Qurei: Fight Has Begun for Jerusalem--PA to intensify activity relating to Jerusalem
IMRA ^ | 8-28-05
Qurei: Fight Has Begun for Jerusalem
Israel's Apartheid Wall, Ghettos, Leave No Room for Viable Palestinian State
29/08/2005
Palestine Media Center - PMC [Official PA website]
palestine-pmc.com
The Palestinian government had agreed to give extra priority to the issue of Jerusalem, where Israel's settlement drive and the construction of its Apartheid Wall are leaving Palestinians living in "ghettos," and leave no "room for the creation of a viable Palestinian state" that "should be built on the borders of 1967 and the Palestinians will not accept any state less than that," Prime Minister Ahmad Qurei confirmed on Sunday.
Qurei chaired a symbolic cabinet meeting in the Jerusalem eastern suburb of Abu Dis Sunday to highlight the Palestinian concern about the Israeli settlement expansion in and around eastern Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in 1967.
The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) is "very worried about the expansion of settlements in the West Bank, particularly around Jerusalem ... this will destroy the possibility of a viable Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza," Qurie told Reuters ahead of the unprecedented cabinet meeting, the first ever to be held so close to Jerusalem.
Abu Dis remains under Israeli occupation control but the Palestinians control the suburb's administration, since the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) stormed the PNA security offices there in 2001.
"What is happening is very dangerous ... They are expanding the borders of Jerusalem to the Jordan Valley. Who will accept that? Who will accept swapping Gaza for Jerusalem or for the West Bank?" Qurie asked.
Jerusalem Issue Has Priority
The PNA is giving priority to the issue of Jerusalem because it could wreck the peace process, Qurei said.
"The cabinet and the ministries will give priority to the Jerusalem issue because of the Wall and the building of the ghettos which are wrecking the peace process," he said on Sunday.
The "fight has begun for Jerusalem, and it is a dangerous war. No Arab, Palestinian - Christian or Muslim - will accept Israel's racist plans," Qurei told the PNA cabinet.
Qurei denied Israeli security justifications for erecting Israel's "racist" Wall and appealed to the world to understand that Jerusalem and the West Bank are in "danger."
"This wall is not a security wall. It is a wall meant to set borders. How else would you explain the fact that the fence runs through Palestinian communities? If they want a security fence, let them build it on the Green Line," he said.
The Wall "endangers the entire peace process, and not only the Israeli-Palestinian one. Peace throughout the region is endangered," he added.
"Instead of the disengagement being a starting point to advance the diplomatic process, as the world expects, the government of Israel has decided to continue with its policy of expropriations and building a wall that will leave 70,000 Palestinians in what they call a 'ghetto'."
"We will not allow Israel to say, 'we have finished pulling out of Gaza' while at the same time expanding towns in the West Bank and around Jerusalem," he said.
"We call on the United States, the Quartet and the world to show responsibility for this," he said.
Reminding the US President George W. Bush of a promise to establish a "viable" Palestinian state, Qurei confirmed that "the only viable country would be with the 1967 borders," he said, "not a series of disconnected cantons."
Tufakji Briefs PNA Cabinet
Khalil Tufakji, a Palestinian expert on settlements, was invited to address the cabinet on the implication of Israeli policies for Jerusalem.
"The thing is that is Israel is working on the land in an intensive way," he told AFP.
"They are the ones who are changing the reality on the ground, the ones who are winning the case," Tufakji said.
"The Palestinian Authority appears to be able to do nothing on the ground except express its anger and appeal to the United Nations and the United States."
Israel embarked on demarcating the radium of the illegal Jewish colony of Ma'ale Adumim on 100 square kilometers of occupied Palestinian land east of Jerusalem, 35 km deep into the West Bank and with a width of 15-25 km.
The main goal of the construction of the Ma'ale Adumim settlement bloc is to separate the northern part of the West Bank from its southern part, which would impede territorial contiguity between the southern and northern West Bank, Tufakji said.
The cabinet meeting was held inside the premises of Al-Quds University in Abu Dis. Ministers visited a section of the Apartheid Wall that Israel is building around east Jerusalem in defiance of Palestinian protests and the ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague in July last year, which was later adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.
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PA to intensify activity relating to Jerusalem
Cabinet Holds First Weekly Session in East Jerusalem
www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/english/details.asp?name=10136
GAZA, August 29, 2005 (IPC + WAFA) - [Official PA website]- During the weekly cabinet session, which was held for the first time in the town of Abu Dis, southeast of Jerusalem, Prime Minister Ahmad Qurei warned of the repercussions of the Israeli settlement expansion in and around Jerusalem, asserting that these plans would undermine the entire peace process.
Prime Minister Qurei added, during a press conference after the meeting, that the Palestinian leadership refused the expropriation of thousands of dunums in southeastern Jerusalem for the sake of expanding the illegal Israeli settlement bloc "Maale Adomim".
"These plans don't give any chance to establish an independent and viable Palestinian state. The Palestinians will not accept less than a state on the lands occupied in 1967 with Jerusalem as it's capital," Qurei told reporters.
He also added that the boundaries of Jerusalem has expanded to the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea, with a total area of 62 square kilometers.
Explaining the reasons behind holding the weekly cabinet session in Jerusalem, the Prime Minister stated that the session have discussed the pressing matters regarding the city of Jerusalem and the recent Israeli military directives to complete new sections of the Apartheid Wall around the city, which would lead to the isolation of 220,000 Jerusalemites in ghettos and enclaves behind the wall.
PM Qurei also asserted that the cabinet has made several important decisions to intensify the work of all ministries and implement vital projects to revive the holy city, along with launching a political campaign to explain the consequences of the Israeli Judaization measures of the city and isolating its Palestinian population completely.
He further stressed that the Israeli government has implemented its disengagement plan in Gaza Strip and northern West Bank to cover for the settlement expansion activities in Jerusalem , affirming that expanding the Apartheid Wall in the area would create four Palestinian ghettos, isolated completely from the city.
Qurei noted that the Palestinian government has sent out urgent letters to the international community and the special envoys of the Quartet Committee and the United States for the peace process, stressing its categorical rejection to the Israeli settlement expansion activities, which would create new facts on the ground and preempt the final status negotiations.
During the session, the Palestinian cabinet condemned the expropriation of thousands of dunums of Palestinian-owned lands in towns and villages around Jerusalem, in addition to the Israeli government's decision to build 500 housing unites in the illegal Israeli settlement "Jabal Abu Ghneim", which clearly revealed the Israeli plans to intensify settlement in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
Also, the Prime Minister condemned the suicide attack in the Israeli city of Ber Sheva, which resulted in the injury of 10 Israelis, reiterating the Palestinian National Authority's refusal of any attacks targeting civilians and reiterating commitment to maintaining calm in the region, and referring to Israel's constant violations of the declared ceasefire, the last of which was the extrajudicial execution of five Palestinians in the city of Tulkarem.
Moreover, PM Qurei welcomed the upcoming visit of the Egyptian intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Omar Suleiman, to the region in order to discuss the latest developments, pointing out that the recent agreement of deploying 750 Egyptian security officers along the southern borders of Gaza Strip was a positive step.
He also affirmed that the PNA refused any Israeli intervention in Rafah border terminal, saying that "We want an Egyptian-Palestinian terminal without any Israeli presence." |
