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Tag: mahmoud abbas
Israeli-Palestinian Violence Intensifies; Arabs And Jews Stabbed

Israeli-Palestinian Violence Intensifies; Arabs And Jews Stabbed

By Luke Baker

JERUSALEM (Reuters) — A Jewish man stabbed and wounded four Arabs in southern Israel on Friday in an apparent reprisal attack for Palestinian violence during the worst spell of civil unrest in the region for several years.

In the past 10 days, four Israelis have been shot or stabbed to death in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, and at least a dozen have been wounded by Palestinians wielding knives or screwdrivers in stabbings in Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities.

Three Palestinians have also been killed, and scores wounded in clashes with Israeli security forces during stone-throwing demonstrations in East Jerusalem and across the West Bank, leading to talk of a third Palestinian uprising, or intifada.

Palestinian anger is largely focused on events at the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City and fears that Israel is trying to change the status quo at the holy site, revered by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and by Jews as the Temple Mount.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denied wanting to change conditions under which Jews are allowed to visit the site but bans non-Muslim prayer, but his assurances have done little to quell Palestinian anger.

Both Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have called for calm and Palestinian police are continuing to coordinate with Israeli security forces to try to restore order, but there are few signs of the tension and violence dying down.

Palestinian protests were planned in Jerusalem and West Bank cities after Muslim prayers on Friday, and Israel has deployed thousands more police and soldiers. Muslim access to al-Aqsa has been restricted to men over 45 and women.

In the latest attack, a Jewish man in his 20s stabbed four Arab men in the southern Israeli city of Dimona, police said, adding that the motive was “nationalistic”.

The mayor of Dimona said the assailant was a resident of the city who was known to police. During questioning, police said the attacker described all Arabs as “terrorists”.

Hours later, a 14-year-old Jewish boy was stabbed and wounded by a Palestinian in the Old City of Jerusalem, a woman believed to be Palestinian tried to stab a guard at a bus station in north Israel, and a Palestinian stabbed a policeman near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, Israeli police said.

The policeman’s attacker was shot dead, police said.

On Thursday, seven Israelis were stabbed in four separate incidents across the country, including the commercial capital Tel Aviv, fuelling concerns about a wider uprising following those of the late 1980s and early 2000s.

The violence now is on a much smaller scale than then but mistrust between Israel and the Palestinians is deep after their last negotiations ended in April 2014 without progress.

A new intifada would further complicate efforts by world leaders to resolve conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, and there is little appetite to re-engage in peace efforts between Israel and the Palestinians after many failures in the past.

The chances of peace talks resuming before U.S. President Barack Obama’s term ends appear slim.

NO PEACE, NO TALKS

Netanyahu has accused Abbas, his Fatah party and the Islamist group Hamas of inciting the violence in East Jerusalem in recent weeks. He reiterated that message at a news conference on Thursday, adding that there was no “quick fix”.

“We are in the midst of a wave of terrorism with knives, firebombs, rocks and even live fire,” he said.

“While these acts are mostly unorganized, they are all the result of wild and mendacious incitement by Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, several countries in the region and… the Islamic Movement in Israel.”

Abbas has praised Palestinians for defending al-Aqsa, a rallying point for Muslims throughout the region, but also urged people to engage in “peaceful popular resistance”. The leader of Hamas in Gaza urged Palestinians to step up attacks.

“We gives souls and blood for Jerusalem, Jerusalem and Aqsa is part of the religion,” Ismail Haniyeh said at Friday prayers.

“We call for escalating and deepening the intifada… We are proud of you, the heroes of knives.”

Israeli troops opened fire on Palestinians holding a rally near Gaza’s border fence with Israel on Friday, wounding 12 people, medics in Gaza said.

As well as tensions over al-Aqsa, Palestinian anger has mounted as Israeli forces took a tougher line against protesters who are violent. Netanyahu has told troops and police they can shoot Palestinian stone-throwers if they have reason to believe an Israeli life is threatened.

There is also frustration at the failure of Israeli police to track down the Jewish perpetrators suspected of an arson attack on a Palestinian family in the West Bank two months ago in which a child and his parents were killed.

In turn, Israelis are on edge after deadly stone-throwing attacks by Palestinians and the killing of an Israeli couple in the West Bank 10 days ago. They were shot as they drove in their car with their four children.

(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Dan Williams in Jerusalem, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

Photo: Palestinian men take part in Friday prayers outside the Old City as Israeli policemen patrol nearby in Arab east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Ras al-Amud, Oct. 9, 2015. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

Israel Undermines U.S. Peace Effort, Palestinian Abbas Tells U.N

Israel Undermines U.S. Peace Effort, Palestinian Abbas Tells U.N

By Louis Charbonneau and Hugh Bronstein

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday accused Israel of sabotaging U.S. efforts to broker peace and said that Israeli security operations at the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem could lead to a religious war.

In an address to the United Nations General Assembly before a ceremony for the raising of the Palestinian flag at U.N. headquarters in New York, Abbas said that the Palestinian Authority no longer considered itself bound by the accords signed with Israel in the mid-1990s.

Repeating what the Palestinian Authority has been saying for at least half a decade, Abbas said the agreements would not apply as long as Israel supports settlements of Israelis in the West Bank and refuses to release Palestinian prisoners.

“You are all aware that Israel undermined the efforts made by the administration of President Barack Obama in past years, most recently the efforts of Secretary of State John Kerry aimed at reaching a peace agreement through negotiations,” Abbas told the 193-nation General Assembly.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in response that Abbas’ speech was “deceitful and encourages incitement and lawlessness in the Middle East.”

“We expect and call on the (Palestinian) Authority and its leader to act responsibly and accede to the proposal of… Israel and enter into direct negotiations with Israel without preconditions,” it said, adding that Abbas “does not intend to reach a peace agreement.”

Obama, whose relations with Netanyahu have been strained, addressed the assembly on Monday but did not mention Israel or the Palestinians, an unusual omission.

Abbas praised French efforts to revive stalled peace negotiations and called for a national unity government that would unite the fractious Palestinian political scene.

“We are determined to preserve the unity of our land and our people,” Abbas said. “We seek to form a national unity government that functions according to the program of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and we seek to hold presidential and legislative elections.”

Abbas’ Fatah controls the West Bank while Hamas, branded a terrorist organization by Israel and the United States, controls the Gaza Strip.

Israeli-Palestinian strife has risen sharply in recent weeks as Arab states and Palestinians have accused Israeli forces of violations at Al-Aqsa mosque, one of Islam’s holiest places.

Abbas said Israel’s use of “brutal force” at the mosque could “convert the conflict from a political to religious one, creating an explosive in Jerusalem and in the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

Even though Palestine is not a member of the United Nations, the General Assembly adopted a Palestinian-drafted resolution that permits non-member observer states to fly their flags alongside those of full member states. Palestine and the Vatican are the only non-member observer states.

In 2012, the General Assembly approved the de facto recognition of the sovereign state of Palestine. That followed a failed bid by the Palestinians to secure full U.N. membership.

(Additional reporting by Ori Lewis in Jerusalem; Editing by Grant McCool)

Photo: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas holds a Palestinian flag before raising it during United Nations General Assembly at the United Nations in Manhattan, New York September 30, 2015. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

Israelis, Palestinians Struggle For Way Forward As Deadline Nears

Israelis, Palestinians Struggle For Way Forward As Deadline Nears

By Batsheva Sobelman, Los Angeles Times

JERUSALEM — With Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations still deadlocked a week before their current round expires, negotiating teams met Tuesday with U.S. envoy Martin Indyk in Jerusalem to discuss extending the troubled talks.

Nine months of meetings between Israeli and Palestinian teams have yielded little agreement, and both sides’ tough positions have stymied the effort to secure a framework for working toward a two-state solution to the conflict.

The U.S.-mediated negotiations broke down last month over Israel’s delay in releasing a group of Palestinian prisoners as promised. That was followed by a Palestinian request to the United Nations to join more than a dozen international treaties, a move opposed by Israel.

Both sides have indicated they wish to continue the talks but have terms. The Palestinians this month drew up a list of conditions, including Israeli recognition of Palestinian borders along lines that predate the 1967 Middle East War and of East Jerusalem as the Palestinians’ capital. Israel rejected the conditions, as it has long done, and has so far avoided concrete discussion of borders.

Talks broke down, though Israel reportedly was considering a deal that would free the promised prisoners and an additional 400 Palestinians being held and partially freeze settlement construction. The release of Jonathan Pollard, who was convicted in 1987 of spying on the U.S. for Israel and who remains imprisoned in North Carolina, reportedly also was on the table.

The last-stretch efforts came amid recent reports that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was considering dissolving the authority, potentially turning the tables 20 years back and leaving responsibility for millions of West Bank Palestinians to Israel.

On Monday, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said such an extreme step would have “serious implications” for American relations with the Palestinians, including future assistance.

In a meeting with Israeli journalists in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Tuesday, Abbas said talks could continue beyond April 29 if Israel meant to be “serious regarding the political negotiations and the two-state solution.”

He outlined the Palestinians’ basic conditions for continuing the talks. First, Israel would have to release the last group of Palestinian prisoners it promised to release when talks began, including a group of Israeli citizens.

Several members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition have threatened to quit their posts and even the government if Israel agrees to Abbas’ demand that Israel free Arab Israeli citizens jailed for violent crimes against Israelis.

The next condition, Abbas said, is that the talks focus immediately and intensively on determining the border between Israel and a future Palestinian state. During this intensive three-month period, Palestinians will demand a complete freeze on all settlement construction.

Abbas stressed Palestinians’ desire for two states living side by side in peace and security. “We want to end the painful chapter in the history of our two peoples and turn a new leaf for our children,” he told the Israelis.

However, Abbas said, if negotiations fail, the Palestinians will tell Israel that it has “emptied the Palestinian Authority of all content; here it is, take it.”

In that case, Palestinians will peacefully hand over to Israel all civilian and security authority throughout the West Bank and the Israelis will resume full responsibility for all services, he said.

Netanyahu maintains it is the Palestinians who must decide where they’re going.

“They should decide whether they want to disband or have unity, and when they want peace, they should let us know, because we want a genuine peace,” he said Monday. He was referring to unity talks between the rival Palestinian political movements Fatah and Hamas set to start in the Gaza Strip.

The State Department’s Psaki said it was up to both parties to decide the way forward.

“As long as they want to find a way to continue the negotiations, we’re willing to help them do that,” she said.

Psaki said Secretary of State John F. Kerry remained willing to travel to the region to help, though she said she had no plans to announce.

Photo: Acroll via Flickr

Not Ready: Palestinians Leaning Against Resuming Talks

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas strongly suggested Saturday that he would reject a peacemaking blueprint put forward by international mediators, saying he would not agree to any proposal that disregarded Palestinian conditions for the resumption of peace talks.

Abbas, who returned to the West Bank on Saturday after submitting a statehood bid at the United Nations a day earlier, told reporters accompanying him that he was still studying the proposal by the peacemaking Quartet — the U.S., European Union, United Nations and Russia.

But he appeared to tip his hand by saying “we will not deal with any initiative” that doesn’t demand a halt to Israeli settlement construction or negotiations based on borders before the 1967 War when Israel captured land the Palestinians claim for their state.

The Quartet statement made no such demands.

Abbas dug into his positions after resisting heavy, U.S.-led pressure to abandon his bid to have the U.N. recognize a state of Palestine in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. His willingness to stand up to Washington has won him newfound respect at home, where he had been considered a lackluster leader. The unilateral bid for statehood and U.N. membership reflects deep-seated Palestinian exasperation over 44 years of Israeli occupation.

Israel has had no comment on the Quartet plan to resume long-stalled negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel, which mediators regard as the only way to establish a Palestinian state. Israeli leader Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the long-standing conditions Abbas has put forth, saying talks must go forward without imposing terms.

The Quartet urged both parties to draw up an agenda for peace talks within a month and produce comprehensive proposals on territory and security within three months. Mediators aspire to a final deal within a year, but similar plans have failed to produce a peace agreement in the past, and this latest proposal offered no program for bridging the huge differences that have stymied negotiations for most of the past three years.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon relayed the Palestinians’ statehood request to the Security Council on Friday, shortly after Abbas formally submitted it. It is expected to be shot down there, either because it won’t win the required support of nine of the Council’s 15 members, or because the U.S. will make good on its threat to veto it. The Security Council will meet Monday to deal with the membership request, but final action is likely to take weeks or months.

Washington has been lobbying hard to muster enough support in the Council to block the statehood application so the U.S. won’t have to resort to a veto — something that would be frowned upon by the Arab world at a time when autocratic regimes are coming under assault there.

Abbas told reporters, without explaining, that he expected the Council to take action within weeks, not months. With Council support necessary to be admitted to the U.N. as a state, the Palestinians are expected to ask the U.N. General Assembly, where they enjoy broad support, to grant them a more modest status upgrade to nonmember observer state from permanent observer.

On board his plane, Abbas described himself as exhausted by the international efforts to wear him down but buoyant when he explained in a speech to the General Assembly why he had sidestepped the negotiating process that had been the cornerstone of international Mideast policy for nearly two decades.

The pressure “didn’t affect our spirits to reach the target and to deliver the Palestinian message officially,” he said.

Abbas noted, without elaborating, that some unspecified Arab states had also tried to pressure him to drop the statehood application.