- 6 dec 2011
Hamas denounces Israeli plan to build park on Palestinian land in OJ
DAMASCUS, (PIC)-- Hamas denounced the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) for planning to build a public park on Palestinian land east of occupied Jerusalem between Tur and Aisawiya towns.
Hamas strongly condemned in a press release on Tuesday the IOA for robbing Palestinian land and demolishing Palestinian homes in occupied Jerusalem to serve its settlement schemes.
It described the IOA act as a flagrant violation of the international law and a racist practice targeting the Palestinian presence in the holy city.
The IOA policy of demolishing houses and stealing land would only boost the Palestinian people’s insistence on their rights and constants, the movement underlined.
Hamas concluded by calling on the Islamic cooperation organization and human rights groups to stand up to such “Zionist policy”, and to check the IOA criminal practices against the Palestinian people and land.
Hebrew daily Ha’aretz said that the organization and construction committee in the Jerusalem municipality had decided to build the park on an area of 734 dunums of land mostly owned by Palestinian citizens.
http://fwd4.me/0iBk
Report: Israel plans park to block Issawiya expansion
TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma'an) -- A left-wing member of Israel's Jerusalem city council says a plan for a new "national park" in the Mt Scopus area is a "ruse" to block development of two Palestinian neighborhoods.
Meir Margalit of the Meretz party told Israel's Haaretz daily that the park "is a farce. There's nothing there but rocks and thorns, certainly nothing to justify a national park."
He added: "The only reason for such a plan is to seize lands and hold them as a reserve for a future settlement, while suffocating the Palestinian neighborhoods."
Efrat Cohen, an architect and activist with the rights group Bimkom, said the park is intended to stop the group's plan to renovate areas in al-Tur and Issawiya, which are populated by Palestinians.
"These two neighborhoods are boxed-in from all sides, they have no other way for development".
The report said authorities had meanwhile stopped plans for settlement in the the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood, construction that had sparked criticism from the US.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=442376 7 jan 2012, 23:47 , Respect -
Maria 7 dec 2011
PLO: 2,900 New Settlement Units and 8,900 Stolen Dunums in November
The illegal Israel settlement of Nevi Daniel, near Bethlehem in the southern West Bank
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Department of International Relations said in its monthly report on Thursday that in November, Israeli forces confiscated 8,912 dunums of land (a dunum is about a quarter of an acre), demolished 39 buildings, uprooted 715 trees and arrested 181 Palestinians. In the same period, the Israeli government authorized 2,934 new settlement units.
The Israeli army and Israeli settlers combined killed five Palestinians, four of them in airstrikes on the Gaza and one Palestinian struck in purpose by a settler’s car near Salfit. Thirty people were injured in November as a result of Israeli military assaults against peaceful marches against the wall.
According to the report, Israeli troops arrested 180 people in November and detained an additional 253 during nighttime raids. Several released prisoners have faced harassment and interrogation by Israeli intelligence agents, and 84 released prisoners were forbidden from going on the Hajj pilgrimage.
Meanwhile inside Israeli military prisons, the PLO claimed prisoner administrators had stepped up abuses, renewing terms of solitary confinement for many of them, refusing to medicate sick prisoners, and withholding warm clothes for the winter.
The report also mentioned the November arrests of Palestinian journalists Israa Salhab and Ra’ed al-Sharif as well as the renewed detention of journalist Walid Khalid. The journalist Majdi Ishtayeh was injured when a tear gas canister struck his left foot during a protest in al-Nabi Saleh.
Also in the monthly report were the arrests of 11-year-olds Omar and Ala’ Abu Madi, boys from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, as well as the withdrawal of residence rights from Ammar Badreya and his family, who live in the al-Matar neighborhood in Qalandia, under the pretext that their house is on the borders of the West Bank .
Settlers also perpetrated “price tag” attacks in the Mamilla Cemetery in Jerusalem, writing racist slogans such as “Death to Arabs” on graves and a nearby wall. The 1000-year-old site is due to be destroyed to make room for the Jerusalem Museum of Tolerance.
In the same month, the PLO said Israeli authorities had prepared a document authorizing 60,718 settlement units to be built over the next twenty years. Of those, 53,000 will be on Palestinian land in East Jerusalem, including a 2,580-square-meter parcel of land in Silwan designated to be a public garden and parking lot.
West Bank Bedouin after house demolition
The Israeli Interior Ministry started taking construction bids on 750 settlement units in Gilo, near Bethlehem, and 65 settlement units in Pisgat Ze’ev, near Jerusalem.
According to the report, the Israeli army assumed control over 8,912 dunums of land in November (about 2,250 acres), including 7,000 dunums in Bethlehem, under the absentee property law in which the State of Israel takes over land rights from absent or exiled Palestinian owners. Twelve dunums were handed over to Israel in the village of al-Khader, 1,500 were annexed from the Bardala region in the northern Jordan Valley to kibbutzes inside the Green Line, and 400 dunums were taken from Qalandia to build the wall.
Israeli demolition operations continued against Palestinian communities, resulting in the destruction of one mosque, 12 houses, 14 Bedouin tents, six greenhouses, and seven underground wells. Israeli authorities also served demolition warnings to homeowners in Qabod village, south of Hebron, citing their lack of building permits. The principal of Susya school in the South Hebron Hills was also given a demolition notice for the school, water well, and three nearby greenhouses.
http://fwd4.me/0iAO 7 jan 2012, 23:47 , Respect -
Maria 8 dec 2011
Newspaper Review: Dailies Report on Israeli Decision to Build 14 Units in East Jerusalem
RAMALLAH, (WAFA) – The three dailies Thursday reported on the new Israeli decision to build 14 housing units in Ras al-Amoud neighborhood, in East Jerusalem.
Al-Ayyam reported on Jerusalem Municipality’s approval of building 14 new housing units in Ras al-Amoud on land belonging to Palestinians.
The paper quoted an Israeli member of the ‘Ir Amim’ organization, which calls for Palestinian-Israeli coexistence, saying, “This decision will inflame the situation by encouraging the settlers’ presence in this neighborhood.”
Al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida reported on the Palestinian leadership’s determination to seek membership in the United Nations to face the escalating Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank.
The three dailies’ main pages focused on the settlers’ assault of a mosque in Bruqin village of Salfit governorate, in which Israeli settlers set fire to the mosque’s entrance and a number of cars around it.
They printed photos of the burned entrance of the mosque.
Al-Ayyam reported on an attack that targeted Shujaiyya and Zeytoun neighborhoods in Gaza, killing one member of Islamic Jihad and injuring 5 others.
Al-Quds editorial highlighted the continuous Israeli plans to build national parks and housing units in East Jerusalem on land belonging to Palestinians.
It said, “These plans are examples of the Israeli measures to displace Palestinians and control Jerusalem, which makes any political solution impossible.”
It presented a question on whether Israeli arrogance and total disregard of Palestinian rights will continue.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18284 7 jan 2012, 23:47 , Respect -
Maria 9 dec 2011
France condemns new East Jerusalem settler homes
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- A French foreign ministry spokesman said on Friday that Israeli approval of a new settlement complex in a Palestinian neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem was a "provocation" that harms peace.
Jerusalem city council's planning committee accepted the proposal to build the 14-home project, to be named Maale David, in Palestinian Ras al-Amud on Wednesday.
"The building of a settlement in this neighborhood constitutes a direct obstacle to the two-State solution that Israel claims to support," the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs Spokesman said in a statement.
It called on the Israeli government to "prevent the effective implementation of this project."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=443449 7 jan 2012, 23:48 , Respect -
Maria 12 dec 2011
Israel approves 40 settler homes near Bethlehem
Palestinian metal collectors work in front of an Israeli settlement near the West Bank city of Qalqiliya.
ERUSALEM (AFP) -- Israel has approved construction of 40 homes and a farm in two new settler enclaves near the southern West Bank town of Bethlehem, Haaretz daily reported on Monday.
"Israel's military establishment has approved the establishment of a new, permanent neighborhood and a farm near the West Bank settlement of Efrat," the paper said.
"The projects will go beyond the community's current built-up area, constituting an effective expansion of the Etzion bloc of settlements toward the north and northeast," it added.
"With their completion, Jewish settlement in the northern Etzion bloc will reach the edges of Bethlehem's southernmost suburbs."
Plans for the new neighborhood called Givat HaDagan, were approved by Defense Minister Ehud Barak and a tender for construction was issued this week, the paper said, while the farm, Givat Eitam, was approved by the military.
Defense ministry officials could not be reached for comment, but settlement watchdog Peace Now said the project should be seen in the light of Israel's stated intention to annex the Etzion bloc in any future agreement with the Palestinians.
"The building in Efrat is especially sensitive in my opinion, because it is east of the road leading to Bethlehem," the NGO's Hagit Ofran told AFP. "That means that if Israel wants to annex Efrat, it will cut off Bethlehem from the southern West Bank."
Israel has come under renewed international criticism for its surge of settlement activities since a government decision on November 1 to speed up building in response to Palestine joining UNESCO.
More than 310,000 Israelis live in settlements in the occupied West Bank and the number is constantly growing.
Another 200,000 live in a dozen settlement neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, which was captured by Israel in 1967 and annexed in a move never recognized internationally.
The international community considers all settlements in territories occupied by Israel since June 1967 are illegal, whether or not approved by its government.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=444266
Israel's growing wall of steel fences off Egypt
NETAFIM, Israel (AFP) -- Far from the uproar of Cairo's Tahrir Square, Israel has been doubling its efforts to erect a giant, impenetrable security barrier along its 240-kilometer border with the Egyptian Sinai.
Work on the new border fence began a year ago, in a project initially aimed at stemming the growing tide of economic migrants and asylum seekers from Africa, as well as clamping down on drug trafficking.
But the pace of work has sped up since August, when gunmen from Sinai sneaked across the border and staged a series of deadly ambushes in Israel's southern Negev desert, putting security firmly at the top of the agenda.
"In a month's time, we will have built 100 kilometers of the barrier which by the end of 2012, will extend some 240 km along the border," a senior military officer in the southern command told AFP.
When completed, the fence will stretch the entire length of Israel's desert frontier with Egypt, starting from the Red Sea resort town of Eilat in the south and ending at the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Gaza.
"For us, it is still a border of peace," he said, pointing to the carcass of a bus which was strafed with gunfire during the August 18 attacks, a series of coordinated ambushes by gunmen who attacked route 12 in the Netafim area, some 20 kilometers north of Eilat.
Eight Israelis were killed during the attacks, along with seven of the gunmen, and five Egyptian policemen who were accidentally shot dead by Israeli troops as they hunted down the remaining attackers in an incident which sparked a diplomatic crisis between the two countries.
"The joint Israeli-Egyptian inquiry (into the incident) has not yet started but cooperation with our Egyptian counterparts continues through the intermediary in our unit for liaising with foreign armies," he said.
Some 200 meters away, some dozen Egyptian policemen dressed in khaki trousers and T-shirts kicked a ball around near a position which is topped by a watchtower painted in the red, white and black of the national flag.
On the Israeli side, bulldozers, cement mixers and jackhammers were hard at work, kicking up a cloud of dust.
All along route 12, the border road which cuts through a landscape of craggy peaks and ravines, the towering barrier is becoming a concrete reality.
At a rate of 800 meters per day, the giant wall is erasing all trace of the old frontier, which was marked by barbed wire strung between wooden poles which was easy to cut through or climb over because it often fell down.
The new frontier is five meters high and topped with metal spikes, with a foundation which reaches another meter down into the rocky soil.
In front of it are three rolls of barbed wire piled on top of each other, and the entire structure is bristling with surveillance technology: sensors, radars, antennae and cameras.
Building the new frontier has accounted for 15 percent of Israel's entire annual steel consumption, with the overall cost of the project set to come in at 1.35 billion shekels ($360 million).
"Unfortunately, we cannot prevent firing from the heights overlooking us, but the concrete fortifications along the road will allow drivers to take cover," the officer said.
He believes that route 12, which has been closed since the August attack, will soon be reopened to hikers.
Despite his assurances, the tension is palpable.
The number of troops in the area "has increased considerably" and "battle-hardened" units in armored-personnel carriers are deployed there, he said.
The army has also increased its rapid response capabilities and upped the number of radar installations and observation posts in the region. Overhead, two surveillance balloons provide an aerial perspective.
For the time being, the border is still porous.
"The Bedouin from the Sinai are benefiting from this," he said. "They receive $3,000 for each African migrant they get across."
In 2010, some 14,735 illegal immigrants, mostly Eritreans, crossed the border into Israel, which for them is nothing short of the promised land.
Of that number, only 7 percent were granted the status of asylum seekers.
This year, official statistics show that by early November, 12,407 "infiltrators" had entered Israel, with 950 crossing the border in the first six days of November.
"Israel is a small country. It cannot allow itself to be flooded with illegal economic migrants," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week.
"It is a threat to the society, the economy and to security."
On Sunday, cabinet ministers voted to approve new measures to further clamp down on immigration, including enlarging a desert detention camp at Ketziot near the Egyptian border, expanding its capacity from 2,000 places to 5,500.
The border area is also a paradise for Bedouin smugglers, with the Israeli authorities often seizing drugs, cigarettes and telecommunications equipment -- and even weapons and explosives heading for the Gaza Strip.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=444256 7 jan 2012, 23:48 , Respect -
Maria 13 dec 2011
Rights Group: Land Swap is Illegal
RAMALLAH, (WAFA) – Human rights group Al-Haq published on Tuesday the new position paper of “Exploring the Illegality of ‘Land Swap’ Agreements under Occupation,” said a press release issued by Al-Haq.
The paper examines the legal implications of ongoing ‘land swap’ agreements concluded between Israel and the Palestinian representatives during the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.
Given the recent calls of the international community for a kick-start to the peace process between Israel and Palestine based on the 1967 borders with ‘mutually agreed land swaps,’ Al-Haq emphasized that agreements involving land swaps are not compatible with the law of occupation.
Commenting on the proposal for land swaps, Shawan Jabarin, General Director of Al-Haq, said that “the Fourth Geneva Convention protects the interests of the occupied population and clearly states that any agreements that undermine their rights are prohibited as they are borne of a clear imbalance of power between the two parties involved.”
He added that rather than facilitating the exercise of self-determination and Palestinian sovereignty over their natural resources, ‘land swap’ agreements concluded under occupation will result in further fragmentation of Palestinian society and will effectively constitute official sanctioning of the dispossession of Palestinian land.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18347
Israeli Settlement Activities in Palestinian Territory “Illegal,” says Russia
MOSCOW, (WAFA) – The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement published Monday that Israeli settlement activities in the Palestinian Territory seized in 1967 are “illegal” according to international law.
The ministry issued a statement regarding continued Israeli settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian Territory, especially after reports of approving the building of 40 housing units in Efrat settlement near Bethlehem and the building of 14 housing units in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras al-Amoud.
The statement said Israeli settlement activity is a key reason for the impasse in the Middle East peace process, and affects very negatively the efforts of the Middle East Quartet to re-launch negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians based on international resolutions.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18343 7 jan 2012, 23:48 , Respect -
Maria 14 dec 2011
Israel Plans 2600 Settlement Units in Beit Safafa
On Tuesday, Palestinian mayor of Jerusalem Adnan al-Husseini joined a PLO Negotiation Departmenet tour of the village of Beit Safafa, outside of Jerusalem, where the Israeli government has planned 2600 new residential units. Al-Husseini said the settlement aimed to handicap the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The new settlement units will result in the confiscation of Beit Safafa farmland and the separation of families. Al-Husseini also claimed the effort to separate Jerusalem from other Palestinian cities was intended to stop Palestinians from getting part of the city as their capital.
Al-Husseini e asked the PLO delegation and accompanying journalists from Europe and North America to present the reality to their countries and peoples and called on them to expose the Israeli government’s “extremist polices.”
The tour also stopped by Cremisan, a region of Beit Jala near Bethlehem, where Israeli bulldozers have begun razing land and uprooting olives trees to build the wall, according to Ashraf al-Khatib, a media advisor in the PLO Negotiation Department.
http://fwd4.me/0iaR
- 1 dec 2011
France Condemns Israeli Decision to Build 100 Housing Units in Jerusalem
PARIS, (WAFA) - France condemned on Thursday the Israeli authorities’ decision to legalize the construction of more than 100 housing units in the settlement of Shilo in the West Bank, a significant distance east of the Green Line, according to a statement issued by the spokesman of the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs.
He said that settlement activity is illegal under international law, threatens the two-state solution and constitutes an obstacle in the path toward a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.
In a related matter, Ambassador Maged Abdel Fattah, Egypt's permanent representative to the UN, affirmed in a statement the need for the the international community, represented by the Security Council and the General Assembly of the United Nations, to pressure Israel to halt all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18201 7 jan 2012, 23:47 , Respect -
Maria 2 dec 2011
Israel builds road for Jerusalem settlements
JERUSALEM (AFP) -- Israel's Jerusalem city council has begun work on a controversial new road linking settlement neighborhoods in the annexed eastern sector to the center, the website of the Haaretz daily said Friday.
It said the new road, route 20, would link the existing ring road with the settlement districts of Neve Yaakov and Pisgat Zeev, and the Palestinian neighborhoods of Beit Hanina and Shuafat.
Construction, at a cost of around 30 million euros ($40 million), is expected to last 14 months, Haaretz said.
Confirming the report, city councillor Pepe Alalu, of the left-wing Meretz party slammed the project as a unilateral Israeli step implemented without consultation with the Palestinians.
"The new road will serve mainly Jewish settlements and it was for this purpose that it is being built," he said.
The Israeli government last month announced tenders for the construction of 800 housing units in east Jerusalem, which it occupied in the 1967 Six Day war and annexed shortly afterwards in a move never recognized by the international community.
Israel considers all of Jerusalem its "eternal and indivisible" capital, while the Ramallah-based Palestinian leadership wants to make east Jerusalem the capital of the state to which they aspire.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=441375 7 jan 2012, 23:47 , Respect -
Maria 3 dec 2011
Israel Approves 650 Units In Pisgat Zeev Settlement
The Israeli “Regional Construction and Planning Committee” at the Jerusalem Municipality approved a plan to construct 650 units in Pisgat Zeev settlement that was built in 1985 on lands that belongs to Palestinian residents of Beit Hanina and Hizma, north of occupied Jerusalem.
Khalil At-Tafakji, a Palestinian expert in maps and settlements, reported that the plan was officially approved, and that the construction project was published in Israeli papers under project #11647 for appeal purposes.
Tafakji stated that these units are part of a larger plan that aims at constructing 58.000 units by the year 2030 after the deadline was originally 2020.
He said that the plan also includes malls, public facilities and institutions in addition to hundreds of apartments and homes for the settlers.
It is worth mentioning that the originally approved Industrial Zone was voided, while the 300 Dunams (74.13 Acres) of Palestinian lands in Hizma and Beit Hanina that were allocated for the Industrial Zone will be used for the construction of hundreds of residential units.
The lands in question will be used for the benefit of the illegal Pisgat Zeev settlement, close to the Hizma military roadblock.
Tafakji said that Israel is going on with the work on Road #20, an issue that is leading to more confiscation of lands that belong to the Palestinian residents of Beit Hanina; the road is planned to be completed within six months.
As part of the construction of Road #20, Israel built two sections of the bridge that will be used to link between Pisgat Zeev settlement and settlement road #443 (Modi’in-Tel Aviv).
Road #20 divides Beit Hanina into two parts and illegally grabs large areas of Palestinian lands. The road is meant to allow the settlers faster access to and from the settlements.
Settlements are illegal under International Law and the Fourth Geneva Conventions which Israel is Signatory.
http://www.imemc.org/article/62606
Islamic Cooperation Condemns Israeli Expansion of Settlements
CAIRO, (WAFA) - Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, strongly condemned in a press release issued Saturday Israeli government approval to build 650 housing units in Jerusalem-area settlements and a new road that would link settlements in this area.
“The Israeli settlement policy aims to isolate Jerusalem from its Palestinian surroundings and change its demographic character in a blatant violation of international law and United Nations resolutions,” said Ihsanoglu.
He called on the Quartet, which is composed of the UN, United States, European Union and Russia, and the UN Security Council to adopt a decisive position to end all provocative measures and illegal practices in the occupied Palestinian Territory, particularly in East Jerusalem.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18224
Israel to build more illegal settlements
(2:57) Israel to build more illegal settlements - Press TV News
For Palestinian Christians, Israel's intention to build the settlement of Givat Hamatos does not only mean the destruction and confiscation of their land, but also changing and even destroying a landscape of historic and religious value.
The land that has been designated for the settlement of Givat Hamatos belongs to the ancient town of Beit Jala, just west of Bethlehem, and when it comes to settlements in this particular area south of Jerusalem Al-Quds, it seems that beit Jala's residents are getting the brunt of it.
George al alam and his ancestors have been living and farming this land for generations, but that's about to change; very soon.
This area here, called Crimsan, is now threatened to be cut off from the rest of Beit of Jala by the Israeli separation barrier.
For five consecutive Fridays, Palestinian Christians have been holding the afternoon mass here on this land in crimsan beit jala in protest to an Israeli plan to confiscate a nearby area to make way for the separation barrier and to expand Israeli settlements.
A local Priest warns; Israel's measures are going to have dire consequences on an already fast disappearing Palestinian Christian community.
Beit Jala has a population of about 17000; over two thirds of them are Palestinian Christians while Palestinian Muslims account for the rest.
Despite fierce opposition by the Palestinians and condemnation from the EU and the UN Israel remains adamant on settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The Palestinian Authority has pulled away from talks with Israel more than a year ago over the latter's refusal to halt settlement construction.
http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/213497.html
IOA approves plan to expand Bzjat Ze'ev settlement in O. Jerusalem
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli district committee for planning and building in occupied Jerusalem approved the construction of 650 housing units in Bzjat Ze'ev settlement, which was established in 1985 on Palestinian lands in Beit Hanina and Hazma, north of the holy city.
Specialist in maps and settlement activities Khalil Tufkaji said the plan was really endorsed and announced in newspapers for objection.
Tufkaji explained that these units are part of a bigger plan to build 85, 000 housing units and structures until the year 2030 in Jerusalem.
The specialist noted that this has been the third announcement related to the expansion of Bzjat Ze'ev settlement since the start of 2011.
He added that the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has surveyed the area to expand Bzjat Ze'ev and is about to finish the building of street no. 20 in Beit Hanina in the few coming months.
This new street is obviously aimed at strengthening Israel's grip on Jerusalem and changing its Arab identity, where it will connect the settlement of Pisgat Ze'ev, Prophet Jacob, Anatot, Shuafat and Beit Hanina, the specialist stated.
http://fwd4.me/0hxL
Israel blames Palestinians for peace stalemate
JERUSALEM (AFP) -- Israel on Saturday blamed the Palestinians for stalled peace talks, in a rebuttal to US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta who said Israel must take concrete steps to revive the process.
"To our regret the Palestinians are the ones who decided to boycott the negotiations," said Mark Regev, the spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"We would like to see direct negotiations with no preconditions, and we stand ready to resume them. But the Palestinians must renounce their attitude of rejection," Regev said.
His comments come a day after Panetta urged Israel to try and end its increasing regional "isolation" by repairing diplomatic ties with Egypt and Turkey and renewing peace efforts with the Palestinians.
"Unfortunately, over the past year, we've seen Israel's isolation from its traditional security partners in the region grow, and the pursuit of a comprehensive Middle East peace has effectively been put on hold," he said.
Israel needed "to lean forward on efforts to achieve peace with the Palestinians," Panetta said Friday at an event organized by the Brookings Institution's Saban Center for the Middle East, a Washington think tank.
"Just get to the damn table," he said, when asked what concrete steps Israel needed to promote peace with the Palestinians.
Regev insisted that Israel had accepted to resume peace talks without preconditions following a bid in September by the Middle East Quartet to revive negotiations.
The Quartet -- the European Union, Russia, United Nations and United States -- has been working to relaunch direct peace talks, which ground to a halt shortly after they began over the issue of Israeli settlement construction.
But the efforts have so far failed and the Palestinians have said they will not resume talks before Israel freezes settlements and accepts the 1967 borders as the basis for negotiations.
Israeli-Palestinian talks came to a halt in September 2010 when Israel ended a moratorium on construction in the occupied territories.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=441647 7 jan 2012, 23:47 , Respect -
Maria 4 dec 2011
PA: Abbas, Netanyahu will not meet unless settlements stop
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- President Abbas' office said Saturday that he will not meet with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu unless Israel completely halts settlement activity.
An Israeli official, who wished to remain anonymous, had told Ma'an earlier on Saturday that Netanyahu was ready to meet Abbas anytime, anywhere.
“Such a meeting is contingent upon halting settlement activities completely. It isn’t a meeting for public relations," Presidential adviser Nimir Hammad told Ma’an in response on Saturday evening.
Mark Regev, the spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, said Saturday that the Palestinians had decided to "boycott" negotiations, despite repeated statements by PA officials that they are ready to negotiate once Israel fulfills its obligations under international law and the Road Map.
When asked by a moderator at a Washington forum on Friday what steps Israel needed to take to pursue peace, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said: "Just get to the damn table."
Last month PLO official Saeb Erekat said that the PA is willing to discuss all final status issues "once Israel proves its seriousness and commitment by freezing all its illegal settlement construction in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, especially in occupied East Jerusalem."
The diplomatic quartet -- US, Russia, UN and European Union -- sought to relaunch talks after President Abbas submitted Palestine's bid for full membership of the negotiations on Oct. 23, but the month deadline set for direct talks passed without incident.
Palestinian leaders say they have little to show for over 20 years of negotiations and that Israeli settlements are annexing land which is meant to form part of their future state.
Israel has occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem since 1967.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=441695 7 jan 2012, 23:47 , Respect -
Maria 5 dec 2011
Abbas Tells US Official Israel Must Stop Settlements
RAMALLAH, (WAFA) - President Mahmoud Abbas Monday told assistant US Secretary of State, Jeffrey Feldman, that Israel must stop all settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, including in East Jerusalem, and accept the two-state solution.
Abbas, who received Feldman in his Ramallah office, insisted that these were Israeli obligations as came in phase one of the Road Map peace plan proposed by the Quartet in 2003. The Quartet includes the US, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia.
Israeli government acceptance of its obligations will guarantee resumption of negotiations, said Abbas.
He said the Palestinian Authority is cooperating with the Quartet and that he has presented it with a comprehensive proposal on borders and security.
He said the Palestinians are ready to make proposals on all final status issues.
Abbas also informed Feldman that efforts to gain full membership at the UN for a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital will continue. He said the goal behind this Palestinian move is to strengthen the two-state solution on the 1967 borders and not to isolate Israel or to delegitimize it.
He also called on Israel to release prisoners, particularly those arrested before the signing of the Oslo accords in 1993.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18253