UN demands an immediate halt to Israeli settlements...

[bridgit]

'New York- The United Nations has demanded that Israel immediately halt its controversial settlement policy, it was reported Saturday. "Settlements in the occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights (are) illegal and an obstacle to peace as well as economic and social development," a resolution passed by the UN General Assembly with 162 votes in favour late Friday in New York said.

Eight countries, including Israel and the United States, voted against the resolution, while 10 abstained.

The UN also called on Israel to guarantee the security of aid organizations working in the Palestinian Territories.

The 15-member Security Council renewed the mandate of the UN observer force in the Golan Heights for another cycle. The UN force that has observed the truce between Israel and Syria since 1974 is now due to remain in the area until the middle of 2007 at least.

There are 1,000 soldiers in the Golan Heights force from countries like Austria, Canada and India.

© 2006 dpa German Press Agency'

http://rawstory.com/news/2006/UN_demands_an_immediate_halt_to_Isr_12162006.html

[breakaleg]

1. I won't hold my breath waiting for Israel to comply.

[bridgit]

2. fat fucking chance would be my call...

[The Magistrate]

3. The Israeli Government Certainly Should Comply, Ma'am

It would be in its own best interest, and that of the people fo Israel, to do so.

[bridgit]

4. Sir, it is a banner day indeed when you & i are found in ready agreement...

[The Magistrate]

5. So It Would Seem, Ma'am

But it strikes me that anyone who supported and valued Israel would be in agreement on this. The program of settlement is not in the best interests of that country today, but rather something that operates very much to its detriment.

[Violet_Crumble]

6. That would strike me too...

But it strikes me that anyone who supported and valued Israel would be in agreement on this.

But the Israeli govt itself isn't in agreement, and that's the previous Sharon govt and now Olmert's. This isn't the first time Israel has been told by the UN or the US to stop the settlement expansion/building and it probably won't be the last time that Israel totally ignores what it's being told to do...

[oberliner]

9. The resolution notes that Israel has not totally ignored what it's being told to do

No, this is not the first time the UN (in this case the General Assembly) has passed resolutions regarding the settlements.

This resolution makes a point to note that Israel has withdrawn from the Gaza Strip and parts of the northern West Bank and notes that the dismantlement of the settlements therein was an important step towards the implementation of the roadmap.

Please note that there were 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip at the beginning of 2005 and by September of that same year all of them were dismantled. As you know, this was not an easy thing to do politically with strong opposition from the right-wing in Israel.

Whatever concerns there are regarding Israel and Gaza, it must be acknowledged that the settlements there are gone. I urge you to take note also, as this resolution does, of the four West Bank settlements that were also dismantled.

[Englander]

14. How many settlements are in the West Bank?

How many are there?

[Englander]

12. The Barak govt as well.

'Barak's Settlement Legacy

Settlement Report | Vol. 11 No. 2 | March-April 2001

Settler population in the West Bank and Gaza: 203,068

Settler population increase during Barak's tenure, June 1999-December 2000: 22,419

Distinct settlement locations in the West Bank and Gaza: 200 sites

Government tenders issued for construction in West Bank/Gaza settlements, June 1999-September 2000: 3,499 units

Building sites in the West Bank/Gaza sold by the Israel Lands Administration, 2000: 2,804 lots

Building permits issued by the Ministry of Housing and Construction in West Bank/Gaza settlements, January-October 2000: 1,184 units

http://www.fmep.org/reports/vol11/no2/06-baraks_settlement_legacy.html

_______________


Barak approves expansion of West Bank settlements

October 11, 1999
Web posted at: 7:04 p.m. EDT (2304 GMT)

JERUSALEM -- Prime Minister Ehud Barak on Monday approved a decision to build 2,600 new apartments in West Bank settlements, but said that Israel will not permit outlaw Jewish settlers to remain in the Palestinian territory.

Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior Palestinian peace negotiator, accused Barak of "giving a green light to settlement activities," which Palestinians say could threaten ongoing peace talks.

A government committee on settlements met Sunday for the first time since Barak, a Labor Party moderate, took office in July to review construction projects approved under his right-wing predecessor Benjamin Netanyahu.

The committee decided that the bids for 2,600 new homes in the settlements, issued in recent months by Housing Minister Yitzhak Levy, "were publicized legally and are in tandem with government policy," a statement from Barak's office said. Levy is the leader of the National Religious Party, a patron of the settlement movement.

http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/meast/9910/11/israel.settlements/

[Englander]

7. Zero chance of any complying happening.

What will happen is that the continued settlement activity will increase, with a view towards
annexing the large settlement blocs, the Jordan valley, all of Jerusalem, & the farmland & water
resources of the area.

[oberliner]

10. Israel withdrew all settlements from the Gaza Strip

This resolution notes that this was an important step towards the implementation of the Road Map.

[Englander]

11. Gaza = not the West Bank.

There won't be any withdrawal of the illegal settlements in the West Bank.

The Road Map is dead, & has been for three years. It only lasted a week, before it was derailed.

'Sharon endorses Palestinian state

Simon Jeffery and agencies
Wednesday June 4, 2003
Guardian Unlimited

Against the backdrop of the royal palace palms in Aqaba, Jordan, the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers today pledged to support the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

At the end of a meeting with the US president, George Bush, the Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, said: "Our goal is two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side."

His Israeli counterpart, Ariel Sharon, said: "It is up to the Palestinians to govern themselves in their own state."

Mr Bush, who convened the summit to begin progress along the "road map" to an Israeli-Palestinian settlement by 2005, said: "Each of us is here because we understand that all people have the right to live in peace. Great and hopeful change is coming to the Middle East"

"The Holy Land must be shared between a state of Palestine and of Israel living together in peace."

The road map sets out step-by-step progress towards peace. In its first stages it calls for an end to the armed intifada and an evacuation of some Israeli settlements on the West Bank.

_________________

One week later;

Israeli air strike targets Hamas leader

One of the most prominent leaders of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, has been wounded in an Israeli helicopter strike in Gaza City.

Mr Rantissi's jeep was driving through a busy street when it was hit by several missiles and burst into flames, witnesses said.

Mr Rantissi leapt clear of the vehicle seconds before the missiles hit, and was lightly wounded.

At least two Palestinians were killed and another 25 people - including Mr Rantissi's son - were injured, medical sources at Gaza City's Shifa Hospital said.

Hours after the attack, the Israeli army issued a statement saying that the Hamas leadership had "taken the strategic decision to scuttle the implementation of the roadmap" - the US-backed plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2977530.stm

[Englander]

13. Question -

Do you think that the settlements are illegal? It's just that I've noticed that the question about
the settlements in the West Bank was completely ignored, you've not actually addressed the question
about the ongoing settlement activity in the WB.

[oberliner]

16. Here's what I think

I think UN 242 should be implemented.

Both this part:

Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict;

And this part:

Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgement of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force;

[idontwantaname]

15. basically what youre being badgered about

is the pretty open fact that when israel moved out of gaza the shitheads moved into the west bank. you can hardly call this a step toward the road map... its simply reshuffling the cards.

-------------------------------

http://www.btselem.org/English/Settlements/

http://www.btselem.org/english/statistics/Index.asp

[oberliner]

17. The UN GA resolution called it a step towards the road map

I was just pointing that out.

[Englander]

8. Israeli-Palestinian mistrust must be overcome, Annan says

15 December 2006 – The United Nations devoted twin meetings to the Israeli-Palestinian issue today with Secretary-General Kofi Annan warning that the situation is “more dangerous than it has been for a very long time” and admonishing the international community to shoulder its responsibility to help promote a negotiated two-State solution.

“Mistrust between Israelis and Palestinians has reached new heights,” he told a UN Asian meeting in support of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in a message delivered by Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Angela Kane.

“The Gaza Strip has become a cauldron of deepening poverty and frustration, despite the withdrawal of Israeli troops and settlements last year. In the West Bank, too, the situation is dire. Palestinians are deeply dismayed at settlement activity, with thousands of Israelis still living in territories occupied in 1967 and more than 1,000 more added every month,” he said.

“Israelis, for their part, continue to live in fear of terrorism, having seen inadequate Palestinian efforts to halt rocket attacks into southern Israel. And they are alarmed that, despite President Abbas’ clear and unambiguous stand in favour of a negotiated two-state solution, the PA Government remains at best, ambivalent about a two-State solution and, at worst, refuses to renounce violence and rejects the basic tenets of the approach.”

He noted the impact on the Palestinians of the barrier that Israel is building through their land in the West Bank, in breach of an Advisory Opinion of from the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ), as well as over 500 checkpoints controlling their movement, factors that increase their suffering, despair – and determination to resist.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=21005&Cr=palestin&Cr1=