International donors pledge billions for Palestinians by Ezzedine Said – Mon Mar 2, 3:32 pm ET
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AFP) – International donors on Monday pledged almost 4.5 billion dollars to the Palestinians and demanded the immediate lifting of Israel's crippling blockade on war-battered Gaza.But the donors meeting in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh insisted that the aid money for the Gaza Strip must bypass its Islamist rulers Hamas, which is boycotted by the West as a terrorist group.We have gathered today 4.481 billion dollars, in addition to previous pledges, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Abul Gheit said at the close of the conference aimed at helping to rebuild Gaza after Israel's three-week war.He said donors called for the immediate, total and unconditional opening" of Gaza's borders to ease a blockade that has prevented all but vital humanitarian aid reaching the impoverished enclave's 1.4 million inhabitants.World leaders at the conference also appealed for urgent action to breathe new life into the moribund Middle East peace process and said reconciliation between Hamas and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah was crucial.US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on her first visit to the region as America's top diplomat, said the economic aid must go hand-in-hand with efforts to reach a comprehensive peace deal.The assistance we are offering is integral to our broader goals of a comprehensive peace and a two-state solution,she said.The US is prepared to engage in aggressive diplomacy with all sides in pursuit of comprehensive settlement that brings peace and security to Israel and its Arab neighbours.The Palestinian Authority had been seeking 2.8 billion dollars from the 75 countries and donor groups gathered in Sharm six weeks after the guns fell largely silent around Gaza.This conference has been 100 percent successful,Palestinian planning minister Samir Abdallah told AFP.
Abul Gheit said the amount pledged on Monday was more than expected and added to previous pledges brought the total aid to 5.2 billion dollars.More than 1,300 Palestinians were killed in the three-week Israeli offensive which also left large swathes of Gaza in ruins, destroying homes, schools and other infrastructure.However, it is still unclear how the aid will reach Gaza as Israel has linked any lifting of its blockade, and any agreement to a long-term truce with Hamas, to the release of a soldier held by Gaza militants since June 2006.The US administration pledged 900 million dollars, which Clinton said must not end up in the wrong hands, while the Arab monarchies of the Gulf have pledged 1.65 billion and the EU 554 million dollars.
Abbas said any economic aid was insufficient without a political settlement to the decades-old Middle East conflict, with the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.He called on the international community to take urgent steps to help revive peace talks at a time when Israel is set for a right-wing government led by hawkish former premier Benjamin Netanyahu.Clinton, who met fellow members of the Middle East Quartet to discuss the state of peace negotiations, flew into Israel later for talks with leaders there.As well as members of the outgoing administration, she is also due to meet Netanyahu.Asked in Egypt if she intended to put pressure on Israeli leaders to further US goals in the region, Clinton said: We will be discussing specific policies with the new government whenever it is formed. It is important that Israel work with its responsible Palestinian partners including Abbas and (Palestinian prime minister Salam) Fayyad,she added. UN chief Ban Ki-moon said the opening of the crossings to Gaza, whose largely aid-dependent population has been suffering under the Israeli blockade since Hamas seized the territory in June 2007, was indispensible.
The situation at the border crossings is intolerable. Aid workers do not have access. Essential commodities cannot get in.Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad had said that Gaza construction could begin within six weeks if the crossing points are open.
However, Hamas said it will not accept any politicised aid and has called on the international community not to get involved in internal Palestinian divisions.
Report: Many EU nations do not track anti-Semitism By VERONIKA OLEKSYN, Associated Press Writer – Mon Mar 2, 1:10 pm ET
VIENNA – Anti-Semitism in some European countries appears to have risen since Israel's offensive in Gaza, but it fell during 2007 and most of 2008, a new report says.At the same time, the study notes that most EU countries fail to compile statistics on anti-Semitism, complicating efforts to gauge the level of animosity toward Jews within the 27-nation bloc.Monday's report by the Vienna-based European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights said a number of attacks against Jews and synagogues have been reported by the media in France, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark and Britain since the Dec. 27 start of Israel's three-week military offensive in the Gaza Strip, during which an estimated 1,300 Palestinians died. It also cited recent reports of anti-Semitic incidents in Cyprus, Spain and the Netherlands.It did not give a total number of incidents but said German authorities recorded 292 anti-Semitic offenses during the fourth quarter of 2008.In France, home to western Europe's largest Jewish and Muslim communities, the Interior Ministry recorded 48 anti-Semitic acts and 65 threats between Dec. 27 and Jan. 26, according to the report.
This recent surge in anti-Semitic incidents is reason for great concern,said agency director Morten Kjaerum. While it is too early to draw conclusions, there are indications that this rise could partly be affected by the situation in the Middle East, as well as by the global financial crisis.The agency said it did not have enough information to conclusively calculate an overall trend in anti-Semitic activity for the period between 2001 to 2008. But it noted that in the countries for which data are available there appears to be a decrease in such offenses in 2007 and most of 2008.That follows an increase in anti-Semitic activity between 2001 and 2002, between 2003 and 2004 and again in 2006, according to the report. However, it warned against making direct comparisons between countries since statistics are compiled in different ways.Although the report notes recent examples of anti-Semitic incidents in other EU countries, it only breaks down country-specific data for nine nations — Austria, Belgium, Britain, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden.The agency's data collection work shows that most member states do not have official or even unofficial data and statistics on anti-Semitic incidents,the report says.The researchers noted that even when countries compile information, it often can't be used for comparative purposes because it's collected in different ways.Often, anti-Semitic incidents do not make it into official records because they are not labeled as such or because victims or witnesses do not report them.
Reed Brody, a Brussels-based spokesman for Human Rights Watch, described anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic incidents as serious and growing problems in Europe and said the lack of statistics was hindering efforts to effectively fight them.It's difficult to develop an effective response when we don't know the exact scope and contours of the problem,Brody said in an interview.The European Jewish Congress said it considered the report's conclusions to be insufficient and announced it was organizing a symposium to produce proposals on monitoring anti-Semitism and implementing existing EU legislation on racism and xenophobia. The symposium will take place in Brussels on March 30.On the Net:European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights: http://fra.europa.eu/fraWebsite/home/home_en.htm
Israel plans to double West Bank settlers by Marius Schattner – Mon Mar 2, 9:08 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's housing ministry has plans for West Bank construction that would nearly double the number of settlers in the occupied territory, the anti-settlement group Peace Now said on Monday.The group gave the estimate in research issued on the day that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is due to visit to Israel on her first trip to the region since taking office.US President Barack Obama has vowed to vigorously pursue peace efforts in the region, and Israeli settlements on occupied land have long been one of the main obstacles to an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.The ministry of construction and housing is planning to construct at least 73,000 housing units in the West Bank, said the Peace Now study, based on analysis of data on Israeli government websites.At least 15,000 housing units have already been approved and plans for an additional 58,000 housing units are yet to be approved,it said.Out of the units already approved, nearly 9,000 have been built, Peace Now said.
If all the plans are realised, the number of settler in the territories will be doubled,the research document said, saying the estimate is based upon an average of four people in each housing unit.The completion of these projects will make the plan of creating a Palestinian state next to Israel totally unrealistic,Peace Now head Yariv Oppenheimer told army radio.Peace Now calculates that there are a total of more then 280,000 Israeli settlers living in some 121 settlements in the West Bank. Another estimated 200,000 live in annexed east Jerusalem.Housing ministry spokesman Eran Sidis insisted "these plans refer only to potential construction and would yet need to be approved by various government bodies.In practice only a very small part of these urbanism projects are implemented,Sidis told AFP.He claimed Peace Now mixed together unrelated data,but he did not deny the existence of the project.Included among the plans are some 17,000 housing units outside existing settlements in the Bethlehem area, the Peace Now study said.There are plans for huge construction to double the size of some settlements including Beitar Illit, Ariel, Maale Adumim and Efrat, it said.Some 19,000 units are planned to be built to the east of the controversial Israeli separation barrier in the West Bank, and the ministry plans include at least six wildcat outposts -- settlements not authorised by the Israeli government, Peace Now said.The plans published are only a small part of the overall housing plans for the occupied territories,the group said.There are other thousands of housing units in plans of the local authorities, private initiators and other public authorities, all of which we are in the process of collating.Under the internationally drafted roadmap for peace,Israel is committed to dismantle all settlements built since March 2001.But construction in Israeli settlements jumped 60 percent in 2008 in the wake of the relaunching of the Middle East peace process at a US conference at which the parties pledged to implement the roadmap.
Five Gaza rockets strike Israel: military Sun Mar 1, 7:52 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Palestinian militants in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip fired five rockets at southern Israel on Sunday, according to the Israeli military, further straining a fragile ceasefire.One of the rockets exploded in the yard of a house in Sderot causing some damage. The other four blew up on waste land, the military said.
Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed earlier Sunday to respond severely to militant rocket strikes from Gaza.If the rocket fire from Gaza continues, we will hit back severely, so much so that the terrorist organisations will understand that Israel is not ready to resign itself to this, Olmert said at the weekly cabinet meeting.Defence Minister Ehud Barak will give directions so that Israeli forces bring calm to southern Israel,the outgoing premier said.His comments came six weeks after the end of Israel's three-week war on Gaza, which left more than 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead and destroyed homes and infrastructure throughout the Hamas-ruled territory.A donors conference takes place in Egypt Monday to finance reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.Palestinian militants have fired more than 100 rockets and mortar rounds at Israel since the fragile January 18 truce that ended Israel's massive military offensive on Gaza.Israel has in turn carried out several air raids targeting alleged militants, weapons caches and smuggling tunnels beneath the Gaza-Egypt border.Egypt has been struggling to mediate a more permanent ceasefire between the two sides in recent weeks but the talks have shown little sign of progress.
Mideast envoy Blair makes first Gaza visit by Joseph Krauss – Sun Mar 1, 11:30 am ET
GAZA CITY (AFP) – Britain's former prime minister Tony Blair paid a brief visit to a UN school in the Gaza Strip on Sunday on his first trip to the Hamas-run enclave since being appointed Middle East Quartet envoy.I wanted to come to hear for myself first-hand from people in Gaza, whose lives have been so badly impacted by the recent conflict,Blair said at the school in the northern town of Beit Hanun.These are the people who need to be the focus of all our efforts for peace and progress from now on," he said, adding that he would relay what he saw to an international conference on Gaza reconstruction in Egypt on Monday.The Middle East Quartet -- the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States -- is due to meet on the sidelines of the conference in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.Blair's visit coincided with a trip by British International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander, the first to Gaza by a British minister since the Islamists violently seized power in the enclave in June 2007.Alexander pledged 30 million pounds (43 million dollars, 34 million euros) toward rebuilding and called on Israel to open the borders of the territory where he said he was horrified by the scale of human suffering.Today I am making an allocation of 30 million pounds as a new statement of our commitment to do what we can as a British government to alleviate the suffering, Alexander said at a press conference.We want to see full and unfettered access both for aid and for aid workers here in Gaza.Blair met Gaza businesspeople, members of civil society and representatives of the water authority, as well as dropping in on an English class, British consulate officials said.But unlike recent high-profile visitors to Gaza -- including UN chief Ban Ki-moon and US Senator John Kerry -- Blair did not visit the areas most devastated by the three-week Israeli war on the territory.
John Ging, the Gaza director of the UN refugee agency, said he hoped the visits had convinced decision-makers to change their failed policies and lift the Israeli and international blockade.We rest our case now, there is nothing more to say. They have seen it and now it's up to them to live up to their responsibility to actually change it,he said after accompanying Blair on the school visit.Focus on the people, not the politics, and get the crossings open. It's as simple as that.Israel and Egypt have sealed Gaza off from all but limited humanitarian aid since Hamas, a group pledged to Israel's destruction, seized power in June 2007 after weeks of deadly street battles with secular Fatah rivals.Most of Gaza's 1.4 million population relies on aid from the outside world.Israel's 22-day onslaught in December and January caused damaged estimated at 1.95 billion dollars, the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction says.Blair was appointed Quartet representative in June 2007 after he stepped down following 10 years as prime minister.He had planned to make his maiden visit to Gaza in July 2008, but it was cancelled because of security concerns.
Since his appointment, Blair has been spearheading several projects aimed at revitalising the Palestinian economy, including three planned industrial zones in the occupied West Bank. He has also pushed development projects in Gaza, including the repair of the water treatment plant, where a reservoir burst its banks in March 2007, flooding a village with raw sewage and drowning five Palestinians. The Quartet has refused to have dealings with Hamas, which swept Palestinian elections in January 2006, saying the group first has to renounce violence, recognise Israel and agree to abide by past peace deals.Blair said he hopes the Western-backed Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas can together develop a unified Palestinian response in a way that the international community can engage with the Palestinian people.
Mideast Quartet to meet alongside Gaza aid talks Sat Feb 28, 2:27 pm ET
CAIRO (AFP) – The international Middle East Quartet will meet on Monday on the sidelines of a conference on reconstruction in Gaza, the Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman told AFP on Saturday.Such a meeting is planned in principle, but the details have yet to be fixed,Hossam Zaki said.The Quartet -- the United Nations, United States, European Union and Russia -- in 2003 adopted a road map intended to lead by stages to a permanent settlement of the Israel-Palestinian crisis, based on the principle of the existence of two states.Hillary Clinton, on her first trip to the Middle East as US Secretary of state, will take part in the donors' conference at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh and will also attend the Quartet meeting.UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, EU foreign policy supremo Javier Solana and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are also expected to be at the Quartet event.The road map struggled to make progress and ground to a halt in December when Israel launched a bloody three-week assault on the Gaza Strip which killed 1,330 people and destroyed hospitals, schools and thousands of homes.Israeli prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday abandoned attempts to bring Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni into a new coalition government when she failed to persuade him to back the two-state proposal.An Arab League official said a meeting is also planned between Clinton and nine Arab foreign ministers from Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Jordan tells US two states key to Mideast peace Sat Feb 28, 9:07 am ET
AMMAN (AFP) – Jordan's King Abdallah II told US envoy George Mitchell on Saturday that Middle East peace can only be achieved on the basis of two states, Palestinian and Israeli, supported by all involved.There is no alternative to the solution based on two states which must be backed by all the parties, who must work with determination to achieve it,the king told the Middle East envoy of US President Barack Obama.A statement from the palace said the king, who met Mitchell in Amman, called on Washington to take concrete steps to put Israel-Palestinian negotiations back on the rails.Obama has several times called for negotiations to resume. They came briefly back to life after a US conference in November 2007 but subsequently stalled, before being completely moribund after the December-January war between Israel and Hamas.Israel launched its offensive against Gaza in response to militant rocket fire. The conflict killed more than 1,300 Palestinians, including several hundred children, and 13 Israelis.Mitchell's second visit to the Middle East, aimed at trying to advance peace talks, comes ahead of a planned international conference on the reconstruction of Gaza scheduled for Monday in Egypt.Last Thursday the envoy visited Israel for talks with senior officials and on Friday met Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Ramallah.Israel Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday abandoned efforts to persuade Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to join a ruling coalition, after he refused to accept her call to back a two-state solution.
Rocket fired from Gaza hits Israeli school: army Sat Feb 28, 4:52 am ET
ASHKELON, Israel (Reuters) – A rocket fired by Palestinian militants in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip exploded near a school in Israel Saturday, causing damage but no injuries, Israel's military said.The rocket, one of three fired from the coastal territory on Saturday, landed in the courtyard of a school in the Israeli city of Ashekelon, some 12 km (7 miles) north of the Gaza border. Shrapnel flew into classrooms.Authorities said the school was empty for the weekend.Israel has responded to similar attacks with air strikes.Egypt has been trying to broker a long-term truce between Israel and Hamas to take the place of a shaky January 18 ceasefire that ended a 22-day Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip. There have been almost daily exchanges of fire since then.There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Saturday's rocket fire.(Reporting by Yehuda Peretz, Writing by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Elizabeth Piper)
EU's Solana on unprecedented Gaza visit Fri Feb 27, 8:41 am ET
GAZA CITY (AFP) – EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana toured the war-shattered Gaza Strip on Friday, his first such trip since the Islamist Hamas seized power in the Palestinian territory in June 2007.I came to Gaza to see by myself the situation and the destruction and to show the solidarity to the good people of Gaza who have suffered so much,he said at a news conference.I wanted to see with my eyes the level of destruction,he said of the devastation wrought by Israel's 22-day military offensive that killed more than 1,300 Palestinians.He viewed the ruins of the American International School and the wasteland of Ezbet Abed Rabbo, where scores of Palestinians huddle in shanties erected on mounds of rubble that used to be their homes.His visit came ahead of an international conference in Egypt on the rebuilding of Gaza. I hope the meeting that will take place on Monday will be a good meeting with good consequences for people here,said Solana.Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere was on a similar visit to Gaza on Friday, touring areas hard hit by the Israeli offensive which ended on January 18.Neither Solana nor Stoere were due to meet any representative of Hamas, which the European Union, Israel and the United States consider a terrorist organisation.We have not had any meeting with Hamas at the political level since June 2007,said Norwegian foreign ministry spokesman Haakon Svane.The Islamist movement violently seized power in the Gaza Strip in June 2007, ousting forces loyal to moderate Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
