Palestinian Chief negotiator meets British envoy in Jericho

On Tuesday, the Palestinian Chief Negotiator, Saeb Erekat, met with the British envoy for the Middle East Peace process, Mike Williams, and the British General Counsel, Richard McBesy, in Jericho.

The three discussed the latest political developments in the lead-up to a Summit in Annapolis, in the U.S., which has been scheduled for late November.

 

Erekat reaffirmed his call on the ‘Quartet for Mid-East Peace’, made up of the U.S., E.U., United Nations and Russia, to set up the mechanisms for the implementation of previous signed agreements by both the Israelis and the Palestinians.  He asked that the Quartet appoint monitoring teams and set up timetables to continue to assess the implementation of commitments made by both sides.

 

He stated that the Palestinian side have been doing their best to implement their commitments, particularly in regard to the establishment of law and order within the Palestinian territories. 

 

But Erekat expressed disappointment in the failure of the Israeli side to implement their commitments, including the dismantling of illegal settlements constructed since 2001, the reopening of Palestinian organizations in East Jerusalem that were forcibly closed by Israeli authorities, and the restoration of the situation to pre-2000 conditions. 

 

These include the lifting of the embargo on the Palestinian territories, the lifting of the closure imposed on the Palestinian territories by Israeli authorities, the return of the legal status of so-called ‘A and B’ areas in the West Bank (areas supposed to be controlled by the Palestinian Authority under previous signed agreements), the cessation of Israeli attacks on Palestinian civilians and organizations, and the release of all 10,000 Palestinian political detainees being held in Israeli prison camps.

 

Regarding preparations for the upcoming Annapolis peace conference called by U.S. President George Bush, Erekat affirmed the necessity of basing the conference on real and established benchmarks and goals.  These include, according to Erekat, existing signed agreements between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority, the rule of international law, the vision of the U.S. President, and the Arab peace initiative.

 

Erekat said that what these agreements and initiatives have in common is the end to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories that has been in place since 1967; the establishment of an independent, sovereign Palestinian state with East Jerusalem its capital living side by side with an Israeli independent state; and the focus on resolving so-called ‘final status issues’ such as the status of Jerusalem, the boundaries of the state of Israel, the return of refugees, the control of water resources, and security for both the Palestinian territories and Israel.

 

He called on the international community to force Israel to comply with its signed agreements, including the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits collective punishment against a population.  He accused the Israeli government of continuing to engage in a policy of collective punishment against the 1.3 million Palestinians in Gaza by cutting off fuel, food, supplies, electricity and water to that population.

 

 

Translated by Manar Jibrin, edited by Jenka Soderberg