UN CLAIMS

UN urges halt to Israeli-Palestinian rhetoric
– JAN 21,11 2:30PM

UNITED NATIONS – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is calling for a halt to irresponsible rhetoric that questions a two-state Israeli-Palestinian solution and incites hatred and violence.The U.N. chief on Friday told a U.N. committee that deals with Palestinian issues that the Palestinians have the right to an independent state, Israel has a right to live in peace within secure borders, and a way must be found for Jerusalem to emerge as the capital of the two states.Ban again called on Israel to freeze settlement construction in Palestinian areas so negotiations can start on an agreement leading to Palestinian independence.

Palestinians protesters confront French FM in Gaza By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press - JAN 21,11

EREZ CROSSING, Gaza Strip – Dozens of Palestinians enraged by France's sympathy for an Israeli soldier held by Gaza militants ambushed the French foreign minister's motorcade in the Gaza Strip on Friday, pelting it with eggs and hurling a shoe that narrowly missed hitting her.The protesters — relatives of Palestinians held in Israeli jails — accosted the convoy of Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie because they mistakenly believed she had called the captivity of Israeli Sgt. Gilad Schalit a war crime.Schalit, 24, is an Israeli-French dual national. France has repeatedly called for his release since militants linked to Gaza's ruling Hamas group seized him in a cross-border raid in June 2006.The demonstrators were lying in wait Friday on the only road leading into Gaza from Israel through the Erez Crossing when Alliot-Marie's motorcade entered. Some jumped on the vehicle and others carried posters bearing her photograph emblazoned with a red no-entry sign and the words, Get out of Gaza.Hamas police dispersed the protesters, but others gathered outside a United Nations office in Gaza City that was her first stop in the Palestinian territory, and later followed her to a nearby hospital, pelting her convoy with eggs. AP Television footage showed Alliot-Marie narrowly dodging a shoe thrown by a protester as she climbed into a jeep under heavy guard.The war crime remark had actually been made by Schalit's father after meeting the French minister a day earlier in his campaign to win release of his son.

Alliot-Marie — the highest-level French official to visit the Hamas-ruled territory since 2005 — made no public statement Thursday after meeting with the soldier's parents in Jerusalem. But Noam Schalit said the minister had called on Hamas to let the Red Cross visit his son for the first time, and referred to his capture as a war crime.Palestinians linked the comments to Alliot-Marie, provoking the fury of prisoners' families. Israel holds thousands of Palestinian prisoners in its jails, and their fate is a hot-button issue in Palestinian society because nearly all families can count members who have served time in Israeli prisons.Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the statements attributed to Alliot-Marie reflected a total bias toward Israel and ignored the thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. They are the true prisoners of war, he said.After the attack on her convoy, a French foreign ministry spokesman said Alliot-Marie was not the source of the comments.She is in Gaza today precisely to mark France's engagement in favor of the Gazan population, ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said.France's economic envoy to the Mideast peace process, Valerie Hoffenberg, was struck in the head in the fray and was taken to an Israeli hospital for examination.Speaking after being discharged from Barzilai Medical Center in the southern city of Ashkelon, Hoffenberg said: There was a lot of people, a lot of violence and I was hit on the head. I don't know exactly how it happened. ... I started to vomit so I had to get to the hospital.

The hospital's deputy director, Dr. Ron Lobel, described the injury as very slight.
France, a former colonial power in the Mideast and North Africa, traditionally has had strong ties with the Arab world. But French President Nicolas Sarkozy has demonstrated greater sympathy for Israel and its analysis of Mideast geopolitics than his predecessor, Jacques Chirac.At a French cultural center in Gaza, Alliot-Marie called for the establishment of a Palestinian state and security for Israel. She also called on Israel to fully lift all restrictions on people and goods coming in and out of Gaza.However, in keeping with the policy of the European Union, which considers Hamas a terrorist organization, Alliot-Marie did not meet with Hamas officials during her half-day visit.In a separate and apparently unrelated development on Friday, Osama bin Laden demanded that France withdraw its troops from Afghanistan in exchange for the release of at least seven French hostages being held by groups associated with al-Qaida. The exit of your hostages out of the hands of our brothers depends on the exit of your troops from Afghanistan, bin Laden said in an audio message broadcast by Al-Jazeera television.France has about 3,850 troops in Afghanistan as part of the NATO mission fighting the Taliban. Sarkozy has said his nation remains undaunted in its role to help stabilize Afghanistan.Maamoun Youssef contributed to this report from Cairo and Greg Keller contributed from Paris.

France to back moderate Israel settler resolution
by Philippe Rater – Thu Jan 20, 4:05 pm ET

TEL AVIV (AFP) – France will vote for a UN Security Council resolution on Israeli settlements drafted by Arab states if it is moderate and does not halt a resumption of peace talks, its foreign minister said Thursday.If this resolution is moderate and if it does not block the resumption of (peace) negotiations, we will certainly vote for it, Michele Alliot-Marie said following a day of talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.Alliot-Marie is on a four-day tour that also includes the Palestinian territories, Egypt and Jordan, her first tour of the region since being appointed in November.World powers are seeking ways to get Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table after talks broke down in September when a 10-month freeze on Jewish construction in the West Bank expired.The Palestinians are refusing to resume negotiations while Israel builds on land they want for their future state, but efforts to convince Israel to impose a new ban failed late last year.We have to move toward peace, it is in the interest of everyone and in the interest of Israel's security, Alliot-Marie said.On Wednesday, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said a UN resolution condemning Israeli settlement building is to be put to the vote in February.Our position is one of being opposed to settlements; this is for certain, Alliot-Marie told reporters.

We must see how the proposed resolution is drafted, she added.If the terms are moderate and, above all, if they do not close the door to a possible resumption of negotiations, it is possible that we would vote for it.Erakat said the UN Security Council would vote after a February 5 meeting of the Middle East Quartet of Russia, the United States, the European Union and the United Nations.The French minister first met with opposition chief Tzipi Livni and President Shimon Peres.If we want to have a relationship based on trust, we must push forward with the negotiations and with practical steps, she said. Israel's security will be guaranteed all the more when a stable Palestinian state exists.Peres, in remarks broadcast by public radio, acknowledged difficulties in the peace process, but said they were no reason to stop the process or to give up.Following lunch with Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman, Alliot-Marie met Palestinian premier Salam Fayyad in Jerusalem.During the evening, she met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before dinner with Defence Minister Ehud Barak in Tel Aviv.Netanyahu told her Israel will work to end Gaza's dependency on his country.

During their conversation ... Netanyahu said that Israel would strive to disengage from the Gaza Strip with regard to infrastructure utilities like electricity and water, a statement said, providing no further details.Israel withdrew troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005, but still supplies some 70 percent of the strip's electricity, with the rest being provided by Egypt and local power plants. It was not immediately clear where Gaza would get its electricity if Israel cuts supplies. On Friday, Alliot-Marie is to travel to Gaza in what will be the first visit by a French foreign minister since 2005.Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza in 2006 after militants there kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, and tightened it a year later when Hamas seized power in the territory.It partly lifted that blockade last summer. Alliot-Marie called on Israel to fully apply the terms of that partial lifting and also to facilitate a wider range of exports from the territory.Alliot-Marie also visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, and met briefly with the parents of Shalit, who has French citizenship and who has been held in Gaza since his kidnap.Turning to Iran, Alliot-Marie said France would not accept that the Iranian regime destabilises the Middle East and would be intractable with those who threaten the existence of Israel.She also said France, which is one of the world powers negotiating with Iran over its atomic programme, would not allow it to obtain nuclear arms.

Clinton opposes Palestinian bid for UN resolution
– Thu Jan 20, 4:03 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton underlined strong US opposition Thursday to Palestinian efforts to have the UN Security Council condemn Israeli settlements.The only way that there will be a resolution of the conflict... is through a negotiated settlement, Clinton said. Therefore we don't see action at the UN or any other forum as being helpful in bringing about this desired outcome.

The Palestinian resolution against Israel's building in the occupied territories and East Jerusalem was formally put to the 15-member council late Tuesday with Lebanon, Brazil and South Africa as the council sponsors.Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Ryad Mansour said the resolution would help revive long-stalled direct peace talks. Palestinians have refused to take part in talks since Israel ended a moratorium on settlements in late September.Clinton, who did not make it clear whether Washington would veto the resolution, reiterated longstanding US opposition to Israeli settlement building.Our position on settlements remains as it has been. I clearly spoke out on that on many occasions and will continue to do so, Clinton told reporters at the State Department.Ultimately, the Palestinian and Israeli people have to make a decision about whether they can engage in a negotiation that will result in compromise on both sides to obtain peace, she added.A group of former US cabinet officials, diplomats, pundits and journalists meanwhile published an open letter to US President Barack Obama urging the United States to endorse the resolution.If the proposed resolution is consistent with existing and established US policies, then deploying a veto would severely undermine US credibility and interests, placing us firmly outside of the international consensus, and further diminishing our ability to mediate this conflict, the letter said.The State Department is aware of the letter, spokesman Mark Toner told reporters without elaborating.The United States, China, Russia, Britain and France -- the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- all have the right to veto UN resolutions.

Israel won't tolerate Palestinian insults forever
– Thu Jan 20, 12:48 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Thursday warned that Israel would not tolerate ongoing Palestinian attempts to secure condemnation of the Jewish state in the international arena.Lieberman's remarks, in which he warned there was a dangerous gap in relations between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority of Mahmud Abbas, were made during talks with his French counterpart Michele Alliot-Marie.While Israel was approving another 5,300 jobs for Palestinians to work inside Israel last week, the Palestinian Authority was presenting a proposal to the (UN) Security Council condemning Israel for every possible sin, he said in comments released by his office.He was referring to a proposal to increase the number of work permits for Palestinians which has yet to be approved by the Israeli cabinet.This gap cannot go on for ever and it will lead to a crisis in relations between the two sides, warned the sharp-tongued minister who heads the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party.Israel will not just sit and suffer criticism and insults forever.

Since the current Israeli government came to power in March 2009, Israel had given much but received very little back, he charged.From Israel, Lieberman noted the Bar Ilan speech, where hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged the need for the creation of a Palestinian state, Israeli efforts to ease restrictions an boost the economy in the West Bank and Israel agreeing to a 10 month partial freeze on settlement construction.But on the Palestinian side, he said, there were attempts to secure condemnation of Israel in UN Human Rights Council, at the World Court in the Hague and in the UN Security Council, not to mention the commemoration of terrorists by naming streets and squares after them in cities across the Palestinian Authority.Israel will not be able to allow a situation like this to continue, he warned.He also lashed out at the Arab League, saying it was working energetically towards the censure of Israel and little else.

Media: Palestinian died from medicine, not gas
By MARK LAVIE, Associated Press - Wed Jan 19, 4:39 pm ET

JERUSALEM – Israel's military contends that a woman who died after a Palestinian protest was the victim of a medical error and was not killed by tear gas, Israeli media reported late Thursday. A Palestinian group disagreed.The Israeli reports said that according to Palestinian medical records, the woman was mistakenly given a dose of medicine 10 times the accepted amount, causing her death.The woman, Jawaher Abu Rahmeh, 36, took part in a weekly demonstration against Israel's West Bank separation barrier on Dec. 31, when soldiers fired tear gas to control the crowd. She died the next day.Palestinians said the tear gas killed her. There were conflicting reports about her previous medical condition.The woman's death has become a rallying cry against Israel's handling of Palestinian demonstrations and against Israeli occupation of the West Bank in general.Israel TV said the Palestinians turned some of the hospital reports over to Israel, and the rest of the file arrived by unofficial channels. As a result, the report said, the Palestinians called off a joint inquiry.

The military had no comment on the media reports.A Palestinian activist group called the Popular Struggle Front dismissed the military's conclusion as disinformation.In another case, the military dismissed a soldier who opened fire at a 65-year-old Palestinian in the city of Hebron during an arrest raid on Jan. 7, according to a statement. The man was killed.Soldiers were looking for a Hamas activist and entered the man's apartment by mistake.The military issued a statement late Thursday expressing regret for the incident, adding that an investigation determined that the soldier acted improperly.The statement said another soldier fired at the man following a suspicious movement that caused the soldier to feel that his life was threatened, and his action was found to be in accordance with the rules.

US warns Palestinians over Security Council resolution
– Wed Jan 19, 2:08 pm ET

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – Palestinian envoys on Wednesday stepped up lobbying for a Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlement building but the United States spoke out strongly against the initiative.The United States warned at the United Nations that putting the resolution to a Security Council vote would complicate peace efforts. It has still not said though whether it would veto the measure.The Palestinian resolution against Israel's building in the occupied territories and East Jerusalem was formally put to the 15-member council on Tuesday night with Lebanon, Brazil and South Africa as the council sponsors.

Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Ryad Mansour, said the resolution would help revive direct talks. Palestinians have refused to take part in talks since Israel ended a moratorium on settlements at the end of September.There are a lot of political activities in all corners of the globe, in all capitals, Mansour told reporters. Our objective is to remove this obstacle from the process of negotiations.We are working very hard with all Security Council members, including the United States of America, to succeed in having the council adopt this draft resolution, he said. That would send a very powerful message to the occupying power, to Israel, to listen.No vote is expected for several days, possibly weeks. And the United States warned the Palestinians against pressing for a vote.We believe that continued settlement expansion is corrosive, not only to peace efforts and the two state solution but to Israel's future itself, US deputy ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo told a Security Council meeting on the Middle East.As we have consistently said, permanent status issues can be resolved only through negotiations between the parties and not by recourse to the Security Council.We therefore consistently oppose attempts to take these issues to this council and will continue to do so as such action moves us no closer to the goal of a negotiated final settlement.DiCarlo said a council resolution would only complicate efforts to achieve that goal.

US officials are still refusing to say whether the United States would use its traditional veto of resolutions against Israel.I'm not going to speculate on what happens from this point forward, US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Tuesday when asked about a possible US veto. US officials at the United Nations added nothing to that.The United States is alone among the five permanent veto-wielding members of the Security Council in opposing the resolution.The other four -- Britain, China, France and Russia -- have all indicated they would probably vote for the resolution, diplomats said.The diplomatic Quartet on the Middle East -- the United States, Russia, United Nations and European Union -- are to meet in Munich on February 5. Some diplomats said the fate of the resolution may only be decided after that.The resolution is one prong of a new diplomatic offensive by the Palestinian Authority. It has now secured recognition from 107 countries and Mansour said he was confident that two thirds of the 192 UN members would shortly be signed up.No Israeli diplomats were at Wednesday's Security Council debate because of a strike by Israeli foreign ministry staff.