Barghouti: Arabs Must End Israel Ties After Doha Bombing

ُُُThe Israeli attack targeting the Hamas delegation in Doha represents a “turning point” that will have very dangerous consequences warned Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative Movement Dr. Mustafa Barghouti. He stated Israel has been exposed for what it truly is: The one obstructing an agreement, not the Palestinian side, and is deliberately escalating every time.

The State of Qatar condemned the Israeli attack, which targeted the residential headquarters of several members of the Hamas Political Bureau, stressing it will not tolerate this reckless Israeli behavior.

The Qatari Foreign Ministry said in a statement: “The criminal attack is a violation of all international laws and a serious threat to the security and safety of Qataris and residents.”

Barghouti said the Israeli aggression, which failed to achieve its goal in the war on Gaza, targeted Qatar, which was undertaking mediation efforts, and targeted Hamas leaders while they were discussing the American proposal. This means that “this proposal was not serious, and Israel does not want any agreement. It persists in its genocidal war against the Gaza Strip and its ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.”

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Barghouti did not rule out the possibility that the United States was involved in what happened today, saying no one could believe that Washington was actually playing the role of mediator.

What is required by Arabs and Muslims?

Barghouti said he hoped the attack on Doha would lead to a major shift in the position of Arab and Islamic countries, especially since the one that was being attacked was the State of Qatar, known as a peaceful country that has never attacked any party and has devoted all of its resources to reaching peace agreements. Without its role, a large number of Israeli and Palestinian prisoners would not have been released in previous agreements.

Regarding what is currently required of Arab countries in light of Israel’s continued implementation of its plan, which could lead to the mass displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, Barghouti explained Arab and Islamic countries, especially those that have normalized relations with Israel, are required to halt and sever all relations with Israel, impose comprehensive sanctions, and boycott it completely.

He added that in the light of the Israeli aggression on Doha, Arab and Islamic countries must ask themselves know how to protect their own national security, not just of the Palestinians.

Barghouti called for imposing sanctions and completely isolating Israel. He noted that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (wanted by the International Criminal Court) has “lost his mind and acts like the leader of a crazy gang out of control.” Barghouti said that he continually attacks Palestinians, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iran, and now Qatar.

He also indicated that the Israeli occupation’s failure to achieve its goal behind the attack on Hamas leaders in Doha will have domestic repercussions for Netanyahu and his government according to Al Jazeera.

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Israeli Style: Ethnic Cleansing of Jenin

Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative Movement Mustafa Barghouti accused Israel of ethnic cleansing in the Jenin camp in the northern occupied West Bank.

Barghouti confirmed, Friday, that “the [Israel]  occupation is carrying out a dangerous ethnic cleansing operation in Jenin, forcing civilians and families to leave their homes on foot, after subjecting them to humiliating repression and strip searches.”

Barghouti explained what is happening in Jenin “reflects the statements of the Israeli Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi that the repressive goals and practices are similar between Gaza and the West Bank, as the latter is subjected to a campaign of collective punishment including checkpoints, arrests and abuse.”

Barghouti stressed the need to achieve Palestinian national unity to confront the ethnic cleansing and genocide committed by the Israeli occupation state against the Palestinians.

The Israeli occupation army continues for the fourth day to escalate its military operation against the Palestinians in the city of Jenin and its camp.

Over the past few days, the army has burned Palestinian homes, deployed heavy machinery to demolish more, and arrested dozens of Palestinians and transferred them to interrogation centers near the city.

Since Tuesday afternoon, the Israeli occupation army launched a large-scale military operation in Jenin under the name Iron Wall, which resulted in the killing of 12 Palestinians and the injury of 40 others until Thursday evening, according to official Palestinian sources as reported in Quds Press.

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West Bank: Ticking Bomb For Netanyahu

Analysts believe that Benjamin Netanyahu’s extremist government is trying to impose its strategy of Judaizing the entire West Bank and expelling the Palestinians from there. This is in conjunction with the extermination war – made with US support – it is waging against civilians in the Gaza Strip. Others however, say what the West Bank is experiencing is nothing but a side show that can be stopped if Hamas exits the scene.

The Israeli occupation forces have moved into the northern West Bank areas, Wednesday morning, killing more than 10 people and injuring 20 others which many consider a systematic policy to deal with the West Bank as one of the arenas of the current war.

Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative Dr. Mustafa Barghouti says what is currently happening is a systematic extermination of Palestinians in the West Bank, which he said, is completely occupied by Israel.

In Al Jazeera’s “Gaza… What’s Next?” program Barghouti pointed out  the occupation’s strategy has become crystal clear as Benjamin Netanyahu and his fascist government are trying to transfer the war in the Gaza Strip to the West Bank and started bombing Palestinians there – especially in the camps – with planes and drones.

He added what the occupation is doing against the Palestinians in the West Bank camps coincides with the killings carried out by the settlers to expand the Jewish settlements in a dangerous and diverse manner, including the pastoral colonial outposts by deploying settlers with sheep to control the largest possible area of ​​land.

Barghouti believes Israel is trying to eradicate the resistance, uproot the Palestinians, Judaize the state, and displace the residents of Gaza and the West Bank together in a war that is fully supported by the United States.

West Bank differs from Gaza

In contrast, Kenneth Katzman, a senior researcher at the Soufan Institute for Strategic Studies and International Security, says Washington is trying to resolve the crisis in Gaza in a way that differs from the way it is handling the West Bank, “which is experiencing a state of turmoil accompanying the war in Gaza and can be contained if the fighting stops.”

Katzman said that the West Bank has a legitimate authority that cooperates with Israel, and that the current violence there is mainly caused by the war in Gaza, “which the Joe Biden administration is trying to exclude from the electoral race and from the American foreign policy that is based on establishing peace in the Middle East.”

The problem, however, as he said, is that the Biden administration “fully agrees with Netanyahu on the need to eradicate Hamas completely, so that the current war will be the last and new faces will take over the rule of the Strip.”

But Barghouti responds to this argument by saying that the Palestinian Authority does not control anything in the West Bank, as evidenced by the fact that all Israeli army operations are carried out in Area A, which is supposed to be subject to it under the Oslo Accords.

Barghouti said that the United States and Israel want practical authority in Gaza and do not accept any national government, as evidenced by the fact that they did not accept democracy when Hamas came to power in 2006 and caused the fall of the national government that included all Palestinian components.

While Barghouti says that the Oslo Accords are dead because Israel has not implemented a single letter of it, Katzman says that the agreement is enforceable if Hamas is eliminated and the Authority becomes the sole representative of the Palestinians.

He added that “President Mahmoud Abbas does not resort to violence and therefore he can create a state of calm, although he is not ideal and has refused to hold elections for 20 years, in addition to being surrounded by suspicions of corruption.”

But Barghouti responded that the late President Yasser Arafat, who signed the Oslo Accords, “did not take anything and they poisoned him when he refused to give up Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque, and Washington, which talks about Abbas’s corruption, does not talk about Netanyahu’s corruption, who continues the war to escape from prison,” according to JO24.

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