RAMALLAH, July 25, 2012 (WAFA) – An attempt by the all-Israeli West Jerusalem municipality to turn over responsibility and administration of the East Jerusalem neighborhoods that fall behind the separation wall was the focus of the Wednesday issue of the three Palestinian Arabic dailies.
Al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida highlighted this item as the top front page story, while al-Quds made it its second main front page story.
According to the papers, which based their story on a report that appeared in the Israeli daily Haaretz, since the municipality is unable to provide services to some 90,000 Palestinians living behind the wall, but which fall within the jurisdiction of the municipality for various reasons, mainly security, the army has been asked to come in to provide assistance.
The municipality called on the Israeli Civil Administration, a branch of the Israeli Ministry of Defense responsible for running affairs in the occupied Palestinian Territory, to take over providing services to the local population.
The main front page headline in al-Quds focused on reports of Israeli fears from Syria’s chemical weapons and said the Israeli army received orders to prepare for a military operation if needed; this story was also highlighted in al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida and all three papers reported heavily on the situation in Syria and international reaction to it.
The dailies also highlighted on the front page a report by a committee President Mahmoud Abbas had set up to investigate police crackdown on protesters in the center of Ramallah at the end of June.
The report said the crackdown, in which police and other security members in civilian clothes beat and arrested participants in demonstrations protesting a planned meeting between Abbas and the Israeli deputy Prime Minister, Shaul Mofaz, in Ramallah, as well as journalists covering them, was not justified.
The report, which was handed to Abbas, also said plainclothes policemen should not be allowed to infiltrate protests or be in the streets during demonstrations.
The papers reported on a meeting between Abbas and independent businessmen, during which Abbas told them that the local elections will be held on time, on October 20, in the West Bank alone since Hamas would not allow them in Gaza.
Al-Hayat al-Jadida said in a story that the European Union went ahead and took steps to strengthen relations with Israel in spite of Palestinian objections mainly due to Israel’s settlement policy, which is strongly criticized by the EU, but that it rejected a call by Israel to declare the Lebanese Hezbollah group as a terrorist organization.
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