Jordan Times
Friday, January 25, 2008
Gaza blockade risks peace -
King
JT and agencies
HIS MAJESTY KING Abdullah told US President George W. Bush on Thursday that
Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip threatens peace efforts in the Middle East.
“Israel must refrain from unilateral actions, including the imposition of an
economic siege and escalation of military operations against the Palestinian
people,” a Royal Court statement quoted His Majesty as saying in a telephone
conversation with Bush.
“These policies threaten to undermine efforts made over the past weeks and
months to advance the peace process,” the King said.
He stressed the importance of maintaining international momentum in support of
the Middle East peace process in order to achieve a Palestinian-Israeli peace
agreement before the end of the year. The deal, he said, should address final
status issues and lead to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
The King said the conference and ensuing visit by President Bush to the region
provided a significant opportunity to launch negotiations that should be based
on clear mechanisms, within a specified timeframe.
Last week, Israel turned its prolonged blockade of Gaza into a full-scale
lockdown, blocking all fuel shipments and humanitarian aid with the aim of
stopping rocket fire from the Hamas-controlled territory.
On Thursday, Palestinians poured out of Gaza into Egypt for a second consecutive
day to stock up on supplies after armed Palestinians blew open the barrier
blocking off the territory where Hamas seized power seven months ago.
In Cairo Thursday, Minister of Foreign Affairs Salah Bashir and Director of the
General Intelligence Department Lt. General Mohammad Dahabi discussed with their
Egyptian counterparts Ahmad Abul Gheit and Major General Omar Suleiman means to
stop Israeli violence against the Palestinians in Gaza.
Talks between the two sides focused on coordinating the Jordanian-Egyptian
efforts in addressing the escalating Israeli violence and the tragic situation
of the Palestinians in Gaza.
The two sides agreed on the need to spur the international community to shoulder
its humanitarian and legal responsibilities with regard to the situation in
Gaza.
Egypt jittery at Israeli proposal to disconnect from Gaza
The Gaza border crisis caused another sharp flap Thursday in Egyptian-Israeli
relations, with Egypt angrily accusing Israel of trying to dump all
responsibility for the troubled Gaza Strip in its lap.
It was not clear if the proposal for Israel to relinquish all control over Gaza,
expressed privately by several Israeli officials and publicly by one, was
serious or just an effort to test international reaction to the idea.
But Egyptian officials were fuming.
“This is a wrong assumption,” Hossam Zaki, the official spokesman for Egypt’s
foreign ministry, said of Israeli hints that it was thinking of giving up
administration of Gaza, including supplying electricity, now that the
territory’s southern border with Egypt is open.
“The current situation is only an exception and for temporary reasons,” Zaki
said.
“The border will eventually go back to normal.” Another senior Egyptian official
said he hoped the Israeli idea was “not serious and only meant for local
consumption”. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want to
speak publicly about the sensitive matter.
In the past two days, Gazans have stocked up on supplies in Egypt, including
cement, fuel, generators and other staples. In response, Israel stopped
emergency shipments of industrial diesel fuel, arguing that Gazans were now able
to get supplies from Egypt.
Several Israeli leaders have suggested Israel should stop such shipments and
oversight of Gaza altogether - permanently.
“We need to understand that when Gaza is open to the other side we lose
responsibility for it. So we want to disconnect from it,” Deputy Defence
Minister Matan Vilnai said Thursday.
Vilnai said Israel’s 2005 disengagement from Gaza “continues, in that we want to
stop supplying electricity to them, stop supplying them with water and medicine,
so that it would come from another place”.
“We are responsible for it as long as there is no alternative,” Vilnai said.
Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 after 38 years of occupation. Since then it
has provided sporadic electricity and other essentials to the strip, and
monitored a European Union team supervising entrances to the territory.
A spokesman for Hamas rejected Vilnai’s idea as an attempt to separate Gaza from
the occupied West Bank.
According to the official WAFA Palestinian news agency, President Mahmoud Abbas
also said Israel might seize the chance to sever Gaza from the West Bank, the
other territory he wants for a state, and warned of “grave consequences” for a
US-backed peace drive.
On Wednesday, Arab and US officials in Washington said Egypt had assured
Washington it will reseal its Gaza border soon.
In Cairo, Egyptian officials said Thursday that closing the border and
rebuilding a destroyed fence there would take some time, but that the current
situation would not continue for long.
But many Egyptians believe their government should not be saddled with
responsibility for Gaza, which stayed under Egyptian control until 1967 when
Israel seized it in the Middle East war.
“It goes against every grain we have,” said Abdel Moneim Saeed, head of the
Cairo-based Al Ahram Centre for Strategic and Political Studies.
UN Human Rights Council rebukes Israel on Gaza
The UN Human Rights Council on Thursday demanded Israel lift its weeklong
blockade of Gaza, rebuking the Jewish state for violations in the Palestinian
territories for the third time since it was set up in 2006.
The 47-member council adopted a resolution presented by Arab and Muslim states
by a vote of 30 states in favour and one against with 15 abstentions, and one
delegation absent.
Israeli military attacks on Gaza and the West Bank city of Nablus constituted
“grave violations of the human and humanitarian rights” of Palestinian
civilians, it said.
But Western countries abstained in bloc after criticising the text as unbalanced
for failing to even mention the rockets launched into Israel from Gaza by
Palestinian fighters.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, in a speech on Wednesday,
denounced Israel’s “disproportionate use of force and targeted killings” as well
as the Palestinian resistance fighters for firing rockets into Israel.
Arbour, a former UN war crimes prosecutor, told the forum that Israel should
lift restrictions on aid intended for Gaza.
Delegations from the United States and Israel, which both have observer status,
boycotted the two-day special session.
US Ambassador Warren Tichenor later issued a statement warning that the council
session and its “one-sided resolution” would only stoke tensions and erode
chances for peace.
“The Human Rights Council has far too often been used simply as a platform from
which to single out Israel, while too often ignoring the other human rights
situations. This unbalanced approach has squandered its credibility,” he said.
Britain, France, Germany and Japan were among countries to abstain. China and
Russia backed the resolution while Canada cast the lone vote against it.
Israel warns citizens off Sinai over Gaza breach
Israel on Thursday warned its citizens to stay away from the Sinai, warning that
the threat of abduction had increased since the border between Gaza and Egypt
was blasted open.
“Terrorists in the Sinai are working to abduct Israelis in Sinai and convey them
to the Gaza Strip,” said a statement from the office of Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert.
“The currently open border between the Gaza Strip and Sinai makes it easier for
terrorists to move back and forth. Therefore, the national security council
counterterrorism bureau recommends that Israelis avoid visiting the Sinai and
that any Israelis currently there leave forthwith,” it said.
Resorts on the Red Sea coast of Sinai Peninsula are popular with many Israelis.
Israel urges Arabs to back Palestinian moderates
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni urged the Arab world on Thursday to bolster
support for moderate Palestinian leaders in order to push forward the Middle
East peace process.
“We need the Arab world to support the moderate Palestinians,” Livni told the
annual gathering of the world’s political and business elite in the Swiss ski
resort of Davos.
“The Palestinians face their own extremists,” she said, “and there is no
Palestinian leader who can compromise - any peace needs compromise - without the
support of the Arab world”, she added.
With Israel under pressure internationally over its blockade of the Gaza Strip,
Livni insisted there was a “big gap” between Israel’s policy and the way it was
perceived.
“Peace is our goal, our dream and our aspiration,” she told delegates at the
World Economic Forum.