Palestinian TV showed the Friday prayer in … the Muqata’a Presidential headquarters in Ramallah today.
Front and center, the chief worshipper was Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen). The sermon was given by the Palestinian Authority (PA) Minister of Awqaf (Muslim Trust foundations), Mahmoud Habbash. After the eventful tension of recent weeks (particularly the extremely embarassing sex + corruption videotape scandal involving Abbas’ chief of office, Rafiq Husseini), it seemed to be a Friday prayer in penitential mode, with references to the role of the President, his duties, and the limits of his power.
(Less than two hours before the Friday prayers, Fahmi Shabaneh, the disgruntled Palestinian security officer who went to the Israeli media with the Husseini videotape held a press conference in this East Jerusalem {Beit Hanina} home, and said he had been reassured by Abbas that there would be an investigation into his allegations. Shabaneh said he would not hold a press conference this week, as he had threatened, to reveal more scandals, but would instead hand over all his evidence and documentation to Abbas… And through the grapevine, I heard this week that Rafiq Husseini told someone in East Jerusalem that the videotape was doctored with advanced techniques, that the living room and/or bedroom shown on the scandalous videotape was, in fact, his apartment — but, Husseini said, his secretary had never been with him there… proving, he reportedly argued (and as he has said before, despite much scepticism), that the whole thing was a fake.)
There were no famous faces in the room [UPDATE: many were instead at the demonstration in Bil’in, see below]. The room used for Friday prayers is the same room which is used for press conferences and meeting such as the Palestine National Council etc… On Abbas’ right hand was a Fatah Central Committee official with a big black mustache [Mahmoud Ismail] who was involved in the recent General Assembly + long-delayed elections of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (in which some Fatah officials, particularly Tawfik Tirawi) were deeply involved. I didn’t recognize anybody else except Presidential press office aide Mohammed Edwan, sitting at the far right end of the frong row of worshippers. Among those praying, there was at least one Palestinian policeman in uniform, a number of Presidential guard officers in camouflage green uniforms, and others who appeared to be low- to medium-level employees. At least one armed Presidential Guard officer was standing at alert behind the worshippers (but he only had a small side arm, and not a big huge black machine gun).
Palestinian television did not immediately go to the regular Friday weekly demonstration against The Wall in Bil’in today. Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was among those present at the demonstration. (UPDATE: Palestinian Television’s nightly news showed a number of other political figures were there as well (maybe this is why they were not praying with Abu Mazen in the Muqata’a).
The Popular Struggle Committee sent out a press release saying that thousands were expected to attend or participate in the demonstration: “Following the victory forcing Israel to begin rerouting the path of the Wall, in face of the Army’s unprecedented attempts to crack down on the popular struggle, the people of Bil’in will celebrate five years of protest tomorrow. In a show of support to the popular struggle, the people of Bil’in will be joined by thousands from across the West Bank, among them Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and leaders from across the Palestinian political spectrum. Mohammed Khatib of the Bil’in Popular Committee said today that “The Army realizes the efficiency of our struggle and believes that it can be pacified with token gestures and repressed by the hundreds of arrests in last months. After managing to force Israel to finally follow its own court order and begin rerouting the Wall last week, we will prove tomorrow that Palestinian society, its left-wing as well as right, is united behind the popular movement, and the Israeli assault only stands to strengthen us.” Last week, 2.5 years after an Israeli Supreme Court decision deeming the path of the Wall on the lands of Bil’in illegal, preliminary infrastructure work to reroute the barrier in accordance with the ruling has finally began. … Roughly 680 dunams of the 2,000 dunams currently sequestered by the Wall will be returned to the village following the court-ordered rerouting of the trajectory”.
The Mayor of Geneva, Switzerland, was also present this week …
UPDATE: Ma’an News Agency reported that the man who was almost elected Mayor of Tel Aviv (he had the entire youth vote, apparently) Dov Heinin, MK of Democratic Front for Peace and Equality, was also present … “A group of Palestinian teens and young men successfully pulled down a 30-meter length of barbed fence from the separation wall, as the crowds were met with high-pressure skunk water sprayed at them by Israeli forces in full riot gear”, Ma’an added, here.
Later, the Popular Struggle Committee reported that about 1,000 people attended, and that two demonstrators were injured in Bil’in
(“One was struck with a tear-gas projectile in the leg and another was shot in the stomach by a rubber-coated bullet”), while about ten demonstrators were injured in other villages: “Al-Ma’sara, south of Bethlehem, Ni’ilin and Nabi Saleh, where 10 protesters were hit by rubber-coated bullets, including a Swedish national who was struck in the mouth”.
Although the Popular Struggle Committee said it regards the rerouting of The Wall near Bil’in as a victory, it vowed that “protest will continue until the Occupation is over and the Wall is dismantled in its entirety”.
Afterwards, it was reported (in Haaretz, among other places) that “Demonstrators participating in rally protesting the Israel’s West Bank separation fence dismantled a section of the barrier on Friday, during a rally marking five years since the beginning of the Bil’in protests. About a thousand people took part in the rally, which was also attended by Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, Palestinian parliament member Mustafa Barghouti as well as Fatah strongman Nabil Shaath. During the rally several protesters managed to cross the barrier, placing a Palestinian flag on top of an Israel Defense Forces outpost, while others dismantled a 30-meter section of the fence itself. IDF sources claimed that the fence’s repair could cost several hundred thousand NIS“.
So, here is part of the fence that has to be moved by order of the Israeli Supreme Court, and the Israeli military is complaining that they will have to repair it at great cost …
The Haaretz article also reported that (no doubt because of Salam Fayyad’s presence — and Fayyad is one of two Palestinian officials whose movement around the West Bank is coordinated with Israeli security forces, who also reportedly escort his convoy) — Israeli security forces “were aligned in rear positions to allow the demonstrators to protest in a ‘non-violent fashion’, but began using dispersal instruments as soon as protesters commenced hurling stones. A source in the IDF’s GOC Central Command told Haaretz that the incident proved that the IDF was willing to allow non-violent protest, but that it was clear that some of the participants act violently, hurling stones and causing thousands of shekels in damages to the fence”. This Haaretz article can be read in full here…
Another weekly demonstration was expected in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem today, where an hour in advance a tight and manned police barrier appeared to bar entrance to the entire neighborhood (including the site of the tomb of Shimon Hatzadik, believed to have been a high priest in the Second Jewish Temple, which has now been taken over by Orthodox Jewish worshippers). A row of white police vans stood behind the barricade, and there were groups of police and Border Policemen in various uniforms under the warm mid-day sun.
UPDATE: Ma’an later added that “Israeli forces attempted to disperse the press and diverted protesters from attaining the residential areas closed off by Israeli police, as settlers entered the contested neighborhood”. This Ma’an report is here.
UPDATE. The Jerusalem Post later reported that “1 man was detained on Friday afternoon dozens of left-wing activists and east Jerusalem locals gathered for the weekly protest against the expansion of the Jewish enclave in Sheikh Jarrah, a predominantly Arab neighborhood. The activist was taken in for questioning after attempting to organize a march in the neighborhood without an appropriate permit”. This JPost report is here.
And, there was also supposed to be a demonstration in the Silwan area of East Jerusalem as well, around the other side of the Old City, where Jerusalem’s Mayor has ordered the demonstration of 200 Palestinian homes, if he has also to demolish one seven-story building housing Jewish settlers in the same neighborhood — also built “illegally”, without required permits, which in turn are dependent on municipal planning that is non-existent.