UNITED NATIONS, March 31, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News
Agencies) The United Nations warned Thursday, March 30, that Israel's
unilateral moves to fix borders without consultations with the
Palestinians would undermine efforts to establish peace in the Middle East
as the new Palestinian premier said the Israeli plan was a recipe for
conflict.
"If the prospect of a viable Palestinian state in the
framework of a two-state solution is seen to dwindle because of unilateral
Israeli actions, it will become even more difficult to persuade the
Palestinians that there is anything to be gained from moving toward
compromise," Tuliameni Kalomoh, the UN assistant secretary general for
political affairs, told the UN Security Council, Agence France-Presse
(AFP) reported.
Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he intends to
unilaterally set Israel's permanent borders without consultations with the
Palestinians.
Olmert, whose Kadima party won the Israeli elections, said
Israel will hold on to large Jewish settlement blocks in the occupied West
Bank, dividing Palestinian areas and making it almost impossible to create
a contiguous and viable Palestinian state.
The United State signaled on Thursday, March 30, the
possibility of supporting Israel's unilateral moves to fix
borders.
Arab governments believe more unilateral steps by Israel to
retain control over occupied Palestinian territories would kill stone dead
any peace chances.
Kalomoh, who was briefing the 15-member Security Council on
recent developments in the Middle East, including Tuesday's Israeli
elections, underlined the need to pursue efforts to head off security and
humanitarian crises in the Palestinian territories.
"Despite the gulf between the parties (Israelis and
Palestinians), they and the international community share a common
interest and duty to prevent a security or humanitarian crisis in the
occupied Palestinian territory," Kalomoh said.
The United Nations warned earlier this month that the
Palestinians were on the verge of a humanitarian crisis because of food
shortage caused by Israeli closures.
Experts said Israel added insult to injury as the
agriculture-dependent territories were being sliced from the main water
resources by the Israeli separation wall.
"Recipe for Conflict"
![]() |
|
"Olmert's unilateralism is a
recipe for conflict," Haniya said.
|
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya said in an
article published by the Guardian on Friday, March 31, that
Israel's unilateral moves to fix borders was a "recipe for
conflict."
"Olmert's unilateralism is a recipe for conflict,"
Haniya wrote in an article in the British mass circulation
paper.
"It is a plan to impose a permanent situation in which
the Palestinians end up with a homeland cut into pieces made inaccessible
because of massive Jewish settlements built in contravention of
international law on land seized illegally from the
Palestinians."
Haniya stressed that any Israeli plan would prove
failure unless Tel Aviv recognizes the legitimate rights of the
Palestinian people.
"No plan will ever work without a guarantee, in
exchange for an end to hostilities by both sides, of a total Israeli
withdrawal from all the land occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem;
the release of all our prisoners; the removal of all settlers from all
settlements; and recognition of the right of all refugees to return," he
wrote.
Double Standards
Haniya lashed out at the West's double standards in
dealing with the Palestinian cause.
"Do policymakers in Washington and Europe ever feel
ashamed of their scandalous double standards," he questioned.
He went on: "Before and since the Palestinian
elections in January, they have continually insisted that Hamas comply
with certain demands.
"They want us to recognize Israel, call off our
resistance, and commit ourselves to whatever deals Israel and the
Palestinian leadership reached in the past."
The US and the EU have threatened to cut off aid to
the Palestinian Authority once a Hamas-led government is in place unless
Hamas disarms, "renounces violence" and recognizes Israel.
"But we have not heard a single demand of the Israeli
parties that took part in this week's elections, though some advocate the
complete removal of the Palestinians from their lands," Haniya
added.
"Even Ehud Olmert's Kadima party
campaigned on a
program that defies UN Security Council resolutions. Nevertheless no one,
not even the Quartet - whose proposals for a settlement he continues to
disregard, as his predecessor Ariel Sharon did - has dared ask anything of
him."
Olmert's Kadima party won 29 of the 120-member
parliament against 20 for Labour and 12 for Shas and the once towering
right-wing Likud party.
The new Hamas-led government began its work on
Thursday, March 30, a day after swearing in before Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas.
The Bush administration has ordered its diplomats and
contractors to cut of contacts with the Hamas-led government.
Canada also decided to suspend aid and contacts with
the Palestinian government, becoming the first donor country to take such
a move.
