselm points out that while administrative detention is allowed under international law, it “can only be used only in the most exceptional cases, as the last means available for preventing danger that cannot be thwarted by less harmful means”. B’Tselem notes, however, that Israel uses administrative detention in an arbitrary and regular manner in order to detain Palestinian civilians, denying them proper legal recourse, which is in violation of international law. Not only are Palestinians, who are detained under Administrative Detention orders, not charged with anything and denied the right to a trial, both the detainee and their legal council are denied the right to even know what the detainee is accused of. The detainee’s lawyers are also denied the right to access the military ‘evidence’ against those detained under the Administrative Detention regime. Addameer notes that the use of administrative detention by Israel is such a manner is in contravention of Fourth Geneva Convention, as well as other international and human rights law.

Nearly all Palestinian political prisoners, both male and female, as well as adults and minors, have suffered torture at the hands of their Israeli captors. According to Addameer, “Physical and psychological torture against Palestinian and Arab prisoners has been a distinguishing factor of Israeli occupation since 1967”, noting that “torture has taken different shapes throughout the period of occupation”.  According to Addameer since the beginning of the first Palestinian intifada in 1987, at least 30,000 Palestinians have been tortured by Israel.

Many of the Palestinian political prisoners detained under the Administrative Detention regime are minors. In the last week, the village of An Nabi Saleh, has been raided almost nightly and at least four Palestinian minors have been kidnapped by the Israeli military, including an 11 year old off the streets of the village. Under Israeli military law, Palestinian children age 14 years and over are tried as an adult in Israel’s military courts. In practice, however, children as young as 11 and 12 have been brought before these courts and held under Administrative Detention. According to Defense for Children International, 213 Palestinian children are currently being held in Israeli prisons as of December 2010. The majority of Palestinian child political prisoners report that they have also been tortured by the Israeli military.

The children kidnapped and detained in An Nabi Saleh are now being imprisoned under the same barbaric and illegal regime that my friend Hasan is imprisoned under. Their freedom is denied and the Israeli military will attempt to break their spirits and their resistance to the brutal military occupation which Israel is intent on perpetuating. While the Israeli state and its military machine may break the bones and tear the flesh of its captives, it will fail to break their resistance because these young boys, men and women understand the struggle in which they are engaged is not just a struggle for a homeland, but a struggle for human dignity, equality and freedom. And no man or woman or child, no matter how hard pressed by their oppressor, will ever give up the struggle for such basic and inalienable human rights.

- Kim Bullimore is currently living in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, where she is a human rights volunteer with the International Women's Peace Service: www.iwps.info. She writes regularly on the Palestine-Israel conflict for the Australian newspaper, Direct Action: www.directaction.org.au and has a blog at: www.livefromoccupiedpalestine.blogspot.com. She contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.

Source: http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16592

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