Reuters & teleSURtv & The International Middle East Media Center – 2017-01-16 01:29:25
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestinians-paris-cummunique-idUSKBN14Z0RT
Israel, Palestinians Warned against Solo Steps Harmful to Peace
John Irish, Lesley Wroughton and Marine Pennetier / Reuters
PARIS ((January 15, 2017) — Some 70 countries reaffirmed on Sunday that only a two-state solution could resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and warned against any unilateral steps by either side that could prejudge negotiations.
The final communique of a one-day international Middle East peace conference in Paris shied away from explicitly criticizing plans by US President-elect Donald Trump to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem, although diplomats said the wording sent a “subliminal” message.
Trump has pledged to pursue more pro-Israeli policies and to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, all but enshrining the city as Israel’s capital despite international objections.
Countries including key European and Arab states as well as the permanent members of the UN Security Council were in Paris for the conference, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected as “futile”.
Neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians were represented.
However, just five days before Trump is sworn in, the meeting was seen as a platform for countries to send a strong signal to the incoming American president that a two-state solution to the conflict could not be compromised on and that unilateral decisions could exacerbate tensions on the ground.
The participants “call on each side . . . to refrain from unilateral steps that prejudge the outcome of negotiations on final-status issues, including, inter alia, on Jerusalem, borders, security, refugees and which they will not recognize,” the final communique said.
A French diplomatic source said there had been tough negotiations on that paragraph.
“It’s a tortuous and complicated paragraph to pass a subliminal message to the Trump administration,” the diplomat said.
REAFFIRMING RESOLUTION 2334
US Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters it would have been inappropriate to include the issue of moving the US embassy, it being publicly debated in the United States.
Relations between the United States and Israel have soured during President Barack Obama’s administration, reaching a low point late last month when Washington declined to veto UN resolution 2334 demanding an end to Israeli settlements in occupied territory.
Paris has said the meeting did not aim to impose anything on Israel or the Palestinians and that only direct negotiations could resolve the conflict.
The final draft did not go into any details other than reaffirming UN Security Council resolutions, including 2334. Diplomats said that had been a source of friction in talks.
“When some are questioning this, it’s vital for us to recall the framework of negotiations. That framework is the 1967 borders and the main resolutions of the United Nations,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told reporters.
Kerry, who abandoned his efforts to broker peace talks in April 2014, told reporters that the meeting had “moved the ball forward.”
“It underscores this is not just one administration’s point of view, this is shared by the international community broadly,” he said.
France, home to Europe’s largest Muslim and Jewish communities, has tried to breathe new life into the peace process over the past year and argued that it should not play second fiddle to the war in Syria and the fight against Islamic State militants.
FOLLOW-UP MEETING?
The final statement said interested parties would meet again before year-end.
But Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting on Sunday that “this conference is among the last twitches of the world of yesterday . . . Tomorrow will look different and that tomorrow is very close.”
Britain added its criticism on Sunday. A Foreign Office statement said the Paris conference risked “hardening positions” given Israel had objected to it and that the US administration is about to change.
Prime Minister Theresa May delivered a sharp rebuke on Israel last month to its US ally when she scolded Secretary of State John Kerry for describing the Israeli government as the most right-wing in Israeli history. The criticism aligned her more closely with Trump.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who said on Saturday that moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem would kill off the peace process, said the Paris meeting would help at stopping “settlement activities and destroying the two-state solution through dictations and the use of force.”
Additional reporting Lesley Wroughton in Paris and Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem.
Israel Bombs Gaza as Paris Peace Talks Receive Mixed Reactions
teleSURtv
(January 15, 2017) — Israeli forces Sunday attacked the Occupied Gaza Strip using an artillery missile and a barrage of gunfire, an offensive that came as representatives from more than 70 countries met in Paris for a peace conference on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Witnesses told the Palestinian state agency WAFA that Israeli tanks patrolling the border area bombed with one missile and opened fired with machine guns towards a location east of Rafah. The attack did not cause any injuries but destroyed local infrastructure.
The agency said Israeli military claimed that the attack was in retaliation to its troops coming under fire from Gaza.
Meanwhile, in Paris diplomats from key European nations and members of the U.N. security council as well as many Arab countries, met for a one-day international Middle East peace conference where they warned of either side taking “unilateral” decisions without negotiations.
The participants “call on each side . . . to refrain from unilateral steps that prejudge the outcome of negotiations on final-status issues, including . . . on Jerusalem, borders, security, refugees and which they will not recognize,” the conference’s final statement said.
French diplomats said the statement made a veiled threat to US President-elect Donald Trump and his plans to move the US embassy to Jerusalem and declaring the city Israel’s capital.
A French diplomatic source told Reuters that there had been tough negotiations on that paragraph. “It’s a tortuous and complicated paragraph to pass a subliminal message to the Trump administration.”
While the Palestinian leadership welcomed the conference, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had rejected participating first when the talks were proposed, called the Paris meeting “useless.”
“I must say that this conference is among the last twitches of yesterday’s world. Tomorrow’s world will be different — and it is very near,” the Israeli prime minister declared in his weekly address.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who warned Saturday that moving the US embassy to Jerusalem would kill off the peace process, said the Paris meeting would help stop “settlement activities and destroying the two-state solution through dictations and the use of force.”
But Palestinian resistance groups and factions criticized the conference as participants failed to bring Israel to the table and warned that Netanyahu would simply turn to Trump to challenge any positive outcomes from the Paris talks.
Kayid al-Ghoul, a senior leader in the Gaza Strip for the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine told Palestinian news agency Ma’an Sunday the conference would suggest “bypassing the right of return and self-determination” for Palestinians by pushing for the mere US-backed two-state solution.
Talal Abu Tharifa, a Gaza-based leader within the left-wing Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, echoed the same concern saying that such a conference would create “low standards” regarding Palestinian rights, according to Ma’an.
Daoud Shihab, a senior Islamic Jihad official in Gaza, told the agency that the conference was just another attempt to resume a peace process “that Israel has already killed and buried, while the international community still refuses to admit that Israel is the main source” of the crisis.
Archives: Israeli Attacks – (January 7 to January 15, 2017)
International Middle East Media Center (IMEMC)
Army Abducts Four Palestinians In The West Bank
(January 15, 2017) — Israeli soldiers invaded, on Sunday at dawn, several areas of the occupied West Bank, broke into and searched many homes and abducted four Palestinians. The army also installed roadblocks, and summoned a father and his son for interrogation. Several army vehicles invaded Jenin city, in the northern part of the [ . . . ]
Read More . . .
Kufur Qaddoum Nonviolent Procession Demands Removal Of Colonies
(January 14, 2017) — Dozens of Palestinians, accompanied by Israeli and international peace activists, conducted the weekly protest against the illegal Israeli Annexation Wall and colonies, in Kufur Qaddoum, east of the northern West Bank city of Qalqilia, demanding the international community, and the Paris Conference, to act on ending the Israeli occupation of [ . . . ]
Read More . . .
Israeli Soldiers Attack Weekly Protest In Ni’lin
(January 14, 2017) — Israeli Soldiers Attack Weekly Protest In Ni’lin Israeli soldiers attacked, Friday, the weekly nonviolent protest against the Annexation Wall and colonies, in Ni’lin village, in the central West Bank district of Ramallah. Coordinator of the Popular Committee in Ni’lin Mohammad ‘Amira said the soldiers targeted the nonviolent protesters with gas [ . . . ]
Read More . . .
Israeli Soldiers Assaults Detainees In Ramon
(January 14, 2017) — Israeli special forces attacked, on Thursday at night, many detainees in the Ramon detention center, and conducted extensive searches of their rooms. The detainees said the undercover officers forced them out in the cold, and conducted extensive searches of their room, and that the soldiers also assaulted many of them [ . . . ]
Read More . . .
Israeli Soldiers Abduct Three Palestinians In Hebron
(January 12, 2017) — Israeli soldiers abducted, earlier on Thursday morning, three Palestinian men at a number of military roadblocks, in the southern part of the occupied West Bank, and also stormed and searched many homes. Media sources in Hebron said the soldiers abducted Mos’ab Salam Eghneimat, 19, and Mohammad Ahmad Hmeidat, 33, after [ . . . ]
Read More . . .
Israeli Soldiers Demolish A Coop Near Jenin
(January 12, 2017) — Several Israeli military vehicles invaded, on Thursday at dawn, Barta’a town, southwest of Jenin in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, and demolished a coop, in addition to handing warrants for the destruction of another coop, and an industrial structure. Tawfiq Kabaha, a member of the Barta’a Local [ . . . ]
Read More . . .
Israeli Soldiers Abduct 3 Merchants, 10 Young Men, In Jerusalem
(January 12, 2017) — Israeli soldiers invaded, on Wednesday evening, the al-Wad area, in the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem, broke into stores and abducted three Palestinian merchants. The soldiers also invaded Shu’fat refugee camp, and abducted ten young men. The Wadi Hilweh Information Center in Silwan (Silwanic) said many soldiers, police officers [ . . . ]
Read More . . .
Israeli Bulldozers Demolish Eight Structures In Jerusalem
(January 12, 2017) — Israeli Bulldozers demolished, Wednesday, four temporary structures installed on five Dunams of Palestinian lands in Jabal al-Mokabber area, in occupied East Jerusalem, allegedly for being set up without a permit from the city council. The Jerusalem City Council claims that the eight structures were used for “selling construction materials,” and [ . . . ]
Read More . . .
PPS: “Israeli Soldiers Abduct 33 Palestinians In The West Bank”
(January 11, 2017) — The Palestinian Prisoners society (PPS) has reported that Israeli soldiers abducted, overnight, at least thirty-three Palestinians, in different parts of the occupied West Bank, during massive invasions and violent searches of homes. The Bethlehem office of the PPS said the soldiers have abducted a former political prisoner, identified as Mohammad [ . . . ]
Read More . . .
Army Abducts Eleven Palestinians In Teqoua’
(January 11, 2017) — Israeli soldiers invaded, on Wednesday at dawn the town of Teqoua’, east of the West Bank city of Bethlehem, stormed and searched many homes and abducted eleven Palestinians. The soldiers invaded Teqoua’ from several directions, after surrounding it, initiated extensive searches of homes, while interrogating many Palestinians and inspecting their [ . . . ]
Read More . . .
Israeli Soldiers Invade Marda Village, Near Salfit
(January 11, 2017) — Several Israeli army vehicles invaded, on Tuesday at night, the village of Marda, north of Salfit in central West Bank, before storming into stores and interrogating many Palestinians. Eyewitnesses said the soldiers violently invaded and searched many stores in the village, and interrogated several Palestinians while inspecting their ID cards. [ . . . ]
Read More . . .
Army Abducts Father of Palestinian Killed In October 2015
(January 11, 2017) — Israeli soldiers abducted, Tuesday, the father of Tha’er Abu Ghazala, who was killed by the army in early October of 2016. The Abu Ghazala family said dozens of soldiers surrounded their home before invading it, and violently searched the property. It added that the soldiers then abducted Abdul-Salam Abu Ghazala, [ . . . ]
Read More . . .
PCHR: “Israeli Forces Execute Palestinian Civilian at Point-Blank Range in al-Far’a Refugee Camp”
(January 10, 2017) — In an extra-judicial execution crime, on Tuesday dawn, 10 (January 2017, Israeli forces shot dead in cold blood a Palestinian civilian in al-Far’ah refugee camp, south of Tubas, in front of his mother. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) stresses that this crime was committed after the Israeli political [ . . . ]
Read More . . .
Foreign Ministry: “Salhi’s Execution, Sate-Sponsored Terrorism”
(January 10, 2017) — The Palestinian Foreign Ministry issued a statement, Tuesday, strongly denouncing the Israeli army’s execution of a former political prisoner, in front of his family in his home, and described the attack as a “state-sponsored terrorism.” The Ministry said dozens of soldiers invaded the al-Far’a refugee camp, in Tubas, and terrorized [ . . . ]
Read More . . .
Israeli Soldiers Execute Young Palestinian Man In His Home Near Tubas
(January 10, 2017) — Updated: According to investigations by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), and the mother’s testimony, Fawziyah Mahmoud Khamis Salhi (67) said to PCHR’s fieldworker that at approximately 02:00 on the abovementioned day, Israeli forces moved into al-Far’ah refugee camp, south of Tubas. They surrounded the family house of Mohammed [ . . . ]
Read More . . .
PPS: “Israeli Soldiers Abduct 26 Palestinians, Including Children, In The West Bank”
(January 10, 2017) — The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) has reported that Israeli soldiers abducted, overnight, at least 26 Palestinians, including several children, from their homes in different parts of the occupied West Bank. The PPS said the soldiers invaded and violently searched homes in occupied East Jerusalem, before abducting four children and a [ . . . ]
Read More . . .
Israeli Soldiers Assault An Elderly Woman In Kufur Qaddoum
(January 10, 2017) — Israeli soldiers invaded, late on Monday evening, the town of Kufur Qaddoum, east of the northern West Bank city of Qalqilia, broke into and searched many homes and assaulted an elderly Palestinian woman, causing various cuts in addition to causing her to suffer the severe effects of teargas inhalation. Eyewitnesses [ . . . ]
Read More . . .
PPS: “Israeli Soldiers Abduct Twenty Palestinians In The West Bank”
(January 9, 2017) — Israeli soldiers abducted during overnight invasions into different parts of the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, twenty Palestinians from their homes, including two brothers and a sister of the Palestinian who was killed Sunday, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) has reported. The PPS office in occupied Jerusalem said the [ . . . ]
Read More . . .
Israeli Soldiers Abduct Five Palestinians In Bethlehem And Jerusalem
(January 9, 2017) — Israeli soldiers invaded, on Monday at dawn, ‘Aida refugee camp and Beit Fajjar town, in the West Bank district of Bethlehem, and abducted three Palestinians. The soldiers also abducted three Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem. The Bethlehem office of the Palestinian Prisoner’ Society (PPS) said several army vehicles Beit Fajjar town, [ . . . ]
Read More . . .
Israeli Army Abducts Two Palestinian Teachers In Jenin
(January 9, 2017) — The Jenin office of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) has reported that Israeli soldiers abducted, earlier Monday, two Palestinian teachers from their homes in Jenin city, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank. The PPS said the soldiers abducted ‘Allam Ziad Jaradat, 43, from his home in Jenin [ . . . ]
Read More . . .
Israeli Soldiers Abduct Four Palestinians In Hebron And Ramallah
(January 9, 2017) — Israeli soldiers invaded, on Monday at dawn, the al-‘Arroub refugee camp, north of the southern West Bank city of Hebron, and Budrus town, northwest of the central West Bank city of Ramallah, searched many homes and abducted four Palestinians. Media sources in Hebron said the soldiers invaded the al-‘Arroub refugee [ . . . ]
Read More . . .
Israeli Soldiers Open Fire On Homes, Lands, In Khan Younis
(January 7, 2017) — Israeli soldiers, stationed on military towers across the border fence, opened fire on Saturday morning targeting a number of homes and lands, east of Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. Medical sources said the attacks did not lead to physical injuries, but caused anxiety attacks among [ . . . ]
Read More . . .
Army Invades Villages And Towns Near Jenin
(January 7, 2017) — Dozens of Israeli soldiers invaded, on Saturday at dawn, several Palestinian villages and towns, west of Jenin, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, installed roadblocks and confiscated one car. Media sources in Jenin said the soldiers surrounded and invaded Sielet al-Harethiyya, Kafr Dan, Ta’nak and al-Yamoun, and [ . . . ]
Read More . . .
Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
