U.S. President Barack Obama praised Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu for urging his cabinet to accept a U.S. proposal to extend a freeze on W. Bank settlements. The freeze would be extended for 90 days, RFE/RL reported.
Posts Tagged ‘Benjamin Netanyahu’
Clinton offers Netanyahu security pledge
November 12th, 2010 |
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Hillary Clinton assured Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel’s security requirements will be fully taken into account in any future peace deal with the Palestinians. U.S. secretary of state and the visiting Israeli prime minister ended multiple meetings over seven hours in New York Thursday with a declaration of the U.S. government’s “unshakable commitment to Israel’s security and to peace in the region.”
Palestinians warned against unilateral steps
October 29th, 2010 |
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Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday warned Palestinian government against attempts to replace the direct Israeli-Palestinian talks with unilateral actions.
Palestinians have sounded ideas of alternative ways of settling the Middle East conflict in circumvention of Israel amid stagnation of the direct negotiations.
Settlement on agenda of Mid-East peace talks
September 14th, 2010 |
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Renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks are opening in Egypt, amid concern over the imminent expiry of Israel’s partial ban on West Bank settlement-building. Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas will each meet Hillary Clinton in Sharm el-Sheikh before a three-way meeting.
Netanyahu downplays tensions with U.S.
March 28th, 2010 |
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Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu has moved to ease tensions with the U.S., describing the two countries’ relations as those of “allies and friends”. Netanyahu also dismissed reports one of his confidants called U.S. President Barack Obama a “disaster” for Israel.
Clinton, Netanyahu offer differing views of dispute
March 23rd, 2010 |
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However, both sides voiced confidence in the strength of their bilateral relationship in separate speeches to a pro-Israel U.S. lobbying group. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are offering up differing views about Israel’s recently announced housing plans for East Jerusalem. Meanwhile, at a Monday conference in Washington, the two sides suggested that the spat was behind them and voiced confidence in the strength of the bilateral relationship.
US ‘overestimated’ ability to influence Mideast process: Obama
January 22nd, 2010 |
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US President Barack Obama said Friday he may have overestimated the influence the US could exert over the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and regretted raising expectations for meaningful talks to restart this year.
Obama, in an interview with Time Magazine, said the political situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories had made it difficult for either side [...]
Germany assures Israel on Iran sanctions
January 19th, 2010 |
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Germany has told Israel it is ready to back new tougher sanctions on Iran. The assurance came during an official visit by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Berlin.
Gay Israelis rally after shooting
August 3rd, 2009 |
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Hundreds of Israelis have joined a rally organised by the gay community after shootings at a gay youth centre.
Two people died and at least 11 were hurt when the gunman opened fire at the Tel Aviv Gay and Lesbian Association before fleeing.
The city’s Mayor, Ron Huldai, said the motive was unclear and police declined to comment except to say a Palestinian link was not suspected.
But the protesters condemned the attack as Israel’s worst hate crime.
"I fear that if the man who did this is not found, the consequences to the gay community might be far-reaching -they might live in fear," said 47-year-old lawyer Arnon Hirsch.
The attacker, wearing a mask, opened fire indiscriminately with a pistol inside the centre on Nachmani Street.
The two people he killed were a man aged 26 and a 17-year-old girl.
Survivors described how the attacker kept firing as visitors to the centre dived for cover.
"I took cover with someone under a table, and he kept firing," said one injured teenager, Or Gil.
"When I got up it was horrifying, I just saw blood."
Gay rights activist Mike Hamel criticised religiously-driven hatred of homosexuals.
"Beyond the pain, the frustration and the anger, we are facing a situation in which the incitement to hate creates an environment that allows this to happen," he said.
One worker at the centre said some parents of the teenagers did not know their children were gay until they received phone calls telling them their children had been injured.
Support pledged
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to bring the killer to justice.
Opposition leader Tzipi Livni, who attended the rally, said the attack should strengthen young people who wanted to come out of the closet.
People from the gay community are allowed to serve openly in the military, and couples are given a measure of legal recognition.</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Palestinians evicted in Jerusalem
August 2nd, 2009 |
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Israeli police have evicted nine Palestinian families living in two houses in occupied East Jerusalem.
Jewish settlers moved into the houses almost immediately. The US has urged Israel to abandon plans for a building project in the area.
Israel has occupied East Jerusalem since 1967, a move not recognised by the international community.
The evictions have been condemned by the United Nations, the Palestinians and also the UK government.
‘Deplorable’
The operation to evict the 53 Palestinians in the Sheikh Jarrah district of the city was carried out before dawn on Sunday by police clad in black riot gear.
It followed a ruling by Israel’s Supreme Court that the land originally belonged to Jewish families. Israel wants to build a block of 20 apartments in the area.
The evictions were quickly condemned by the United Nations.
"I deplore today’s totally unacceptable actions by Israel," the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Robert H Serry said. "These actions are contrary to the provisions of the Geneva Conventions related to occupied territory.
"These actions heighten tensions and undermine international efforts to create conditions for fruitful negotiations to achieve peace," Mr Perry said.
Palestinian negotiator Saed Erakat said: "Tonight, while these new settlers from abroad will be accommodating themselves and their belongings in these Palestinian houses, 19 newly homeless children will have nowhere to sleep."
Sovereignty ‘unquestionable’
Israel considers a united Jerusalem to be the capital of the state of Israel.
"Our sovereignty over it is unquestionable," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last month.
"We cannot accept the idea that Jews will not have the right to live and buy [homes] anywhere in Jerusalem."
The BBC’s Tim Franks in Jerusalem says the houses are in what is probably the most contested city on earth and the diplomatic ripples from the evictions will spread.
The UK joined in the condemnation of the evictions. "These actions are incompatible with the Israeli professed desire for peace," the British Consulate in East Jerusalem said. "We urge Israel not to allow the extremists to set the agenda."
There are an estimated 250,000 Palestinians living in East Jerusalem and 200,000 Jews. </p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
US-Israeli talks make ‘progress’
July 28th, 2009 |
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US Middle East envoy George Mitchell is expected to call on Israel to halt new settlement construction, in a meeting with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
Mr Mitchell earlier said such difficult choices would need to be made, as he continues a US push seeking a comprehensive Middle East peace deal.
Mr Netanyahu has previously rejected a freeze on settlement building, saying "natural growth" must be allowed.
Settlement building has been a major block to peace with the Palestinians.
Mr Mitchell is one of several senior US officials visiting the Middle East trying to push the key players to take meaningful steps towards a comprehensive regional peace settlement.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has arrived in Baghdad after talks in Israel with officials there on Iran and its nuclear programme.
President Barack Obama’s National Security Adviser James Jones and veteran diplomat Dennis Ross are also to arrive in the region to join the diplomatic offensive.
‘Roadmap obligations’
In earlier meetings in the region, Mr Mitchell urged Israelis and Palestinians to make the difficult choices needed for peace.
He told Israeli President Shimon Peres on Monday that Israel could improve the climate by "dealing with difficult issues like settlements and outposts".
US-Israeli relations have become strained since President Obama demanded a halt to all Israeli settlement building in the occupied West Bank.
All settlements are illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this. Israel has settled more than 450,000 Jews in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
US DIPLOMATIC DIARY- Special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell (to Syria, Israel, Palestinian Territories, Egypt, Bahrain)
- Defence Secretary Robert Gates (to Israel, Jordan)
- National Security Adviser James Jones (to Israel)
- Envoy to the Gulf states Dennis Ross (to Israel)
Although the Israelis are reluctant to agree to demands that they stop settlement building, there may be a compromise brewing whereby the Israelis agree to finish the building of 2,000 new apartments a short distance inside the West Bank, but freeze all other construction.
However, the Palestinians have said nothing short of a complete and immediate end to settlement building will do. They have refused to meet their Israeli counterparts until settlement activity ceases.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat accused Israel of failing "to fulfill any of its roadmap obligations, including a settlement freeze, the reopening of Palestinian institutions in East Jerusalem, removal of outposts, the release of Palestinian prisoners", reports AFP news agency.
He spoke late on Monday after a meeting between Mr Mitchell and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
Earlier in the day Mr Mitchell met President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo – a day earlier than initially scheduled, apparently at Mr Mubarak’s request.
The Egyptians are currently brokering reconciliation talks between the deeply divided Palestinian factions of Fatah and Hamas.
Despite several rounds of talks, the two Palestinian factions are still at odds on the most sensitive issues, such as the shape of a future unity government, the remit of the joint security force and the system that would be implemented for any upcoming elections.
Iran options
Relations with Iran have also been on the agenda, with the US pushing for a response to earlier overtures.
Shortly after coming to office in January, Mr Obama said if Iran and countries like it were "willing to unclench their fists, they will find an extended hand from us".
On Monday, Defence Secretary Gates said the US offer to Iran was "not open-ended", echoing comments by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier this month.
Mr Obama was hoping for a response by the time of the UN General Assembly in September, Mr Gates added.
His Israeli counterpart Ehud Barak indicated that military action remained an option on Iran, following talks with Mr Gates in Jerusalem. But he added that "priority should be given still to diplomacy and sanctions".
Israel says Iran’s alleged nuclear ambitions remain its number-one concern and in recent weeks the US has expressed dismay about Iran’s suppression of protests over disputed presidential elections.
Iran denies claims it wants to build nuclear weapons, saying it is enriching uranium for a civilian energy programme.
Mr Gates later held talks with Prime Minister Netanyahu. The Israeli leader’s office said in a statement that he had emphasised the need to use "all available means" to prevent Iran developing nuclear weapons.
Are you in the region Can the push for Middle East peace work You can send us your views using the form below:
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This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
US presses Israel on settlements
July 27th, 2009 |
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Middle East envoy George Mitchell reportedly discussing deal to allow completion of homes currently under construction
Barack Obama has dispatched a clutch of senior American officials to Jerusalem to press his demand for an end to Jewish settlement construction and move along a diplomatic process aimed at imposing a blueprint for peace if negotiations fail.
Obama’s Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, is reportedly discussing a deal with the Israeli leadership that would allow the completion of several thousand homes for Jewish settlers already under construction but impose a total halt to building once they are complete. Such an agreement would amount to a concession by Obama, who laid down an immediate and complete freeze on construction as a marker of a more interventionist policy at a testy meeting with the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, in Washington in May.
But American sources close to the negotiations say that getting Netanyahu to agree that no new construction can begin is an important step toward forcing a new diplomatic process that is no longer hostage to Israeli intransigence.
The diplomatic moves came as the Israeli military announced that the number of Jewish settlers on the West Bank has risen above 300,000 for the first time with about 200,000 more in East Jerusalem. About 2.5 million Palestinians live in the same territory.
The US defence secretary, Robert Gates, is also in Israel as part of the drive to secure a comprehensive Middle East peace agreement.
The aim is to win a regional consensus on Iran’s nuclear programme but also reassure the Israelis that Washington has not gone soft on the issue in an effort to dampen Israeli threats of military action. Gates said he did not believe that Barack Obama’s timetable would “increase the risks to anybody” — a reference to Israeli concerns that its nuclear monopoly may soon be challenged by the Islamic republic.
Israel has hinted at a pre-emptive attack on Iran should it deem diplomacy to be at a dead end. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said today that he reaffirmed to Gates “the need to use all means to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear military capability”.
While the Obama administration continues to say that negotiation is the way forward, Gates today said that the promise of talks with Iran “is not an open-ended offer”.
Two other US officials are also visiting Jerusalem as part of the diplomatic push – Obama’s national security adviser, James Jones, who in an Israeli diplomatic memo was reported to have told European officials that the administration will take a hard line with the Israelis, and Dennis Ross, Bill Clinton’s special envoy to the peace process who was brought back to focus on Iran.
The immediate effort is around a settlement freeze.
Tel Aviv newspapers report that Israeli officials say that talks are moving toward a deal in which the Americans will permit the completion of 700 buildings with nearly 2,500 new homes in them that are already well under construction, mostly in two settlements close to the green line which are likely to fall inside the Jewish state’s border under a final agreement.
But as part of the agreement, the US intends to rigorously monitor the building work to ensure that the Israelis do not push it beyond the agreed limits.
The Americans are acutely aware that in the past Israel has agreed to contain settlement expansion and then promptly broken its word. This time the US is insisting on detailed plans of what would amount to a final bout of construction before a total halt to building comes in to force.
Mitchell is also pressuring Arab countries for gestures in response to an Israeli settlement freeze such as trade delegations or overflight rights.
Mitchell said at a press conference that the disagreement over settlement construction is a “discussion among friends” but it is also a test of Obama’s authority.
One former official who monitors the negotiations closely said that the US is prepared to give ground because it sees a settlement freeze as an important step toward reviving Israeli-Palestinian talks.
There is no great expectation in Washington that talks will go anywhere but that they should have been tried and failed once again will help smooth the diplomatic path for the administration’s plan to force its own proposals on to the table later this year which could force Israel to make significant territorial concessions.
The Palestinians have been insistent that there can be no talks without a settlement freeze.
That still leaves the question of Jerusalem as a major obstacle.
Netanyahu very forthrightly spurned US demands to block a new settlement project in the occupied east of the city where an American millionaire plans to bulldoze an old hotel and build Jewish-only housing.
The prime minister said that Israel will not be dictated to on where its citizens can live in what it says is its eternal and indivisible capital. Netanyahu later said that all of Jerusalem will remain under Israeli jurisdiction even after a peace settlement.
Some American officials think Netanyahu may be overplaying his hand because if he puts himself in a position where he is unable to give ground on Jerusalem, that will require others to lay down Israel’s final borders.
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US moves to reassure Israel over Iran
July 27th, 2009 |
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Defence secretary among four senior officials in the Middle East advocating a diplomatic solution to festering crisis with Tehran
The United States today sought to reassure Israel that it was worth attempting to persuade Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions — but made clear that Washington expected Tehran to reply to its diplomatic overtures by September.
Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, is one of four senior Obama administration officials visiting Israel this week, underlining the president’s determination to secure a comprehensive Middle East peace agreement.
Gates said he did not believe that Barack Obama’s timetable would “increase the risks to anybody” — a reference to Israeli concerns that its nuclear monopoly may soon be challenged by the Islamic republic.
Israel has hinted at a pre-emptive attack on Iran should it deem diplomacy to be at a dead end. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said today that he reaffirmed to Gates “the need to use all means to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear military capability”.
George Mitchell, the president’s special envoy, flew to Cairo today and was due back later for more meetings in Israel. On Saturday he was in Damascus meeting President Bashar al-Assad, who is being wooed by Obama after being shunned by the Bush administration.
The US envoy said restarting talks between Israel and Syria was a “near-term goal” for Washington. “I told President Assad that President Obama is determined to facilitate a truly comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace,” he told reporters.
Indirect negotiations between Syria and Israel, mediated by Turkey and centred on the occupied Golan Heights, were suspended during Israel’s offensive against the Gaza Strip in December. Turkey said this month it was ready to resume mediation efforts.
But there has been no public sign from Syria that Assad has agreed to influence Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement that controls Gaza, and the bitter opponent of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority. Hamas, listed as a terrorist organisation by the US and Britain, is based in Damascus.
The US is sending an ambassador back to Syria after withdrawing the previous incumbent in 2005 in protest at the Beirut assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, which was widely blamed on Damascus, despite repeated denials.
Syria’s foreign minister, Walid al-Muallem, said in London on Friday that Damascus – Tehran’s only Arab ally – could help find a way out of the impasse over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, complicated by domestic turmoil since last month’s disputed presidential elections.
As well as Iran, Gates’s talks in Israel centre on missile defence and bilateral security issues. General Jim Jones, Obama’s national security adviser, and Dennis Ross, a senior Middle East and Iran expert, are also due in Israel.
The flurry of high-level activity follows Obama’s long-heralded speech to the Arab and Muslim worlds in Cairo in June, when the president made clear his strategic commitment to working to achieve Middle East peace. These latest moves are intended to achieve concrete results.
Mitchell and the Israeli defence minister, Ehud Barak, have been trying to agree a delicate compromise on freezing Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank – a hot potato in Israeli domestic politics but vital if Arab countries are to take any steps, at the urging of the US, to “normalise” their relations with Israel.
Netanyahu has pledged not to build new outposts or expropriate territory in the West Bank. But he insists construction must continue to accommodate “natural” Jewish population growth. The precise definition of a moratorium has yet to be agreed, though Israeli officials speak of exempting 2,500 housing units that are still being built. Palestinians and Arabs say a total freeze is the minimum required and accuse Netanyahu of bad faith. Mitchell is also due to see Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, at his Ramallah headquarters.
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Britain ‘should approach Hamas’
July 26th, 2009 |
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In pictures: Gaza six months on
The UK government has come under rising pressure from MPs to start making contact with Palestinian group Hamas.
A Foreign Affairs Committee report also said it was "regrettable" UK-supplied military items were "almost certainly" used by Israel in the Gaza conflict.
The cross-party group, which monitors foreign policy, called on the EU to make relations with Israel conditional on its peace-making efforts.
Hamas was also criticised for its use of rockets on Israeli civilian targets.
‘Ineffective strategy’
But committee chairman Michael Gapes said the committee saw "few signs that the current policy of non-engagement with Hamas" was effective.
He added that the government "should urgently consider engaging with moderate elements within Hamas" as it had with the political wing of Hezbollah in Lebanon earlier this year.
The wide-ranging report condemns Israel for the continuing growth of settlements and for its blockades around the Hamas-controlled Gaza strip.
It was unacceptable, said Mr Gapes, to deny unrestricted access for humanitarian assistance.
And the report also called for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to declare whether it considered war crimes had been committed during the December 2008 to January 2009 conflict in Gaza and southern Israel.
Hamas came into criticism for its rocket attacks, but MPs concluded that Israel’s military action in Gaza was "disproportionate".
Who are Hamas
Mr Gapes said: "Rocket fire from Gaza by Hamas and other Palestinian groups on civilian targets in Israel is unacceptable.
"It generates the risk of a renewed escalation in violence, and constitutes a central obstacle in the way of Israeli willingness to move forward towards a two-state settlement."
The report welcomed the endorsement by the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of a two-state solution to the conflict.
The committee added that the split between Hamas in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank was a central obstacle to creating a united and democratic Palestinian state, and called for elections that could be accepted by all parties.
Former prime minister Tony Blair, who is now a Middle East peace envoy, was commended for "making an important contribution to Palestinian economic and institutional development".
But movement, access and administrative restrictions on the West Bank continued to represent a "major obstacle to further Palestinian economic development," it added.
Hamas takes its name from the Arabic initials for the Islamic Resistance Movement.
Designated a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US and the EU, it is seen by its supporters as a legitimate fighting force defending Palestinians from a brutal military occupation. </p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Iran: We Can Strike Israel’s Nukes
July 25th, 2009 |
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(AP) TEHRAN, Iran – The head of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard said Saturday that his country has the capability to strike Israel’s nuclear facilities and wouldn’t be afraid to do so if it was attacked.
“If the Israeli entity engages in any…
Israeli textbooks to drop ‘Nakba’
July 22nd, 2009 |
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Israel’s education ministry is to drop from an Arabic language textbook a term describing the creation of the state of Israel as "the catastrophe".
The Arabic word "nakba" has been used with Israeli-Arab pupils since 2007. It does not appear in Hebrew textbooks.
Education Minister Gideon Saar said no state could be expected to portray its own foundation as a catastrophe.
Israeli Arab MP Hana Sweid called the move an attack on Palestinian identity and collective memory.
The passage in question, which occurs in one textbook aimed at Arab children aged eight or nine, describes the 1948 war, which resulted in Israel’s creation, in the following terms: "The Arabs call the war the Nakba – a war of catastrophe, loss and humiliation – and the Jews call it the Independence War."
"There is no reason that the official curriculum should present the establishment of the state of Israel as a ‘catastrophe’"
Gideon Saar
Education Minister
The sentence was introduced when Yuli Tamir of the centre-left Labour party was education minister.
Ms Tamir’s successor in Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing administration, Mr Saar, said: "There is no reason that the official curriculum of the state of Israel should present the establishment of the state as a ‘holocaust’ or ‘catastrophe’."
Mr Saar added that state education for children was not supposed entail the de-legitimising of that state.
"Including the term in the official curriculum of the Arab sector was a mistake, a mistake that will not repeat itself in the new curriculum, which is currently being revised," he concluded.
Correspondents say most Hebrew-language history books, especially when written for schoolchildren, focus on the heroism of Israeli forces in 1948 and gloss over the mass exile of Palestinians.
If it is mentioned at all it is attributed to a voluntary flight, rather than the deliberate expulsion which later revisionist historians claim to have uncovered from archive sources.
The term Nakba is usually applied to the loss suffered by millions of Palestinian refugees displaced by the 1948 war and subsequent conflicts; their fate remains a key factor in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.
Jafar Farrah, director of Israeli-Arab advocacy group Moussawa, told the BBC that removing the word Nakba from textbooks would not stop Arabs from using it, but it would complicate relations.
Far-right members of the Israeli government are pursuing legislation to make it illegal in Israel to commemorate the Nakba, as Palestinians and their supporters do every 15 May.</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Israel to demolish 23 illegal settlements
July 22nd, 2009 |
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Israel is planning to remove 23 “illegal outposts” from the West Bank in the course of a single day in response to mounting US demands that it halt all settlement activity, it was reported today.
These outposts are defined as illegal by the Israeli government because they have not received planning permission. But under international law all settlements built on occupied territory are illegal. According to the Ha’aretz newspaper the outposts, housing 1,200 people, will all be evacuated and dismantled simultaneously following a decision by the Likud prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Israeli army denied receiving any orders for a “lightning evacuation”. Settler spokesmen warned of a furious response if any such move took place.
Israel has only twice evacuated Jewish settlements since the 1967 war: in 1981 when the Sinai desert was returned to Egypt, and in 2005, when Israel unilaterally withdrew troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip. Removing settlers from the West Bank will be far more controversial.
Israel has told the US it would remove “illegal” outposts built after March 2001. The current activity is in response to unprecedented pressure from Washington, where President Barack Obama has departed sharply from the informal acquiescence of the Bush administration.
Dan Meridor, a deputy prime minister with a reputation for moderation, insisted that tacit “understandings” with Bush still bound the Obama administration.
Netanyahu has insisted that construction must be permitted in existing settlements to accommodate what he calls “natural growth” in their populations. In all, nearly 500,000 Israelis now live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, both claimed by the Palestinians as part of their future independent state.
Tensions have flared in recent days since Netanyahu said the US had no right to demand that Israel halt plans to develop 20 apartments in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah. On Monday, campaigners protesting at the planned eviction of Palestinian families to make way for it appealed to Obama to stop the settlement.
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, said today: “What is required from Israel is to freeze all settlement activity. When Israel meets these demands, we will be ready to go to the final negotiations.”
France’s foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, meanwhile summoned the Israeli ambassador to Paris to complain about Jewish settlements. “These activities must be stopped,” warned Kouchner, “otherwise there will be no chance to found an independent Palestinian state that administers itself and also guarantees Israel’s security.”
Britain’s foreign office minister, Ivan Lewis, told MPs: “Israel should freeze all settlement activity, including the natural growth of existing settlements, and dismantle all outposts erected since March 2001.”
Sweden, current president of the EU, also urged Israel “to refrain from provocative actions in East Jerusalem, including home demolitions and evictions.” It added: “Such actions are illegal under international law.”
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Israel to demolish 23 illegal settlements
July 21st, 2009 |
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Israel is planning to remove 23 “illegal outposts” from the West Bank in the course of a single day in response to mounting US demands that it halt all settlement activity, it was reported today.
These outposts are defined as “illegal” by the Israeli government because they have not received planning permission. But under international law all settlements built on occupied territory are illegal. According to the Ha’aretz newspaper the outposts, housing 1,200 people, will all be evacuated and dismantled simultaneously following a decision by the Likud prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Israeli army later denied receiving any orders for a “lightning evacuation.” Settler spokesmen warned of a furious response if any such move took place.
Israel has only twice evacuated Jewish settlements since the 1967 war: in 1981 when the Sinai desert was returned to Egypt, and in 2005, when Israel unilaterally withdrew troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip. Removing settlers from the West Bank will be far more controversial.
Israel has told the US it would remove “illegal” outposts built after March 2001. The current activity is in response to unprecedented pressure from Washington, where President Obama has departed sharply from the informal acquiescence of the Bush administration.
Dan Meridor, a deputy prime minister with a reputation for moderation, insisted that tacit “understandings” with Bush still bound the Obama administration.
Netanyahu has insisted that construction must be permitted in existing settlements to accommodate what he calls “natural growth” in their populations. In all, nearly 500,000 Israelis now live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, both claimed by the Palestinians as part of their future independent state.
Tensions have flared in recent days since Netanyahu said the US had no right to demand that Israel halt plans to develop 20 apartments in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah. On Monday, campaigners protesting at the planned eviction of Palestinian families to make way for it appealed to Obama to stop the settlement.
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, said today: “What is required from Israel is to freeze all settlement activity. When Israel meets these demands, we will be ready to go to the final negotiations.”
France’s foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, meanwhile summoned the Israeli ambassador to Paris to complain about Jewish settlements. “These activities must be stopped,” warned Kouchner, “otherwise there will be no chance to found an independent Palestinian state that administers itself and also guarantees Israel’s security.”
Britain’s foreign office minister, Ivan Lewis, told MPs: “Israel should freeze all settlement activity, including the natural growth of existing settlements, and dismantle all outposts erected since March 2001.”
Sweden, current president of the EU, also urged Israel “to refrain from provocative actions in East Jerusalem, including home demolitions and evictions.” It added: “Such actions are illegal under international law.”
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Israel: Rabbi’s comments condemned
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has distanced himself from comments by a senior rabbi who called on God to strike down the country’s enemies with the plague. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual leader of Shas, a party in Israel’s coalition government, said the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, and others should “disappear from the earthâ€.