Abbas to UN: Peace Can Not Go with Israeli Settlements on Palestinian Lands

Palestinian President Abbas to UN: Peace can not go with settlements

Date: 27 / 09 / 2008  Time:  11:45
New York/Bethlehem – Ma’an –

Addressing the UN General Assembly on Friday Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated his stance that the continued construction of Israeli settlements built illegally on Palestinian lands is thwarting all efforts to achieve peace in the Middle East.

Standing in front of the 63rd session of the assembly in New York, Abbas explained that despite continued efforts by the international community to pressure Israel to halt settlement building, the country was ignoring the international resolutions and treaties and continued to build settlements across the West Bank.

“It is strange that we hear unacceptable and unexplainable justifications for the continuation of settlement activity in east Jerusalem and the rest of Palestinian lands which they treat as if it was not occupied territories,” said Abbas.

“They think peace is achievable without ending the occupation of Palestinian lands occupied in 1967 including the Syrian Golan Heights and the Lebanese Sheba farms,” he explained, adding “occupation of Jerusalem should also come to an end as it is the capital of the future Palestinian independent state.”

Abbas suggested that international monitoring was necessary if real solutions were to be implemented with a vision of ending the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. He added that the international Quartet must also make more efficient efforts, as well as the UN Security Council and other UN organizations.

“For our part,” Abbas said, “we will endeavor to achieve the as much progress as possible in the ongoing negotiations between us and Israel before the end of this year. We will try to take lessons from the past experiences, and we will try to achieve our people’s wish for a comprehensive peace which ends occupation and antagonism through two-state solution.”

Abbas also reiterated his rejection of any partial and transitional solutions which could drop or postpone some of the main Palestinian issues. He described those solutions as unsustainable since they work to maintain the “flames of the conflict” and thwart progress towards peace.

The Palestinian president also demanded that Israel lift the siege it continues to impose on the Gaza Strip, to free Palestinian prisoners from Israel’s custody, to remove checkpoints from Palestinian territories.

Abbas also spoke of the reconciliation talks that are ongoing between Palestinian factions, “we will not spare any effort to reach reconciliation,” he said, “we have announced an initial reconciliation plan and called for the formation of a nonpartisan independent government agreed on by all parties.”

As he concluded his speech, Abbas paused and quoted the final lines of a poem by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, who passed away this summer:

On this earth there is that which deserves life and is worth living for,
On this earth is the woman of the land,
The mother of beginnings and the mother of endings,
She used to be called Palestine, she is still called Palestine,
My lady, because you are mine, I deserve life.

Abu Zunaid demands the Security Council to take a decisive stance of Israel’s settlement activities

Friday September 26, 2008 23:35 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC

Palestinian Legislator of the Fateh Parliamentarian Bloc, Jihad Abu Zunaid, demanded the Security Council to take a decisive stance towards Israel’s illegal settlement activities in Jerusalem as the Israeli government is ongoing with constructing and expanding settlement around the city.

Abu Zunaid added that if Israeli is serious in its peace talks with the Palestinians it should halt all of its settlement activities around the  Holy City.  

In a press release issued by her office in Jerusalem, Abu Zunaid said that the Security Council must act and practice pressure on Israel o implement all Security Council and United Nations resolutions regarding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

“If it want successful peace task”, She said, “The Security Council, she added, must ensure that Israel stops all of its settlement activities in the occupied West Bank and around Jerusalem”.

“The council must act, must practice pressure on the occupation to implement all related UN resolutions regarding the liberation and independence of the Palestinian people”,  Abu Zunaid added.

She also stressed on the importance of appealing to the UN Security Council in order to condemn the Israeli illegal activities in Palestine and oblige Israel to halt these violations.

Quartet urges Israel and Palestine to reach peace before the end of 2008

Date: 27 / 09 / 2008  Time:  12:04
Bethlehem - Ma'an -

The International Middle East Quartet has called on Israel and Palestine to make every effort to achieve a peace agreement for the end of 2008. The quartet stressed that an earlier resolution will prevent the further construction of settlements on Palestinian lands.

The call was made at the end of the Quartet’s meeting in New York during the UN General Assembly conference, the Quartet includes the United States and the European Union, Russia and the United Nations