Deprivation in Gaza, uptick in rockets put peace at risk: UN official
Palestine-Israel-UN, Politics, 1/29/2010

With Israeli-Palestinian negotiations at an "extremely worrying impasse", due largely to simmering tensions and frequent protests in East Jerusalem, ongoing deprivation in the Gaza Strip, and an uptick in militant rocket fire into Israel, a senior United Nations political official warned Wednesday the Security Council that the effort to forge a viable Middle East peace was seriously at risk.

"We remain deeply concerned at the current stalemate," said Oscar Fernandez-Taranco, Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs said during his open briefing to the Council on the situation in the Middle East. He warned "If we cannot move forward decisively towards a final status agreement, we risk sliding backwards, with potentially profound and negative implications." Some 43 delegations participated in the day-long debate, which was also attended by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Fernandez-Taranco was troubled by the abiding mistrust between the parties and cited disputes over terms of reference for negotiations, continued creation of facts on the ground, and uneven developments in the remainder of the West Bank as among the obstacles to efforts to re-launch serious Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. He also lamented that intense diplomatic activity aimed at jumpstarting the talks, including the recent visit to the region by United States Special Envoy George Mitchell, had failed to gain any traction.

While the parties had indicated that they were reviewing such developments, a breakthrough had not been achieved, he continued, urging both sides to implement their obligations under the Road Map peace plan, the blueprint for a two-State solution to the conflict endorsed by the diplomatic Quartet, comprising the United Nations, the European Union, the Russian Federation and the United States. 'We believe that the Quartet can and must play its full role at this crucial juncture, if obstacles are to be overcome and a process is to be resumed with prospects for success,' he said.

Among the growing tensions at the root of the impasse, he highlighted recent protests by both Israelis and Palestinians against Israeli actions in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem, where several families had been evicted and others faced the same threat. Further, he said there continued to be official announcements of the intent to expand settlement construction within the Israeli-determined municipal boundaries of East Jerusalem, in areas of existing settlements and in Palestinian neighborhoods, including a new project announced three weeks ago to house 24 settler families in the Palestinian neighborhood of the Mount of Olives.

He urged the Israeli Government not to finalize approvals of those plans. "The final status of the city remains a final status issue for negotiations, through which a way must be found for Jerusalem to emerge as a capital of two States," he said, also strongly urging Israel to fully implement its obligation to freeze all settlement activity, including natural growth, and to dismantle outposts erected since March 2001.

Turning to Gaza, he said the failure to address the issues that led to Israel's military operation there last year and its aftermath had created an unsustainable situation and a "sense of hopelessness" for the population, over half of which was under the age of 18. He said Hamas remained in de facto control of Gaza, asserting security control and pushing forward its social agenda, and he regretted that Hamas refused to sign the Egyptian reconciliation proposal, accepted last year by Palestine Liberation Organization factions. He urged Hamas to reconsider that position and expressed continued support for the reunification of Gaza and the West Bank.

"There was a notable increase in the number of projectiles fired from Gaza by militant groups during this reporting period," said Fernandez-Taranco, with over 70 rockets fired and 19 landing in Israel. "Reports of weapons smuggling continue to cause concern." He added that there were also 20 Israeli incursions and 11 air strikes in the Strip, leading to 11 Palestinian deaths, including six civilians. "We urge all parties to refrain from violence and respect international humanitarian law."

Following that briefing, Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations, opened the day-long debate by asking, "How can the world's conscience bear to continue witnessing the suffocation and deprivation of an entire people?" Deeming the situation on all fronts of the Palestinian question "critical", he said that Israel's impunity and intransigence had deepened the population's distress and thwarted efforts over the past year to restart the peace process. The situation in Gaza remained grave and the situation in East Jerusalem threatened to further inflame tensions and destabilize the already fragile area and the region beyond.

He also warned that Israel was targeting East Jerusalem with "an aggressive and illegal Israeli policy to alter its demographic composition, status and distinctly Palestinian Arab character and identity and to sever it from the rest of the Territory." Israel's 'unlawful agenda' in East Jerusalem also extended to the expulsion or forced displacement of the indigenous population and the revocation of the residency rights of thousands of Palestinian inhabitants -- some 5,000 in 2008 alone.

As the global consensus regarding a two-State solution continued to solidify, Israel was blatantly and arrogantly accelerating its own effort to create an overwhelmingly Jewish majority there and entrench its de facto annexation of the city, he said. Indeed, it was clear that the very viability of the two-State solution and settlement of the entire Arab-Israeli conflict were at stake. President Mahmoud Abbas maintained that peace talks could not resume while Israeli settlement activities continued. The international community and the Quartet stood behind that assertion. Yet, Israel continued to unlawfully create facts on the ground to alter the situation in its favor.

Previous Stories:
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