Posts Tagged ‘Free Gaza’
Quartet’s gap between words and deeds
Story from BBC NEWS – Published: 2008/09/26:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/7636288.stm
By Jeremy Bowen
Middle East Editor, BBC News
In the last few years, in various elegant rooms in some of the world’s major cities, a small group of people have met periodically to talk about the Middle East. They are the representatives of the Quartet of the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations.Late last year in Paris, as Christmas lights shimmered in the streets outside, Tony Blair, Britain’s former Prime Minister, stood up.
He was in the early stages of his new part time job as the Quartet’s representative in the Middle East, but he seemed to recognise that it was quite a step from where they were to the chilly realities of winter on the West Bank.
Mr Blair said they would only be credible if they could narrow the distance between what was said in international meetings and the real lives of the people they were supposed to be trying to help.
| Like any international grouping, it is as strong, or as weak, as the collective political will of its members |
The best part of a year later, a new report from leading international aid agencies says that is not happening.
The report is damning. It says that the Quartet is not “making adequate progress towards improving the lives of Palestinians nor improving the prospects for peace”.
Since the Quartet includes most of the world’s rich and powerful countries it makes you wonder what exactly they have been doing.
Fatal threat
They have, the report says, spoken of their concern about the growth of Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories 18 separate times.
Yet settlements, which are illegal under international law, are expanding faster than they were last year, and the aid agencies say, are “taking a drastic toll on Palestinian daily life”.
It says that the failure of the Quartet to remove the severe restrictions on the free movement of Palestinians “may also constitute a fatal threat to the broader peace process”.
So why has the Quartet not managed to match its deeds with its own words? Partly for the same reason that US policy towards the Israelis and the Palestinians has been failing.
Take settlements. Condoleezza Rice, speaking as US Secretary of State and not as a Quartet member, has also said that she is not happy about the growth of Jewish settlements.
Her messages register with the Israelis. But they have also been ignored.
No pressure
For the last eight years the Israeli promoters of Jewish settlements have known that what has mattered most has been the attitude of US President George W Bush.
He has never put significant pressure on Israel to fulfil its commitments.
On the other hand, for the Americans putting pressure on the Palestinians is politically easy. It happens often – and often doesn’t work either.
One criticism of US policy is that it might be more effective if it was more even-handed. That imbalance transmits itself to the Quartet.
Like any international grouping, it is as strong, or as weak, as the collective political will of its members.
But the report of the aid agencies recognises that the Quartet is good at raising money for a variety of projects, mainly economic, and that it has worked hard to improve the still incomplete rule of law on the West Bank.
And diplomats who are just as critical as the aid agencies about the Quartet’s political performance consider that as an institution it is worth keeping.
They argue that the presence of the UN, the EU and Russia stops the business of Middle East peacemaking being simply a private department of US foreign policy.
It has not made peace happen though. And it will take more than a new face in the White House to change that.
Olmert: Israel withdrawal needed
IF WE WANT WORLD PEACE, ISRAEL HAS TO WITHDRAW FROM THE ILLEGALY OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN LANDS!!! EVEN THE LEADER IN ISRAEL NOW SAYS SO!
Story from BBC NEWS – Published: 2008/09/29:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/7642090.stm
Outgoing PM Ehud Olmert says Israel must withdraw from almost all the land it occupied in 1967 if it wants peace with Syria and the Palestinians.
He said this would include parts of East Jerusalem, which Palestinians want as the capital of their future state.
Mr Olmert also said any peace deal with Syria would require an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights.
He gave few further details, but said he was prepared to go beyond previous Israeli leaders to achieve peace.
“We have to reach an agreement with the Palestinians, the meaning of which is that in practice we will withdraw from almost all the territories, if not all the territories,” Mr Olmert said.
“We will leave a percentage of these territories in our hands, but will have to give the Palestinians a similar percentage, because without that there will be no peace,” he added.
He said the withdrawals would include Jerusalem, the eastern part of which Israel occupied and annexed after the 1967 war, but which it has long proclaimed as its “eternal, undivided capital”.
Security basis
The remarks, which immediately stirred controversy among Israelis, were published in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.
Former Meretz chairman Yossi Beilin said: “Olmert has committed the unforgivable sin of revealing his true stance on Israel’s national interest just when he has nothing left to lose.”
Meanwhile MK Yuval Steinitz accused Mr Olmert of gambling on Israel’s future.
“Ignoring the distance between rockets fired from afar and the enemy sitting on top of Jerusalem reveals how little he understands the basis of security,” Mr Steinitz said.
About 400,000 Israeli settlers live in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Another 20,000 Israelis live on the Golan Heights plateau.
Mr Olmert faces serious corruption allegations, and is acting as caretaker prime minister after resigning earlier this month.
Correspondents say there is little likelihood that any peace deals will be agreed in his final weeks in office.
Free Palestine!
BBC Image – September 19, 2008
West Bank Palestinians wait to be granted access through the Israeli checkpoint at Kalandia so they can attend Friday prayers in the al-Aqsa mosque in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem(Photograph: Kevin Frayer/AP)
The Free Gaza Movement
The Gaza Strip, home to 1.5 Million Palestinians, the largest outdoor prison in the world. Break the Siege, Free Gaza.
http://www.freegaza.org
Mission Statement
We want to break the siege of Gaza. We want to raise international awareness about the prison-like closure of the Gaza Strip and pressure the international community to review its sanctions policy and end its support for continued Israeli occupation. We want to uphold Palestine’s right to welcome internationals as visitors, human rights observers, humanitarian aid workers, journalists, or otherwise.
