A delegation of the Elders group of retired world figures on Saturday visited the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and called Israeli restrictions on the Palestinian enclave both illegal and an obstacle to peace.
"Mary Robinson, Ela Bhatt and Lakhdar Brahimi say the isolation of Gaza is not only illegal collective punishment, but also an impediment to peace," a statement from the group said after they spent the day in the enclave.
Robinson is Ireland's former president and UN high commissioner for human rights, Bhatt is an Indian women's rights campaigner, and Brahimi former Algerian foreign minister and UN envoy.
The three met local leaders, rights activists, business people, womens organisations, UN officials and the Gaza authorities, the statement said.
"I was last here in 2008, just before the Gaza war. The situation has deteriorated to a shocking extent since then," delegation leader Robinson said.
"This is not a humanitarian crisis -- it is a political crisis and it can be solved politically.
"It is unconscionable and unacceptable that Israel and the international community have not lifted the blockade fully to allow Gazans to rebuild their lives and be part of the interconnected world that we take for granted."
Israel and Egypt imposed closures on Gaza after Palestinian militants seized an Israeli soldier in a deadly cross-border raid in June 2006.
They tightened them the following year when Hamas seized power from forces loyal to Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
Israel began to ease its restrictions earlier this year, allowing in all purely civilian goods, after an international outcry over a May 31 commando raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in which nine Turkish activists were killed.
The statement said the Elders were briefed by UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) officials on providing basic services such as water, power, housing, education and health to the population of the densely populated territory.
"Holding 1.5 million people in what is effectively an open prison is deepening the sense of anger and injustice of the Palestinians. We are here to show solidarity with them. This situation is a disaster," Brahimi said.
Run along? What kind of answer is that? I asked a simple question. Why does Israel insist that the Palestinians recognize Israel before they agree to stop building on stolen land? (stop building just for a moment, that is) Please explain your collective take on this for me.
So sad to see grown adults championing such a queer futile position. So as to challenge the international community. To posit that their stance is somehow above that of all others. Queer. So when the international community says that all the "land grab' is illegal under "international law" Israel says "Pound sand"
Ok, so Israel is supposed to be the first line of defense against a potentially hostile Arab world one that has settled quite well in the US and Europe. But what if, as is seen as now happening, ...Israel begins to alienate herself from the United States?
Tells the United States to "pound sand" as it were.
Then what does the US , and the world, do with this "loose cannon" of a state?
Not sure I follow any of the last few post. Seems to be quite a bit of self gratification and quite frankly, strange. Has nothing to do with the debate at hand, as usual.
New Israeli settlement plans have thrown a wrench into the faltering Middle East peace process.
Israel's Housing Ministry has announced plans to build 238 Jewish homes in disputed East Jerusalem, despite opposition from the United States and Palestinians. Israel had unofficially frozen construction in East Jerusalem under a 10-month building moratorium in the West Bank that expired last month. When Israel refused to extend the moratorium, the Palestinians suspended peace talks. The international community sees the settlements as an obstacle to peace because they are built on land claimed by the Palestinians for a future state. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been under pressure from his hawkish coalition partners to resume building.For many years we had a clear policy, left- and right-wing governments: Jerusalem is united; we can build everywhere in all parts of Jerusalem," said Danny Danon, a parliamentarian from the ruling Likud party.
Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat says Mr. Netanyahu has chosen settlements over peace. "So what's left for the peace process, what is left? This is a formula for disaster, not a formula for peace," he said.
The U.S. is continuing efforts to hammer out a compromise that will enable peace talks to resume. But the Arab states are running out of patience. Egypt's foreign minister said if Israel continues to build settlements, the Arab League might seek United Nations recognition of a Palestinian state without Israel's approval.
New Israeli settlement plans have thrown a wrench into the faltering Middle East peace process.
Israel's Housing Ministry has announced plans to build 238 Jewish homes in disputed East Jerusalem, despite opposition from the United States and Palestinians. Israel had unofficially frozen construction in East Jerusalem under a 10-month building moratorium in the West Bank that expired last month. When Israel refused to extend the moratorium, the Palestinians suspended peace talks.
The international community sees the settlements as an obstacle to peace because they are built on land claimed by the Palestinians for a future state. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been under pressure from his hawkish coalition partners to resume building."For many years we had a clear policy, left- and right-wing governments: Jerusalem is united; we can build everywhere in all parts of Jerusalem," said Danny Danon, a parliamentarian from the ruling Likud party.
Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat says Mr. Netanyahu has chosen settlements over peace. "So what's left for the peace process, what is left? This is a formula for disaster, not a formula for peace," he said.
The U.S. is continuing efforts to hammer out a compromise that will enable peace talks to resume. But the Arab states are running out of patience. Egypt's foreign minister said if Israel continues to build settlements, the Arab League might seek United Nations recognition of a Palestinian state without Israel's approval.
Israel has unveiled preliminary plans for 238 new homes for Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem, reports say.
The Israeli plan for 158 homes in the Pisgat Zeev settlement and another 80 in Ramot were included in a building plan released by the housing ministry.
The move comes as the fledgling Middle East peace talks are in danger of collapsing over the settlement issue.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told the AFP news agency that the move proved that Israel was intent on "killing" every opportunity to revive peace talks between the two sides.
Settlements or suburbs
The housing ministry's plans for Pisgat Zeev and Ramot were approved on Thursday by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Ynet news website said. There has been no comment from his office on Friday.
Palestinians regard Pisgat Zeev and neighbourhoods like it as settlements, and accuse Israel of using them to increase the Jewish presence in the mainly Arab east of the city, but Israelis see them simply as suburbs of Jerusalem.
The international community considers East Jerusalem occupied territory, and building on occupied land is illegal under international law.
This was the first such approval since March, when Israel gave the green light to plans for the construction of 1,600 new settler homes in East Jerusalem during a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden, prompting a major crisis with Washington.
Mr Netanyahu has been under pressure from Washington to extend a 10-month slowdown on the building of settler homes on occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) says Israel is "closing all doors on attempts to revive the direct talks" after Tel Aviv approved expansion of new units in the Palestinian territories.
Top PA negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Friday that the move proved Israel was intent on destroying the continuation of the talks between the two sides.
Erekat said that his side would "call upon the US administration" to hold Israel "responsible for the collapse of the negotiations and its insistence on killing every opportunity for resuming negotiations."
Abbas warned recently that he may seek new alternatives if the United States failed to make the Israelis stop settlement activities in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
The alternatives include approaching the UN Security Council to get a recognition of independence, or going to the UN General Assembly to put the Palestinian territories under international custody since they are classified as occupied.
RAMALLAH, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday urged the international Quartet for Middle East peace to find alternative solutions to end the Israeli occupation and give the Palestinians a homeland. Abbas made the comments at a joint press conference in Ramallah with visiting Finnish President Tarja Halonen.
"We want a state on the lands occupied in 1967 and to live in peace with our neighbors, including Israel," Abbas said.
He also said that the he gave the Israelis a new opportunity to restart peace talks, referring to a one-month additional time given to the United States to convince Israel to freeze settlement construction.
If America succeeds to persuade Israel to halt settlement building, Abbas said, "we will directly go for face-to-face negotiations."
The Palestinians broke off direct peace talks with Israel a few weeks after they started last month as Israel refused to renew a previous decision to freeze settlement construction.
An Arab League (AL) committee on the peace process endorsed the Palestinian decision and urged the Americans to find a way out and get things back to normal.
As is the general concenses, if there is no solution through compromise between the Israelis and Palestinians , then there will be continued war-fare. And as evidenced by Israels choice to "kick to the curb" the Obama administration and their wants it seems logical the US will afford like consideration when it comes to military support in the event of future confrontations.
Conrad, you two are the only ones doing time here. I post here because I, and many, many, MANY OTHERS see Israels position in these latest PEACE talks ARROGANT AND DISREPECTFUL given the position of the international community . Sure both sides hold the distruction of the other as the greatest good. But Law is Law. And the settlement construction is ILLEGAL UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What part of this statement don't you two grasp????????????
The State Department on Tuesday characterized Netanyahu’s call for recognition of Israel as a Jewish state as the Israeli leader’s offer for keeping the peace talks going, and called on the Palestinians to respond by coming up with their own. On Wednesday Palestinian officials called on the US to produce a map that would show where Israel envisions its borders with an independent Palestine.
This is where the idea of simply declaring Palestinian statehood and negotiating backwards from a fait accompli comes in. Maen Areikat, the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s chief representative to Washington, says it is just one of several ideas that surfaced at last week’s meeting of the Arab League in Libya
That is one option Palestinian leaders are contemplating as they mull over how to respond to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s latest proposal for keeping the Obama administration’s iteration of peace talks going: Israel would agree to extend a partial moratorium on settlement construction for 60 days in exchange for the Palestinians’ recognition of Israel as a Jewish state
SilverBirch Forum Posts (3,158)
So when the international community says that all the "land grab' is illegal under "international law" Israel says "Pound sand" 
RE: do you believe isreal should have attacked Gaza in operation cast lead
A delegation of the Elders group of retired world figures on Saturday visited the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and called Israeli restrictions on the Palestinian enclave both illegal and an obstacle to peace."Mary Robinson, Ela Bhatt and Lakhdar Brahimi say the isolation of Gaza is not only illegal collective punishment, but also an impediment to peace," a statement from the group said after they spent the day in the enclave.
Robinson is Ireland's former president and UN high commissioner for human rights, Bhatt is an Indian women's rights campaigner, and Brahimi former Algerian foreign minister and UN envoy.
The three met local leaders, rights activists, business people, womens organisations, UN officials and the Gaza authorities, the statement said.
"I was last here in 2008, just before the Gaza war. The situation has deteriorated to a shocking extent since then," delegation leader Robinson said.
"This is not a humanitarian crisis -- it is a political crisis and it can be solved politically.
"It is unconscionable and unacceptable that Israel and the international community have not lifted the blockade fully to allow Gazans to rebuild their lives and be part of the interconnected world that we take for granted."
Israel and Egypt imposed closures on Gaza after Palestinian militants seized an Israeli soldier in a deadly cross-border raid in June 2006.
They tightened them the following year when Hamas seized power from forces loyal to Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
Israel began to ease its restrictions earlier this year, allowing in all purely civilian goods, after an international outcry over a May 31 commando raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in which nine Turkish activists were killed.
The statement said the Elders were briefed by UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) officials on providing basic services such as water, power, housing, education and health to the population of the densely populated territory.
"Holding 1.5 million people in what is effectively an open prison is deepening the sense of anger and injustice of the Palestinians. We are here to show solidarity with them. This situation is a disaster," Brahimi said.