The diplomatic Middle East Quartet, which met in Moscow Friday 19 March, has issued a strongly worded reaction to Israel’s recent announcement it intends to build 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem. The group of four (the UN, US, Russia and the EU) are calling for Israel to remove settlement homes within 24 months. and for Palestinians and Israelis to negotiate an agreement in the same time period that provides for an independent Palestinian state living next to Israel in peace. “The quartet condemns the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem, “UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon said unequivocally.
The New York Times had earlier reported that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared anxious to lower the temperature after Israel came in for heavy criticism over the housing. “We all condemned the announcement, and we all are expecting both parties to move toward the proximity talks and to help create an atmosphere in which those talks can be constructive,” Clinton said before the Quartet’s statement.
Links to other sites: Guardian, UK, Jerusalem Post, Moscow Times, New York Times
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland has added its voice to a growing number of nations asking Israel to end its plans to build 1,600 new homes in the Occupied West Bank. The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) in a statement Thursday morning 11 March called the decision a clear violation of international law.
”The FDFA is following with concern the events taking place in East Jerusalem, and deplores the go-ahead given by the Government of Israel to the building of 1,600 new dwellings in the settlement of Ramat Shlomo in East Jerusalem in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. It asks the Government of Israel not to proceed with the building project. East Jerusalem is an integral part of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
”Switzerland considers the building of settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory to be a violation of international humanitarian law, which forbids an occupying power to transfer any part of its civilian population to an occupied territory. The Israeli settlements are a clear violation of international law.”
Arab League Secretary-general Amr Moussa announced after an emergency meeting Wednesday 10 March that Palestine is withdrawing from indirect talks with Israel. Moussa reportedly had been phoned by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who said that given Israel’s announcement that it will build 1,600 new settler homes, his government cannot participate in talks. Al Jazeera quotes Moussa as saying “The Palestinian president decided he will not enter into those negotiations now . . . the Palestinian side is not ready to negotiate under the present circumstances.” Al Jazeera interviewed US Vice-president Joe Biden, who is in the region to encourage the talks, which were announced Sunday, just two days before the Israeli announcement about the planned new West Bank construction. Biden told Al Jazeera that “Everyone knows the Palestinians deserve an independent state, the Israelis deserve an independent and secure state and for those kinds of actions to occur when there’s more agreement than disagreement is just destabilising.”
Israel has apologized for the timing of the announcement, and it appears that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was unaware the announcement would be made.
Links to other sites: Al Jazeera, CBS News commentary, CNN, Jerusalem Post, Times, UK
Lyons, France / Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Dubai police have added 16 more international arrest warrants to the 11 already issued, linked to the 20 January death of Hamas military leader Mahmoud Al Mabhouh. Interpol has added the new warrants to its existing Red Notices for the case. Interpol, based in Lyons, insists on the likely use of identity theft by the murderers. “Since Intepol has reason to believe that the suspects linked to this murder have stolen the identities of real people, the Red Notices specify that the names used were aliases used to commit murder,” its web site notes. “Interpol has officially made public the photos and the names fraudulently used on the passports in order to limit the ability of accused murderers from traveling freely using the same false passports.”
The international criminal police organization says it contacted the Geneva-based World Economic Forum in January to alert it to the increased risk of terrorists traveling on documents using stolen identities, which makes it easier for them to avoid detection.
Dubai police are now saying that Hamas military commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was first drugged with a muscle relaxant, then suffocated in a hotel room. They believe evidence is more clearly pointing to Israel’s Mossad undercover agency, but Israel has not commented on the latest details or its possible role. Police Sunday 28 February said the drug, succinylcholine, was used to make it appear the victim had not struggled, possibly in order to stage what would look like a natural death.
Links to other sites: Dubai police report, Reuters
The number of suspects in the murder of Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai in December has now grown to 26, say Dubai police, with Australian passports reportedly used. Australia called in the Israeli ambassador and issued a sharp warning that it will not tolerate any government condoning or being behind the theft of its citizens’ passports, with suspicion growing that Israel was behind the murder. Australia has reportedly warned Israel in the past not to use Australian passports for its espionage activities. The Israeli government has said there is no proof that Mossad, its secret service, is involved. Some of the Australians identified, who are living in Israel, were shocked to learn of what appears to be several cases of identity theft.
Settlement-building in the occupied West Bank will be halted for 10 months, but not in East Jerusalem, and the construction of schools, synagogues and community centres will continue as part of its “natural growth” doctrine, the government of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced 26 November. The news was welcomed by former US Senator George Mitchell, the US special envoy for the Middle East, who called it “significant.” President Barack Obama’s administration has urged Israel to respect its commitments under the 2003 roadmap to peace in the Middle East.
Palestine’s chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, dismissed the Israeli move as “mere propaganda” and said that it had more to do with appeasing the USA than making peace with the Palestinians.
Links to other sites: Aljazeera, Jerusalem Post, New York Times, US State Department briefing
Israel has approved plans for 900 housing units to be built at Gilo, on land captured in 1967, which is today part of the municipality of Jerusalem. A White House spokesperson in the US and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed dismay, saying the move would not help peace talks in the Middle East. The new housing is illegal under international law as widely interpreted, although Israel disputes this. Aljazeera reports that US negotiator George Mitchell asked Israel Monday 16 November not to approv the plans. . The plans are now subject to public comment.
Links to other sites: Aljazeera, BBC, New York Times
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, 74, has said he will not seek re-election in the elections he called for January 2010. He said his decision was not “a manipulation or a manoeuvre” in a speech from his headquarters in Ramallah, on the West Bank 5 November. He said he had had enough after years of frustration. Abbas succeeded long-time president Yasser Arafat in 2004.
Addressing the Israeli public directly, he said: “Peace is more important than any achievement for a political party. Peace is more important than any government coalition. For many years, my opinion and vision have been that peace was still possible and I have sincerely worked to achieve this goal“.
The decision is seen as a blow to the US administration’s attempts to restart the Middle East peace process, coming just days after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to the region, which she judged to be a success. Palestinians were outraged when she said Israel’s offer to slow down illegal settlements in the West Bank was “unprecedented”. Al-Jazeera, Jerusalem Post, New York Times
The findings of the Goldstone report on the war in Gaza last December 2008 and January 2009 are being debated 4 and 5 November in the UN General Assembly in New York.The Goldstone investigation was commissioned by the UN to investigate allegations of war crimes during the brief war that killed more than 1,400 Palestinians and 31 Israelis.
A resolution could be voted on that includes calls for the General Assembly to endorse the Goldstone report, that both Israel and the Palestinians conduct independent investigations into the allegations that war crimes were committed, and for the Secretary General of the UN to refer the matter to the Security Council.
The Goldstone report calls on both sides to investigate the allegations or else be referred to the Security Council for consideration by the International Criminal Court. Israel, which did not cooperate with investigators, has said it is opposed to the findings because they are biased.
Shabtai Kalmanovich, who was accused of spying for the KGB in Israel in 1988 after 17 years in the country to which he had emigrated, was killed after being shot in central Moscow Monday 2 November. The Lithuanian-born Kalmanovich was shot more than 20 times by a passing car, according to Russian media, and his driver sustained serious injuries. Kalmanovich moved to Russia in 1993 after being given a medical pardon in Israel, and he became a successful businessman who owned a women’s basketball team and organized major international concerts, among other ventures.
Links to other sites: Jerusalem Post, Moscow Times, Novosti
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The UN Human Rights Council is this week debating whether to take action on the 557-page report on the Gaza conflict produced for it by South African judge Richard Goldstone and published 15 September. The report has been the subject of accusations of bias from Israel and Palestine, both of which are accused, by the report, of serious crimes. The United States jumped into the fray Tuesday 29 September with Michael Posner, US assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, calling the report “deeply flawed” and saying the US disagrees “sharply with its methodology and many of its recommendations.”
US President Barack Obama will hold separate meetings with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu in New York, USA, before meeting them together Tuesday 22 September, in an effort to jump-start talks that have stalled largely because of Palestinian intransigence in the face of continued Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
None of the three sides expect much to come out of the meetings, say observers, who note that Obama is keen to have something to show leading up to the UN General Assembly meetings and the subsequent G-20 meetings in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Al-Jazeera, Jerusalem Post, New York Times
Genoa, Italy (GenevaLunch) – Roger Federer overcame jetlag, slow clay courts and rain, not to mention Potito Storace, to give Switzerland a winning position in their World Group play-off against Italy. He won 6-3 6-0 6-4 to add to the two Swiss singles victories on Friday, which were followed by a loss in the doubles as Federer was rested.
The government and some media in Israel are rejecting out of hand a report publishd 15 September by the United Nations Fact Finding Commission on the Gaza Conflict from end-2008 to mid-January 2009, whose investigations were led by South African judge Richard Goldstone. The commission writes that acts which can be considered war crimes have been carried out by both Israelis and the Palestinians, but “although the UN investigation found that Palestinian militants also committed war crimes, the overwhelming majority of the criticism in a summary of the 574-page report targets Israel”, reports CNN. Israel did not cooperate in preparing the report.
The Israeli government promptly fought back, saying that the report had been prejudiced from the start because it does not take into consideration the missiles rained on Israeli civilians by Palestinians. The Jerusalem Post today 16 September carries an interview with Goldstone’s daughter, who lives in Toronto, Canada and who lived in Israel for six months.”“I am not angry with him, I love him and respect him,” the J-post reports her saying. “He is a Zionist. My dad loves Israel and it wasn’t easy for him to see and hear what happened. I think he heard and saw things he didn’t expect to see and hear, and I am one-hundred-percent sure he did it [conducted the investigation] in the hope that the Israelis would come to cooperate, and he wanted to help find a long-term solution for the state of Israel.”
The J-Post also quotes Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gabriela Shalev, as saying that the report will hamper Middle East peace efforts. Arutz Sheva reports that Israelis the world over are strongly behind the government in rejecting the report and that “Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon (Yisrael Beiteinu) said Wednesday morning that Israel will work with the United States, which, along with other Western countries, has a vested interest in not allowing the UN to impose international law on democracies,” It notes that Ayalon is meeting today in Washington, DC with Susan Rice, US ambassador to the UN.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – EPFL, the federal polytechnical school in Lausanne, estimates it will receive €40 million in grant money awarded to researchers by the European Research Council (ERC) a grant-making body for frontier research funded by the European Commission. EPFL researchers lead other institutions Europe-wide in the number of grants received.
The Israeli defense department said Sunday 6 September that it believes the US may decide to leave a missile defense system in Israel next month after the two carry out tests in October of three types of ballistic defense missiles, in what they are calling the largest-ever joint defense exercise, part of a series of tests named Juniper Cobra. The decision appears to be linked to the current review of the European missile shield, underway in the US. Jerusalem Post and background, Al Ahram, Cairo and UPI
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland moved to the top of its qualifying group for the 2010 Fifa World Cup with a 2-0 win over Greece in their match. The Swiss scored two goals in the final 10 minutes after playing much of the game with an extra man as Vyntra was sent off for receiving two yellow cards.
Alrosa, a giant Russian diamond mining company in trouble because of the lack of demand in the world’s gem industry, is to receive help worth $1 billion to allow it to service debts totaling $3.6b. The help is in the form of purchases of rough diamonds from the State Precious Metals and Gems Repository, Gokhran. Alrosa is based in Sakha (Yakutia), and produces almost 20 percent of the world’s gems and almost all of Russia’s production of rough diamonds. Gokhran sells diamonds to the US, Belgium, and Israel. The announcement came as Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited Mirny, Sakh Republic, which is home to the company’s largest mine. A week previously, Alrosa announced that it was selling oil and gas assets for $600 million. Moscow Times, Reuters
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was in Washington DC for talks with US President Barack Obama Tuesday, 18 August, his first visit in almost 6 years. Egypt is a key ally of the US in the Middle East, and the US needs its involvement in the issues of the Israel-Palestine peace process and Iran’s nuclear programme. Relations with the previous US administration of George W. Bush were strained by the latter’s insistence on human rights in Egypt. Mubarak asked in his meeting with Obama that Israel take “concrete steps” towards the peace process, which observers say means that Israel stop settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.
Obama has publicly called on Israel to stop construction, a major point of contention between Palestinians and Israelis. Yesterday, 18 August, reports from Jerusalem indicated that Israel had not approved any new building in the occupied territories since end March. Israeli officials have played down the fact because of the difficulties it raises within the ruling coalition in Israel. BBC, Jerusalem Post, Reuters
Israel’s eviction of two families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah district of occupied East Jerusalem early 2 August was criticized by the US, which led international condemnation of the move. The two families’ possessions were loaded onto moving vans, as armoured riot police surrounded the area. Israeli families moved in immediately. The evictions come at a tense moment in US-Israeli relations, as the US has pushed Israel to curb illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. The UN and the British consulate in East Jerusalem also condemned the move. The ownership of the land is disputed, but an Israeli court ruled in May that the Palestinian occupants had to leave. Plans are underway to build a 200-room hotel on the site. Al-Jazeera, BBC, Ir-Amim, Jerusalem Post
US Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, arrived in Cairo, Egypt for talks with Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak 27 July, after stops in Syria and Israel. It was Mitchell’s second visit to Damascus, Syria in two months. Talks were “candid and positive.” In Israel, Mitchell met Defense Minister Ehud Barak. After talks in Cairo, Mitchell is to see Palestinian President Abbas, and Israeli leaders 28 July. This is part of a concerted effort by the Obama administration to move the Middle East peace process along. Other senior US administration officials are expected in the region later this week. Al-Jazeera, BBC, Jerusalem Post
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss government has firmly condemned the destruction of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, near the city’s ancient centre, and its plans to build new houses in the area, calling on Israel to immediately stop its “colonization” which is in defiance of international law. The Palestinian owners are being evicted from their homes.
Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu said on Sunday 19 July that Israel could not accept US demands for a halt in the building of an appartment block in East Jerusalem, saying: “We cannot accept the idea that Jews will not have the right to live or to build anywhere in east Jerusalem. We cannot accept such restrictions”. In Washington, the US State Department earlier informed Israeli ambassador Michael Oren of its concerns about the projected building. East Jerusalem was captured by Israel in 1967 and is considered by Israel to be an undivided part of its capital. The international community, including the US, regards East Jerusalem as occupied territory and its status subject to a comprehensive peace plan between Israel and the Palestinians. The differences come as the US and Israel are trying to find a way to freeze illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. Al-Jazeera, Jerusalem Post, Reuters
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Israel’s ambassador to Switzerland, Ilan Elgar, will meet Thursday in Bern with the Swiss foreign affairs department to discuss a recent visit by a Hamas delegation. Israel’s foreign affairs ministry spokesperson Ygal Palmor 15 July strongly criticized Switzerland for receving the group, which he says visited Geneva two weeks go to meet with an NGO (non-governmental oreganization). He noted that although Switzerland is not a member of the European Union, Hamas is on an EU list of groups banned for terrorist activities.
