Hamdallah ‘dismisses’ Israel’s PM direct negotiations proposal
Most Palestinians view govt as corrupt
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories, May 24, (Agencies): Palestinian prime minister Rami Hamdallah on Tuesday dismissed an Israeli proposal for direct negotiations instead of a French multilateral peace initiative, calling it an attempt to “buy time”.
Hamdallah made the comments as he met French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who has held talks in Israel and the Palestinian territories this week to push Paris’s peace initiative.
“Time is short,” Hamdallah said. “(Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu is trying to buy time... but this time he will not escape the international community.”
Netanyahu has rejected the plan and called for direct negotiations.
Valls told Netanyahu when he met him on Monday that he would discuss his proposal with French President Francois Hollande, but he has insisted that Paris plans to stick with its approach.
The French initiative involves holding a meeting of foreign ministers from a range of countries on June 3, but without the Israelis and Palestinians present.
An international conference would then be held in the autumn, with the
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls and Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah (right), shake hands ahead of a meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah on May 24. Palestinian PM Rami Hamdallah dismissed an Israeli proposal for direct negotiations instead of a French multilateral
peace initiative, calling it an attempt to ‘buy time’. (AFP)
Israelis and Palestinians in attendance. The goal is to eventually relaunch negotiations that would lead to a Palestinian state.
Negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians have been at a standstill since a US-led initiative collapsed in April 2014.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has welcomed the French plan, but Netanyahu has repeatedly expressed his opposition while saying he is willing to meet Abbas at any time.
On Monday, he told Valls that France should host a summit between the two men in Paris.
Palestinian leaders say years of negotiations with Israel have not ended its occupation, and they have pursued a strategy of diplomacy at international bodies.
Meanwhile, a gated community of villas with well-tended flower gardens near the West Bank town of Ramallah may help explain why Palestinians almost universally believe there is corruption in the government of President Mahmoud Abbas.
The secluded “Diplomatic Compound,” built for senior Palestinian Authority officials on subsidized land, is one of the symbols of what many Palestinians think is wrong with their leaders — that they are cut off from the people and award themselves special privileges.
The breakdown of trust is likely linked to overall dissatisfaction with Abbas’ performance after 10 years in power, twice his lawful term. He hasn’t delivered on promises to lead Palestinians to statehood, and the prospect of open-ended Israeli military occupation, already in its 50th year, darkens every aspect of life in the West Bank.
A recent poll found that almost all Palestinians — 95.5 percent — believe there is corruption in Abbas’ government. Nader Said, a veteran pollster, surveyed 1,200 people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip last month. Among Gaza residents scoring the performance of the territory’s Hamas rulers, the figure was 82 percent.
“This is the highest rate I have ever seen in all the polls I have done,” Said, who runs an independent polling agency called AWRAD, told The Associated Press. The margin of error was 3 percentage points.
Experts say perceptions of corruption tend to be overblown. The World Bank, for example, found in a survey of Palestinians several years ago that far more people believed there was corruption than actually experienced it.