Jewish settlers invited Palestinians over for the holidays. Everything went better than expected.

[oberliner]

EFRAT, West Bank — The gathering wasn’t exactly unprecedented. Jewish settlers and their Palestinian neighbors have met quietly before, many times. But not like this. This meeting, this was rare.

The settlement of Efrat is a bedroom community of 10,000 affluent Jews, including many Americans, a few miles south of Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The residents of Efrat live the good life in a growing hilltop community the United States considers illegal and an obstacle to peace.

The Efrat mayor, Oded Revivi, who is also a colonel in the Israeli army reserves, invited Palestinians from surrounding villages to come to his house and celebrate the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, the Feast of the Tabernacles, when the faithful gather in palm-roofed huts, a remembrance of their 40 years of wandering landless in the desert, back in the time of Moses.

A couple dozen Palestinians accepted the mayor’s invitation earlier this week to share brownies, grapes, cookies, apples and coffee, alongside another 30 Israeli settlers. This was a first.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/jewish-settlers-invited-palestinians-over-for-the-holidays-everything-went-better-than-expected/2016/10/20/fa527250-960d-11e6-9cae-2a3574e296a6_story.html

[Little Tich]

1. Let them all be neigbours and equals.

The notion of coexistence implies equality...

[oberliner]

2. PA intel grills Palestinians who visited settler leader’s sukkah

Three Palestinians who accepted an invitation to the sukkah of the head of a West Bank settlement were summoned by Palestinian Authority intelligence on Thursday to explain why they had visited “murderers of babies.”

http://www.timesofisrael.com/pa-intel-grills-palestinians-over-visit-to-settlers-sukkah/

[leftynyc]

3. Are they still breathing?

[Little Tich]

4. An oppressive regime being oppressive. Quelle surprise... n/t

[oberliner]

5. The Palestinian Authority is a repressive regime?

What makes you say that?

[Little Tich]

6. Palestine: Crackdown on Journalists, Activists

Source: Human Rights Watch, AUGUST 29, 2016

Chilling Effect on Free Expression

(Ramallah) – The Palestinian authorities in the West Bank and Gaza are arresting, abusing, and criminally charging journalists and activists who express peaceful criticism of the authorities. The crackdown directly violates obligations that Palestine recently assumed in ratifying international treaties protecting free speech.

“Both Palestinian governments, operating independently, have apparently arrived at similar methods of harassment, intimidation and physical abuse of anyone who dares criticize them,” said Sari Bashi, Israel and Palestine country director at Human Rights Watch. “The Palestinian people fought hard to gain the protections that accompany membership in the international community, and their leaders should take their treaty obligations seriously.”

Human Rights Watch documented five cases – two in the West Bank and three in Gaza – in which security forces arrested or questioned journalists, a political activist, and two rap musicians based on their peaceful criticism of the authorities. Four of those arrested, two in Gaza and two in the West Bank, say that security forces physically abused or tortured them. The authorities in Gaza denied the allegations, and in the West Bank the authorities said they could not investigate the allegations in the absence of a formal complaint. These crackdowns follow a pattern of violations of the right to free speech and due process that Human Rights Watch has documented in the past five years, most recently in May 2015. In the West Bank, some progress has been made in protecting the rights of those arrested.

In Gaza, Hamas authorities detained and intimidated an activist who criticized the government for failing to protect a man with a mental disability; a journalist who posted a photograph of a woman looking for food in a garbage bin; and a journalist who alleged medical malpractice at a public hospital after a newborn baby died. In the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority (PA) arrested and charged activists and musicians who ridiculed Palestinian security forces for cooperating with Israel and accused the government of corruption. The offending statements were allegedly made in Facebook postings, graffiti, and rap songs.

Read more: https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/08/29/palestine-crackdown-journalists-activists

The article contains numerous examples of repressive behavior of PA and Hamas authorities towards their people, and the case with the 3 Palestinians who were questioned by PA intel is just one case of many. The negative aspects of the PA are seldom discussed in this group, probably because nobody here actually supports them.

[oberliner]

7. Human Rights Watch has a section on the United States as well

They point out human rights violations around the world.

Nobody here supports the PA? The PA and Hamas are the representative governments of the Palestinian people. The vast majority of Palestinians voted for and support either one or the other.

Which Palestinian leaders do you support?