RAMALLAH, September 3, 2011 (WAFA) – The crisis between Turkey and Israel as a result of a United Nations report, which justified the Israeli blockade on Gaza and which Turkey had rejected, dominated the top front page headlines in the Palestinian Arabic dailies published Saturday.
The papers stressed Turkey’s decision to lower diplomatic ties with Israel by ordering the Israeli ambassador to Turkey to leave the country and by suspending all military agreements.
The second main story in the dailies was a report from Poland, where European Union foreign ministers are meeting, which says that the EU is trying to reach a common stance on the Palestinian decision to ask for UN recognition in September.
Al-Ayyam had a picture on its front page and a story in a box on the weekly protests in several West Bank villages against Israel’s construction of a barrier on their land that would incorporate most of their agricultural land into Jewish settlements already built illegally on their land.
The papers also reported on an EU missions statement expressing concern regarding impact on peoples’ life because of the route of the barrier Israel is in the process of building around the village of Al-Walaja, mid-way between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and which will encircle the entire village.
Al-Quds chose to focus on the developments in Syria and Libya, with a picture from Bucharest of Syrians protesting Bashar Al-Assad rule. Al-Ayyam had also highlighted the developments in Syria and Libya on its front page.
Al-Ayyam had a story quoting two Palestinian officials as saying that going to the UN in September would only strengthen the role of the PLO and would not hurt the status of the refugees. The two officials, PLO Executive Committee member Hanna Amira and Palestine’s ambassador to Britain, Manual Hassassian, were speaking at a seminar in East Jerusalem on preparation for the September bid.
Hassassian said the UN bid would not undermine the status of the PLO or the refugees, responding to recent arguments that the PLO may lose it status as sole representative of the Palestinian people if a state is recognized and the refugees may also find themselves out in the cold.
Amira, on the other hand, reviewed the various options facing the Palestinians, such as whether to go the Security Council first, or the UN General Assembly first, or both at the same time, or just to ask for nonmember status in the UN.
An opinion article in Al-Ayyam by Hussein Hijazi defended the Palestinian decision to go to the UN, stressing that recognition of a state is not going to affect the status of the refugees or the PLO.
The editorial in Al-Quds urged the Palestinian people to show responsibility when it comes to marking and supporting the UN bid. It said Israel wants the slightest excuse to make the peaceful Palestinian celebrations appear as terrorist plots.
M.A.
