ISRAELI CRIMES BREAK PEACE PROCESS

       West Bank, 5 Safar 1435/8 December 2013 (MINA) – The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas blames Israel for “cold-blooded assassination” that could undermine the peace process.

       A 15-year-old Palestinian boy has died of a gunshot wound in the occupied West Bank, hospital officials have said. His father and two friends said Israeli troops guarding a nearby settlement for the shooting, which occurred on Saturday, Al jazeera reported monitored by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).

      An Israeli military spokeswoman said a military police investigation had been opened but she did not have more details of events.

      The Palestinian boy Wajih Wajdi Al-Ramahy was taken to a Ramallah hospital, where doctors said he died of a single gunshot wound. His father, Wajdi, said Israeli soldiers had shot him without being provoked.

      Wajdi, a resident of the Jalazoun refugee camp near Ramallah, said his son had just left a grocery store when he was shot from the nearby settlement, about 300 metres away.

        “I will send the body of my son for autopsy to prove he was killed by Israeli army gunfire and I will sue them,” he said.

        Two of Ramahy’s friends said they were with him when he was shot, and also blamed Israeli soldiers.

        “Soldiers who appeared from an area at the fence fired at Wajih and killed him,” one said. The two boys refused to give their names.

        There was no unrest in the area when the shooting occurred, the father said.

        Seventeen Palestinians  have been killed since US-brokered talks began in July.

        Palestinian officials say the sides remain far apart on the central issues of borders, security, Jerusalem’s status and Palestinian refugees.

Israeli settlements break peace process

       On the other hands, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett has proposed that Israel annex parts of the occupied West Bank where most Jewish settlers live. The area is already under its full military control.

       “I favour implementation of Israeli sovereignty over the zone where 400,000 [settlers] live and only 70,000 Arabs,” said the head of the far-right Jewish Home religious party on Sunday.

       The settlements, in occupied Palestinian territory, are deemed illegal under international law.

       Bennett also ridiculed the US-brokered peace talks between Israel and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, whose writ covers the West Bank but not the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by Hamas.

        “This is all a joke. It’s as if we’re discussing the purchase of a car with only half of its owners,” he told public radio.

        In another negative Israeli assessment of the peace process, Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said on Saturday: “There is no partner on the Palestinian side to reach a two-state solution for two peoples.”

        Their views contrasted with a statement by US Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday at the end of his latest mission to Israel and the Palestinian territories.

         “I believe we are closer than we have been in years to bringing about the peace and the prosperity and the security that all of the people of this region deserve,” Kerry told reporters.

         Direct negotiations were launched in late July, but have made little apparent progress as they approach the half-way mark of a targeted nine months.(T/P04/P03)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)