NETANYAHU WILL NOT FREEZE THE SETTLEMENTS

Tel Aviv, 18 Rajab 1434/28 May 2013 (MINA) – An Israeli official has claimed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not freeze West Bank settlements in order to facilitate the resumption of peace talks and negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.

The Israeli official said that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has had such an opportunity once before: “This will not happen again.” If the Palestinians want to talk, he added.

The paper noted that after four rounds of talks in Jerusalem and Ramallah in the past two months US Secretary of State John Kerry is seeking to revive peace talks between the Palestinian Authority and the Israelis.

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“Kerry urged Israel to halt settlement activity voluntarily, but added that the demand for such a freeze, as a pre-condition to direct talks, was not helpful,” .

         The settlements, which cover an area roughly equal to 1,035 football (soccer) fields and twice as big as New York’s Central Park, were approved by “military order,” according to Middle East Monitor (MEMO) report on Monday (27/5) monitored by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).
         The report said most of the new settlements were located deep in the Palestinian-inhabited West Bank.
         Israeli settlers establish the outposts after wandering into the Palestinian territory, squatting on the land, building houses, then claiming ownership of the area.
         Activists slam Tel Aviv for quietly and persistently annexing more Palestinian lands while claiming to be committed to peace talks.
         The presence and continued expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestine has created a major obstacle for the efforts made to establish peace in the Middle East.
         Israel agreed to freeze settlement construction under the Roadmap for Peace plan in 2002. But it has failed to comply with that commitment despite repeated and widespread international condemnation.
         More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem) in 1967.
         The UN and most countries regard the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories were captured by Israel in the war of 1967 and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on occupied lands. (T/P04/E1)

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Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)