Prohibition labelled ‘dangerous’

THERESA May’s British government is increasingly concerned the EU will seek to punish the UK for leaving the bloc, amid claims the prime minister hasn’t done enough to charm her counterparts as she prepares to start Brexit.

Three senior members of May’s administration said that the biggest obstacle to winning favourable exit terms and a new free-trade deal was an “emotional” backlash from the EU against last June’s vote for Brexit. One said the premier had not worked hard enough to woo EU leaders, warning that her failure to quell European hostility could prove a weakness. Washington Post FEWER children have been recruited to fight in parts of Sudan, but they are still killed and injured, and victims of sexual violence in the country, according to a new report by the UN .

“Boys and girls continued to be victims of grave violations committed by all parties to the conflict, including killing and maiming, sexual violence and attacks on schools and hospitals,” said special UN representative Leila Zerrougui on Monday.

The report detailed the impact of the armed conflict on children in Darfur, South Kordofan, Blue Nile and Abyei between March 2011 and December 2016. ANA JALUD, West Bank: Palestinian farmer Fawzi Ibrahim is proud of his heirloom corn, the kernels of which ripen in iridescent shades of red, blue and gold like jewels.

But what makes it priceless are the obstacles he faces to grow his crops.

Small farmers struggle worldwide. But international experts say Palestinian farmers face disabling odds in the 60% of the West Bank under full Israeli control and which is home to 400 000 Jewish settlers.

As settler agricultural start-ups get prioritised access to water, export markets and development rights, the Israeli occupation is disrupting the centuries-old pastoral life of Palestinian farmers, experts say.

This is adding fuel to a conflict in which land is a trigger.

For years, Israeli settlers have chased Ibrahim’s tractor, threatened him, yelled at his Israeli soldier escorts, tried to burn his fields and warned that letting him farm would risk bloodshed, Israeli group Rabbis for Human Rights said.

Ibrahim must co-ordinate with the Israeli army because his land is in a security zone abutting Israeli outposts.

He and his lawyer waited eight weeks for permission to plant 20 hectares of winter wheat in just two days, under the guard of two jeeploads of Israeli soldiers.

A human rights worker Israeli settlers looked on.

Ibrahim said he fears he will suffer thousands of dollars in farming losses again this year. “They’re making us poor,” he said.

A recent UN report said the Israeli occupation has set off a “continuous and process of de-agriculturisation” in the Israeli-controlled West Bank, depriving the Palestinian economy of potential agriculture revenue of $700 million, (R9 billion) by World Bank estimates, as Israeli settlers bar Palestinians from crops, grazing lands and springs.

The World Food Programme is providing food assistance to 75 000 Palestinians in Area C, which was placed under full Israeli control in the 1990s, local spokesman Raphael du Boispean said.

A December report by the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem said Israeli settlements have taken over 202 342ha of former Palestinian lands in Area C.

B’Tselem said an estimated 200 000 to 300 000 Palestinians live in Area C.

“What the Israeli settlers are doing in those areas is a disaster,” said Avshalom Vilan, executive director of Israel’s powerful Farmers Federation, a mainstream private farmers group.

“They’re stealing from the lives of their Palestinian neighbours.

“It’s in Israel’s interest for Palestinian farmers to work their land peacefully,” Vilan said.

“We will all pay for this,” Vilan added.

Israel’s Co-ordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Unit, or Cogat, said 5% of Palestinian fields “adjacent to Israeli villages” in the West Bank require Israeli permission and escorts “to ensure that their work goes undisturbed… while implementing their right to cultivate their land.”

Cogat said it provided 600 such escorts in 2016 for the Palestinian olive harvest, a target of Israeli settler attacks.

THE US, Britain, France and other major powers protested on Monday as the UN began work on what backers said would be a binding prohibition on nuclear weapons.

Russia and China also sat out the opening General Assembly session. Russia had voted against launching the effort last year. China abstained.

The proposed ban, backed by Pope Francis, UN Secretary-General António Guterres and dozens of humanitarian and non-proliferation groups, sets most of the major nuclear powers against more than 100 smaller non-nuclear states that seek a treaty this year.

“As a mom, as a daughter, there is nothing I want more for my family than a world that has no nuclear weapons,” said Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN. “But we have to be realistic. Is there anyone who believes that North Korea would agree to give up its nuclear weapons on the UN’s orders?”

She and representatives from Britain and France spoke to reporters as the UN General Assembly began debate on the issue. More than 30 nations sat out the session, many at the urging of the US, in support of the argument that a blanket ban now is impractical or dangerous.

“Is it any surprise that Iran is supportive of this?” Haley asked. “It is not.”

North Korea developed nuclear weapons through a rogue programme and is attempting to field a long-range missile that could deliver a weapon to US shores, according to officials. It can already target US forces and allies in Asia, they say.

Iran denies it sought a nuclear weapon, but agreed to curtail its nuclear programme in an international deal led by former US president Barack Obama and heavily criticised by President Donald Trump.

Although Obama had set the eventual eradication of nuclear weapons as a goal, his administration also opposed a UN ban.

The Trump administration has not yet said whether it will affirm the long-range goal of eliminating nuclear weapons or pledge to further shrink the US arsenal. The White House is conducting a nuclear posture review.

Haley said the US and other major powers boycotting the UN discussion “believe in” the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The landmark treaty that took effect in 1970 commits nations with nuclear weapons to move toward disarmament while prohibiting non-nuclear states from obtaining the weapons.

Signers of the treaty also agree all nations may have access to nuclear power and other peaceful uses of nuclear technology.

As a presidential candidate, Trump suggested that US allies Japan and South Korea could develop nuclear weapons and defend themselves, instead of relying on the US nuclear umbrella, and suggested that nuclear weapons could be effective against Islamic State militants. He said he wanted the US to have an up-to-date and perhaps expanded nuclear arsenal, but that he would like to see a nuclear-free world.

At the General Assembly session on Monday, diplomats said they would pursue a draft document this spring. A model is the two-decadeold UN-backed ban on landmines, which is credited with reducing use of those weapons even though major nations including the US, Russia and China have declined to sign it.

Toshiki Fujimori , a baby when he survived the 1945 US nuclear bomb attack on Hiroshima, Japan, addressed the opening session.

“Everybody thought I would die, yet I survived. It’s a miracle,” Fujimori said. “I am here at the UN asking for the abolition of nuclear weapons… this is the mission I am given as a survivor.”

“The UK is not attending the negotiations on a treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons because we do not believe they will lead to effective progress on global nuclear disarmament,” British UN Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said.