UNITED NATION - Palestinians: Israel trying to impose settlement

AP:

The Palestinian United Nations (UN) envoy accused Israel yesterday of talking peace while carrying out "illegal schemes" to impose the settlement it wants before negotiations start on a peace agreement.

Riyad Mansour told the UN Security Council the actions, including settlement construction and demolition of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, more than 900 military incursions in the West Bank and the arrest of more than 380 Palestinians in the last two months, are seriously hampering progress in indirect talks with Israel mediated by the United States.

He said the Security Council and the Quartet of Mideast peacemakers - the UN, the United States (US), the European Union and Russia - must stop appeasing Israel and consider collective actions to make the Jewish state comply with its international obligations and salvage a two-state solution "within an accelerated timeframe".

Israel's UN Ambassador Gabriela Shalev reiterated that it was time to move from indirect talks to direct negotiations with the Palestinians with no preconditions and no delays, saying this is "the only path to bridge the existing gaps" between the two sides.

She stressed that Israeli recognition of a Palestinian state must be met with an acknowledgement of Israel's right to exist as the homeland for the Jewish people, which the Palestinians refuse to do because they want a right of return for Palestinian refugees.

Mutual recognition

"Through such mutual recognition, we can take tangible steps towards promoting coexistence, eliminating incitement and combating terrorism" and make "courageous decisions ... for the sake of peace," Shalev said.

Mansour reiterated the Palestinian position that a total settlement freeze is essential before direct negotiations start, and he accused Israel of refusing to adhere to past commitments including those it agreed to at the Mideast summit in Annapolis, Maryland, in November 2007 which was supposed to relaunch negotiations and end in a peace agreement by the end of 2008.

Israeli-Palestinian talks ended in late 2008 without agreement on an Israeli proposal for a Palestinian state that would comprise Gaza, about 95 per cent of the West Bank and parts of Jerusalem, with exchanges of land to make up the difference and a corridor through Israel linking the two territories. Israel also agreed to take in some refugees, but not the millions that the Palestinians count.

US deputy ambassador Brooke Anderson said the gaps between Israel and the Palestinians had narrowed during indirect talks over the past two months mediated by US special envoy George Mitchell and she called for direct talks "as soon as possible" to further narrow the differences.