- 25 aug 2010
Eldad and Beilin: Construction will resume after freeze end
National Union MK and ex-Meretz legislator at briefing on moratorium and current prospects for peace.
Limited Israeli construction in the West Bank will inevitably resume once the moratorium on building in the settlements expires at the end of September – regardless of direct peace negotiations with the Palestinians – both National Union MK Arye Eldad and former Meretz MK Yossi Beilin said on Tuesday.
Speaking during a foreign press briefing dubbed “The Future of the Settlement Freeze,” the two ideological opposites were able to agree on that point alone during the first few minutes of their exchange, which took place at Misheknot Sha’ananim in Jerusalem’s historic Yemin Moshe neighborhood and was attended by a sizable contingent of the country’s foreign press corps.
But the pair’s diverging visions soon became apparent as they discussed why the construction would recommence, what the implications of that construction would be, and the larger difficulties that awaited Israeli and Palestinian negotiators when they sat down for direct talks in Washington on September 2.
“There is a difference between what should happen and what will happen [after the moratorium expires],” said Eldad, whose party is seen as being closely aligned with the settler movement and who has long been a stalwart opponent of the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank.
“Israel should begin building in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria on a large scale to compensate for the [time lost during the] freeze,” he said. “But what likely will happen is that the government will differentiate between private building and government building.”
According to Eldad, “private building will go on. But government building will not be seen on a large scale. The question is whether this will stop the direct talks, and it’s up to [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas] to decide if he’ll be ready to swallow it.”
Beilin, who is considered one of the architects of the Oslo Accords and a longtime proponent of the land-for-peace paradigm, acquiesced that “Eldad’s analysis is right,” at least as far as the MK’s prediction of “what will happen.”
But from there, Beilin shifted the discussion to the US administration, which he said had been making “mistake after mistake” regarding the negotiations.
“I don’t understand the American administration, which is trying to summon both parties to the negotiating table under the false impression that they already share the same premise for negotiations,” Beilin said.
“America is trying to trick both parties into thinking that the Palestinians want direct talks, and that Netanyahu will [continue to completely] freeze settlement activity.”
This, he said, was “a clever diplomatic move, but it is not going to work in the long run.”
“It’s irresponsible of America, which wants peace at any cost, even though the negotiating parties are clearly not ready,” Beilin said.
“What is needed instead of clever diplomatic tricks is a permanent agreement that should be implemented in stages,” he went on. “Under the current circumstances, a land swap is not possible [as it involves lands around Gaza and would expand the Hamas-controlled territory].”
According to Beilin, “this permanent agreement will only be applicable in the West Bank. And it will probably be in the form of an interim agreement [regarding] a Palestinian state.”
However, he added, “the Palestinians are afraid that any interim agreement will become a permanent agreement.
“Maybe with the partial implementation of the [2002 Arab Peace Initiative, which includes the normalization of relations between Israel and all 25 Arab countries in return for an Israeli withdrawal to pre-1967 lines, and a resolution of the refugee issue] the two sides won’t play around and will work more seriously,” he said.
But to that, Eldad countered, “There is one advantage to suicide. It gets rid of all your problems.”
He continued, “What is happening with the peace process, what Beilin is proposing, is suicide in stages, which doesn’t give you the advantage of getting rid of your problems, and it’s causing frustration on the Israeli side.”
Gesturing to the audience, Eldad said, “Yossi and most of you are sure that this is a territorial conflict. But that idea has been failing for 90 years, and every failure has ended in a bloodbath. [The continuation of that belief] will lead to a new war and a new bloodbath, because this is not a territorial conflict, it is a religious war.”
Explaining the Muslim idea of “Wakf,” or Islamic lands, which can never be “ruled by the infidel,” Eldad said that even with moderates on the Palestinian side, the division of the West Bank into a Palestinian state would not solve the conflict.
“It’s not a conflict cured by borders,” he said. “The moderates are irrelevant; they haven’t left a scratch in history over the last 90 years. It is the extremists who dictate the will of events.”
Beilin responded to Eldad by rejecting the idea of a “religious war or clash of civilizations,” but also declined to have a “philosophical debate” on the matter.
What the two had agreed upon at the start of their discussion – namely, the continuation of West Bank construction after the moratorium ends – they agreed on at the end as well, when the two broached the way Netanyahu would likely approach the matter.
Both Beilin and Eldad said Netanyahu would neither “declare a continuation of the freeze, nor declare that building has begun again on a largescale.”
“He will do it with a low profile,” Beilin said. “But it remains to be seen how he will be egged on by the settlers.”
“In any case,” Eldad chimedin, “I’m sure Peace Now will take hundreds of photographs of the construction and publish them. They really do very good work.”
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=185884 6 jan 2012, 22:47 , Respect -
Maria 26 aug 2010
The Veolia light rail being built in occupied East Jerusalem whitewashes illegal light rail project
The Veolia light rail being built in occupied East Jerusalem.
Last week the Israeli daily Haaretz reported that the consortium holding the contract to the controversial Jerusalem light rail project surveyed city residents on whether they would feel comfortable sharing rail service with Palestinians.
The bad publicity around the survey -- described as racist by even members of the Israeli government -- is an ironic turn of events. The French transportation giant Veolia, which plays a key role in the rail project that strengthens Israel's grip on occupied East Jerusalem, has used dubious surveys of Palestinians in attempt to put a positive spin on its involvement in the project.
On 20 August Haaretz revealed that CityPass, the contract-holding consortium in which Veolia Transport and another French company, Alstom are a part of, executed a survey among residents of Jerusalem. CityPass asked residents whether they are comfortable with the rail line including stops in Palestinian neighborhoods of occupied East Jerusalem, and whether they are bothered by both Jews and Arabs entering freely "without undergoing a security check."
Israeli municipal officials and the transportation ministry called the questions "racist." In a letter to CityPass, Yair Maayan, Jerusalem's municipal director general, wrote that "We were flabbergasted to see how a private commercial consortium dared to address these subjects, which are none of its business whatsoever; to ask such racist questions and to arouse strife and contention in the city."
The Jerusalem light rail is a component of the "Jerusalem Transportation Master Plan" sponsored by the Israeli government and the Jerusalem municipality. Activists have pressured Veolia and Alstom for their subsidiaries' involvement in the project which is designed to serve the needs of Israeli settlers. The first line of the light rail connects West Jerusalem with illegal settlements around Palestinian East Jerusalem on the occupied West Bank, in violation of international law.
Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and the annexation of East Jerusalem are illegal under international law. This status has been confirmed repeatedly by numerous UN resolutions and the 2004 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on Israel's wall in the occupied West Bank. As a result, activists have argued that Veolia is directly implicated in maintaining Israel's illegal settlements in the West Bank and annexing Palestinian East Jerusalem.
In May 2006, Veolia Transport responded to these criticisms by stating that they would seek "independent legal opinions in order to increase our understanding of the situation." The company contracted with Ove Bring, Professor Emeritus of International Law of Stockholm University and the Swedish National Defence College, for advice. Bring informed Veolia that due to Israel's illegal occupation, the presumption is that the light project was also illegal. He suggested that the presumption of illegality could be reversed if the local Palestinian population felt it would benefit from the light rail.
However, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) objected to Veolia's involvement in the project from the start. In a 11 July 2001 press release the PLO stated that the project "harms the Palestinian population and its rights to self-determination." The PLO warned Veolia to stay away from the project in 2005, and in 2007 the PLO took Veolia to court in France. The objections were supported at a press conference in November 2009 held by the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), which represents more than 170 Palestinian civil society organizations, which took a public stand against the project.
Veolia has dismissed these objections from Palestinian bodies, stating on its website that the controversy around its involvement has been "largely diffused by some pro-Palestinian NGO's [nongovernmental organizations] and in the Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian press" ("The Jerusalem Light Rail Transit").
In an attempt to evade the statements by major Palestinian organizations, Veolia commissioned opinion polls in 2007 and 2009 to satisfy the issues raised by Professor Bring. Veolia boasted that a high level of support for the project was found in its survey of Palestinian neighborhoods of occupied East Jerusalem. However, their veracity is doubtful as the company has provided no information about the survey methodology, the questions posed, or the characteristics of the persons who participated, refusing requests for clarification.
In response, Bring told The Electronic Intifada: "If Veolia is not prepared to share their information they will not be in a credible situation to argue benefits to the Palestinian population."
East Jerusalem resident Ramzi Zaniniri's 83-year-old mother was surveyed by telephone. Asked if she would take the light rail mode of transport, Zaniniri's mother consented. Zaniniri explained: "But people in [the Palestinian neighborhoods of] Shuafat and Beit Hanina, like my mother, do not know where the tram will go, whether it will be confiscating land or not."
Two-thousand square meters of land belonging to Shuafat resident Mahmoud al-Mashni have been confiscated for the light rail project, and more of his land will be confiscated for the parking lot next to the station. "It is not good for us, it is good for the Jewish settlements," al-Mashni explained in a telephone interview with The Electronic Intifada. "We cannot afford to pay the fees. One ticket will cost 15 shekels [$4]. Our income is low. The bus to East Jerusalem costs us only four shekels [$1]."
On 31 January 2008 The Jerusalem Post reported that Shuafat residents see the light rail more as a burden than a benefit. Abed Dari, a teacher from Shuafat, told the paper: "they say they are opening the light rail to make it easier for people to live, but we see that it is making life harder. Everyone here has to use the main road to travel to Jerusalem, but many lanes are blocked by the railway."
According to al-Mashi, as the light rail uses half of the width of the main road that cuts through Shuafat, it is no longer possible to cross the road. Traffic is now restricted to two lanes in each direction, causing traffic jams when buses and cars stop at the shops along the road. During prayer time, cars are lined up near the community mosque, narrowing the road to a single lane.
The burden of proof remains on Veolia to demonstrate that the light rail project will benefit the Palestinian population and be constructed with their consent.
Palestinian activist Rifat Kassis told The Electronic Intifada: "The illegality of this project cannot be whitewashed with this or that 'opinion' poll that may deceptively and very selectively show that some Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem are 'happy' with a distinctly colonial project that will cement the Israeli occupation's control over their occupied city."
Adri Nieuwhof is a consultant and human rights advocate based in Switzerland.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11488.shtml
[b]US former official arrives in Israel to discuss settlements[/b]
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Former US envoy to the Middle East Denis Ross arrived in Israel on Thursday evening on an unannounced visit, Israeli sources said.
Ross is one of the most senior US officials specializing in the Middle East and occupied a diplomatic post in the US administration of former President George Bush in addition to his post as special envoy to the region in the former US administration of Bill Clinton.
The sources added that Ross was dispatched by US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to discuss settlement building, which is threatening to derail direct peace talks set to resume next week.
A partial freeze on settlement construction is due to expire on 26 September.
President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday that the freeze must be extended, otherwise talks will be derailed. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said it would be politically impossible for him to extend the moratorium.
The US has publicly opposed settlement building, along with the international community and the Mideast Quartet. Under international law, it is illegal to build settlements on occupied land.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=311084
7 jan 2012, 16:02 , Respect -
Maria 27 aug 2010
New Israeli plans to link West Bank settlements to first "settler city"
Media reports in Israel have revealed plans for a new scheme to link a number of illegal settlements in the West Bank with the city of Petah Tikva in the part of Palestine taken by Israel in 1948. According to Haaretz, the Israeli Ministry of Transport is looking at plans to build a railway linking all of the settlements near the occupied West Bank towns of Nablus, Qalqilya and Safit with the city which started life as a Jewish settlement at the end of the nineteenth century.
The Minister of Transport, Israel Katz, has instructed staff to prepare plans for the railway and is already seeking approval from the Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, as this project falls under his "competent authority" with regards to settlement affairs.
http://fwd4.me/0kMR
Drastic fall in approvals for E. J'lem homes
The approval process for new Jewish homes in east Jerusalem has slowed dramatically since March’s diplomatic crisis during Vice President Joe Biden’s visit, according to data made available to The Jerusalem Post by Ir Amim and Peace Now. But several Israeli officials denied any deliberate slowdown.
In the five months since Biden’s visit, only a handful of small projects, with a total of 433 housing units, have passed some level of approval. In the three months before Biden’s visit, five large projects, with more than 3,171 housing units, passed some level of approval. Data from previous years were unavailable.
Some officials, notably including Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, say the slowdown in approvals means there is a de facto freeze in east Jerusalem due to international pressure.
Lieberman said on Wednesday that plans to develop 1,600 housing units in various east Jerusalem neighborhoods should be taken up again immediately after the 10-month West Bank settlement moratorium ends on September 26.
But a spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry said the slowdown could be due to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s “increased mechanisms” for oversight of the Interior Ministry’s approval committees following the Ramat Shlomo affair, or simply to routine bureaucracy and other normal fluctuations.
“After Clinton and Biden, they hardly approved any construction in east Jerusalem,” city council member Meir Margalit (Meretz) said, referring to the US secretary of state’s blistering criticism of Israeli building policies over the Green Line at the height of the Ramat Shlomo dispute five months ago. “The Americans didn’t ask us to stop building, they asked us to stop approving buildings.”
“The thing about the freeze in Judea and Samaria, even if I don’t agree with it, is it’s a cabinet decision,” said Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein (Likud), who is on an Interior Ministry committee that deals with construction approvals.
“With Jerusalem, it’s all de facto, and that’s why it’s also hard to fight against it.”
In contacts with the Post this week, the municipality, the Interior Ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office all denied there was any kind of a freeze in east Jerusalem, either on the approval process or construction itself.
“Any hint at a freeze of construction is baseless,” said Stephan Miller, a spokesman for Mayor Nir Barkat.
“It’s just coincidence,” Interior Ministry spokeswoman Efrat Orbach said, when asked about the slowdown in the approval rate. “Sometimes it goes very quickly and sometimes it doesn’t...
It doesn’t have any connection to anything.”
Between January and March of this year, 3,171 housing units passed different points of approval, according to data collected by Ir Amim, a Jerusalem non-profit advocating for a two-state solution, and the activist group Peace Now. This 3,171 figure included 549 units in the Givat Hamatos neighborhood, 320 in Ramot, 600 in Pisgat Ze’ev, 102 in Gilo, and the 1,600 units in Ramat Shlomo.
Since Biden’s visit in March, the groups said, only 433 units have passed various hurdles. They are mostly smaller projects from private companies, and two are in the “Holy Basin” a 6-sq.km. area to the east of the Old City. They include 20 units in Sheikh Jarrah at the Shepherd Hotel, 24 units at the Beit Orot Yeshiva in ATur, two projects in Pisgat Ze’ev for 48 and 32 units, respectively, (part of a 600-unit block approved earlier), and the largest, 309 units in Neveh Ya’acov.
These estimates do not include Barkat’s Gan Hamelech plan in Silwan because that plan calls for a park rather than housing units.
Left-wing organizations with an interest in this type of data struggle to keep track of it by relying on giant, detailed spreadsheets that they fill out by as the news of approvals unfolds.
The municipality, by contrast, has a separate file for each plan. It does not keep data that differentiates between construction in the eastern and western parts of the capital, making it difficult to determine whether the east Jerusalem slowdown is linked to diplomacy concerns, or simply part of a general slowdown in construction approvals.
The Biden-Ramat Shlomo dispute erupted on March 9, when the Jerusalem District Building and Planning Committee agreed to allow a 1,600-unit housing project in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood to be submitted for review, giving it the first of three stamps of approval needed to move on to the next stage. An Interior Ministry announcement to this effect took Netanyahu by surprise, and was widely condemned around the world.
After the announcement, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas pulled out of indirect “proximity” talks with Israel, which he had agreed to just days earlier.
“Nobody made a fuss [in previous years]... The fuss [in March] was because some people made a panic out of this, to my sorrow,” Interior Minister Eli Yishai (Shas) said in a recent interview with the Post. “Even the Americans understand that it was a routine decision. What happened was unfortunate.”
Yishai detailed the steps that had been taken to avoid a repeat of the row.
“Netanyahu committed that when there is a visit [by a US VIP], we’ll do nothing to create unnecessary tensions,” he said.
“Ramat Shlomo came as a surprise to us, so the prime minister asked the cabinet secretariat to create mechanisms to make sure that no one would be surprised by decisions by a lowerlevel body and decisions that have implications on national security,” explained an official from the Prime Minister’s Office, who asked not to be named.
The official would not elaborate on the mechanisms put in place, though Orbach said that now the agenda for each planning meeting must be passed to a new committee and relevant ministers before each meeting.
“From a legal point of view, planning and zoning in Jerusalem is the same as in Ramat Gan or Hadera,” the official added. “The central government has nothing to do with it. But because Jerusalem is, in the eyes of the international community, a special case, we wanted to make sure that we weren’t surprised the way we were so publicly after the Biden thing.”
The Ramat Shlomo project, like many other major construction projects over the Green Line, is now languishing in bureaucracy. After receiving that first approval from the district planning committee on March 9, the contractors are now required to publish their plans in three local newspapers and start a 60-day period for public comment before they can move on to the next stage of approval.
But no such announcements have been published, meaning the buildings won’t move forward.
“It’s in progress,” said Pinhas Shnur, the head of Ramat Shlomo’s Infrastructures Committee. “Every project, whether it’s in Tel Aviv or whether it’s here, takes years.”
He added, however, that there was an upside to being in the middle of a worldwide scandal.
“It was great publicity,” Shnur said.
The main source of the slowdown in approvals is the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee, one of six district committees under the auspices of the Interior Ministry.
After March’s crisis, the committee did not meet for two months, ostensibly to give the Prime Minister’s Office time to comb its upcoming agendas for Ramat Shlomo-style surprises.
The Interior Ministry spokeswoman said that the committee usually meets once or twice a month, and the hiatus was due to Pessah rather than political pressure.
“There’s definitely something going on, because we’re not seeing enough building,” said city council member David Hershkovitz (Israel Beiteinu), who has served on the Jerusalem Local Planning and Building Committee for two years.
“We don’t need to stand up and yell, ‘We’re building here!’ for every building like a protest. But we need to keep building, of course,” he said.
Most of the uproar about specific construction projects is deliberate provocation, said Deputy Mayor Kobi Kahlon, the head of the local planning and building committee.
“Some people say, let’s make a big deal here to save somewhere else, let’s embarrass here in order to do something else,” he said.
Kahlon also denied there was a freeze in east Jerusalem construction approvals, insisting that the municipality’s planning committee is separate from the Interior Ministry and not affected by pressure from the government.
East Jerusalem construction tends to make the news almost weekly, despite the de facto freeze or significant slowdown, because the media reports on every approval of each step of the long process. But the approval process is so long and convoluted that it requires dozens of stamps of approval over a period of years, sometimes stretching for more than a decade between when a project is first submitted and when construction begins.
The media frenzy, strengthened after Biden’s visit, makes it confusing for those who try to pinpoint how close various projects are to digging a foundation.
To apply for a building permit at the municipality, the owner must submit proof of ownership to the Israel Lands Administration, unless the land is already owned by the state, as in the case for most of the large projects.
The contractors then submit the plan to the Jerusalem Local Planning and Building Committee, the municipal body, and, if the plan passes, it moves onto the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee, which is a part of the Interior Ministry.
The district committee meets at least three times on each project – to agree that the project can be submitted for review, to hear public objections, and to approve the project. The Ramat Shlomo project made headlines in March after the first meeting of the district committee, when it was approved for deposit, or public review.
If approved after the three meetings, the contractors must open the project up again to public comment, and if no objections are raised, the project goes back to the municipality to get a construction permit. If objections are raised, the district committee decides on them.
The municipality then checks the infrastructure and engineering, which usually involves a lot of back-and-forth haggling. If the city decides too many changes have been made to the original plan, the contractors may have to go through the process with the district committee all over again.
Before work can begin, the entire project is checked one last time by a subcommittee of the municipality’s local planning and building committee.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=186150
Politicians to fight freeze at schools
Right-wingers to visit settlements on 1st day of studies.
In a country where politicians make statements whenever they decide where to plant trees on Tu Bishvat and light candles on Hanukka, a new sacred date has now become political fodder: the first day of school.
September 1 will coincide with a White House dinner marking the long-awaited beginning of direct diplomatic negotiations between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas under the auspices of US President Barack Obama.
Politicians on the Right intend to use the day to send a message to Netanyahu that the construction moratorium in Judea and Samaria must end as scheduled on September 26 and to Obama that continuing the freeze would harm West Bank children.
At the request of the Knesset’s Land of Israel caucus, ministers and top MKs will spend the day visiting schools in the West Bank.
Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin and coalition chairman Ze’ev Elkin, who chairs the caucus, will visit schools in Efrat in Gush Etzion. Elkin will also go to a school in Tekoa.
Science and Technology Minister Daniel Herschkowitz (Habayit Hayehudi) will visit another Gush Etzion school and children of Gush Katif evacuees in Nitzan.
Vice Premier Moshe Ya’alon (Likud) is expected to tour schools in the Samaria Regional Council, Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein will visit a school in the Samarian community of Yakir, Culture and Sports Minister Limor Livnat (Likud) will be in Ma’aleh Adumim, and Minister-without- Portfolio Yossi Peled (Likud) in Alfei Menashe.
Deputy Minister for Youth Gila Gamliel (Likud) will be in Psagot and Shas MK Haim Amsalem will be not far away, in Kochav Ya’acov.
Asked whether the visits of the ministers to the settlements while he is in Washington would bother the prime minister, a source close to Netanyahu said, “The ministers have the right to express their views, especially in this case, when they are not different from those of the prime minister.”
On the Left side of the map, Minorities Affairs Minister Avishay Braverman will visit two Arab schools and Industry, Trade, and Labor Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer will go to trade schools in Tel Aviv and Ramat Efal.
Other ministers are devoting the school day to personal visits, not political ones. Tourism Minister Stas Meseznikov and Environment Minister Gilad Erdan will be accompanying their children to first grade in Rishon Lezion and Tel Aviv, respectively.
Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz will be visiting the Kfar Saba school that he attended as a child, which expelled the future minister for poor behavior.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=186155
31 aug 2010
Israel set to build wings for some 800 F-35s
Israel is in talks to build the wings for about a quarter of the United States's new F-35 stealth fighter aircraft, an Israeli official said on Monday. Lockheed Martin plans to build some 3,200 F-35s costing about $96 million each.
An Israeli official who declined to be named said state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries would build the wings. "We are in advanced talks for the IAI to produce around 800 sets of wings," he told Reuters.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3946522,00.html 7 jan 2012, 16:02 , Respect -
Maria 30 aug 2010
Report: Building to start in 57 settlements post freeze end
57 settlements are to begin building a day after the freeze ends, Army Radio reported on Monday.
The building moratorium will expire on September 26, and the 57 settlements reportedly already have all the necessary permits to begin construction the following day.
http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=186444
Israel insists on settlement resumption
A construction site in the West Bank settlement of Elazar south of Bethlehem, August 22, 2010.
Less than a week ahead of the US-backed talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), Tel Aviv insists on resuming its West Bank settlement expansions.
In November, Israel announced a 10-month freeze on West Bank settlements which excluded the projects in east al-Quds (Jerusalem) and allowed construction of schools, synagogues and 'community centers.'
“There is a government decision to freeze construction only for 10 months, and when that period ends, the decision is no longer valid,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a meeting of Likud ministers on Sunday, the Jerusalem Post reported.
The remarks came in response to reconciliatory proposals by Intelligence Agencies Minister Dan Meridor and other Israeli cabinet members allow resumption of settlement construction, albeit only within large settlements and not beyond the 1976 borders.
This is while the Palestinian side has shrugged off all the responsibility for a failure in talks, saying only Tel Aviv will be to blame if the negotiations fail over Israeli settlements.
Despite repeated warnings by the Palestinians to withdraw from the US-backed talks, Netanyahu has described Israel's settlements as one of the core issues to be discussed in the negotiations scheduled for September 2 in Washington, saying he would make no declarations before then.
Netanyahu said any peace agreement should be based on the recognition of Israel as "the national state of the Jewish people," and assurance that Israel would not face the same failure it did after withdrawing from southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip -- where Tel Aviv is viewed as an illegitimate, occupying force.
http://www.presstv.com/detail/140565.html
Egypt urges EU to bolster U.S.-led Mideast peace bid
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, right, shakes hands with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak after their meeting in Paris, on Aug. 30, 2010.
Mubarak and Sarkozy meet ahead of direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, say the Mediterranean Union summit can provide push for peace.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak urged Europe on Monday to throw its weight behind U.S.-led efforts to secure a peace agreement between Palestinians and Israelis.
Mubarak, whose country in 1979 became the first Arab state to strike a peace deal with Israel, discussed the matter with French President Nicolas Sarkozy before heading to Washington this week for the first direct negotiations in 20 months.
"The American administration needs strong backing from the European Union for the peace process to continue," Mubarak said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are due to meet President Barack Obama on Sept. 1, according to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and launch direct negotiations the following day.
Sarkozy said Europe planned to further promote the push for peace at a Euro-Mediterranean summit planned for Nov. 20 in Barcelona, Spain, where key leaders from the Middle East would be present.
"We have proposed, with President Mubarak, that a Mediterranean Union summit could take place in mid-November, at which all the parties necessary for obtaining peace in the Mideast would participate," Sarkozy said following a meeting with Mubarak.
For his part, the Egyptian president said such a summit would "reinforce the relaunch" of the peace process and help U.S. negotiators tackle complex issues such as the highly controversial construction of Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory.
France and Egypt co-chair the Mediterranean Union, which was founded in 2008, but has not held a single summit since then because of the frozen Mideast peace process.
"After months of stalemate, a hope exists. This chance must be seized," Sarkozy said. "I believe the U.S. role is very important but cannot be the only one."
Mubarak expressed concerns that Israeli building of further settlements would not help the peace process.
"We agreed that a peace deal should be reached within one year to end occupation and establish the Palestinian state," the 82-year-old president said.
"There is a hesitation among Israelis to stop settlements and that needs more effort and European support."
After their hour-long meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Sarkozy expressed a similar view.
"Firstly, every person in Israel should understand one thing. When there is hope for peace, everything should be done to bolster that," he said.
http://fwd4.me/0jmY 7 jan 2012, 16:02 , Respect -
Maria 31 aug 2010
Illegal settlement attempts expansion
NABLUS (Ma'an) -- Residents of an illegal West Bank settlement attempted on Monday to install additional housing units to its plot, Israel's Civil Administration confirmed.
A spokesman for Israel's Civil Administration said three trucks carrying three mobile homes were seen trying to enter the Elon Moreh settlement, amid an government-issued ban on settlement construction set to expire on 26 September. Inspectors sequestered the trucks, which were held by the Civil Administration, he said Tuesday.
Palestinian officials reported earlier, that at least five new homes were being constructed in Elon Moreh, in the northern Nablus district, near the Palestinian villages of Azmut and Deir Al-Hatab.
Ghassan Doughlas, who heads the file on northern settlement activity, said settlers were also bulldozing land to make way for electricity poles and lights near the Shifat Gilad outpost, and warned that further settlement activity could "blow up" direct peace talks set to begin on Thursday.
Several Israeli settlement councils have sought to defy Israel's 10-month settlement moratorium on West Bank construction, vowing to continue building once the freeze expires on 26 September.
The PLO and PA have urged Israel to extend the freeze and include East Jerusalem in its mandate, warning that continued settlement building could derail talks.
On Monday, President Mahmoud Abbas said US and international officials have been notified that "Israel will bear sole and full responsibility for the collapse of negotiations should settlement building continue," ahead of talks set to begin in Washington on 2 September.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=311853 7 jan 2012, 16:02 , Respect -
Maria 1 sept 2010
Committee advocates building ZAKA HQ in Sheikh Jarrah
Terror Victims Memorial group wants Jerusalem City Council to approve construction of the massive complex in the contested neighborhood.
The Jerusalem Memorial Committee for Terror Victims recommended yesterday to establish in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah the headquarters of ZAKA – a massive building that will include the offices of the organization and other functions, including a museum dedicated to martyrs of terror attacks.
According to the chair of the organization, city council member Yair Gabai, the plan is not meant to be a provocation intended to sabotage the summit in Washington, but has been in the works for a long time. ZAKA wants to construct a large building measuring 6000 square meters that will include a morgue and a large 1200 square meter museum, among other functions.
The Memorial Committee voted on a decision to recommend to City Council that it confirm the request and the location. According to the plans, the building is supposed to be established not far from the government buildings, in the area of Sheikh Jarrah, on the street that leads to the Mount Scopus campus of Hebrew University.
Left-wing demonstrations are held weekly in Sheikh Jarrah to protest a Jewish takeover of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem through the use of ownership documents dating from the period of the British mandate in Palestine.
According to Gabai, if Jerusalem City Council approves the decision, it will be possible to begin construction soon, because there is already zoning approval for a public-use building on the site. "The process could be quite quick – as long as various political interests don't interfere," Gabai said.
Jerusalem City Council dismissed the importance of the Memorial Committee's decision. They stated, "We're talking about a committee whose job it is to advise only, and that's what they have done. Gabai's initiative did not take into account the other relevant factors. It will have no bearing on the results."
http://fwd4.me/0sms
Historic absence of housing starts in Judea and Samaria
Only five new housing starts in settlements in first two quarters of 2010; sharp contrast to same period last year.
For the second quarter in a row, there were almost no new housing starts in the West Bank settlements, according to numbers released Tuesday by the Central Bureau of Statistics.
The report of what is an historic absence of housing starts in Judea and Samaria comes on the eve of the start of direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. It is the first such meeting since talks broke down in December 2008. Halting settlement construction has been one of the key demands Palestinians have made of Israel.
Initially, when the CBS reported its first quarter statistics at the end of May, its data showed no housing starts for the first quarter of this year. Since then the CBS has adjusted the numbers slightly, as it often does. Based on the new data there were only two new housing starts from January to March of this year. From April to June, the CBS reported only three new housing starts.
Overall, according to the CBS, there were a total of five new housing starts in the first two quarters of 2010, during which time the 10-month moratorium on such activity was in place.
The number marks a sharp contrast from the 673 new starts that occurred in that same period last year when there was no moratorium.
The dramatic drop to almost zero housing starts runs counter to the trend in the rest of the country, which saw a 17 percent increase in housing starts during that time.
Separately, there was also a drop of 12 percent in the number of new apartments which were completed in West Bank settlements in the first two quarters of 2010, even though there was only a two percent decrease country wide during that same time.
From January to the end of June of this year 796 new apartment units were completed in West Bank settlements, compared with the 906 apartment units which were finished in the same period last year.
According to the moratorium, work can continue on settlement homes which had a foundation as of November 26, when the ban on new construction began.
It was estimated that there were some 3,000 apartment units which were under construction at that time.
Data for the first month of the moratorium in December is not available from the CBS.
Overall in 2009, there were 1,888 housing starts and 2,070 apartment units completed.
In a report that it issued earlier this month, Peace Now, a grass roots group which monitors settlement construction, said that based on aerial surveys it had taken of West Bank settlements, there had actually been 295 new housing starts in Judea and Samaria in the first seven months of the moratorium, from December and until June.
It did acknowledge that the number was less than half of what it would have been without the moratorium.
The CBS said at the time that it stood by its data which was compiled from multiple sources such as the Ministry of Housing and Construction, planning committees, regional and local councils, contractors and realtors.
However, the CBS acknowledged that it did not have the resources to do aerial surveys.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=186649
(1:57) The misleading excuse of the Government in East Jerusalem 7 jan 2012, 16:02 , Respect -
Maria 2 sept 2010
Yesha: Palestinian peace talks are ploy to destroy Israel
An organization representing Israeli settlers criticized the ongoing peace talks in Washington as a Palestinian ploy to gain more land in an effort to eventually destroy the Jewish state in a Channel 2 interview on Thursday.
"The territories in the Judea and Samaria are only the first stage [in Palestinian plans], the second stage is entire State [of Israel]," said Yesha Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria Director-General Naftali Bennett.
http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=186891
'Hamas won't let the PA reach a peace agreement'
Yishai says renewed negotiations will lead to nowhere, as Hamas won't honor Abbas's agreement; Shas declares opposition to building freeze.
Interior Minister and Shas Chairman Eli Yishai said that peace talks will lead to nowhere in this week's issue of the Shas newsletter From Day to Day, released Thursday.
Yishai said that the shootings only prove that "peace talks will lead to nowhere, because Hamas is the ruler on the ground, and won't let the Palestinian Authority reach an agreement."
"Let's say [Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas] makes an agreement with us, where we make painful sacrifices. Hamas and all the other terror organizations will start attacking again - so what did we do?" Yishai said. "We must stand up for our principles and never give up on them: Stop terror, recognize Israel as a Jewish state, stop provoking violence, and start negotiations without conditions. Certainly not the condition of a building freeze."
"Shas is opposed to freezing building throughout Eretz Yisrael," Yishai said, reportedly before the two attacks on Israelis in the West Bank. Yishai added that Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Shas's spiritual leader, opposed the building freeze from its beginning, and his opinion has not changed.
Last week, Yishai claimed there is no chance of a peace agreement with the Palestinians, during a visit to Shomria, a community set up for Gush Katif evacuees.
"The Palestinians are not ready to recognize Israel and say that until Israel is destroyed a Palestinian state will not be established," he said, adding that there is no Palestinian leadership to negotiate with.
After Tuesday night's shooting attack, Yishai moved to relax gun controls for West Bank residents. One of the four people killed by the Hamas gunmen, Yitzhak Ames, had his weapons permit revoked a few months prior to being murdered.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=186877
Abbas: Direct talks warrant extension of construction freeze
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said he found it unreasonable that Israel would freeze construction in the settlements during indirect talks but lift the moratorium during direct negotiations. If the freeze is not extended, the PA will find it hard to continue the peace talks that were relaunched yesterday, he told Palestinian newspaper Al-Ayam.
Abbas met yesterday in Washington with his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak ahead of his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama.
He said the Palestinians did not accept the Israeli proposals for renewed construction in the settlement blocs after the construction freeze expires later this month. He said that if Netanyahu wants to hold serious peace talks, he must extend the moratorium, including in East Jerusalem.
He rejected the notion that negotiations should start from scratch, saying they must continue from where they stopped under the previous Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert.
Abbas added that the Palestinians would agree to carry out an agreement in stages, like the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt. But the PA would not allow the implementation to be spread out over a decade.
The Palestinian leader's spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeina, said the Palestinians would not forfeit any of their rights during the negotiations. He warned that a failure in the direct talks may have ramifications for the security situation on the ground and the stability of the entire peace process.
Meanwhile, Israel's ambassador to the United nations, Meiron Reuven, sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the current president of the UN Security Council following Monday's terror attack in the West Bank. The attack underscores Israel's security needs all the more, Reuven wrote.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/abbas-direct-talks-warrant-extension-of-construction-freeze-1.311606
Obama: Direct talks end '67 occupation
US President Barack Obama
US President Barack Obama claims direct talks between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Israelis will end the Israeli occupation of 1967.
During the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank, including East al-Quds (Jerusalem), the Golan Heights in Syria, Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, and the Gaza Strip.
"The purpose of the talks is clear These negotiations are intended to resolve all final status issues," said Obama in a short speech launching his ambitious initiative to forge a Middle East peace agreement within a year.
"The goal is a settlement negotiated between the parties that ends the occupation which began in 1967, and results in the emergence of an independent democratic and viable Palestinian state the Guardian quoted him as saying on Wednesday.
The US president described the Washington summit as a "moment of opportunity that may not soon come again," but acknowledged that achieving lasting peace will not be easy and that "years of mistrust will not disappear overnight."
"After all, there's a reason that the two-state solution has eluded previous generations. This is extraordinarily complex and extraordinarily difficult. But we know that the status quo is unsustainable."
The new round of direct talks between Israel and the PA comes 20 months after Tel Aviv's deadly onslaught killed more than 1,400 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip at the turn of 2009.
The US invitation for talks has been met with strong opposition in the occupied Palestinian territories where the PA is accused of yielding to US and Israeli pressures to sit at the negotiating table without any preconditions.
Israel's return to the borders of 1967, the final status of the Israeli occupied East al-Quds -- which Palestinians demand as the capital of their future state -- and the fate of Palestinian refugees rendered homeless by Israeli occupation are among the key issues yet to be resolved.
Israel's insistence on resuming its settlement expansions in the West Bank following the expiry of a 10-month partial moratorium on September 26 is viewed as the main obstacle in the way to peace.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/140932.html
7 jan 2012, 16:02 , Respect -
Maria 3 sept 2010
(1:32) DN! Israeli Terrorist Settlers Unleash Massive Attack on Palestinian Land
Settlers: "We Are Building" All Over West Bank
The talks are being held despite Israel's refusal to freeze settlement construction in the occupied West Bank. On Thursday, the head of the West Bank settlers council, Naftali Bennett, declared an end to Israel's partial settlement freeze and vowed to continue building. Naftali Bennett: "The immoral freeze on Jewish building in the land of Israel is over, and as of now, in dozens of locations across Judea and Samaria, the mountain range of Judea and Samaria, we're building."
Bennett's group, the Yesha council, says construction is taking place in at least eighty settlements across the West Bank. Palestinian Authority spokesperson Ghassan Khatib said although Israel has never fully stopped expanding settlements, Palestinians now expect a frenzy of settlement construction. Ghassan Khatib: "Unfortunately, Israel has never stopped the settlement expansion, including in the so-called moratorium that they announced. But yesterday, in particular, there was a massive resumption of settlement expansion and activities in many places in the Palestinian territories. There was a very dangerous decision by the municipality of occupied Jerusalem to resume construction of homes in certain parts of occupied East Jerusalem. There was also laying ground and laying foundations for new construction in three settlements in the West Bank."
Mastering the master plan
Amid controversy over construction in Jewish neighborhoods beyond Green Line, planning committee chair Kobi Kahlon insists political considerations do not influence granting of building permits.
Following the police recommendation to indict the people involved in the Holyland scandal, including former prime minister Ehud Olmert and former Jerusalem mayor Uri Lupolianski, the spotlight is focused on the local planning and construction committee, where this infamous project was approved a few years ago. Headed by Lupolianski for 10 years, followed by Yehoshua Pollak for six, this powerful committee is now chaired by Deputy Mayor Kobi Kahlon.
Kahlon, 52, was born in Givat Olga to Libyan immigrants.He has two sisters and five brothers, including Communications Minister Moshe Kahlon (Likud).
After completing a master's degree in law and business management, he married a woman from Jerusalem, moved to the city and founded a construction company (now closed), which his wife managed.
They have three sons.
As an expert in law and business management, he has a clear agenda that puts the residents at center stage, and believes that everyone should be treated equally as mandated by law.
In the following interview, Kahlon is very careful not to say anything about his predecessors on the committee, but he emphasizes the very different attitude he has. He doesn't see himself as someone who merely grants construction permits. Kahlon has an expansive yet detailed vision of how this city should look and function.
And he is very active in promoting this vision which, not surprisingly, matches the mayor's vision to a large extent: development, economics, tourism modernity and commerce, with a little less focus on historical and religious issues. He stresses that he is a well-to-do man (who doesn't need bribes) and is not involved in political games (though he is a member of Likud and manages his brother's campaigns).
His opponent, city council opposition member Meir Turgeman, claims that Kahlon is not fit for the job and does not control the committee. And judging by the tone that Kahlon and municipal legal adviser Yossi Havilio use with each other during committee meetings, the relationship between the two of them is not the best.
Yet Kahlon has managed to freeze the second phase of the Holyland project (the six pending towers will not be built, at least not in the near future), and the plan for the controversial tower to be built on Rehov Agrippas and Jaffa Road, near the Mahaneh Yehuda market, has also been canceled on his watch. Kahlon admits that he is opposed to having high-rise buildings in the city center because of its historical value.
As a long-standing friend of the mayor, Barkat had asked Kahlon to leave everything behind and support him in his plans. Kahlon agreed and, as a result, he has the full backing of the mayor, which is an important asset in heading such a significant committee. Kahlon also serves as a replacement for the mayor when Barkat is away.
Can you assure the residents of Jerusalem that there will never be another Holyland affair in this city?
You mean on my watch? Well, the only way to achieve that is to simply act according to the rules that determine how high, where and what kind of construction the municipality can approve. We have to remain within the parameters of the rules, of the plan and that is certainly good for democracy. We have to check ourselves all the time. We are now building a comprehensive structure of regulations so that we can act in accordance with these rules.
But didn't we have those rules all along? And look what happened anyway.
I'm talking about working in accordance with the new master plan. Until now, we've been working on the basis of a master plan that was appropriate for the time it was drawn up the early 1950s. Things have changed since the British Mandate norms, which allowed building up to only 25 percent of a plot like one house on one dunam. That is ridiculous. It can't meet the demands of the city today. As a result, we had to deal with requests for changes, requests to add more building sites and to change the purpose and the assignment of construction projects to adapt them to the present needs.
And therein lies the catch all the changes you have to introduce and approve.
That's the problem we're facing. But this, of course, will not happen anymore once we work according to the new master plan.
But the new master plan is still being held up at the Interior Ministry.
That's correct. At the moment, we are working according to a master plan that hasn't yet been approved or presented to the public. We can do that because we have the authority, and we know what's in the new plan. But the master plan is a matter of law, and until it is completely approved, we on the committee base our work according to what we know of it.
Let's get back to the Holyland.
All right. You know that rights for construction or adding areas of existing construction are granted by the [Interior Ministry's] district committee [for planning and construction], not by us. We only give recommendations; the district committee decides.
So what ultimately makes the difference is the kind of people who sit on the district committee, not the laws.
Not only. But because there was no master plan that you could rely on or submit changes in reference to, any architect or developer could come and convince the committee that a tower of so many stories in a particular place was okay. Or a fourstory building there was better anything. These entrepreneurs bring the best in their fields the best architects, the best attorneys and on the other side, the committee gave in. I hope we're done with that.
As chairman of the committee, is the Holyland affair a kind of nightmare for you?
Not really. In a way, it even makes my life easier. Since the public has rejected it so vehemently, it serves as a warning. I don't even have to say anything it's obvious now. You know, it all comes from the public's attitude.
Like 20 years ago, people started to say, 'Hey, we don't accept that people don't pay their taxes. It's the same here. Once, people would have said, So this guy enclosed a balcony or added a room without a permit, so what? But it doesn't work like that anymore.
Today if someone carries out illegal construction, the neighbors will say, Hey, mister, you have done me wrong; you have infringed on my rights here it affects all of us. If someone builds something that will have a negative impact on his surroundings, it doesn't work anymore.
Okay. If it's so important, why has the master plan not been approved yet?
This plan provides a realistic division onethird to the Arab population, two-thirds to the Jewish population. There was a lot of criticism, and I understand it: The plan gave too much area to the Arab population. You know why? Because the character of construction within the Arab population is quite different.
It is a cultural issue, not a political one. They don't live in high-rise buildings. You don't see 12- or 14- or 18-story buildings in their neighborhoods, so naturally their housing requires more land. And that additional land was at the expense of green space. Where would we take the land from? But in Beit Hanina there is plenty of land, and there we know who owns each plot, something that doesn't exist, for example, in the areas close to the Holy Basin. We give permits for building high, and it works. Or in the new Arab neighborhood we are planning, Arab a-Sawahreh [between Jebl Mukaber and Sur Bahir], we plan to build 2,500 to 5,000 housing units. In this particular case, since there is no clear ownership of the land, the municipality is the developer and, for the first time, we will build on the basis of open spaces, public structures, roads and green spaces everything.
Let's talk about east Jerusalem. Is there a construction freeze there today?
For Jews or for Arabs?
For both.
There is no freeze at all.
That doesn't correspond with what we know.
It's very simple. People have rights. You cannot prevent a resident from building on a property that he can prove is his.
Are you talking about Jewish or Arab residents? Because, as far as I know, Arab residents don't submit requests for permits, since they don't obtain permits.
Says who? Do you have any idea how many requests for construction permits we receive every month, every week, even every day? There is no comparison between the number of permit requests submitted by Arab residents today and how many there were before.
Are these private people or contractors?
Mostly private people, residents. We don't have an agenda to check one resident against another. Thanks to this policy, today Arab residents complain about illegal construction by their own neighbors. They understand that it's worthwhile to respect the law that when your neighbor builds on a plot designated to serve as a road or a playground for children, they are the ones who suffer, not me. So that is what they expect of us, the committee to see that the law is respected, to uphold their rights. Today, they realize that illegal construction is not aimed against us, the municipality, but against them and the residents around them.
How significant is the intervention of the Prime Minister's Office in the committee's plans and decisions
A municipality is not subordinate to the government.
Sure, but we are all aware of the current sensitive circumstances.
Only the district committee can be subordinate. But as a representative of the municipality, my duty is to approve or not approve a construction. If someone is entitled to a construction permit, it is my duty to grant that permit. It is my obligation; I cannot refuse it.
But aren't there cases where you approve a project, and on the district committee some political considerations might alter the decision?
That's not my business at all.
Still, we all remember what happened when the construction project at Ramat Shlomo was approved exactly on the day US Vice President Joe Biden visited here. You can't pretend that you are not aware of the consequences.
Listen, here is how it works: We have a local planning and construction committee, the Jerusalem Municipality, and the district committee at the Interior Ministry. We deal with plans for adding construction to existing structures, and we deal with licenses. If a resident has rights and he applies for a license, I have to approve it. I cannot say no to him. If the people at the Prime Minister's Office tell me not to approve it, I will tell them I can't oblige them. According to the law, I can't.
Okay. That's when we're talking about an Arab resident who wants to build where he has the right to. That, of course, shouldn't concern anybody in Washington. But what if we're talking about Silwan and the resident's name is Moshe Zucher?
If the plot is his property, I cannot refuse him. I'm telling you, I cannot do that!
So where does politics intervene? Only in Ramat Shlomo or Gilo?
Let me explain again. Suppose you bought a three-room apartment and, according to the municipal plan, you could add one room. There is no way I can prevent you from doing so. It's a basic right of yours as a resident. We deal here with rights of planning, that's all. You know, in the first months here, I didn't even want to know the names of the applicants I only asked for the plans.
Still, there were cases when you made some decisions that had some political context. Like in Pisgat Ze'ev a few months ago.
Yes, I have a few prerogatives as chairman of the committee, and sometimes I use them. If I know that the prime minister is on his way to Washington and I realize that a particular plan submitted at that particular time is a provocation and I know that my chance of explaining it to the media, here and abroad, is nil, I stop everything and I return to it later on.
Of course, I take the circumstances into consideration. If I see that it might drag us into a contentious situation, if I know that I am facing a provocation and I know that my voice won't be heard among all the noise around, then yes, I postpone the session on that particular project for one week, two weeks, and then I get back to it. Nothing harmful happened as a result. Why should I stir up trouble?
So you don't think that large construction plans are going to be stopped?
It is totally out of the question that they should stop. I don't want to go into it, but just [last week] Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor admitted on the radio that on the Jewish side, it is clear that nothing is frozen. Pisgat Ze'ev will never be dismantled; it's a closed issue. Perhaps somebody would say, Let's argue here to save something elsewhere, but all the locations that are mentioned in the new master plan of Jerusalem are locations that will clearly remain in our hands, and this is accepted by all parties. I really think this whole issue is irrelevant and we should focus on what we should do for the city.
How will the city look according to your plans?
I am against tall buildings in the city center. That is a huge mistake promoted by the opponents of the Safdie plan. I am against ruining good things in order to repair bad initiatives. If the Safdie plan was a bad idea, don't fix it by destroying this city. I don't think it is a good idea to transform the special character of the city center with high-rises. The heart of the city, the historical part (not the Old City), has to remain intact. We have to show respect, and we can't just turn the city center into a huge building site.
You can't take a neighborhood like Rehavia and add two stories to all the structures there. If I need to increase the city's housing capacity, I shouldn't do it by destroying a neighborhood like Nahlaot. I don't want to hurt Rehavia, I don't want to hurt Nahalat Ahim.
But on the outskirts of a neighborhood like the Wolfson Towers that's okay. That's a fair solution. But that's not enough. How do you solve the lack of housing and office space without harming the historical city? You must have something in mind.
Of course, I have a solution the western entrance to the city: That's where we can do big things. There we have the [future] train station, the light rail, the Bridge of Strings and the Central Bus Station. There we will build one million square meters of offices, hotels, commercial and entertainment facilities. We will add two towers beside Binyenei Ha'uma, halls, two 24-story towers for all the national district offices, all in one place. I'm talking about a project that will be ready within five years, while the towers for the district offices will be ready within three years.
What we are planning is a modern, lively, attractive and accessible new part of this city, which will give us everything we need in terms of development without touching the historical center of this city. Thus we will have a new city, a historical city, an old holy city and an ancient city, the City of David.
The huge change will be felt when the railway begins to operate. Until now, what we had in Jerusalem were tourists who would go to the Old City, buy some red thread for NIS 1 and spend another NIS 3 and go back home, out of Jerusalem. I say enough of this. We can make the change. It is all based on a different concept economics. Tourism, business. No more of the situation we have now, where people come here for a day at most and then leave as quickly as possible.
How do you explain this change?
This city has been in a coma for 16 years, but the residents don't want that anymore. The public has given us an opportunity, and we are working hard to deliver.
People will be able to reach Jerusalem within 28 minutes by train, and I want them to do business here, work, study and enjoy entertainment and leisure here, to allow tourists to spend more than one night in hotels that's more than enough.
We want to give the city back to its residents, to the people. The city's properties have been sold to foreign interests. Take, for example, the Jerusalem Theater parking lot. It is public property. What does it mean that it is sold to private investors? It's unbelievable that a parking lot is sold to a private party. Visitors and residents deserve respect sidewalks, roads, parking.
Everything that is public property!
http://www.jpost.com/LocalIsrael/InJerusalem/Article.aspx?id=186861
Lieberman: 'Realistic goal would be interim agreement'
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Friday sounded a pessimistic note regarding the recent peace talks.
"The best or most realistic goal would be an interim agreement or solution with a long time frame," said Lieberman.
He added that he would prefer that the government concentrate on "economic and security" issues in the talks as he was dubious on the ability of negotiators to solve more contentious issues regarding the settlements, Palestinian refugees, and the final status of Jerusalem.
http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=187009
Palestinian strategy towards independence - Daoud Kuttab
There is a chance that the Israeli occupation that began in 1967 will soon end and an independent Palestinian state will emerge.
The direct peace talks taking place in Washington are a necessary step towards that goal, but this is not the only option the Palestinians have.
Despite all the Palestinian opposition to direct Palestinian-Israeli talks (with the settlement freeze about to expire), there is hope in many quarters. Before leaving for Washington, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said publicly that he would have gone to the peace talks even if the chances of success had been no more than one percent.
It is easy to be pessimistic or apathetic. History has been very unfavorable to Palestinians who did not accomplish anything of substance through peace talks.
The current Israeli policy is not helpful. Israel%u2019s heavy-handedness in Gaza, coupled with its continued violation of international law %u2013 by building exclusive Jews-only buildings in occupied Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank %u2013 make many doubt Israel%u2019s sincerity or desire to make peace.
The babblings of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef (the spiritual leader of Shas, a major coalition partner in the government) who wishes to see death (by plague) inflicted on all Palestinians, cause many to doubt Israel’s willingness to live in peace with its Palestinian, Arab and Muslim neighbors.
Things are not easier on the Palestinian front either. For the first time, a Fatah leader goes to talks opposed by his own party, as well as facing opposition from PLO factions, independents and groups outside the PLO.
The Hamas opposition took a violent dimension with the gunning down of four Jewish settlers near Hebron.
So what is the cause of this illogical Palestinian hope?
The hope stems from the simple fact that after decades of haphazard action, the Palestinians have finally a strategy for statehood. This strategy is determined, well thought out and totally non-violent.
According to this strategy, the state of Palestine will soon become a reality, regardless of the results of the next 12 months of negotiations.
Palestine’s new strategy for statehood has been spearheaded by the energetic, Western trained, former World Bank executive, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. It is focused on building up a Palestinian state rather than on cursing the Israeli occupation. The two-year blueprint, which was unveiled last year to international praise, has produced tangible change on the ground.
Fayyad’s government has succeeded, as admitted by Israeli army generals, to deliver security and the rule of law while, at the same time,
introducing far-reaching reform in education, health and local economy.
It is true that Abbas agreed reluctantly to go to Washington. Palestinians and the Arab League had hoped that some agreement on the borders would have been reached in four months of proximity talks. The idea was that if the western borders of Palestine are agreed upon, then it would be obvious that settlement building in housing units within Israel’s international borders will be Israel’s decision, while the status of lands and buildings on areas set for the state of Palestine would be decided on by the Palestinians.
Now, when the end of the 10-month partial Israeli building moratorium comes to an end on 26 September, it will come without a clear idea of whether the freeze can be rescinded and when settlement-building activities must cease.
The American commitment is another reason for the Palestinian hope. In the end, it was the Americans that pulled it through. With Americans chairing tripartite talks and their commitment to stay in the negotiating room for an entire year, Palestinians were assured that the stronger party, Israel, will not try to bully the weaker Palestinian delegation. By agreeing to participate (and not just to mediate), the US has negated the argument that it cannot be more interested in peace than the parties concerned.
The creation of an independent, contiguous Palestinian state has been declared by both US presidents the former George W. Bush and now Barack Obama, to be in the national interest.
The talks are cleverly organized to allow for positive press and a photo opportunity before the mid-term elections; the necessary arm-twisting will be completed long before the beginning of the presidential reelection season.
If as a result of Israeli obstructionism the talks fail, Palestinians will have no choice but to declare their state unilaterally and hope that the world will recognize it.
The Americans, who will be witness to the Palestinian conduct in the negotiating room, will then have to decide whether to support such a declaration or keep this conflict festering on.
Daoud Kuttab is the General Manager of the Community Media Network, with PEN Media, based in Jordan.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=312863
7 jan 2012, 16:03 , Respect -
Maria 4 sept 2010
Report: Clinton tells Netanyahu to extend freeze
TEL AVIV (Ma'an) -- US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Thursday that he must extend the settlement freeze until the end of the year otherwise peace talks would collapse, Israeli press reported.
Clinton reportedly made the request during a meeting with the Israeli premier held on the first day of re-launched negotiations in Washington, the Hebrew-language daily Ma'ariv said.
The newspaper also quoted senior US sources as saying the US administration would not accept Netanyahu's reasoning that the political price for extending the partial settlement freeze would be too high.
Netanyahu said in July that extending the 10-month moratorium, due to expire on 26 September, could lead to the collapse of his right-wing coalition.
Senior US officials said Netanyahu could not retain his political status at the expense of President Mahmoud Abbasdomestic standing, Maariv reported.
Abbas initially said he would not enter negotiations without assurances that Israel would comply with previous agreements and international law which prohibit settlement construction on Palestinian land.
Israel could not be considered a serious partner for peace, he said, if it continued building roads and cities on land which would be a Palestinian state under a two-state agreement.
Abbas based his agreement to resume direct talks on the Middle East Quartet statement, in which the US, UN, EU and Russia called for an end to illegal settlement construction.
Palestinian sources quoted in the Israeli daily Haaretz said the US administration was exerting pressure on Abbas to continue negotiations even if Netanyahu resumed settlement construction, a move the sources said would be politically impossible for the president.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=312912
Abbas updates Libyan president
TRIPOLI (Ma'an) -- President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Tripoli Saturday to update Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on the first round of re-launched peace negotiations in Washington.
Earlier this week, Abbas met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the first direct talks in almost two years. Previous negotiations were broken off when Israel launched its December 2008 offensive on Gaza.
Fatah Central Committee members Nabil Sha'ath and Muhammad Shtayyeh, Abbas' spokesman Nabil Abu Rudaineh and Palestinian ambassador to Libya Atef Audah attended the meeting with Gaddafi.
Abbas is scheduled to visit Tunis on Sunday to update Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on the status of negotiations.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=313163
Oren: Israel is offering gestures, not a freeze extension
US and Israel express satisfaction with launch of talks; calls Washington meetings "serious, candid, very constructive."
WASHINGTON Israel is offering the Palestinians gestures in place of extending the settlement moratorium in hopes of keeping them in peace negotiations once the freeze expires, Israel's top US envoy said Friday.
Both Israelis and Palestinians are anxious to avoid being blamed for sabotaging direct talks which started just Thursday. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has threatened to walk out if Israel doesn't extend the moratorium -- announced by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu last November to entice Palestinians to enter negotiations when it expires at the end of September.
We know that President Abbas's position can sometimes be precarious, and we are trying to find other means of incentivizing him to stay at the negotiating table,said US Ambassador to Israel Michael Oren, referring to the domestic criticism Abbas has incurred for getting into direct talks, particularly with the possibility that the freeze will soon end.
Oren, who was speaking on a conference call with the Jewish Federations of North America and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, did not address what incentives were being considered, though greater Palestinian control of West Bank territory, removing additional check points and releasing Palestinian prisoners are possibilities.
Oren did say, though, that Israel was discussing the issue very intensely with the Palestinians and in very close negotiations with the Obama administration as well.
Once we are past that hurdle I think we are very confident about moving very swiftly to reach a historic framework agreement, he said.
Oren described Thursday's meetings between Netanyahu and Abbas, as well as the Israeli and Palestinian teams, as serious and candid and very constructive.
He characterized the day as a very successful launching of direct talks which were onducted in good faith and with a good sense of friendliness and openness and warmth, so I have good reason to feel optimistic.
The Obama administration also expressed satisfaction over how the launch of negotiations went.
People are pretty upbeat, said one State Department official Friday, the day after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presided over the opening of talks.
It's an important step, the official said, and the atmosphere coming out of the first meetings was positive.
Though the American press has repeatedly pointed to the expiration of the settlement moratorium on September 26 as the first major obstacle of the talks, the initial hurdle was arguably surmounted this past week.
On Tuesday and Wednesday Hamas gunmen killed four Israelis and wounded two others in protest of the talks. In response, Abbas condemned the attacks and ordered arrests of Hamas activists in the West Bank. Netanyahu stressed the important role of security in any deal, but affirmed his commitment to the peace process.
Their reactions meant that the momentum of the negotiation launch was not lost, and the US could continue to present a hopeful perspective.
We welcomed that Netanyahu and Abbas condemned all forms of violence, just as we condemn all forms of violence, the State Department official said.
Israel, too, expressed its appreciation.
President Mahmoud Abbas came out and condemned the terror attacks and we appreciate his doing that and respect his courage in doing so, Oren said on the conference call.
Jon Alterman, a Middle East expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, noted that both sides had an interest in not letting the talks be derailed by terror attacks.
The leaders are grown-ups and they know they [shouldn't] allow themselves to be pushed around, he said. It would be self-destructive from the Israeli point of view if every time rejectionists raised their heads you gave them a veto.
Despite having overcome the week's violence, the settlement issue still looms large. But the successful kick-off could help neutralize that impasse.
My understanding is that this hasn't been resolved, but they're confident that if they create a positive environment they can get it resolved in the future, Alterman said.
In addition to gestures the Israelis are offering the Palestinians, the sides are discussing compromise formulas where building would resume just in the settlement blocs Israel would be expected to retain in a formal peace deal and in small rather than attention-grabbing projects.
So far, however, neither side has agreed to these ideas. But there are still three weeks for a solution to be found.
When asked Friday by Channel 2 about Abbas's threat to halt talks, Clinton explained that part of what we are doing here is creating an atmosphere that is conducive to a final agreement that rests on tough decisions, including resolving final status issues such as settlements.
She urged dealing with all of them not in a piecemeal way, but in a comprehensive way, because each side is going to have to make concessions, each side is going to have to make tradeoffs.
The Israelis have been pushing for a comprehensive rather than piecemeal approach, with Oren arguing Friday that the Palestinian demand for a settlement freeze upfront constituted a cherry-picking of issues that was unacceptable to Israel.
In the interview, which was conducted jointly with Palestine TV, Clinton stressed that she was personally committed to reaching peace partly because of her involvement with her husband's efforts when he was president in the 1990s. She described herself as disappointed by the failure of that process, noting that she was the first person ever associated with an American administration who called for a Palestinian state.
Asked whether the US was pursuing peace as a way to appease Arab countries ahead of a military strike on Iran, Clinton firmly rejected the notion.
She did, however, say that Iran's activities affected the Israeli-Palestinian situation and were of concern to the United States.
There are connections, but on their own, getting to a two-state solution is so much in the interests of the entire region, she said.
In the conference call, Oren was also asked about a linkage between US policy on the peace process and Iran, following media reports suggesting that in exchange for Israeli compliance on negotiations the US would be more supportive of Jerusalem's position on Tehran.
They are completely separate issues for us, though we strongly feel that if Iran does acquire nuclear military capabilities it will deal a monumental blow to the peace process, Oren said. The United States is not saying that if you do we will concedein Iran. That is not at all part of the discourse here, not at all.
In terms of aiding the peace process, Oren urged those on the line to communicate backing for Israel's peace-making efforts to US political leaders.
Let your feelings be known to your representatives in Congress that you support this process and you support the decisions of the Israeli government within the process, he told them.
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=187037
7 jan 2012, 16:03 , Respect -
Maria 6 sept 2010
Report: Netanyahu to offer PA alternative to settlement freeze
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu refuses to freeze settlement construction in the West Bank, but at the same time he still wants President Mahmoud Abbas to continue with direct peace talks.
To do so, Netanyahu is offering "generous"gestures such as releasing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and transferring more West Bank territories to Palestinian Authority, according to Israel's ambassador to Washington Michael Oren.
Oren was quoted Sunday by the Israeli daily Maariv telling leaders of the Jewish Federation, who he met last Tuesday, that Netanyahu would offer the Palestinians "generous" gestures in order to make sure they do not quit direct talks because he refuses to extend the settlement freeze.
Amongst the gestures, according to Maariv, is releasing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, removing military checkpoints in the West Bank, transferring new territories to the PA and approving building a road between Ramallah and Ar-Rawabi city, the first planned Palestinian city in the outskirts of Ramallah in the central West Bank.
Chief PLO and Israeli negotiators Saeb Erekat and Yitzhak Malachi are scheduled to meet in Jericho later this week to discuss the offer and to prepare for a meeting between Netanyahu and Abbas on 14 September in Sharm Ash-Sheikh in Egypt, Maariv reported.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=313440
7 jan 2012, 16:03 , Respect -
Maria 7 sept 2010
Russia and France call on Tel Aviv not to resume settlement activities in the occupied territories.
Israel urged to halt settlement work
Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
As Israel and the Palestinian Authority engage in a new US-led direct talks, Russia and France call on Tel Aviv not to resume settlement activities in the occupied territories.
Moscow and Paris expressed concern that the Israeli construction project would endanger the direct talks between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas in Washington.
"We are all very worried," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after a meeting with France's Bernard Kouchner in Paris on Tuesday.
In November, Netanyahu announced a 10-month freeze on illegal settlement expansion projects, which will expire on September 26.
"We must see to it that the negotiations are not broken off on September 26. Everyone who can have an influence on the end of the moratorium must do everything in their power to prevent it," Lavrov said.
Kouchner, for his part, urged Russia, the European Union, and Arab nations to "use their entire weight" to push for the Israeli freeze to continue beyond the cut-off date.
The remarks came after Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said his party would block any attempt to extend Tel Aviv's settlement freeze.
Abbas said on Monday that he would withdraw from talks should Israel resume its illegal settlement activities in the occupied territories.
http://www.presstv.com/detail/141643.html
(1:08) DN! Israeli Foreign Minister Peace Deal Impossible, Settlements to Resume
Israeli Foreign Minister: Peace Deal Impossible, Settlements to Resume
Israel's Foreign Minister has dismissed the chances of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal while openly vowing to resume settlement construction this month. On Sunday, Avigdor Lieberman said a peace deal is unattainable and rejected an extension of Israel's partial freeze on West Bank settlement building. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman: "There will no longer be any one-sided concessions. We don't agree to any extension of the freeze, not for three months, not for a year, half a year or one minute. It needs to be understood that signing a comprehensive peace agreement, which means an end to the conflict, settling of mutual claims and recognition of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people, this is an unattainable goal, not in the coming year and not in the next generation."
Lieberman's comments come just days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas agreed to hold regular US-brokered talks following last week's summit in Washington.
7 jan 2012, 16:03 , Respect -
Maria 8 sept 2010
Report: West Bank building freeze to 'continue in practice'
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The Palestinian Authority and Israel are expected to come to an "unspoken understanding" that a halt to illegal settlement construction in the West Bank would continue past its formal deadline, Israeli media reported Wednesday.
According to Israeli daily Haaretz, a senior PA source close to President Mahmoud Abbas said Israeli authorities would not be signing new permits for construction, despite Israel not issuing a formal extension to the moratorium.
The daily further said the freeze, which does not include East Jerusalem, is due to expire on 30 September and not 26 September. The source reportedly told the daily that the PA was more intent on the moratorium's implementation on the ground rather than declaration.
Abbas has reiterated since the resumption of direct negotiations on 2 September in Washington that he would walk out of talks if Israel failed to extend the settlement moratorium.
Speaking to the Ramallah-based daily Al-Ayyam on Monday, Abbas said his refusal to continue talks unless an extension is implemented was "made clear to [US] President [Barack] Obama and Secretary of State [Hilary] Clinton and to Israeli Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu], and I told him 'You have to know that if you don't continue with the settlement halt, we will leave these negotiations'."
The PA source told the daily that the PA will also make clear in direct negotiations that it will not agree to a complete demilitarization of the future Palestinian state but would agree to the presence of international forces with a wider mandate than that of the UNIFIL peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon.
Israel announced a 10-month halt on West Bank construction in December 2009, but came under criticism for failing to include East Jerusalem in its mandate. Settlement construction in the occupied part of the city originally led to indirect talks derailing in March, when Israel announced the building of new housing units in an Israel-only settlement in East Jerusalem.
Settlement council leaders vowed to defy the freeze, building several constructions in spite of the government resolution. Following a fatal attack by Hamas near a settlement in Hebron which killed four settlers, residents and council leaders said it would build to "avenge" the killings.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=313978
Dannon: Chief Rabbi permits building during Sukkot
Likud MK tells 'Post' requested special dispensation from Amar saying permissible to build during period usually used to reduce workload.
The West Bank partial building moratorium expires in fewer than three weeks, but even without anticipated obstacles from Labor Party ministers, those seeking to start building immediately on September 26 seemed likely to face an additional obstacle tradition. But Likud MK Danny Danon revealed Tuesday that he had taken the pre-emptive step of ensuring that traditional Jews would be comfortable initiating building projects, despite the fact that the moratorium is expected to conclude during one of the interim days of the Sukkot festival.
Danon told the Jerusalem Post that he had requested a special dispensation from Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar clarifying that it was permissible to engage in building projects during the interim days of the festival. During interim days of week-long festivals Sukkot and Passover, traditional Jews try to reduce their work burden as much as possible to increase the celebratory atmosphere.
Danon said that he had been approached by a number of Likud activists who had expressed their concern that the festival might provide an easy excuse for officials to not resume building in the West Bank immediately following the moratorium order's expiration.
In light of those concerns, Danon said, he turned to Rabbi Amar and requested him to clarify his legal opinion on the subject of resuming building. The two met last Thursday in Rabbi Amar's office, and the rabbi, considered to be one of Israel's leading Sephardi rabbinic authorities, published his ruling that it is a mitzvah [positive act] to build on the 18th of Tishrei, the Jewish date of the order's expiration.
Although it is said that one must minimize labor on the interim festival days, it has already been ruled that the mitzvah of settling the Land of Israel takes supremacy, Amar's ruling continued. It is known that due to the mitzvah of settling the land it is permissible even to tell a non-Jew on the Sabbath to write a property contract, and thus according to Jewish law it is permissible and even a good deed to build new houses in Judea and Samaria, even on interim festival days.
Danon welcomed the chief rabbi's statement, in the hopes that it would encourage people to build following the end of the freeze. Every day of the 305 days of the freeze stopped the development of the region and thus we are obligated to take advantage of every possible day in order to help bridge the gap and return development of Judea and Samaria to it's correct track, Danon concluded.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=187526
7 jan 2012, 16:03 , Respect -
Maria 9 sept 2010
UN chief: Israel should extend settlement freeze
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced that the Quartet will convene in New York this month to discuss the resumption of direct Israeli-Palestinian talks, Chinese news agency Xinhua reported.
Ban met with US Special Mideast Envoy George Mitchell, and following the meeting called for an end to violence in the region and for extending Israel's settlement freeze.
http://bit.ly/9em4LL
Peres to Abbas: Netanyahu is a trustworthy partner
Palestinian president calls Israeli counterpart to offer Rosh Hashanah greetings; Peres urges Abbas not to abandon peace talks.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called President Shimon Peres on Thursday evening to offer greetings for the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah. During the telephone conversation, Peres pleaded with Abbas to "trust [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu."
Against the backdrop of recently relaunched direct peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, Peres urged the Palestinian president "not to abandon the talks before peace is achieved. There is no one more suited than you to achieve peace for your people, and for the entire region."
Abbas and other senior Palestinian negotiators have threatened to quit the U.S.-backed negotiations if Israel should resume construction in West Bank settlements. Last November, Netanyahu declared a 10-month moratorium on construction in settlements, but the freeze is set to expire at the end of this month, and it is not yet clear whether it will be renewed.
"Even if things don't appear perfect," Peres told Abbas, "the path toward peace and an independent Palestinian state is certainly preferable to an ongoing conflict and bloodshed. Even if there will be crises and disagreements, and the road will seem imperfect, I'm sure that new and creative solutions can be achieved."
Abbas replied that "we're serious and our goal is to achieve a peace agreement as soon as possible." To this Peres responded saying "I'm sure Netanyahu is a trustworthy partner."
Earlier Thursday, Abbas spoke with Netanyahu by phone. The two leaders offered mutual greetings for the holidays, the Muslim Eid el Fitr and Jewish Rosh Hashanah.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/peres-to-abbas-netanyahu-is-a-trustworthy-partner-1.313092
Peres to Abbas: Don't quit without peace
President Peres tells Abbas PM Netanyahu can be trusted, urges PA leader to secure peace deal
President Shimon Peres spoke with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on the phone Thursday, assuring him that "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a partner who can be trusted."
Earlier, Abbas called Netanyahu to wish him a Shana Tova on the occasion of the Jewish New Year. However, the two leaders did not discuss any political issues, as opposed to the talk between Peres and Abbas later in the day.
During that conversation, Peres urged Abbas not to quit before achieving peace, adding that "nobody is more fitting than you to secure peace for your people and for the entire region."
The Palestinian president responded: "We're serious, and our goal is to reach a peace agreement as soon as possible."
At the beginning of the conversation Abbas offered Peres his well-wishes, adding: "I hope that next year, when I call again, comprehensive peace shall already prevail in our region."
Peres thanked Abbas for the warm wishes and said: "I'm taking the opportunity to wish you and all Muslims well on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, and I share your hope for peace."
http://bit.ly/c8u6VT
Report: After Egypt, talks to continue in Jericho
TEL AVIV (Ma'an) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Mahmoud Abbas will meet in the West Bank city of Jericho ahead of 26 September, Israeli press reported Tuesday.
Direct negotiations between the leaders resumed in Washington on 2 September, and will continue in Egypt's resort town of Sharm Ash-Sheikh on the 14-15 of the month. The meeting in Jericho would be held after the Sinai sit-down, but before Israel's settlement freeze expires on 26 September, the country's Hebrew daily Yedioth Ahronoth said Tuesday.
Abbas had said if the 10-month slow-down in settlement building was not extended, he would walk out of talks. Netanyahu has said his coalition would collapse if he continued the ban.
Reports said Tuesday that Israeli and Palestinain negotiators had reached an agreement that "in practice" settlement construction would not continue during talks, but that no official announcement would be made.
Meetings in Jericho between peace partners were initially set to take place before the talks in Sharm Ash-Sheikh, but sources said they were called off after Palestinian officials leaked the date and time of the talks to media. PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said the talks, set as a precursor to the Egypt discussions, were moved and would take place in the resort town.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=314157
Next round of talks to be split in Egypt, Jerusalem
WASHINGTON (Ma'an) -- US Mediators will meet in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm Ash-Sheikh on Tuesday, and then move Wednesday to Jerusalem where talks will continue.
"The Egyptians have volunteered to host a round of direct negotiations," State Department spokesman Phillip Crowley told reporters Wednesday, and confirmed that a move to Jerusalem for a second day of talks had been agreed to during discussions the week before.
Crowley gave no explanation for the change in location, which was expected to be Egypt for both days of talks.
Israeli press reports said Wednesday that a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Mahmoud Abbas would take place in Jericho following the 14-15 talks. No date was specified, but reports said the meeting would be before the end of an Israeli-mandated settlement-construction freeze on 26 September.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=314207
Palestine calls for support from EU in peace talks
Dr Saeb Erekat, who heads the Palestinian Negotiating Team, was speaking at a meeting held in Jericho
Ramallah: The Palestinian leadership on Thursday called on the EU to put pressure on Israel to stop its colony activity in Palestine, in order to save the peace process.
Dr Saeb Erekat, who heads the Palestinian Negotiating Team, was speaking at a meeting held in Jericho with representatives of the EU and the Palestinian Authority.
The Palestinians urge all the EU members to do whatever it takes and extend their efforts to make Israel stick to halting its colony construction and other activities on Palestinian land, including [Occupied] East Jerusalem, and to stop demolishing houses, forcing Palestinians out of their homes, confiscating the lands, incursions into the Palestinian territories, political assassinations, arrests and the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip, he said.
The continuation of these Israeli practices on the ground and the implementation of extremist policies will surely destroy all the serious attempts to launch a meaningful peace process, he added, pointing out that the peace negotiations should last no longer than a year.
A year timeline for the negotiations is enough for reaching a comprehensive peace agreement that includes suitable resolutions for all the core issues including [Occupied] Jerusalem, borders, colonies, refugees, security, water and prisoners, Dr Erekat stressed.
Meanwhile, a statement issued by the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) called on the US Administration, the Quartet and the Arab group to exert pressure on Israel to secure a colony freeze, in order to save the entire peace process. It expressed support for US President Barak Obama, his administration and the Quartet members, as well as the efforts of the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his negotiating team.
The Palestinian leadership will be totally involved with the utmost degree of seriousness in the negotiations, the statement read.
It pointed out that Israel's proposed security arrangements allow for the continued confiscation of Palestinian land in Occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank and make the establishment of an independent Palestinian state impossible.
The rights of the people of Palestine according to Palestinian law should also be made a priority, it said.
http://bit.ly/ciKNPD
7 jan 2012, 16:03 , Respect -
Maria 10 sept 2010
Obama: If Israeli-Palestinian talks break down, we'll continue trying
U.S. President tells reporters that he is encouraging peace talks because the alternative would put both parties and the United States at risk.
U.S. President Barack Obama said Friday that he was encouraging peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians because the alternative is a status quo that puts both parties - and the United States - at risk.
When asked by Haaretz what would happen if the direct peace talks, officially launched in Washington on Sept. 2, were to break down at an early stage, Obama said that "we are going to keep on trying."
"Over the long term, it [peace] has the opportunity to change the strategic landscape in the Middle East in a way that would be very helpful. It would help us deal with an Iran that has not been willing to give up its nuclear program. It would help us deal with terrorist organizations in the region," Obama explained.
"[Palestinian President Mahmoud] Abbas and Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu were here last week, and they came with a sense of purpose and seriousness and cordiality that, frankly, exceeded a lot of people's expectations. What they said was that they were serious about negotiations. They affirmed the goal of creating two states living side by side in peace and security," the U.S. president said.
Obama said the United States will stay engaged in the negotiations, including a visit to the region by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton next week.
Referring to a temporary Israeli moratorium on construction in West Bank settlements, set to expire at the end of the month, Obama said that "I told Netanyahu %u2013 given that the talks are moving in a constructive way, it makes sense to extend the moratorium."
Abbas and other key Palestinian officials have declared that they would walk away from peace talks if the construction freeze is not extended beyond the September 26 deadline. Netanyahu has made no indication whether he intends to extend the freeze.
Obama went on to say that "I think the politics for Prime Minister Netanyahu is very difficult. I told Netanyahu that 'you've got to show president Abbas that you're serious.' One of the goals I set for myself and my team is that Netanyahu and Abbas have to think how they can make the other side succeed. The only way to succeed is to see the world through the other person's eyes, and that requires personal relations and trust."
The U.S.-backed talks have set a goal of establishing an independent Palestinian state within one year.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/obama-if-israeli-palestinian-talks-break-down-we-ll-continue-trying-1.313178
Obama urges Israel to extend settlement freeze
US president tells White House press conference he sees 'enormous hurdles' ahead in Israel-PA peace talks, but claims, 'It's a risk worth taking because the alternative is status quo that is unsustainable.' Adds: Burning copies of Koran could lead to retaliation against US troops
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama said on Friday he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that it makes sense to extend a moratorium on settlement construction for as long as Middle East talks are constructive.
Speaking at a White House news conference, the US president said, "And it turns out, to Netanyahu's credit and to the Israeli government's credit, the settlement moratorium has actually been significant. It has significantly reduced settlement construction in the region. And that's why now the Palestinians say: You know what; even though we weren't that keen on it at first or we thought it was just window dressing, it turns out that this is important to us.
"What I've said to Prime Minister Netanyahu is that, given so far the talks are moving forward in a constructive way, it makes sense to extend that moratorium so long as the talks are moving in a constructive way, because ultimately the way to solve these problems is for the two sides to agree what's going to be Israel, what's going to be the state of Palestine; and if you can get that agreement, then you can start constructing anything that the people of Israel see fit, in undisputed areas," Obama stated.
"Now, I think the politics for Prime Minister Netanyahu are very difficult. His coalition - I think there are a number of members of his coalition who've said, we don't want to continue this. And so I've -- you know, one of the things that I've said to President Abbas is you've got to show the Israeli public that you are serious and constructive in these talks so that the politics for Prime Minister Netanyahu, if he were to extend the settlement moratorium, would be a little bit easier."
Obama said he saw "enormous hurdles" ahead in Middle East peace negotiations, but said it was a risk worth taking and the United States would remain engaged even if talks break down.
"There are enormous hurdles between now and our endpoint," he said.
"And there are going to be a whole bunch of folks in the region who want to undermine these negotiations. We saw it when Hamas carried out these horrific attacks against civilians and explicitly said, 'We're going to try to do this to undermine peace talks.' There are going to be rejectionists who suggest that it can't happen, and there are also going to be cynics who just believe that the mistrust between the sides is too deep."
According to the American leader, the talks between Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who are due to meet again in Egypt on Sept. 14-15, represented a chance to realize the goal of an independent Palestinian state living side by side in peace with a secure Israel.
"The two parties need each other. That doesn't mean it's going to work. Ultimately it's going to be up to them," Obama said.
"I remain hopeful but this is going to be tough," Obama said. "It's a risk worth taking because the alternative is a status quo that is unsustainable. And so if these talks break down, we're going to keep on trying."
'Pray on it'
The US president said a successful peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians could "change the strategic landscape in the Middle East" and help US efforts to pressure Iran over its nuclear program.
"This is something in our interests. We're not just doing this to feel good. We're doing it because it will help secure America as well."
Obama continued to say that he hopes a Florida pastor refrains from burning copies of the Koran on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and warned it could cause "profound damage" to US interests.
"The idea that we would burn the sacred text of someone else's religion is contrary to what this country stands for," said the president, warning it could lead to retaliation against US troops in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
"This is a way of endangering our troops, our sons and daughters." he said. "It is in the age of the Internet something that can cause us profound damage around the world, so we've got to take it seriously."
The Florida pastor, Terry Jones, said on Friday he would not burn the Koran but could change his mind if a proposed meeting fails to take place on Saturday in New York with Muslim leaders planning to build an Islamic center and mosque near the site of the Sept. 11 attacks.
"Right now we have plans not to do it (burn the Koran),"Jones told ABC's "Good Morning America" program. Jones has said a Florida imam had promised him a meeting with New York imam Feisal Abdul Rauf in exchange for canceling the Koran-burning.
Abdul Rauf is at the center of the controversy over the New York mosque.
Obama said the burning would be a recruiting tool for al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
"We've got an obligation to send a very clear message that this kind of behavior or threats of action put our young men and women in harm's way," he said.
"My hope is that this individual (Jones) prays on it and refrains from doing it."
Obama added that capturing or killing al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden remains a high US priority.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3952285,00.html
UN to Israel: Extend settlement freeze
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged Israel to extend its partial settlement freeze, as Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) have resumed talks.
The UN chief made the remarks on Thursday during his meeting with US Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, about the first round of talks, UN News Center reported.
The negotiations were held between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas in Washington on September 2.
The Israeli premier in November announced a 10-month freeze on illegal settlement expansion projects in the occupied West Bank, but Israel repeatedly violated the freeze which expires on September 26 by continuing to construct more settlement units in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Following the first meeting, Abbas said that he would leave the negotiations should Israel resume its illegal settlement activities.
Meanwhile, the Middle East Peace Quartet is expected to convene in New York later this month to assess the talks.
Ban said the Quartet compromising the United Nations, the European Union, Russia and the United States will meet to review the Middle East process.
He added that he would also meet with Netanyahu and Abbas during the annual UN General Assembly opening on September 20.
http://www.presstv.com/detail/141911.html
Sources: UAE gives Palestinian Authority $42 million
Arab source in Washington says donation made after Obama, Clinton urged more Arab support to aid Palestinian government capacity, calls it 'gesture of support' for peace talks
The United Arab Emirates has donated $42 million to the Palestinian Authority, boosting support for President Mahmoud Abbas' cash-strapped government as it embarks on direct peace talks with Israel, Arab officials said on Friday.
An Arab source in Washington said the donation, which was confirmed by a Palestinian government spokesman, was made after repeated calls by senior US officials for more Arab support to help build Palestinian government capacity.
"It is a timely gesture of support both for the talks and the institution-building project of the PA, as well as a response to the public urging from (US) President (Barack) Obama and Secretary (of State Hillary) Clinton," the source said.
Palestinian government spokesman Ghassan al-Khatib confirmed the UAE donation but declined to give further details. "The sum is meant to support the government's budget," he said.
Abbas is due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Egypt on Sept. 14 for a second round of direct peace talks aimed at striking a deal within a year to set up an independent Palestinian state living peacefully next to Israel.
Abbas' Palestinian Authority has seen a decline in funding from Arab countries and imposed spending cuts even as it seeks to expand government functions.
The Palestinian Authority's main Arab donors, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, have contributed considerably less this year than they have annually since 2007.
So far, the Saudis have donated $30.6 million until August, compared to $241.1 million in the same period in 2009. The new donation by the UAE, the world's third-largest oil exporter, is its first this year -- it gave $173.9 million in 2009.
A United Nations report last month said the Palestinian Authority could face a serious liquidity crisis in September due to the aid shortfall.
The Arab source in Washington said it was unclear if Saudi Arabia -- another key US ally in the region -- also intended to provide more funds, but said this week's Eid al-Fitr holiday, which ends the holy fasting month of Ramadan, may be a factor.
"As for the Saudis, I am not aware of any signs, though it is Eid and it was Ramadan, and the machine there tends to grind to a halt during this period," the source said.
http://bit.ly/9ewmMd 7 jan 2012, 16:03 , Respect -
Maria 11 sept 2010
PM to demand peace deal end conflict
Jerusalem sources say Netanyahu will tell Abbas during next round of talks at Sharm El-Sheikh that if settlement on borders of two states is reached, conflict over land must end and Palestinians must recognize Jewish state.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to demand during his next meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that as soon as an agreement is reached on the borders of two states the Palestinians will cease demands for territory and recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
Jerusalem officials say Netanyahu will ask Abbas to agree to a settlement on "the end of Palestinian claims" and "what is in Israel belongs to the Jews and what is in Palestine to the Palestinians".
"We totally understand that Abbas cannot say this before the cameras at this stage," one source said Saturday. "But he needs to recognize the principle that if we reach a settlement on borders then Israel will demand that it end the conflict, and the Palestinians recognize the Jewish state.
"The solutions to the various problems need to be derivatives of the fact that after a deal is struck the story ends. The prime minister will not agree to a principle that allows the Palestinians to establish a state and then continue the argument over which territory belongs to whom."
State officials say that Netanyahu and his negotiating team will alight on two issues during the next round of direct talks in Sharm El-Sheikh: Security arrangements and the demand to announce the end of claims in the framework of a permanent settlement.
Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and hold a one-on-one meeting with Abbas. Afterwards US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to attend the summit.
'Obama's tone not oppressive'
Jerusalem officials also attempted to downplay over the weekend US President Barack Obama's recommendation to Netanyahu to extend the freeze on construction in West Bank settlements.
"The president's tone towards Israel is not one of oppression. We are looking at the glass as half-full, meaning that Obama is demanding Abbas take trust-building steps towards the Israeli public," said one source.
However other officials took Obama's recommendation to mean that if the Palestinians decide to break up the talks over the renewal of construction, he would not accuse them of wrongdoing. In any case, they say, Obama has allowed room for maneuvering, hinting that Netanyahu should not allow construction in sensitive areas.
Terror attacks are expected to proliferate in the days leading up to the Sharm El-Sheikh summit, after two such attacks took place while the prime minister was in Washington overseeing negotiations. However sources say this will not prevent the talks from taking place as scheduled.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu has not yet announced whether he will attend the UN General Assembly this month, though invitations for private meetings with world leaders abound. His aides say the talks have created a tight schedule, and it remain unclear whether he will be able to fit the General Assembly in.
http://bit.ly/cXsSZw
Obama applauds settlement freeze
WASHINGTON (Ma'an) -- US President Barack Obama on Thursday applauded Israel's "substantial" slowdown in settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Obama said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's efforts had convinced the PLO to re-enter direct negotiations.
Despite skepticism from the Palestinians, Obama said, Netanyahu's settlement moratorium has actually been significant. "It has significantly reduced settlement construction in the region. And that's why now the Palestinians say, you know what, even though we weren't that keen on it at first or we thought it was just window dressing, it turns out that this is important to us."
The PLO has demanded that the temporary freeze be extended past 26 September, when it is set to expire. Obama said it would make sense to keep it going through negotiations that would determine final borders.
"It makes sense to extend that moratorium so long as the talks are moving in a constructive way," Obama said. "Ultimately the way to solve these problems is for the two sides to agree what's going to be Israel, what's going to be the state of Palestine. And if you can get that agreement, then you can start constructing anything that the people of Israel see fit in undisputed areas."
Obama also noted that the moratorium is unpopular in Israel, giving credit to Netanyahu for going ahead with it anyway despite opposition inside his own government, which includes pro-settler parties.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=314372
Who will replace Abbas in peace talks?
Nabil Shaath
Al-Ahram reports Shaath, Erekat waging 'silent battle' over substituting for head of negotiation team.
Two Palestinian Authority officials are waging a quiet battle over who will stand at the head of the negotiating team in the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, in case President Mahmoud Abbas cannot be present or requires assistance.
The Egyptian Al-Ahram reported Saturday that Palestinian leaders were divided over Nabil Shaath and Saeb Erekat, both of whom are members of the Fatah central council and both of who have experience in heading negotiations with Israel.
Shaath, however, is seen to have a slight edge because he has also headed Fatah's negotiations with rival Hamas in Gaza.
The report added that the "silent battle" between the two candidates was exposed when they made conflicting announcements on the date of the next round of talks with Israel in Sharm El-Sheikh.
Shaath published a statement saying there would be a covert meeting held in preparation, after which Erekat published a statement contradicting this claim.
Saeb Erekat
The two men's origins also play a part in their candidacy. Supporters of Shaath, who is from the Gaza Strip, say this will help reach an agreement with Hamas. Erekat, who is from the West Bank, is said to be missing this advantage.
http://bit.ly/bIxPXw
Abbas thanks Assad for 'supporting Palestinian people'
PA chairman calls talks "important period in history," completes week of holiday greeting calls to Peres, Netanyahu, and Mitchell.
Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas thanked Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad late Friday for his country's support of the Palestinian people during direct talks with Israel, according to a Channel 10 report on Saturday.
In a phone call ahead of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr that marks the end of Ramadan fast, Abbas informed Assad of recent developments in talks with Israel and thanked him for his support of Palestinians "in this important period of history for the Palestinian people," Channel 10 cited from a report by official Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Abbas also reportedly made a call to US Middle East Envoy George Mitchell Friday evening to discuss the ongoing peace talks.
Abbas on Thursday called President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to wish them a happy Rosh Hashana.
During their conversation, Abbas told Peres that [the Palestinian people] want a peace agreement with Israel and hope that Israeli inhabitants will be able to achieve a peace that will include all Arab nations."
For his part, Peres told Abbas that, "No one is more fitting than you to achieve peace for your people and the entire region."
He also wished Abbas and Muslims well on Eid al-Fitr.
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=187740
Abbas thanks Assad for 'supporting Palestinian people'
Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas thanked Syrian dictator Basha al-Assad late Friday for his country's support of the Palestinian people during direct talks with Israel, according to a Channel 10 report on Saturday.
In a phone call to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr that marks the end of Ramadan fast, Abbas informed Assad of recent developments in talks with Israel and thanked him for his support of Palestinians "in this important period of history for the Palestinian people," Channel 10 cited from a report by official Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Abbas also reportedly made a call to US Middle East Envoy George Mitchell Friday evening to discuss the ongoing peace talks.
http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=187739