Palestinians' Abbas swings behind boycott campaign
By Ali Sawafta 10:52AM MAY 22,10
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – President Mahmoud Abbas Saturday swung behind a campaign to stop Palestinians buying goods produced by Israeli settlements in the West Bank, urging all Palestinians to shun the products.Abbas dismissed Israeli accusations that the campaign amounted to incitement of hatred against the Jewish state -- something the United States has urged him to prevent as it mediates indirect peace talks between the sides.The 75-year old Palestinian leader opened his door to volunteers distributing leaflets detailing products from furniture to wine and soft drinks which the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority has banned from Palestinian markets.I call on all Palestinian citizens to do the same and to boycott these goods, said Abbas, speaking in public for the first time about a campaign spearheaded by his prime minister, Salam Fayyad.He put a sticker on his door declaring his house free of settlement goods.We are not inciting against Israel. We do not want to boycott goods coming from Israel," he said, distinguishing between products produced by Israel and those made in settlements built on occupied land.
Palestinian consumers, their economy tied to Israel's, depend on goods from Israel.
Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said Friday the boycott was undermining the latest U.S. effort to advance the peace process.It's not the right way to approach negotiations, he told Israel's Channel 1 TV channel, adding that settlement goods were often produced together with factories in Israel.By banning settlement goods, the Palestinians hope to undermine the economic viability of the enclaves which pepper the West Bank. They also hope to encourage European Union member states to ban trade with enterprises in the settlements, which are considered illegal under international law.Settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are home to some 500,000 Jews living among 3 million Palestinians. World powers view them as an obstacle to a peace deal that would create a Palestinian state next to Israel.Abbas signed a presidential decree in April stipulating punishments ranging from fines to imprisonment for Palestinians dealing in settlement goods. The Palestinian Authority also aims to stop Palestinians from working in the Israeli enclaves.Palestinian officials estimate the value of settlement goods sold in the Palestinian market at up to $500 million. The settlements employ around 25,000 Palestinians.The United States this month started mediating indirect peace talks aimed at ending the decades-old conflict through the creation of a Palestinian state. President Barack Obama has warned both sides that they will be held accountable if either does anything that undermines the effort. The Palestinians take that to mean that Israel will refrain from declaring new building plans in East Jerusalem.(Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Abbas: no progress in indirect talks with Israel
MAY 22,10
RAMALLAH, West Bank – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says he's ready to swap some land with Israel but that gaps remain on how much territory is to be traded.
Abbas spoke Saturday after two rounds of indirect, U.S.-mediated peace talks with Israel.Abbas said the first round dealt with borders and security arrangements between Israel and a Palestinian state. He said Israel asked a series of questions the Palestinians are now preparing to answer.The Palestinian leader was asked about reports that he is willing to trade more land than in the past. Abbas only said that there is no agreement on the amount of land to be traded.Israel wants to annex major Jewish settlements built on war-won land sought by the Palestinians.
Militants bury gunmen killed in Israel shootout
MAY 22,10
ABASSAN, Gaza Strip (AFP) – Calling for revenge against Israel, gun-toting Islamic Jihad militants on Saturday took part in the funeral of two of their comrades killed on a rare cross-border raid into Israel.Nader Abu Dakkar and Hamdi Abu Hammad, both aged 17, were shot dead in an exchange of fire with Israeli troops on Friday after they breached the Gaza border fence and headed toward nearby Israeli villages, the military said.Despite their youth, Islamic Jihad identified the two young Palestinians as members of Al-Quds Brigades, its military wing.An Israeli military spokeswoman said Kalashnikov assault rifles and spare magazines carried in military-style tactical vests were found on the bodies.About 1,000 people turned out for Saturday's funeral in the teenagers' home village of Abassan, near the town of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.Some carried Palestinian flags and others waved the black banners of Islamic Jihad. A small group carried assault rifles slung across their shoulders and chanted Martyrs, martyrs. Revenge, revenge, but no shots were fired.We shall continue our resistance ... until the end of Zionist occupation,Khaled Albatish, an Islamic Jihad leader, said in a speech. As long as there are martyrs, there will be resistance.The two militants had infiltrated Israel apparently with the intention of carrying out terror attacks,Israel's Haaretz newspaper website said.The border between Israel and the Gaza Strip is heavily fortified, and militant incursions into the Jewish state are rare.In April 2008, Palestinian fighters, under cover of mortar fire, breached the border near the Nahal Oz terminal and moved into Israel.The militants shot dead two Israelis in what the army called a failed abduction attempt, before they themselves were killed by tank fire as they fled back to Gaza.In June 2006, militants tunneled under the border, killed two soldiers and escaped back into the strip with a third, Gilad Shalit, who is still in captivity. Two of the Palestinians were killed in the raid.
Lebanon PM slams Israel defence drill
Sat May 22, 6:48 am ET
CAIRO (AFP) – Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Saturday lashed out at Israel's defence exercises and said they ran counter to current Middle East peace efforts.
Israel has to go to the negotiating table in order to achieve peace. To launch military exercises at such a time runs counter to peace efforts, Hariri told reporters in Cairo after a meeting with Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak.How can you launch peace negotiations with the Palestinians while holding military manoeuvres? asked Hariri, who is to travel to Washington on Sunday for his first visit as premier.Israel's annual week-long civil defence exercises, which start on Sunday, are designed to prepare emergency responses to rocket strikes on Israel.Israeli Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai has stressed that the exercises were planned long in advance and had no bearing on the Jewish state's present relations with its northern neighbours, Lebanon and Syria.As in previous years, Israel has made contact through intermediaries with its neighbours, notably Syria, to reassure them of its non-belligerent intentions, he said.
But on Friday, Lebanon's Hezbollah mobilised thousands of militants in southern Lebanon in response to the exercises, said an official from the Shiite militia group which is backed by Damascus and Tehran.Israel and Hezbollah fought a month-long war in 2006 that destroyed much of southern Lebanon, largely a Hezbollah stronghold. It estimates Hezbollah has since stockpiled more than 40,000 rockets.And last month, Israeli President Shimon Peres accused Syria of providing Scud missiles to Hezbollah, charges that Damascus has denied.
Hezbollah shows off weaponry in Lebanon 'tourist complex'
Fri May 21, 3:09 pm ET
MLITA, Lebanon (AFP) – The Hezbollah Shiite militia on Friday inaugurated a tourist complex displaying its own heavy weapons and those left by Israel, to mark the 10th anniversary of Israel's pullout from south Lebanon.Armies that emerge victorious from wars display their exploits in museums, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said in an inaugural speech broadcast live at the complex on a giant television screen. He was not present in person.This site is a modest initiative compared... to the sacrifices and historic victories that have been gained, Nasrallah said of the 2006 war in which Israel failed to crush Hezbollah, or the party of God in Arabic.One of our principal responsibilities is to preserve the history of resistance... and this museum is built on the ground of resistance, Nasrallah told hundreds of people gathered in a courtyard at the complex.The site, located in the sprawling southern locality of Mlita, was a Hezbollah military base during Israel's 1978-1990 occupation of south Lebanon and the 2006 war.The museum will open to the public from May 25, the anniversary of the Israeli pullout, which is this year being marked as a national holiday.
Hezbollah has also been organising jihadist tours, in which 500 young men and women were taken on a field trip to witness what the Iran-backed group called the achievements of the resistance against Israel.Dozens of anti-tank and Katyusha rockets, Iran-built Raad 1 missiles, mortars and rocket launchers are on display in the complex that encompasses a mountain cave, wooded grounds and a newly built gallery.Israeli Merkava tanks are also on display.Several Hezbollah fighters were killed in Israeli raids while digging the caves to hide weapons, according to guide Mohammad Sayyed.The museum is the first complex of its kind in the world, Hezbollah said in a statement.
Israeli army kills 2 armed Palestinians from Gaza
Fri May 21, 9:44 am ET
NIRIM, Israel (Reuters) – Israeli troops killed two armed Palestinians who crossed into Israel on Friday from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, a military spokeswoman said.They entered Israel near Nirim, a small farming community, after breaching the security fence along the border with the Palestinian enclave, she said.The soldiers on the scene and the gunmen exchanged fire, during which both gunmen were killed, the spokeswoman said. No Israelis were hurt in the incident. Israeli media said soldiers ordered residents of Nirim to stay indoors during the gunfight.No group in the Gaza Strip claimed responsibility for the incident.Hamas has been urging smaller militant groups to refrain from launching attacks against Israel, which carried out a devastating military offensive in the Gaza Strip 17 months ago with the aim of halting cross-border rocket fire.Israeli air strikes targeted tunnels in the northern and southern Gaza Strip early on Friday after Palestinian militants fired two rockets that landed in fields inside Israel.The Israeli army says that some 350 rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip since Israel ended its military offensive there in January 2009.More than 3,000 rockets and mortar rounds were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip in 2008.(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi and Joseph Nasr; writing by Joseph Nasr, editing by Tim Pearce)
U.S., Egypt strive for Mideast nuclear arms ban deal By Louis Charbonneau – Fri May 21, 8:19 am ET
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United States and Egypt are working to bridge differences on a proposed Middle East nuclear arms ban, an idea that could one day force Israel to scrap any atom bombs it has, U.N. diplomats say.The U.S. efforts to secure a deal with Egypt and other Arab countries reflect Washington's concern to win their backing for sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program by offering a concession over U.S. ally Israel, even though Washington says such a ban is impossible without peace in the Middle East.Western diplomats say that the success or failure of a month-long meeting on the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) currently under way in New York hinges on the sensitive negotiations on an Egyptian proposal to hold a conference on establishing a zone free of nuclear arms in the Middle East.If we can't get a deal on the Middle East in the next few days, the NPT review conference will probably collapse, a Western diplomat told Reuters. It's what happened in 2005.Another Western diplomat familiar with the talks was guardedly optimistic. Despite the appearance of a chasm separating the Arabs from the United States and the four other permanent U.N. Security Council members, informal conversations indicate the sides are not in reality too far apart, he said.
The next few days will be critical,the envoy added.NPT review conferences are held every five years to take stock of and assess compliance with the anti-nuclear arms pact. They make decisions by consensus, which makes it difficult to reach agreements, since all 189 NPT signatories have a veto.The last review conference in 2005 was widely viewed as a failure. It collapsed due to Egypt's outrage at the failure to move forward on the Middle East nuclear-arms-free zone idea and developing nations' anger at the United States for refusing to reaffirm disarmament pledges from 2000.Both Egypt and the United States are eager to avoid another collapse. Cairo does not want to be labeled as a spoiler again, while the United States wants an outcome that helps ratchet up the pressure on Iran and supports President Barack Obama's determination to move toward a world free of nuclear arms.
If there is no deal on the Middle East, envoys say, there can be no agreement on a final declaration that names and shames Iran and North Korea and acknowledges the disarmament steps the big powers have taken, which Washington and its allies want.
U.S. COUNTERPROPOSAL
The United States and the four other countries allowed to keep nuclear arms under the NPT -- fellow Security Council veto powers Britain, France, China and Russia -- have been negotiating with the Arabs on the sidelines of the NPT meeting, which concludes at the end of next week, to secure a deal.Egypt, which chairs the powerful 118-nation bloc of non-aligned developing nations, circulated a proposal to all 189 NPT signatories calling for a conference by next year on ridding the Middle East of nuclear arms in which all countries in the region would participate.Washington came up with a counterproposal, which calls for "the convening of a conference in 2012-2013 of all states of the Middle East to discuss implementation of the 1995 resolution in its entirety.The 1995 resolution adopted by NPT signatories calls for making the Middle East a zone without atomic bombs or other weapons of mass destruction, and notes that the Middle East peace process could help to make it a reality.
Israel neither confirms nor denies having nuclear arms.Egypt has insisted that both Israel and Iran would have to participate in such a conference, even though Tehran does not recognize Israel's right to exist. Western diplomats agree, but say that Israel would be reluctant to participate.Still, the Jewish state could be persuaded, they say.Israel will attend if the cost of not attending is higher than the cost of attending,a senior Western diplomat said. Among the possible enticements for Israel would be to ensure that any such regional conference also covers biological and chemical weapons, not just nuclear arms, as well as regional security and other issues, Western diplomats said. Like nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, Israel never signed the NPT and is not officially at the NPT review conference. Egypt and Syria are outside the chemical weapons convention that bans production, stockpiling and use of chemical arms. Diplomats say the sticking points include the format for such a conference and the question of whether it should be organized by the United Nations, as the Arabs would like.(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
Spain says Mediterranean Union summit postponed By DANIEL WOOLLS, Associated Press Writer – Fri May 21, 7:35 am ET
MADRID – A meeting to bring together European and Middle Eastern governments has been postponed to give Israeli-Palestinian talks time to achieve results, officials said. Israel on Friday called the reason for the delay ridiculous.The summit of the Union for the Mediterranean was going to take place June 7 in Barcelona. Now, it has been pushed back to November, Spain's Foreign Ministry said Thursday night.The Union for the Mediterranean brings together the 27-nation EU and 16 partner countries across the southern Mediterranean and the Middle East. It is designed to encourage economic, environmental and other kinds of cooperation.The Foreign Ministry says the postponement was agreed by Spain and co-chair nations France and Egypt to give indirect Israeli-Palestinian talks that began recently time to prosper.But Spanish media said the meeting has been postponed because organizers feared it might be a failure.The newspaper El Pais says Syria and Egypt threatened to boycott it if Israel's hardline foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, attended. Lieberman heads an ultranationalist party and is known for a belligerent tone that has earned him critics abroad and inside Israel.Yigal Palmor, a spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry, said his country did not understand the stated reason for the postponement.
We don't see why an organization that aims to promote cooperation, mostly economic cooperation, among Mediterranean nations should be linked in any way to the Israeli-Palestinian issue. This linkage is simply ridiculous, said Palmor.Will Algeria and Morocco not talk to each other because of Israel and the Palestinians? Will Tunisia now refuse to sit with France because of Israel and the Palestinians? Will Libya and Bulgaria, or Turkey and Cyprus, stop their plans to cooperate because of Israel and the Palestinians? The postponement seemed to be another diplomatic setback for Spain, which holds the rotating EU presidency until the end of June. An EU-U.S. summit that was to have been held this month in Madrid was called off months ago when Washington announced that President Barack Obama would not attend and had never planned to in the first place.
US lawmakers back Israel missile defense aid
Thu May 20, 3:44 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US House of Representatives on Thursday overwhelmingly backed President Barack Obama's plans to help Israel deploy an anti-missile system, in an unmistakable election-year show of support.By a 410-4 margin, lawmakers endorsed Obama's plan to give Israel 205 million dollars for its production of a short-range rocket defense system called Iron Dome.With nearly every square inch of Israel at risk from rocket and missile attacks, we must ensure that our most important ally in the region has the tools to defend itself, said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman.The looming threat of a nuclear-armed Iran, and the persistent threat posed by Iran's allies Hamas and Hezbollah, only serve to reinforce our longstanding commitment to Israel's security, the California Democrat added.Israel completed tests in January on its Iron Dome system, designed to intercept short-range rockets and artillery shells fired at Israel by Hamas and Hezbollah.The next phase is to integrate the system into the army. Israel hopes the Iron Dome will help counter rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and from Lebanon.Palestinian militants have fired thousands of home-made rockets into southern Israel, prompting Israel's devastating assault on the Islamist Hamas in Gaza on December 27, 2008.
The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah also fired some 4,000 rockets into northern Israel during a 2006 war with Israel. The group is believed to have an arsenal of some 40,000 rockets.The vote did not actually free up any funds for Iron Dome, but put the US Congress on record as supporting the plan.It came after ties between Israel and its key ally the United States were strained when plans for new Israeli settler homes in east Jerusalem were announced just as US Vice President Joe Biden visited the Jewish state.
US says Syria must curb arm shipments to Hezbollah
Thu May 20, 11:23 am ET
AMMAN, Jordan – A top U.S. diplomat has urged Syria to do more to prevent arms shipments to the militant Lebanese Hezbollah and stem the flow of militants into Iraq.Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman said while relations remain uneasy, Syria was important to achieving a full Arab-Israeli settlement.He told reporters Thursday that Washington wants to influence Damascus because of its ties to Iran and other U.S. foes in the region.Feltman said that because Syria has the ear of Hezbollah, Iran and the militant Palestinian Hamas, the Obama administration felt it must make its own views known to Damascus to ensure peace and security in the region.
Hariri visits Syria amid spat with US, Israel
Tue May 18, 2:42 pm ET
DAMASCUS (AFP) – Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri arrived in Damascus on Tuesday ahead of a planned trip to Washington, which accuses Syria of supplying Lebanon's Hezbollah with missiles.Hariri, who has rejected those claims, met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the official SANA news agency reported without elaborating.Hariri's second official visit to Damascus follows accusations by Israel and the United States that Syria and Iran are continuing to supply the Lebanese Shiite movement with arms and undermining regional stability.The Lebanese premier is due to visit the United States at the end of May for a meeting with President Barack Obama, and is expected to address the United Nations Security Council, of which Lebanon is currently a non-permanent member.Syrian presidential adviser Bussaina Shaaban hailed the improving ties between Damascus and Beirut, in comments published on Tuesday in the pro-government newspaper Al-Watan.Since his last visit to Damascus, relations (between the two countries) have deepened...President Assad warmly welcomes this visit, designed to coordinate policy ahead of (Hariri's) trip to Washington, she said.We look favourably on every Arab visit to Washington that explains the Arab position.Israeli President Shimon Peres sparked controversy last month when he accused Syria of supplying Hezbollah with Scud missiles, a charge Damascus has staunchly rejected.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates made similar allegations at the end of April, saying Syria and Iran were providing Hezbollah with rockets and missiles of ever-increasing capability.During Hariri's December visit to Syria, the first since the 2005 assassination of his father, ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, he expressed his desire for privileged, sincere and honest relations...in the interest of both countries and both peoples.Hariri and his US- and Western-backed allies have in the past blamed Syria for the murder and for a string of subsequent political assassinations in Lebanon. Damascus has denied any involvement.Syria dominated its tiny neighbour for nearly three decades until April 2005 when it pulled out its troops from Lebanon under international and regional pressure, two months after the assassination of Rafiq Hariri.The two countries established diplomatic ties for the first time in 2008, with Syria opening an embassy in Beirut, while Lebanon opened its mission in Damascus in March 2009.
WHO demands immediate end to Gaza blockade
Tue May 18, 1:04 pm ET
GENEVA (AFP) – The World Health Organization demanded Tuesday that Israel end a blockade on the occupied Palestinian territories, saying that it was causing a shortage of medicines, particularly in the Gaza Strip.An annual meeting of the WHO -- the World Health Assembly -- this week in Geneva passed the resolution with 63 member states voting in favour. Eight states voted against, 51 abstained and another 63 were absent during the vote.The resolution tabled by Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Cuba, Libya, Kuwait, Nicaragua, Oman, Pakistan and Venezuela, demands that Israel ... immediately put an end to the closure of the occupied Palestinian territory, particularly the closure of the crossing points of the occupied Gaza Strip that are causing the serious shortage of medicines and medical supplies therein.It also demanded unhindered and safe passage for Palestinian ambulances as well as respect and protection of medical personnel.In addition, the resolution asked Israel to facilitate the access of Palestinian patients and medical workers to health institutions in occupied east Jerusalem and abroad.The United States was among countries that opposed the resolution, saying that it stirred up tensions.The European Union abstained from the vote, saying that it had sought a more balanced text that put the focus on health but that this was not reflected by the resolution.
In 2009, the health assembly had already passed a resolution calling that the blockade be lifted immediately.
