Middle East Quartet condemns Israel over Jerusalem settlements
(Yuri Kadornov/AFP/Getty Images))
Tony Blair and Hillary Clinton revealed their plans for Israel and the Palestinians to resolve the conflict of house-building in East Jerusalem
The Middle East Quartet set a deadline for peace between Israel and the Palestinians yesterday after condemning plans to build new Jewish homes in Arab east Jerusalem.
Meeting in Moscow as Israeli aircraft fired on the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a Palestinian rocket attack, the international diplomatic mission sought to revive plans for indirect negotiations that collapsed over the decision to build 1,600 homes in the disputed capital. It set a 24-month deadline for final settlement of the conflict and the creation of an independent Palestinian state. It called on Israel “to freeze all settlement activities . . . and to refrain from demolitions and evictions”.
In a statement read out by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, the Quartet said that it “condemns the decision by the Government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in east Jerusalem”.
The group also comprised Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s Foreign Minister, and Baroness Ashton of Upholland, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, as well as Tony Blair, the former British Prime Minister, who represents the Quartet in the region.
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They did not say how their goal would be achieved. The Palestinians refused to enter indirect talks after Israel announced the construction during a visit by US Vice-President Joe Biden last week.
Mrs Clinton meanwhile said that the strong US reaction to Israeli settlement plans was paying off. Israel’s Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu proposed “mutual confidence-building measures” in a telephone call with her. She called his ideas ”useful and productive”.
However, Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s Foreign Minister, accused the Quartet of setting “an unrealistic calendar”. He said: “It gives to the Palestinians the wrong impression that by failing to negotiate directly they will achieve their goals by using all sorts of pretexts.”
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, insisted that Israel freeze settlement activity “so that the peace process can restart”. He added: “The settlement issue is the essence of the problem.”
The risk of renewed violence was underlined by Israeli strikes on targets in Gaza, which followed a Palestinian rocket attack that killed a Thai labourer in an Israeli village.
On the second night of Israeli raids, Palestinian medical officials said that three people were injured last night when aircraft hit a disused airport. Lady Ashton was visiting Gaza when the militants struck on Thursday.
False dawns
1979 Camp David accords Agreements between Egypt and Israel won the Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and the Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin the Nobel Peace Prize. “We have won, at last, the first step of peace,” said the US President Jimmy Carter. Sadat was assassinated the following year and two years later, Israel launched a massive invasion of Lebanon
1993 Oslo accords The first face-to-face talks between Israelis and Palestinians were hailed in the West as a breakthrough and again won the protagonists Nobel Peace Prizes. But Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli Prime Minister, was assassinated and the two sides plunged into fresh violence with the “al-Aqsa intifada” (uprising) in 2000
2002 “Road map” The George Bush-backed “road map” to peace aimed to end the conflict by 2005 by implementing three phases of change. Despite the efforts of Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State, it fell behind schedule and the militant group Hamas won Palestinian elections in 2006, plunging the region back into conflict
Source: Times archives
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article7068288.ece#comment-have-your-say
9 opmerkingen:
Stan, het is tamelijk schurkachtig om van welk land dan ook te eisen dat het zichzelf zal bevriezen, zal stoppen met groei, bouw, vooruitgang. Zelfs wanneer men termen als "nederzettingen" bedenkt, een illegaal tintje gevend aan geheel die Joodse Staat dan verklaart dit onvoldoende hoe het mogelijk is dat de wereld alles verwaarloost, de verkommering van b.v. Afrika, en hakt als bezeten op de bouwvakkers in het fatsoendelijke land Israel. Stan, ben je niet een beetje medeplichtig wanneer je je opruiende artikelen de cyberspace inslingert?
hahahaha,die Wiesje toch.
Fatsoen moet je doen.
Het niet reageren op de apartheidsstaat Israel is het medeplichtig zijn aan mensenrechtenschendingen,racisme,kolonialisme,bezetting en apartheid .
Niets meer,niets minder.
jose
It is wrong to say that the Israeli government is setting up a new version of the South African apartheid system. That analogy does not go nearly far enough because the Israelis have already surpassed the immorality of that regime. If the world was motivated enough to join forces against the white South African government for its racism and subjugation of the non-white population, then where is world opinion now when a far worse form of racial oppression is taking place? Those who do not speak out against the Israeli government, knowing full well the facts as they stand, can only hold themselves to blame when more violence erupts, as it surely will. The blood of the victims on both sides will be on our hands collectively. No excuses will be accepted; the time for action is now, before it's too late.
jose
Wies, laat je vrijwillig opnemen.
anzi
O, daar heb je de West Bank sekte weer met d'r 'Joodse Staat', die niet bestaat.
Ter attentie:
Nederlandse kranten verzwijgen serieuze eisen Kwartet
Sorry mensen, noemt men dit op deze website "reacties"?
Op de serieuze reactie die ik, Wiesje de Lange, plaatste kwamen wilde kreten van onbegrijpelijke inhoud. Ik wist niet in welk gezelschap ik mij hier bevond, wist niet dat dergelijk gezelschap zelfs maar bestond in een beschaafde wereld, meende met fatsoendelijke en inhoudelijke reacties op een schandelijk artikel te worden geconfronteerd. Maar dit? Ik ben sprakeloos en dat overkomt mij zelden.
Nou, Wiesje, het gaat hier om een stuk uit de Times, eigendom van Rupert Murdoch.
Is die ook al anti-Israel?
Volgens mij moet je deze man door en door fatsoendelijk vinden.
wiesje,
wat lees ik nu toch: Sonja heeft een nieuwe reactie op uw bericht "Wiesje" achtergelaten:
Wiesje de Lange aka Lea de Lange wist mij te vertellen dat Yochanan Visser "een infatsoendelijk mens" is.
De kwalificatie 'infatsoenlijk mens' voor iemand die land van anderen steelt, is absurd. Ik vrees Wiesje, dat je andere normen en waarden hebt dan een burgerman als ik. ik ben tegen diefstal en moord, jij kennelijk niet. dus verzoek ik je vriendelijk ergens anders te gaan spelen.
stan
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