RUTHFULLY YOURS

PARIS—France plans to convene a meeting of international powers at the end of May to restart peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, seeking to head off an escalation in tensions that resonate across the Middle East and Europe.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said he is inviting foreign ministers from Europe, the U.S., the Middle East and Asia to Paris on May 30 to lay the groundwork for a new round of peace talks.

The goal is for major world powers to forge a common strategy for the negotiations without the presence of either Israeli or Palestinian officials, Mr. Ayrault said.

If the ministers make progress, Mr. Ayrault said he would host an international conference later this year that would include the Israeli and Palestinian leadership, at which talks would begin in earnest.

France’s attempt to restart the talks highlights mounting fears that a steady spate of attacks and killings by Palestinians and Israeli security forces could erupt into another full-scale conflict between the two sides in the coming months.

“The current situation is explosive,” Mr. Ayrault said. “There is urgency to act.”

Israeli officials had no immediate reaction, but they have sharply opposed an international peace conference, arguing that direct negotiations between the two sides are required to advance a peace agreement. A spokesman for the Palestinian Authority couldn’t be reached for comment.

Mr. Ayrault said the only solution to the long conflict remains a deal that would allow Israel and an independent Palestinian state to coexist peacefully side-by-side. But continued violence and Israel’s construction of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories could deal a fatal blow to the peace process, he said.

“The possibility of two states, the only possible solution, is under threat,” Mr. Ayrault said. “It’s threatened by settlements, but also the absence of the prospect of negotiations.” CONTINUE AT SITE

Swedish law only allows the government to operate border controls six months at a time, and there is a two-week waiting period before the controls can be reinstated. The two-week lapse is scheduled for July 4-17; many fear that tens of thousands of migrants will seize the opportunity to enter Sweden during this time.

A new report on migrants in Sweden, based on interviews with 1,100 students in Stockholm (90% of respondents were Muslims) found that immigrant youths live in a different world from their Swedish peers. 83% of the girls are not allowed to have male friends, 62% of the boys are not allowed to have female friends.

After several sexual attacks on women in Östersund, the local police issued a warning that women are not safe outdoors after dark. Since February 20, eight women have been sexually assaulted or raped in the town.

A bus driver was suspended from work after sharing posts on Facebook that were critical of immigration. A wave of public criticism of the bus company then led them to reverse the decision. The company admitted that the driver had never treated anyone badly.

The Swedish Security Service has identified at least 60 asylum seekers as terrorists and a threat to the country. However, the Immigration Service refuses to deport them.

In early March, the Swedish government announced that the country’s tighter border controls at the Öresund Bridge might remain in place for the foreseeable future, and that they may even become permanent. The problem, however, is that this summer, a two-week lapse will occur. According to the current law, the government can only operate border controls six months at a time, and there is a two week waiting period before the controls can be reinstated. The gap will occur July 4-17, right in the middle of the European vacation period. Many people fear that tens of thousands of migrants will seize the opportunity to enter Sweden during this time. When the migration wave peaked in the fall of 2015, Sweden received 9,000 migrants per week. So far this year, the number has been steady at 600-700 per week.

The Palestinians argue that security cameras on the Temple Mount would be used by Israel to identify and arrest Muslim worshippers who protest against visits by Jews. What they seem to have forgotten is that these “protesters” regularly harass Jewish groups and individuals touring the Temple Mount.

While Mahmoud Abbas claimed he was in favor of the plan to install the security cameras, his Islamic clerics and Palestinian Authority (PA) officials continued to incite against the plan

The straw that broke the Jordanian back was a leaflet that was distributed at the Temple Mount during Friday prayers two weeks ago. The leaflet urged Muslims to smash any cameras installed at the holy site.

In one blow, Palestinians have managed to undermine Jordan’s historic role as “custodian” of the holy sites in Jerusalem and humiliate King Abdullah, who was the mastermind of the camera plan.

Succumbing to Palestinian intimidation, Jordan has dropped its plan to install surveillance cameras at the Haram Al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary), or Temple Mount.

The cancellation of the plan is seen as a severe blow not only to Jordan, but also to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who, in October 2015, brokered the agreement to install the cameras at the site.

Kerry announced then that Jordan and Israel had agreed to round-the-clock video surveillance, with the goal of reducing tensions at the Temple Mount.

Since then, however, the Palestinians, who have unleashed a wave of violent attacks on Israel in a purported response to Israeli “provocations” at the Temple Mount, have been campaigning against the plan to install the security cameras there. This week, it turned out that this campaign of intimidation was not in vain.

The Palestinians argue that the cameras would be used by Israel to identify and arrest Muslim worshippers who protest against visits by Jews to the Temple Mount. What they seem to have forgotten is that these “protesters” regularly harass Jewish groups and individuals touring the Temple Mount. The “protesters” are known as murabitoun (the Steadfast) and their main mission is to stop Jews from touring the Temple Mount. Some are affiliated with the Palestinian Authority (PA), while others are on the payroll of the Islamic Movement in Israel.

How Kerry will respond to this spit in the face remains to be seen. Not a sound was heard from him throughout the months of the Palestinian campaign to scuttle the plan.

With the U.S. deafeningly quiet on the subject, the Jordanians were left alone to deal with the Palestinian intimidation.

As the Palestinian threats intensified, Jordan’s King Abdullah dispatched his foreign minister, Nasser Judeh, to an urgent meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.

At the meeting, Abbas did his old bait-and-switch trick. Claiming that he was in favor of the plan to install the security cameras at the Temple Mount, his Islamic clerics and Palestinian Authority officials continued to incite against the plan.

Abbas’s foreign minister, Riad Malki, denounced the plan as a “new trap.” He warned that Israel would use the cameras to arrest Palestinians under the pretext of “incitement.”

Malki is here referring to the male and female Muslim worshippers whose mission is to harass and intimidate Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount. Thus, the PA foreign minister wishes to maintain the right to threaten Jews at the Temple Mont without being documented or caught on camera.

The words below are not mine. But because of their gravity, it is important that you read them in full.

“The notion of resistance has been perhaps washed out of our understanding of how colonised people will obtain their physical emancipation…With mainstream, Zionist-led media outlets …resistance is presented as an act of terrorism.

“But instead of us remembering that this has always been the case throughout struggles against white supremacy, it’s become an accepted discourse among too many…

“Internalised Islamophobia has also enabled our obsession with convincing non-Muslims of our non-violent and peaceful nature, so we’re taking things a step further and dangerously condemning the resistance, branding groups and individuals as terrorists to disassociate from them, but at the same time supporting their liberation which is a very strange contradiction.

“There’s a need to change how we think about these things. After all, the alternative to resistance is what we’ve been observing over the last 20 years or so, which is ‘peace talks’… essentially the strengthening of the colonial project.

“To consider that Palestine will be free only by means of fundraising, non-violent protest and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is problematic… My issue is that whilst at time it’s tactically used, or presented as the non-violent option, it can be misunderstood as the alternative to resistance by the Palestinian people…

“We also need to remember the Palestinians on the ground… who are actively sustaining the fight and the resistance against occupation and perhaps there’s a need to …take orders if we are to really show some form of solidarity”.

These words are from a chilling speech, given in a calm and deliberated style, at a “Gaza and the Palestinian Revolution” event in September 2014 by Malia Bouattia, the new president of the National Union of Students (NUS). Ms Bouattia was speaking in her official capacity as NUS’s Black Student’s Officer.

The Union of Jewish Students is naturally alarmed at her new role as President of the NUS.
So should we all be.