Tag Archives: Palestine

Abbas Offers To Meet Netanyahu

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gestures as he delivers a speech in the West Bank city of Bethlehem

By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday he was working to stop Palestinian knife attacks and other street violence against Israel and had offered to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to rekindle peace efforts.

The remarks appeared to be an effort by the Western-backed Abbas to turn the tables on Israel, which has cast him as responsible for the diplomatic deadlock and the surge of bloodshed.

Speaking to Israel’s Channel 2 TV, Abbas gave rare details on his domestic security drives, a touchy matter as many Palestinians deem such moves collaboration with their enemy.

“Our security forces go into the schools to search pupils’ bags and see if they have knives. You don’t know this,” he said.

“In one school, we found 70 boys and girls who were carrying knives. We took the knives and spoke to them and said: ‘This is a mistake. We do not want you to kill and be killed. We want you to live, and for the other side to live as well.'”

Abbas’s administration and Israel coordinate security in the occupied West Bank despite the stalling two years ago of U.S.-sponsored negotiations on Palestinian statehood.

Netanyahu says he is open to renewing talks and that Abbas has been avoiding these while inciting violence with his rhetoric against Israel.

But Abbas told Channel 2 that the onus was on Netanyahu.

“I will meet with him, at any time. And I suggested, by the way, for him to meet,” the Palestinian leader said in English.

Asked what became of that overture, Abbas said: “No, no – it’s a secret. He can tell you about it.”

Netanyahu’s office had no immediate response.

Since October, Palestinian stabbings, car-rammings and gun ambushes have killed 28 Israelis and two U.S. citizens. At least 190 Palestinians, 129 of whom Israel says were assailants, have been killed by its forces. Many others were shot in clashes.

Abbas’ Palestinian Authority exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank under 1993 interim peace deals. Israeli forces now freely operate in PA areas, something Abbas described as sapping his credibility at home. He said he was willing to take action against Palestinians that Israeli intelligence deems a threat.

“If he (Netanyahu) gives me responsibility and tells me that he believes in (the) two-state solution and we sit around the table to talk about (the) two-state solution, this will give my people hope, and nobody dares to go and stab or shoot or do anything here or there,” Abbas said.

Netanyahu has said he would favor the creation of a Palestinian state as long as Israel’s terms are met such as its security needs. Whether Abbas could vouchsafe the Gaza Strip is in doubt, as it is under the de facto control of armed Hamas Islamists who oppose permanent coexistence with Israel.

For his part, Netanyahu has been hazy about whether he would remove Jewish settlements in the West Bank to make way for the Palestinians. He heads a pro-settlement coalition the includes one ultra-nationalist party opposed to Palestinian statehood.

(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Netanyahu hopes U.S. will reject U.N. resolution on Palestinian statehood

WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday he hoped the United States would continue to reject any move towards a U.N. Security Council resolution backing Palestinian statehood.

“A Security Council Resolution to pressure Israel would further harden Palestinian positions and thereby could actually kill the chances of peace for many, many years,” he told a meeting of the powerful American-Israel Public Affairs Committee lobbying group.

Netanyahu’s speech returned the conference focus to policy after a turn to partisan politics on Monday when Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump took to the stage and denounced President Barack Obama, a Democrat.

AIPAC’s leaders distanced the group from his remarks before Netanyahu’s speech on Tuesday.

Via satellite from Israel, Netanyahu also said he was ready to begin talks “immediately, without preconditions” for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but insisted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas did not back the idea.

“Peace won’t come through U.N. Security Council resolutions but through direct negotiations between the parties. The best formula for achieving peace remains two states for two peoples in which a demilitarized Palestinian state finally recognizes the Jewish state,” Netanyahu said.

France failed last year to get Washington on board to push for a Security Council resolution to set parameters for Israeli-Palestinian talks and set a final deadline for a deal.

Most of the remaining 2016 U.S. presidential candidates addressed AIPAC’s 18,000-strong convention this week.

The group’s leaders took the stage shortly before Netanyahu’s address to denounce the partisan comments by the Republican front-runner Trump.

Trump said Obama “may be the worst thing that ever happened to Israel,” to some applause from the AIPAC crowd. Netanyahu, who has close ties to U.S. Republicans, has had a strained relationship with Obama.

“We say, unequivocally, that we do not countenance ad hominem attacks and we take great offense against those that are levied against the president of the United States of America from our stage,” AIPAC President Lillian Pinkus said.

Thousands of AIPAC members are visiting Congress on Tuesday to speak to Republicans and Obama’s fellow Democrats, arguing for the continuation of billions of dollars in military aid for Israel and renewed sanctions against Iran.

In his speech to AIPAC on Sunday, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden took a somewhat tougher line than many U.S. politicians. He called on Netanyahu’s government to demonstrate its commitment to a two-state solution and said settlement expansion weakened prospects for peace.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Additional reporting by Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and James Dalgleish)

Biden says Israel settlements raise questions about commitment to peace

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Vice President Joe Biden called on Israel’s government on Sunday to demonstrate its commitment to a two-state solution to end the conflict with the Palestinians and said settlement expansion is weakening prospects for peace.

“Israel’s government’s steady and systematic process of expanding settlements, legalizing outposts, seizing land, is eroding in my view the prospect of a two-state solution,” Biden said in a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a leading pro-Israel lobbying group.

Biden said he did not agree with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government that expanded settlements would not interfere with any effort to settle the conflict.

“Bibi (Netanyahu) thinks it can be accommodated, and I believe he believes it. I don’t,” Biden said.

Biden said the region instead seems to be moving toward a one-state solution, which he termed dangerous.

“There is no political will at this moment among Israelis or Palestinians to move forward with serious negotiations. And that’s incredibly disappointing,” Biden said.

Israel says it intends to keep large settlement blocs in any future peace agreement with the Palestinians. Palestinians, who seek to establish a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, say they fear Israeli settlement expansion will deny them a viable country.

Palestinians have cited Israeli settlement activity as one of the factors behind the collapse of U.S.-brokered peace talks in 2014, and a surge of violence over the past five months has dimmed hopes negotiations could be revived any time soon.

“We’ve stressed to both parties the need to take meaningful steps to demonstrate their commitment to a two-state solution that extends beyond mere words,” Biden said.

“There’s got to be a little ‘show-me.’ This cannot continue to erode,” he said.

Biden was cheered for criticizing what he called Palestinian actions at the United Nations to undermine Israel, and he said changes in the region, including the united fight against Islamic State militants, could help thaw relations between Israel and its neighbors.

Israel and the United States are also in talks on a generous military assistance agreement, he said.

“It will, without a doubt, be the most generous security assistance package in the history of the United States,” Biden said of a pact expected to be worth billions of dollars annually to the Jewish state, the largest recipient of such U.S. assistance.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Richard Pullin)

Israeli troops shoot dead a Palestinian wielding knife in West Bank

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian man who tried to stab them in the occupied West Bank on Friday, the military said.

“An assailant, armed with a knife, exited his vehicle and charged at the soldiers guarding the junction. Forces responded to the threat and shot the attacker, resulting in his death,” the military said in a statement.

Since October, Palestinian street attacks have killed 28 Israelis and two U.S. citizens. Israeli forces have killed at least 188 Palestinians, 127 of whom Israel says were assailants. Most others were shot dead during clashes and protests.

Palestinian leaders say attackers have acted out of desperation in the absence of movement towards creation of an independent state. Israel says they are being incited to violence by their leaders and on social media.

(Reporting by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Two Palestinians shot dead after wounding Israeli soldier, military says

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Two Palestinians stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier and were then shot and killed on Thursday outside a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, the military said.

Since October, Palestinian street attacks have killed 28 Israelis and two U.S. citizens. Israeli forces have killed at least 187 Palestinians, 126 of whom Israel says were assailants. Most others were shot dead during violent protests.

In an initial statement, the military said an Israeli woman was wounded in the attack at a road junction near the settlement of Ariel, and evacuated for medical treatment. It later identified her as a soldier.

“Forces at the scene responded to the attack and shot the assailants, resulting in their deaths,” the statement said.

The surge in violence has been partly fuelled by Palestinian frustration over the collapse of U.S.-sponsored peace talks in 2014, the growth of Jewish settlements on land they seek for a future state, and Islamist calls for the destruction of Israel.

(Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Germany, France criticize Israel for seizing West Bank land

BERLIN/PARIS (Reuters) – Germany and France on Wednesday criticized Israel’s decision to appropriate large tracts of land in the occupied West Bank, saying the move violated international law and contradicted a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israeli Army Radio said on Tuesday the land was near the Dead Sea and the Palestinian city of Jericho.

Israel says it intends to keep large settlement blocs in any future peace agreement with the Palestinians. Palestinians, who seek to establish a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, fear Israeli settlement expansion will deny them a viable country.

“This decision sends a wrong signal at the wrong time,” the German Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“Especially in the current tense situation, both parties in the Middle East conflict are called on to take steps for a de-escalation and to find ways that lead to an urgently needed resumption of peace negotiations,” it said.

In Paris, Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said France was “extremely concerned” by the Israeli decision.

“Settlements constitute a violation of international law and contradict commitments made by Israeli authorities in favor of a two-state solution,” the spokesman said.

Palestinians have cited Israeli settlement activity as one of the factors behind the collapse of U.S.-brokered peace talks in 2014, and a surge of violence over the past five months has dimmed hopes negotiations could be revived any time soon.

Germany, which has forged close relations with Israel in the decades since the Holocaust, has repeatedly criticized Israel for its settlement plans.

“All people in Israel and Palestine have a right to live in peace and security. Only a clear political perspective for a sustainable two-state solution can guarantee this in the long term,” the ministry said.

Paris is lobbying for an international peace conference before May that would outline incentives and give guarantees for Israelis and Palestinians to resume face-to-face talks before August and try to end the decades-long conflict.

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat on Tuesday called on the international community to press Israel to stop land confiscations. Most countries view Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as illegal and an obstacle to peace.

Israel’s Peace Now movement, which tracks and opposes Israeli settlement in territory captured in the 1967 war, said the reported seizure of 579 acres represented the largest land confiscation in the West Bank in recent years.

(Reporting By John Irish in Paris and Michael Nienaber in Berlin; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

Israel seizes large tracts of land in occupied West Bank, Army Radio says

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel has appropriated large tracts of land in the occupied West Bank near the Dead Sea and the Palestinian city of Jericho, Israeli Army Radio said on Tuesday.

Israel’s Peace Now movement, which tracks and opposes Israeli settlement in territory captured in a 1967 war, said the reported seizure of 579 acres represented the largest land confiscation in the West Bank in recent years.

The group said plans for expanding nearby Jewish settlements and building tourism and other commercial facilities in the area were already on Israel’s drawing board.

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, in a statement, called on the international community to press Israel to stop land confiscations. Most countries view Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as illegal and an obstacle to peace.

The U.S. State Department criticized the land seizure, saying ongoing expropriations and settlement expansions were “fundamentally undermining the prospects for a two-state solution.”

“We strongly oppose any steps that accelerate settlement expansion, which raises serious questions about Israel’s long-term intentions,” State Department spokesman John Kirby told a news briefing.

Asked about Army Radio’s report of the land confiscation, Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon’s office said in an email to Reuters: “We are not relating to the issue.”

Photos of a de facto Israeli confiscation notice – a Hebrew map and accompanying documents titled “A declaration of government property” – were tweeted, however, by the Palestine Liberation Organization on Tuesday.

Dated March 10, it listed 2,342 dunams, or 579 acres, and carried the signature of an official identified on the map as Israel’s “supervisor of government property and abandoned property in Judea and Samaria”, Hebrew terms for the West Bank.

Such an appropriation would be the largest since August 2014, and larger than the 380-acre area that Israel first said in January it planned to designate as government property near the Dead Sea. News of those plans drew international condemnation at the time.

Israel says it intends to keep large settlement blocs in any future peace agreement with the Palestinians. Palestinians, who seek to establish a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, say they fear Israeli settlement expansion will deny them a viable country.

Palestinians have cited Israeli settlement activity as one of the factors behind the collapse of U.S.-brokered peace talks in 2014, and a surge of violence over the past five months has dimmed hopes negotiations could be revived any time soon.

Since October, Palestinian street attacks have killed 28 Israelis and two U.S. citizens. Israeli forces have killed at least 184 Palestinians, 124 of whom Israel says were assailants. Most others were shot dead during violent protests.

(Additional reporting by Ori Lewis and Ali Sawafta, Writing by Jeffrey Heller, Editing by Hugh Lawson and Chizu Nomiyama)

Three Palestinians shot dead after attack on Israelis in West Bank

KIRYAT ARBA, West Bank (Reuters) – Three Palestinians carried out back-to-back gun and car-ramming attacks on Israelis near a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank on Monday and were shot dead by the army, it said.

Two of the Palestinians, armed with a handgun and an improvised machine-pistol, were killed after opening fire at civilians and soldiers who were waiting at a bus stop outside Kiryat Arba settlement, the army said. One soldier was wounded.

Minutes later, the third Palestinian rammed a car into an military vehicle at the scene and was shot, the army said. Two soldiers were hurt in the second incident, the army said, adding that two knives were found on the motorist’s body.

Since October, Palestinian street attacks have killed 28 Israelis and two U.S. citizens. Israeli forces have killed at least 184 Palestinians, 124 of whom Israel says were assailants. Most others were shot dead during violent protests.

The surge in violence has been partly fueled by Palestinian frustration over the collapse of U.S.-sponsored peace talks in 2014, the growth of Jewish settlements on land they seek for a future state, and Islamist calls for the destruction of Israel.

(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Michael Perry)

U.S. looking for way to move forward on Israel, Palestinian peace

PARIS (Reuters) – The United States is looking for a way to break the deadlock between Israel and the Palestinians, Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday, acknowledging that by itself it could not find a solution.

Having twice failed to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace, the Obama administration is discussing ways to help preserve the prospect of an increasingly threatened two-state solution, U.S. officials have told Reuters.

At the same time, France is seeking support for an initiative to relaunch talks between the two sides this summer and prevent what one French diplomat has called the risk of a “powder keg” exploding.

Last year France failed to get the United States on board for a U.N. Security Council resolution to set parameters for talks between the two sides and a deadline for a deal. Since then, the stance of former foreign minister Laurent Fabius, to recognize a Palestinian state automatically if the new initiative fails, has been toned down.

“Obviously we’re all looking for a way forward. The United States and myself remain deeply committed to a two state solution. It is absolutely essential,” Kerry said when asked whether the U.S. was ready to cooperate with Paris’ efforts.

“There’s not any one country or one person who can resolve this. This is going to require the global community, it will require international support,” he said speaking alongside European foreign ministers in Paris.

A former ambassador to Washington, Pierre Vimont, is heading France’s diplomatic push and will be in Israel, the Palestinian territories and the United States this week to discuss the French initiative.

With U.S. efforts to broker a two-state solution in tatters since in April 2014 and Washington focused on this year’s election, Paris is lobbying countries to commit to a conference before May that would outline incentives and give guarantees for Israelis and Palestinians, seeking face-to-face talks before August.

“The conflict is getting worse and the status quo cannot continue,” France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said.

U.S. officials have no expectation peace talks will resume before the end of U.S. President Barack Obama’s term in January 2017 and have played down the odds of any quick decision on how the White House might help preserve a two-state solution.

“We’re talking about any number of different ways to try to change the situation on the ground in an effort to try to generate some confidence,” Kerry said. “So we are listening carefully to the French proposal.

“At the moment it’s a difficult one, because of the violence that has been taking place, and there are not many people in Israel or in the region itself right now that believe in the possibilities of peace because of those levels of violence.”

(Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)

U.S. hopes to preserve two-state outcome for Israel, Palestinians

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Having twice failed to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace, the Obama administration is discussing ways to help preserve the prospect of an increasingly threatened two-state solution, U.S. officials said.

One possibility under discussion is to issue an outline of a deal to end the nearly 70-year-old conflict on such matters as borders, security, the status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.

Such an outline could range from a brief description of core tradeoffs the two sides might need to make to a detailed set of “parameters” like those that former U.S. President Bill Clinton laid out for the parties in late 2000.

Under one scenario, the outline could be enshrined in a U.N. Security Council resolution to give it greater international standing for a future U.S. president or the parties whenever they might resume peace talks that collapsed in April 2014.

“It’s one of the ideas that they are talking about,” said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Resorting to a U.N. resolution would require a major shift in long-standing U.S. policy, which has mostly opposed use of the United Nations as a forum for pressuring Israel. The United States has repeatedly insisted it is up to the two sides to directly negotiate over their differences.

Another possibility would be for U.S. President Barack Obama to make a speech laying out his principles for a settlement.

U.S. officials have no expectation peace talks will resume before the end of Obama’s term in January 2017 and they played down the odds of any quick decision on how the White House might help preserve a two-state solution.

“People in the government are asking the question what can we do to keep the two-state solution alive, and they’re generating ideas,” said a senior U.S. official.

The ideas had not yet risen to senior White House staff and Obama is focused on other issues including Islamic State, Iran and Cuba, the officials said.

Two separate peace efforts, by George Mitchell and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, have failed during Obama’s seven years in office.

TWO-STATE SOLUTION DYING ON OBAMA’S WATCH?

A two-state solution long seen as the most internationally acceptable outcome envisages a Palestinian state on most of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, lands Israel captured in a 1967 war, and an Israeli state that absorbs some of the settlements Israel built on occupied land in return for mutually agreed land swaps.

Such a solution appears remote because of ongoing Jewish settlement building; a split between the Palestinian Fatah and Hamas factions; preoccupation within the Palestinian Authority about who may succeed 81-year-old President Mahmoud Abbas; and a wave of Palestinian stabbings, shootings and car rammings of Israelis.

The Palestinian attacks have killed 28 Israelis and two U.S. citizens since October, while Israeli forces have killed at least 179 Palestinians, 121 of whom Israel says were assailants.

Current and former U.S. officials have warned that a failure to break the impasse could lead to greater conflict and that continued occupation of Palestinian land puts at risk Israel’s character as a Jewish and democratic state.

Former officials also cite a deepening cynicism on both sides regarding peace, making it ever harder to achieve.

“In the absence of negotiations, actions on the ground are making it more and more difficult to see how a two-state solution could be achieved,” said Martin Indyk, Obama’s former special envoy for the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

“I think there is a real concern on the part of the president and the secretary of state,” said Indyk, who is now executive vice president of the Brookings Institution think tank, “that instead of achieving a breakthrough to a two-state solution, the two-state solution will die on their watch.”

(Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Howard Goller)