Palestine Affairs

NOVANEWS   Senior Palestinian negotiator from 2008 who has been involved in talks for nearly 20 years despite lack of street credibility.    Ian Black, Middle East editor guardian.co.uk, 23 January 2011    Senior Palestinian negotiator from 2008, Saeb Erekat's sense of drama has enlivened hundreds of negotiations. Photograph: Muhammed Muheisen/AP Saeb Erekat has been negotiating with Israel on and off for nearly 20 years, beginning as vice-chairman of the Palestinian team at the landmark Madrid peace conference in 1991. Erekat's wisecracking style and sense of drama has enlivened hundreds of meetings – although he comes across in the leaked documents as slightly manic and often sarcastic. "Even rabbits have a defence mechanism," the PLO's chief negotiator quipped during a discussion...

NOVANEWS   Documents reveal dry sense of humour and combative style of foreign minister and lead Israeli negotiator in 2008 Ian Black, Middle East editor guardian.co.uk, 23 January 2011   Tzipi Livni, lead Israeli negotiator in 2008, argues that a peace settlement is still possible with the Palestinians. Photograph: Gali Tibbon/AFP/Getty Images It looked for a while as if Tzipi Livni might be the only woman after the redoubtable Golda Meir to become Israel's prime minister, but the rightwards drift of Israeli politics and the failing peace process seem to have put the highest office beyond her reach. Livni, whose Polish-born father was a commander in the pre-1948 Irgun group, moved from the Likud to join the centrist Kadima party set by up Ariel Sharon, becoming party leader after ...

NOVANEWS   The Israeli negotiator in 2008 held detailed talks with his Palestinian counterpart Saeb Erekat on the refugee issue. Ian Black guardian.co.uk,  24 January 2011    Tal Becker was a key Israeli member of the Annapolis negotiations in 2008. Photograph: World Jewish Congress Tal Becker, legal adviser to the then Israeli foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, was a key member of his country's negotiating team in the Annapolis process. The offspring of a Moroccan father and an Australian mother, he still speaks with the accent he acquired growing up in Melbourne. Becker studied at a yeshiva (talmudical college) in the West Bank and immigrated to Israel in 1994. During his military service he was a legal adviser to the army in Gaza and was involved in negotiations over operating a "sa...

NOVANEWS   US special envoy from 2009 combines resolve to bring Israelis and Palestinians together, with realistic take on likelihood of deal   Ian Black guardian.co.uk, 24 January 2011   The appointment of George Mitchell (right) as US special envoy to the Middle East was seen as strong evidence of Barack Obama's (left) commitment to getting the negotiations moving. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images George Mitchell came to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process with previous experience of the Middle East, as well as his much-praised success in brokering the 1998 Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland. His appointment by Barack Obama in January 2009 was seen as powerful evidence of the president's commitment to getting talks moving. Mitchell insisted from the start he was int...

NOVANEWS   The US secretary of state displayed the patience needed for the long-haul frustrations of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations   Ian Black guardian.co.uk, 24 January 2011    US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice (centre), with Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert (right), and Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, at a meeting in 2007. Photograph: Oded Balilty/AP For the first three years of Condoleezza Rice's term as secretary of state, the US did little to advance Israeli-Palestinian peace as George Bush's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan overshadowed the Middle East's older conflict. Rice's involvement began in earnest before Israel's unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip, when she promised the Palestinians that Bush was keen to move on to talks on "permanent status" is...

NOVANEWS   Palestine papers: Mohammed Dahlan   Former Fatah security chief who had close links to the CIA and Israel's Shin Bet security service Ian Black guardian.co.uk, 25 January 2011    Mohammed Dahlan was reportedly suspended from the Fatah central committee last year and put under investigation over alleged plans to oust the Palestinian president. Photograph: Abbas Momani/AFP/Getty Images Mohammed Dahlan is a Fatah leader from a refugee family who served time in Israeli prisons during the first intifada and became head of the Preventive Security Organisation in Gaza after Yasser Arafat's return following the Oslo accords. Dahlan was in close contact with the CIA and Israel's Shin Bet security service and accumulated a personal fortune. He was accused of creaming off tax reven...

NOVANEWS   Palestine papers: Shaul Mofaz   Former IDF chief of staff and defence minister who was a key figure in co-ordinating security with the Palestinian Authority Ian Black guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 25 January 2011    Shaul Mofaz visiting a Jewish settlement during his time as Israeli defence minister. Photograph: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters Shaul Mofaz served as defence minister under Ariel Sharon in the runup to Israel's unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in August 2005 and was a key figure in security co-ordination with the Palestinian Authority (PA). The main effort was to galvanise Fatah to fight Hamas and other groups and to keep up the pressure once the Gaza "disengagement" was completed. Israel's strategy, then as now, was to persuade the PA to take action – but act its...

NOVANEWS   Leaked papers reveal close intelligence and security co-operation between two sides in Middle East conflict     Ian Black, Middle East editor guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 25 January 2011   Palestinian mourners carry al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade commander Hassan al-Madhoun during his funeral after he was killed by an Israeli missile strike. Photograph: Abid Katib/Getty Images Hassan al-Madhoun got a martyr's funeral – his body borne aloft on a stretcher, blood seeping through the bandages swathing his head as masked men fired machine-gun volleys into the air and crowds called for revenge. Madhoun's life ended in Gaza's Jabaliya refugee camp on 1 November 2005 when the car he was travelling in with another Palestinian fighter was incinerated by a missile fired from an Israeli drone,...

NOVANEWS   • Internment and replacement of imams among measures • Document proposed 'direct lines' to Israeli intelligence • New files reveal Israel requested assassination of militant Ian Black and Seumas Milne guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 25 January 2011   Palestinian special guards march in front of President Mahmoud Abbas' headquarters in the West Bank Photograph: Loay Abu Haykel/Reuters British intelligence helped draw up a secret plan for a wide-ranging crackdown on the Islamist movement Hamas which became a security blueprint for the Palestinian Authority, leaked documents reveal. The plan asked for the internment of leaders and activists, the closure of radio stations and the replacement of imams in mosques. The disclosure of the British plan, drawn up by the intelligence serv...

NOVANEWS   Disclosure in Palestine papers that negotiators gave up fight over refugees is greeted with disgust in Bethlehem camp     Harriet Sherwood in Bethlehem guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 25 January 2011    A section of Israel's separation barrier runs alongside the Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem. Photograph: Kevin Frayer/AP In a crowded room in Aida refugee camp, Abu Khalil sipped sweet tea before listing reasons why he will never give up his right to return to his family's pre-1948 home. "My home, my land, my mosque, my identity, my dreams. Everything I live for. You want me to give up all these things for a state?" All Palestinians agree, he said; there can be no compromise. Certainly in this refugee camp at the edge of Bethlehem, where boys today played football in the shadow ...