US ‘criticizes’ Israeli plans to build 3,000 new settler homes
Britain urges Israel to reverse settlement plan
JERUSALEM, Dec 1, (Agencies): The United States on Saturday denounced Israeli plans for new settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank in the wake of a historic UN vote to upgrade Palestine’s diplomatic status, calling them a setback to peace.
On Thursday, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly backed a resolution recognising Palestine within the 1967 borders as a non-member observer state.
Israel lashed out in response, with an official on Friday confirming to AFP plans to build the 3,000 settler homes, without specifying exactly where they were to be located.
“In light of today’s announcement, let me reiterate that this administration — like previous administrations — has been very clear with Israel that these activities set back the cause of a negotiated peace,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.
“The most lasting solution to the stalemate in Gaza would be a comprehensive peace between Israel and all Palestinians, led by their legitimate representative, the Palestinian Authority,” she added in an evening speech to an audience in Washington that included Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
Like Israel, President Barack Obama’s administration tried to stop the Palestinian push for recognition, saying it would place another obstacle in the path to peace and that statehood could only come through negotiations with Israel.
“This week’s vote should give all of us pause. All sides need to consider carefully the path ahead,” Clinton said.
“We all need to work together to find a path forward in negotiations that can deliver on the goal of a two-state solution. That remains our goal.
“If and when the parties are ready to enter into direct negotiations to solve the conflict, President (Barack) Obama will be a full partner to them.”
Clinton’s remarks came on the heels of a response from the White House earlier in the day.
“We reiterate our longstanding opposition to settlements and east Jerusalem construction and announcements. We believe these actions are counterproductive and make it harder to resume direct negotiations or achieve a two-state solution,” said National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor.
Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas meanwhile called for a return to peace talks, but also chided Israel’s latest settlement plans.
“I’ve said a thousand times that we want to resume negotiations and we are ready to do it,” Abbas told reporters in New York.
“We are not setting any condition but there are at least 15 UN resolutions which consider settlement activity as illegal and an obstacle to peace which must be removed,” he said. “Why do (the Israelis) not stop settlement?”
Palestine Liberation Organisation official Hanan Ashrawi told AFP “it is an act of Israeli aggression against a state, and the world needs to take up its responsibilities.”
Meanwhile, Britain on Saturday urged Israel to reverse its decision to build 3,000 settler homes in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, saying the plans would undermine peace efforts.
Foreign Secretary William Hague said he was “extremely concerned” by the move, which came in response to a historic UN vote to recognise Palestine as a non-member observer state.
“The UK strongly advises the Israeli government to reverse this decision,” Hague said in a statement.
“The window for a two-state solution is closing, and we need urgent efforts by the parties and by the international community to achieve a return to negotiations, not actions which will make that harder.”
He added: “If implemented, these plans (for new settlements) would alter the situation on the ground on a scale that makes the two-state solution, with Jerusalem as a shared capital, increasingly difficult to achieve.”
Britain abstained from Thursday’s UN General Assembly vote, saying that it wanted the Palestinians to unconditionally agree to negotiations on a lasting two-state deal with Israel.
But the British statement on Saturday said that Hague had also advised Israel to “avoid reacting in a way that undermined these goals” for a swift return to peace talks. Palestinians carry the body of Mahmoud Jarghoun, 21, during his funeral in the town of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Dec 1. One Palestinian died and another was wounded when an Israeli missile fired days
earlier exploded in the north of the Gaza Strip, an emergency services spokesman said. (AFP) gunshot wound to the pelvis.
Palestinians said he was one of several men injured by Israeli fire in farmland close to the Israeli border fence, east of Rafah. (AFP) Algeria’s FLN wins: The ruling National Liberation Front (FLN) won Algeria’s municipal and regional elections, Interior Minister Dahou Ould Kablia announced on Friday, in a widely-expected result.
Voter turnout, considered the only real issue in Thursday’s polls, was officially pegged at 44.27 percent, described by Kablia as “acceptable,” as thousands had to brave poor weather conditions to cast their ballots.
The FLN, holding a majority in the National Assembly and to which President Abdelaziz Bouteflika belongs, won a majority in 159 municipalities, out of 1,541, scoring the highest vote in 832 communes. (AFP)