Palestinians offer Gaza flotilla participants honorary citizenship
Activists inclined to turn down offer in wake of Haaretz report stating that PA is preventing passports from being issued to individuals affiliated with Hamas.
By Amira HassParticipants in May's Turkish-sponsored flotilla to Gaza have been offered "Palestinian citizenship" as a gesture of thanks. But after learning that the Palestinian Authority is refusing to issue passports to some Gaza residents, most of them decided to decline the offer.
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A Hamas policeman checks passports at the Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, June 2010 |
| Photo by: AP |
The offer was made about a week ago in an e-mail sent out by a member of IHH, the Turkish group that organized the flotilla. The email told participants they had been invited to "obtain Palestinian citizenship" by receiving a Palestinian passport. Haaretz has not learned who in the PA made this offer to IHH.
But while a lively debate ensued among the participants over whether to accept the offer, many ultimately decided against it, after reading Haaretz's report on the shortage of passports in Gaza and the fact that PA intelligence was preventing passports from being issued to certain individuals - usually either people affiliated with Hamas or people falsely accused of such affiliation.
Some of the participants were evidently unaware of the fact that there is no such thing as "Palestinian citizenship," since there is no Palestinian state, and that receipt of a Palestinian passport would therefore not confer such citizenship. Nor would such a document actually allow its holder to enter the West Bank or Gaza, since Israel, the occupying power, still determines who is permitted to become a "new" resident of these areas.
Hamas granted "diplomatic passports" to participants of the first three flotillas to Gaza, in the summer of 2008, but the holders later discovered the documents had no value beyond the symbolic. Three years ago, the PA issued a Palestinian passport to Israeli conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim as a gesture of appreciation, but this document, too, had only symbolic value.
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Is this a joke? Years ago the Yugoslavians tried to import their subcompact car to America. It was appropriately named the "Yugo". Sales were so bad that they started having the dealerships run lotteries to give out Yugos as prizes: First place was a brand new Yugo, second prize was two brand new Yugos... I would rather win second prize in a Yugo contest than have a single Palestinian citizenship conferred on me.
to the grand universal caliphate?
The arab MK Zouabi who illegally took part in this thing was punished by having her diplomatic passport revoked. Just think a real passport from Hamastan much more valuable to an arab than an Israeli one. Next thing you know they will be printing their own money - who wants to spend money with have pictures of zionist presidents, primeinister and poet when you could have pictures of Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussain, Arafat and Ahmadinejad.
What exactly is the symbolism of a Hamastan Islamo fascist state issued passport ,please elaborate Labhras ?
some of the palestinian authority moves, are delaying the moment that real passport will be issued. logic and goodwill is the only passport to peace, for a better future for the children of the region.
is bloody cheap..
as is the Palestinian 'Authority'. Hopefully Abbas will dissolve the PA without delay and allow Israel to take full responsibility for the people it occupies.
If you idiots really wanted to free gaza you will tell them to rise up and overthrow the islamist murderous overlords called Hamas.
You want a bunch of unarmed kids and women to do what the IDF cannot do.
Instead of annoying the whole world by complaining about Hamas, why don't you send the IDF to do the job?
You sound as if you work in Hamas.. The IDF can destroy all of Hamas like a tiny little ant in less than 4 hours and even Hamas themselves deep down know it. The only reason it hasn't happened is because of those "kids and women" you mentioned which Hamas has no problem propping up as a human bunker. Get Real, Hamas is a little bug only surviving because the International community won't let the IDF go and exterminate them without "oh the children and women" crap.
"he IDF can destroy all of Hamas like a tiny little ant in less than 4 hours" Yeah, the way the IDF destroyed Hezbollah in 2006, right.
...even if zionists always talking about how Gaza was left on their own..
Occupation. There are no soldiers(except Hamas terrorists and modest Shia police) walking the streets of Gaza. The only thing inside Gaza is Israeli electricity which supplies 70% of Gaza's power, mostly to fuel the rocket factories.
What about Egypt !
so sorry to disappoint you and give you heart burn but Israel moved out of gaza many moons ago the blockade was in order after kassams and other nasty things were shot at Israeli cities maybe even one hit your home
Your gov never gave up its legal "occupier" status. And that electricity was no gift. every watt is paid for, at a tidy profit.
they do it rather brutally,out of hand executions etc. who cares? not the thugs who runUNHRC.!
The Israeli Foreign Ministry doesn't agree. Neither does the US or UN or the Israeli PMO when asked to legally give up its status.
Israel still occupies Gaza as it controls its land borders, its sea borders, its airspace, and leads military incursions within Gaza each week (in the buffer zone).
we love GAZA! free palestine
There is no such thing as Palestine.
I think they should design a tube shaped palestinian passport for you and you can insert it where the sun don't shine!
You can have Gazastan citizenship and be part of the proud bunch of Islamo-facist terrorists regime, be part of a dictatorship that throws its opponents from rooftops or gun them down in the street; be part of Hamastan where if you say something they don't like, they literally cut your head; be part of Hamastan where women are operssed and sharia law rules, where nightclubs are burnt to the ground and people get clubbed for drinking beer. Be my guest
Bravo. Well stated. I could not have said it any better.
Haaretz don't get it, People are offered an "Honorary Citizenship", which means to them more than an actual citizenship to any other country. they're only doing it in support of the people of Palestine not for the material stuff
I suspect only Hamas members would stay behind with the rest taking advantage of the offer and immigrating to those countries without giving it a second thought.