Israeli PM: No concession on Jewish settlements

March 22, 2010 ⋅ 1:36 am ⋅ Post a comment

Filed Under Ban Ki-moon, Israel, Palestinians, U.S.

ban netanyahu Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out any concession on the building of settlements in occupied East Jerusalem, despite international pressure.

Mr Netanyahu said he had written to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to remove any doubt about the issue.

He made the remarks hours before he left for Washington to address the influential pro-Israeli group, Aipac.

He has been invited to meet President Barack Obama on Tuesday, indicating a possible thaw in relations.

Tensions between the two allies has been running high over Israel’s announcement to build 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel since 1967, despite US efforts to re-launch stalled peace talks.

The invitation to the White House was delivered by President Obama’s special Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, who met Mr Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Sunday.

On a day of intense diplomatic activity in the region, Mr Netanyahu also met UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is on a rare two-day visit to the region.

Netanyahu defiant

“As far as we are concerned, building in Jerusalem is like building in Tel Aviv,” Mr Netanyahu told his cabinet.

But he said Israel was willing to widen the scope of planned indirect talks with the Palestinians that Mr Mitchell is to mediate.

The diplomatic package Mr Netanyahu is offering has not been made public, but officials say one element is agreement to discuss all the outstanding issues, including the future of Jerusalem, as well as borders, Jewish settlements and Palestinian refugees.

Mr Netanyahu comments on settlements were quickly denounced by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as unhelpful to attempts to restart peace talks, the AFP news agency reported.

Mr Abbas also condemned the recent killing of four Palestinians in the West Bank by Israeli forces.

Speaking in Gaza on Sunday, Mr Ban called on Israel to end its blockade on Gaza, saying it causes “unacceptable suffering” and “undercuts moderates and encourages extremists”.

Israel imposed the blockade in 2006 and tightened it when the militant movement Hamas overran the territory the following year.

Mr Ban said families in Gaza were living under “unacceptable, unsustainable conditions” and that it was “distressing” to see damage to housing caused by Israel’s offensive 14 months ago, with no reconstruction possible under the blockade.

Also on Sunday, the Israel army said soldiers shot dead two Palestinians who tried to stab a soldier at a checkpoint in the West Bank.

On Saturday, a Palestinian teenager was shot dead during clashes near Nablus. A second person shot on Saturday died of his injuries on Sunday, West Bank medical officials said. BBC

Discussion

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TABET

How can a people that had such atrocities commited to them only recently in history, turn around and then commit genicide and ethnic cleansing and have the audacity to claim they are gods chosen ones. If they are gods chosen ones then as of now I am an athiest. Sham on the jewish community that is condoning such behaviour. Finally the world can see that America the ‘most powerful country in the world’ is always manipulated and blackmailed at will by the American Jewish lobby groups.
John

Israel doesn’t want peace. The criminal keeps doing crimes until he’s caught and dealt with.
Tony A

i wish we had reality TV shows made especially to sohw what happens to these people when they die. do they actually go to hell? do they live in pergatory forever as they keep seeing howmany people’s lives they have destroyed.

wouldn’t it be awesome if this tv was like the internet and you can google any dead guy and see what happened to them. did they reincarnate to a better life, are they in the gardens with rivers flowing underneath?

I wonder if Golda Meir and Moshe Dayyan and Hertzog and every Israeli non-sympathiser re-incarnate as a palestinian to feel the pain that they put these poor people through.
Adam ben Yoel

Guilt should be a tool to avert disaster. Guilt should not be a tool to avert logic.
Tony A

well adam, do you feel any guilt as to what your governement is doing to the palestinians or do you also think that you have the right to a better life than they do.
TABET

Adam I think the main reason there is such animosity towards the Israeli government from not just Arab’s but a lot of other races is because the majority of the jewish people think they are above the law and the laws that govern the common people don’t apply to them. This understandably is both frustrating and insulting. As soon as there is negative publicity regarding the israeli government and atrocities committed against the Palestinian people all around the world movies and documentaries air on T.V depicting the horrible WW2 holocaust. The powerful jewish media run media uses the terrible memories of the holocaust as a type of guilt trip to excuse the crimes that they commit against the Palastinian people.

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