SAfrican school presses Israelis on Palestinians By JENNY GROSS, Associated Press Writer 12:10PM SEPT 29,10
JOHANNESBURG – University of Johannesburg professors rejected calls to sever ties with an Israeli university Wednesday, but called on Ben-Gurion University to work with its Palestinian counterparts.Calls for similar academic boycotts to protest Israel's Palestinian policies also have failed in the West.The South African university's faculty senate met Wednesday to vote on the proposal, which had been endorsed by anti-apartheid icon Archbishop Desmond Tutu, but instead accepted a compromise without a vote. They asked Ben-Gurion University to work with Palestinian universities on research projects, and to start the collaborations within six months if it wants to maintain ties with the University of Johannesburg.UJ Vice Chancellor Adam Habib said the compromise reflected his institution's values.We believe in reconciliation, Habib said.We'd like to bring BGU and Palestinian universities together to produce a collective engagement that benefits everyone.The universities have joint research projects and academic exchanges on biotechnology and water purification.Relations between Ben-Gurion University and Rand Afrikaans University, a formerly all-white university under South Africa's apartheid system, began in 1987. The University of Johannesburg, created in 2005, took over various campuses including Rand Afrikaans University and a university in the black township of Soweto as part of efforts to ensure higher education was transformed with the rest of South Africa after the end of apartheid.
Israel officially opposed apartheid, but its ties with the white government were seen as close. South Africa's post-apartheid government has been a sharp critic of Israel's Palestinian policies. The late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was among the guests at Nelson Mandela's 1994 inauguration as South Africa's first black president.Tutu and more than 200 prominent South African academics had supported ending UJ's links with the Israeli institution.Israeli universities are an intimate part of the Israeli regime, by active choice, Tutu wrote in an essay that appeared in a South African newspaper Sunday. While Palestinians are not able to access universities and schools, Israeli universities produce the research, technology, arguments and leaders for maintaining the occupation.Academic boycotts of Israeli universities have been inspired by boycotts of South African institutions during apartheid. A 2003 proposal for British universities to sever all ties with Israeli academic institutions was defeated. Two years later Britain's Association of University Teachers voted to boycott Israel's Haifa and Bar Ilan universities. That decision was overturned only a month later under fierce international pressure.U.S. professors and students also have called for academic and cultural boycotts of Israel.The moves have prompted sharp criticism. Harvard University law professor Alan Dershowitz once threatened legal action that would "devastate and bankrupt" anyone who boycotts Israeli universities.The New York-based Anti-Defamation League described the British moves as anti-Semitic, arguing Israel was being singled out while human rights violators such as Iran, Sudan, Venezuela and Zimbabwe were ignored.
Palestinian rights groups slam Gaza vote at UN
SEPT 29,10
GENEVA – Palestinian human rights groups have condemned a U.N. resolution backed by their own government that delays action on a report alleging war crimes during last year's Gaza conflict.Maysa Zorob of the Palestinian group Al-Haq says the resolution passed Wednesday in the 47-nation U.N. Human Rights Council is a betrayal of victim's rights and reflects a lack of genuine commitment to justice.The vote effectively freezes the so-called Goldstone report that called on Israel and Hamas to probe and prosecute alleged war crimes or face scrutiny by the International Criminal Court.Raji Sourani, director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza, said backing the resolution was a grave mistake by the Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas.
EU chief diplomat to visit Mideast leaders
SEPT 29,10
BRUSSELS (AFP) – European Union chief diplomat Catherine Ashton announced Wednesday she would travel to the Middle East to meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders this week.Ashton will arrive in the region on Thursday on a three-day visit to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and the US special representative for the Middle East George Mitchell, her office said.
Ashton said in a statement that she would travel directly from the United States, where she was on an official visit, after Israel refused to extend a 10-month ban on new settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.I have decided to travel directly from the United States to the Middle East as a matter of priority to urge both Israelis and Palestinians to find a satisfactory way for negotiations to continue and gather momentum, she said.As I have said, the EU regrets the Israeli decision not to extend the moratorium on settlements.During my visit I will reiterate the call for both parties to act responsibly and choose the path of peace. There is no alternative to a negotiated solution.
Germany, Qatar urge continuing Mideast peace talks
– Wed Sep 29, 9:26 am ET
BERLIN – Germany's chancellor and the ruler of Qatar have called on Israelis and Palestinians to press forward with the Mideast peace talks.
Angela Merkel and Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani stressed at a joint news conference on Wednesday that a continuation of the Mideast peace process was in everybody's interest.Merkel urged both sides to show a willingness to compromise.Al Thani, speaking through a translator, said the peace talks should be continued and appealed to Israel to show the wisdom to support a Palestinian state.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas recently threatened to withdraw from the newly launched U.S. brokered negotiations if Israel resumes building in the West Bank settlements.While in Berlin Al Thani also met with German President Christian Wulff.
ABBAS IS DOING THE SAME WHEN TALKS FALTER.
Arafat urged attacks when talks faltered: Hamas
– Wed Sep 29, 6:23 am ET
GAZA CITY (AFP) – The late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat urged Hamas to carry out attacks inside Israel when he felt peace talks had failed, a senior Hamas leader said in remarks published on Wednesday.Arafat signalled to the Hamas movement to carry out a number of military operations in the heart of the Jewish state when he felt that the negotiations with the occupation government had failed, Mahmud Zahar said during a meeting with Hamas MPs on Tuesday, according to the Hamas-linked Falasteen newspaper.He spoke on the 10th anniversary of the outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, which engulfed the occupied territories months after the collapse of the 2000 Camp David peace talks.His comments come as renewed peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians again appear to be on the verge of collapse in the face of a dispute over Israeli settlements. Hamas opposes the new talks.At the height of the uprising in 2002 Palestinian militants launched scores of suicide bombings in Israeli cities as Israel frequently carried out large-scale military incursions across the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Arafat had always insisted that the uprising was a spontaneous reaction to the Israeli occupation and that he had no control over Hamas, the long-time rivals of his secular Fatah movement.He publicly condemned attacks targeting civilians inside Israel, including those carried out by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah.Arafat died of mysterious causes in a Paris hospital in November 2004 after having been besieged in his headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah for nearly three years.His successor, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, always opposed the militarisation of the uprising and moved to end it when he assumed power.An Israeli-Palestinian summit in February 2005 was widely seen as signalling the end of the uprising, although the violence continued. Some 4,700 people had been killed by then, around 80 percent of them Palestinians.
Israeli calls for intermediate peace agreement By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer – Tue Sep 28, 3:45 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS – Israel's foreign minister called Tuesday for an intermediate agreement with the Palestinians, a position directly at odds with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is trying to reach a final peace deal in the coming year.
Speaking at the annual ministerial meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, Avigdor Lieberman also said the guiding principle in a final agreement must not be land-for-peace but an exchange of land to better reflect demographic realities.He said the solution must be two-staged because the emotional problems between Israelis and Palestinians can't be resolved until a new generation is raised that has mutual trust and will not be influenced by incitement and extremist messages.Under these conditions, we should focus on coming up with a long-term intermediate agreement, something that could take a few decades,Lieberman said.The prime minister's office immediately distanced Netanyahu from Lieberman's comments.The contents of the foreign minister's speech at the U.N. were not coordinated with the prime minister, it said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the one heading the political negotiations on behalf of the state of Israel. The various subjects of the peace agreement will be discussed and set only around the negotiation table and not in any other place.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who heads the Labor Party, said Lieberman's remarks do not reflect the position of the Israeli government and certainly not the position of the Labor Party.The Labor Party believes it is vital to continue the negotiations and toward a breakthrough to achieve a peace accord with the Palestinians, and not to play into the hands of israel's enemies, Barak's office said in a statement.During Lieberman's speech, two Palestinian diplomats got up and walked out of the assembly chamber. The seats for Iran and Iraq were empty when shown on U.N. television.Lieberman heads Yisrael Beitenu, an ultranationalist party that is the second-largest member of the coalition government led by Netanyahu. He also is a West Bank settler.While Lieberman is not directly involved in the Mideast negotiations, his comments illustrate the hardline pressures that Netanyahu faces if he begins to make concessions to the Palestinians. In his speech, he alluded to the perception of differences in the government.I want to emphasize that contrary to what is often shown in the international media, the political arena in Israel is not divided between those who seek peace and those who seek war, Lieberman said. Everyone wants peace and the controversy in Israel centers on the specific question of how to achieve this peace; how to reach security and stability in the region.In trying to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian problem, Lieberman said there are practical problems but equally important emotional problems, first and foremost the utter lack of confidence between the sides and issues such as Jerusalem, recognition of Israel as a nation-state of the Jewish people and refugees.This lack of trust cannot be solved until a new generation is raised, he said.To achieve a final status agreement, we must understand that the primary practical obstacle is the friction between the two nations,Lieberman stressed.
He spoke as U.S. special Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, rushed to the region to try to keep peace Israeli-Palestinian peace talks from collapsing just weeks after they began.Israel's decision to resume new West Bank settlement construction after a 10-month moratorium expired at midnight Sunday has angered Palestinians who threatened to abandon talks if building resumed. But Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he wouldn't make a decision until he consults senior Arab officials in Cairo next week, giving U.S. mediation a brief window to find a solution.In his speech, Lieberman insisted that the root of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not Israel's so-called occupation of the West Bank and the settlers themselves. The other misguided argument is the claim that the Palestinian issue prevents a determined international front against Iran,he said. In truth, the connection between Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is precisely reversed,Lieberman said. Iran can exist without Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah, but the terrorist organizations cannot exist without Iran.As a result, he said, to deal with the true roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict the Iranian issue must be resolved.Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Al-Moualem told the General Assembly that in Israel, there is much talk about peace, yet the drums of war continue to sound.He warned that Israel's continued settlement activities are about to make a two-state solution where Israel and Palestine live side-by-side in peace a dead letter than stands no chance of survival.Nonetheless, Al-Moualem said, Syria wants peace and is ready to resume peace negotiations from the point where they stopped through the Turkish mediator.
He reiterated that a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, captured in the 1967 war, is not negotiable nor is it a bargaining chip. Netanyahu has not said he is willing to cede the territory Syria wants. Turkey, a predominatly Islamic nation which has close ties to Arab nations and Israel, mediated four rounds of indirect peace negotiations between the two countries in 2008, But Syria suspended the talks in December 2008 over Israel's military offensive in Gaza.
Israel stops Jewish activist yacht on way to Gaza
By Rami Amichai – Tue Sep 28, 3:20 pm ET
ASHDOD, Israel (Reuters) – The Israeli navy boarded a yacht in the Mediterranean on Tuesday to prevent 10 Jewish activists sailing to Gaza to protest against Israel's blockade of the Palestinian territory.Israel's policies for containing the militant Islamists of Hamas, who control Gaza, came under scrutiny in May after its marines killed nine Turkish activists in boarding one ship in a flotilla of vessels trying to reach the Gaza coast.The catamaran Irene, dubbed the Jewish Boat for Peace and flying a British flag, was taken over around midday off the Gaza Strip on Tuesday without incident, a military statement said.Reuters Television filmed the yacht sailing for the port of Ashdod under its own power, led by a small naval escort vessel.Five of the 10 activists were Israelis and the others came from Britain, Germany and the United States. Police held the Israeli nationals for questioning and later released them. A police spokesman said the foreign activists would be deported.
One of the activists who set sail from Cyprus on Sunday was an 82-year-old Holocaust survivor, Reuven Moskovitz.Before leaving, he told reporters he was taking part because I am a survivor. When I was in a ghetto and almost died, I hoped there would be human beings who would show compassion and help.Israel maintains the naval blockade in what it says is an effort to stop arms being smuggled to Hamas, which has run Gaza since 2007 and considers itself at war with Israel.But critics and humanitarian groups say this amounts to collective punishment of the 1.5 million Palestinians who live in the territory.(Additional reporting by Joseph Nasr; Writing by Douglas Hamilton; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Lieberman UN speech doesn't reflect Israel view on talks: PM
– Tue Sep 28, 3:12 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's UN General Assembly speech, which outlined controversial proposals for an Israeli-Palestinian agreement, did not reflect the official Israeli position, the premier's office said on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to be distancing himself from Lieberman's proposals, including making mostly-Arab regions of Israel part of a future Palestinian state and striving for an interim agreement instead of a full peace deal.
The content of the foreign minister's speech to the United Nations was not coordinated with the prime minister,read a tersely worded statement from Netanyahu's office.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the one who handles the diplomatic negotiations. The various arrangements for peace will be determined only around the negotiating table and nowhere else.Lieberman, whose outspoken remarks regularly attract controversy, told the UN General Assembly, that the friction caused by two nations, two religions and two languages with competing claims to the same land meant there has to be a new look at the makeup of any new state.The guiding principle for a final status agreement must not be land-for-peace but rather, exchange of populated territory, he said.Let me be very clear: I am not speaking about moving populations, but rather about moving borders to better reflect demographic realities.Lieberman advocates ceding parts of Israel with large Arab populations to a future Palestinian state in exchange for Israel keeping large Jewish settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank.
The minister also said the focus should be on securing a long-term intermediate agreement, something that could take a few decades -- despite the fact that Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas committed themselves to inking a comprehensive deal within a year.Last week, Lieberman again raised the idea of swapping populated territories in a bid to redress the demographic balance, which is seen as a major threat to Israel's future as a democratic and Jewish country.There are some 1.3 million Israeli Arabs -- those Palestinians who remained after Israel was founded in 1948, and their descendants -- making up about 20 percent of the population.A day later, he issued a hasty clarification -- saying the plan was his personal view and did not reflect the official position of the Israeli government, in which he is a key coalition partner.The maverick nationalist has in the past campaigned for Israel's Arab citizens to be stripped of their nationality unless they take an oath of allegiance to the Jewish state.The issue of recognising Israel as a Jewish state is one of Netanyahu's key demands in the ongoing peace talks, which were launched with great fanfare on September 2.The Palestinians oppose the demand, fearing that it could harm the future of refugees seeking to return to old homes now in Israel.
Iran the key to Middle East solution: Israeli minister
– Tue Sep 28, 12:39 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – Iran is at the heart of the Middle East conflict and any settlement with the Palestinians could take decades to cement, Israel's hardline foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman said Tuesday.He told the UN General Assembly that Iran, through its links with militant groups, could foil any peace accord with the Palestinians, or with neighboring Lebanon.The Iran issue must be resolved before there can be agreement with the Palestinians, said the minister who is a key coalition ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.Lieberman made no mention of the end of the Israeli moratorium on settlement building in the West Bank. He said simply that Israel is ready for a fair solution and we are ready to cooperate with the international community.He focused his address to the UN ministerial session on Iran and the utter lack of confidence between Israelis and Palestinians.Lieberman said it was completely irresponsible to suggest that the decades old Israel-Palestinian conflict prevents a determined international front against Iran and its nuclear drive.In truth, the connection between Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is precisely reversed. Iran can exist without Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah, but the terrorist organizations cannot exist without Iran, he declared.
Relying on these proxies, Iran can at any given time foil any agreement between Israel and the Palestinians or with Lebanon.Thus, in searching for a durable agreement with the Palestinians, one which will deal with the true roots of the conflict and which will endure for many years, one must understand that first, the Iranian issue must be resolved. One must deal first with the root of the problem and not its symptoms.Israeli leaders regularly joust on the diplomatic stage against Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but the comments have become more hard edged in recent months as the international campaign against Iran's nuclear programme has toughened.Ahmadinejad said in New York last week that there would be war with no limits if there was a US-backed Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.Lieberman, whose comment also regularly attract controversy, said the emotional and practical problems between Israelis and Palestinians meant there has to be a two-stage peace settlement.The emotional problems are first and foremost the utter lack of confidence between the sides and issues such as Jerusalem, recognition of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish People and refugees.Under these conditions, we should focus on coming up with a long-term intermediate agreement, something that could take a few decades.We need to raise an entire new generation that will have mutual trust and will not be influenced by incitement and extremist messages.He added that the friction caused by two nations, two religions and two languages with competing claims to the same land meant there has to be a new look at the makeup of any new state.The guiding principle for a final status agreement must not be land-for-peace but rather, exchange of populated territory, Lieberman said.
Let me be very clear: I am not speaking about moving populations, but rather about moving borders to better reflect demographic realities.
Divided Palestinians mark anniversary of intifada
by Adel Zaanoun – Tue Sep 28, 9:55 am ET
GAZA CITY (AFP) – Palestinian leaders from Hamas and Fatah paid tribute to the Al-Aqsa intifada on Tuesday as they marked the 10th anniversary of the devastating Palestinian uprising.The intifada restored the dignity of the Palestinian people and brought them closer to victory and liberation, Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya said during a special meeting of his government in Gaza.Our people will not hand over their weapons nor stop the resistance because it is our legitimate right as long as there is an occupation, he said.Tuesday marks a decade since Ariel Sharon's controversial visit to the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, an event that sparked deadly violence that soon engulfed the occupied territories.Over the next four years scores of Palestinian suicide bombers struck inside Israel as Israel sent tanks, bulldozers and fighter jets into cities and towns across the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.An Israeli-Palestinian summit in early 2005 was seen as signalling the end of the uprising but the unrest lingered for years.Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas moved to end the violence when he succeeded Yasser Arafat after his death in 2004 and has long sought to bring about an independent state through peaceful negotiations.
His Fatah movement played an active role in the uprising, however, and a jailed leader of the group praised the intifada.The cause of the immense destruction was the (Israeli) occupation, not the intifada, Marwan Barghuti, one of the architects of the uprising, said in a statement from prison published by Al-Quds newspaper.The main cause of the intifada was the continuation of the occupation. The Palestinian people will continue their struggle and their resistance of the occupation until it is gone, he said.But I think it is too early to speak of a new intifada, especially because of the Palestinian divisions.The 51-year-old -- arrested in 2002 and sentenced to five life terms for murder for his role in deadly attacks on Israelis during the uprising -- remains highly popular and is often spoken of as a successor to Abbas.Fatah and Hamas have been brutally divided since the Islamist movement seized power in Gaza in June 2007.On Monday the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem said more than 7,400 people had been killed in Israeli-Palestinian violence since the outbreak of the second intifada, 85 percent of them Palestinians.The 10 years surveyed included not only the intifada, but the 22-day Gaza war launched in December 2008, which left some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead.
U.S. and Israel ink deal on short-range missile defense
– Mon Sep 27, 8:02 pm ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States and Israel on Monday agreed to advance work on a weapons system that would help Israel defend against short-range ballistic missiles like those launched by Hezbollah during the Lebanon war of 2006.The Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency announced the deal late on Monday evening, saying it underscored the continued commitment of the United States to the defense of Israel.News of the agreement about the so-called David's Sling missile defense project comes amid continued tensions between Israel and Iran, and Russia's decision last week to ban the export of high-precision missile systems and other weapons to Iran.Army Lieutenant General Patrick O'Reilly, head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, signed the agreement with several top-ranking Israeli military officers, including Rear Admiral Ophir Shoham, who heads Israel's defense research agency.The agreement continues efforts initiated under a U.S.-Israeli short-range missile defense agreement signed in 2008, the agency said.The new weapons system will help Israel bolster its defenses against short-range and theater ballistic missiles, large-caliber rockets, and cruise missiles, it said.It includes continued development of the Stunner interceptor being developed by Israel's Rafael and Raytheon Co as part of Israel's layered missile defense system.David's Sling will also address the threat posed by the types of inexpensive and easily-produced short-range missiles and rockets used during the 2006 Lebanon War,the agency said in a statement.It will also advance low-altitude intercept technology and provide that technology to benefit U.S. and Israeli industry, it said.(Reporting by Andrea Shalal-Esa; Editing by Bernard Orr)
YOU WILL NEVER READ IN THESE STORIES OVER 10,000 ROCKETS WERE FIRED AT INNOCENT ISRAELIS WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN THIS SPAN.AND ISRAEL PROTECTS THEIR CITIZENS FROM THE ROCKETS.
7,400 killed in decade of Mideast violence: report
– Mon Sep 27, 11:30 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – More than 7,400 people have been killed by Israeli-Palestinian violence since the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising 10 years ago this month, an Israeli rights group said Monday.The vast majority of the 7,454 killed were Palestinians, who accounted for 6,371, or about 85 percent, of the total, the B'Tselem human rights group said in a statement. Of the Palestinian dead, 1,317 were minors.The Palestinian toll includes at least 2,996 people who were not taking part in hostilities when they were killed and 2,193 who were, the group said.The remainder include 694 people who may or may not have been fighters, in addition to 240 who were assassinated and 248 police employed by the Hamas-run government who were killed during the 2008-2009 Gaza war.Palestinians killed 1,083 Israelis during the same period, including 741 civilians, of whom 124 were minors. The other 342 were members of security forces.
Tuesday marks the 10th anniversary of Ariel Sharon's controversial visit to the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City, an event widely seen as sparking the second intifada, or uprising.The next four years saw scores of Palestinian suicide bombings in Israeli cities and large-scale military incursions in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.The violence began to fade after a 2005 summit between Sharon, then prime minister, and Mahmud Abbas, who succeeded Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in late 2004. The meeting was widely seen as signalling the end of the uprising.The other major round of bloodletting in the last decade was the 22-day Israeli offensive on Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009, in which some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.
Jewish settlers declare end to building moratorium
By Allyn Fisher-Ilan – Sun Sep 26, 6:16 pm ET
REVAVA, West Bank (Reuters) – With a tooting of horns and pouring of cement, several thousand Jewish settlers and supporters declared a symbolic end Sunday to a 10-month moratorium on construction starts in their enclaves.The building freeze is over, Danny Danon, a right-wing lawmaker from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, declared as balloons were released into the air at sundown in the red-roofed West Bank settlement of Revava.Today we mark the resumption of building in Judea and Samaria, he bellowed, using biblical names for the West Bank, captured by Israel in a 1967 war.Netanyahu had urged Israeli settlers to show restraint after a limited building freeze expires at midnight (2200 GMT) on Sunday, a plea that appeared aimed at persuading Palestinians not to quit peace talks.But at Revava, near the West Bank city of Nablus, residents expressed their defiance at a groundbreaking ceremony where a mixer poured cement into a hole in the ground to launch construction of a creche.While the act was symbolic, settlers said they would soon begin building some 2,000 homes across the West Bank for which permits were issued before Netanyahu, under U.S. pressure, called a partial building freeze last year.The festivities were attended by thousands bused in for the occasion. They coincided with U.S. efforts, still afoot, to prolong the construction hiatus in order to avert a Palestinian walkout from the peace talks.
In a plot apparently intended for construction in Revava, where signs advertise plans to put up more than two dozen homes, settlers blared shofars, a religious instrument made of a ram's horn, as their leaders proclaimed the building freeze had ended.The freeze was declared over exactly at sunset, which according to Jewish law is the start of the following day.Spokesmen for the 300,000 settlers living in the West Bank renewed their calls on Netanyahu to resist further pressure to delay construction in enclaves they say Israel must keep as a strategic asset, and as its biblical birthright.Underscoring the pressure Netanyahu faces from political allies as well as the settlers, some right-wing leaders demanded Israel annex all its settlements rather than negotiate with Palestinians on their future.Tsipi Hotovely, a Likud lawmaker, said Israel should annex all the settlements to prevent their removal under a peace deal, and pledged to introduce a bill to that effect in parliament.Israeli sovereignty must be applied to the areas were settlements have been built, she said.Benny Katsover, a veteran settlements leader, exhorted supporters to prepare for a struggle, denouncing peace talks as nothing but a false Messiah.(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
Abbas to consult Arab ministers on peace talks
by Nasser Abu Bakr – Sun Sep 26, 8:44 am ET
PARIS (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said Sunday he would meet Arab foreign ministers on October 4 to decide how to proceed with peace talks following the expected resumption of settlement construction.Abbas appeared to have decided to consult the Arab League ministers once a partial moratorium on Israeli settlements expires later on Sunday instead of immediately walking out of US-backed peace talks relaunched earlier this month.He told AFP that in addition to the meeting with Arab ministers he would convene the governing bodies of his Fatah movement and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) to decide on his future course.They will discuss the continuation of negotiations in light of the decisions Israel takes on the settlement freeze, whether they are negative or positive, whether they continue the freeze or resume settlement activity, Abbas told AFP on a flight from New York to Paris.US, Palestinian and Israeli negotiators have been struggling for weeks to reach a compromise on settlements, with Washington urging Israel to extend the restrictions and the Palestinians to remain at the negotiating table.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he would be open to some kind of compromise but that building will resume, and settler groups have deployed bulldozers and cement trucks on at least two construction sites.Abbas, meanwhile, faces mounting calls to withdraw from the peace talks, both from his rivals in the militant Hamas movement ruling Gaza and smaller factions in his own PLO.The continuation of these negotiations is a crime against the Palestinian people and a dangerous and slippery slope,Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said on Sunday in a statement issued in Gaza.
In light of the arrogance and pomposity of the Zionists, Mahmud Abbas must immediately withdraw from these negotiations and announce their end.Meanwhile, the left wing Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said it had suspended participation in the powerful PLO Executive Committee over both the peace talks and the umbrella group's decision-making process.The PLO, dominated by Abbas's Fatah movement since it was founded in the mid-1960s, is the sole international representative of the Palestinians, and includes most factions but not Hamas.The latest round of peace talks was launched on September 2 after months of shuttle diplomacy. The last round of direct negotiations collapsed in December 2008 after the outbreak of the 22-day Gaza war.Abbas was to meet local Jewish leaders in Paris on Sunday before talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Prime Minister Francois Fillon on Monday to explore developments in the peace process, his spokesman said.Abbas will update Sarkozy on the latest results of the international and American efforts to press Israel to continue the freeze of settlements as a necessity for continuing the negotiations, Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.Abbas will meanwhile continue efforts to reach out to the Jewish community after similar meetings with Jewish leaders in the United States.Abu Rudeina said the Palestinian president would encourage French Jews to play a positive role in the peace process in the region.
Abbas meets US Middle East envoy Mitchell
– Sat Sep 25, 2:58 pm ET
NEW YORK (AFP) – US Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell on Saturday met Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas in a bid to avoid a Palestinian withdrawal from new negotiations with Israel, officials said.The US administration was also in contact with Israeli leaders ahead of Sunday's end to an Israeli moratorium on settlement building in the occupied territories, officials said.Abbas has threatened to leave the US-organized talks if Israel halts the moratorium.A top Abbas aide said the Palestinian leader was meeting Mitchell at a New York hotel.US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley confirmed the meeting was to be held and said: We are staying in touch with the Israelis as well.Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak and lawyer Yitzhak Molcho, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's point man on the peace talks, were in New York to aid efforts toward a compromise, Israeli radio reported.
Abbas and Israeli leaders are in New York for the UN General Assembly.Abbas had also been predicted to meet US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to follow up an encounter between the two dignitaries Friday night, but Crowley said no meeting had been scheduled.
