UNDER INTENSE international pressure, Israel has agreed to slightly ease its blockade on Gaza and to discuss all the core issues when indirect peace talks with the Palestinians get under way.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu spelled out the goodwill gestures in a letter to US secretary of state Hilary Clinton, but he made it clear there could be no compromise on Jerusalem.
“Our policy on Jerusalem is the same as that of all previous Israeli governments in the past 42 years and it hasn’t changed,” he told the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.
The Israeli concessions follow American anger over the announcement an additional 1,600 homes for religious Jews will be built in a Jerusalem neighbourhood over the 1967 green line border. Palestinians warned that the move could scuttle proximity talks, with US mediation, in the coming weeks. I
Israeli sources said the UN will now be able to transport construction materials to Gaza to rebuild sewerage systems, a flour mill and 150 apartments in Khan Yunis.
However UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, who toured Gaza yesterday, dismissed the Israeli measures as “a drop in a bucket of water”. Declaring UN solidarity with the people of Gaza, he denounced the Israeli economic blockade for causing “unacceptable suffering” and “encouraging extremists”.
The Israeli gesture on the framework of peace talks with the Palestinians means that issues such as Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees can be put on the table when the talks get under way.
In an indication the recent tension in Israeli-US relations is over, Mr Netanyahu has accepted an invitation to meet President Barack Obama during a trip to the US this week. He will also hold talks with vice-president Joe Biden and Ms Clinton.
US Middle East envoy George Mitchell yesterday described bilateral ties as “strong and enduring”, saying Washington’s commitment to Israeli security was “unshakeable and unbreakable”. Both Mr Mitchell and Israeli leaders expressed the hope Israeli-Palestinian proximity talks will start soon and develop into negotiations on a permanent peace agreement.
Near the city of Nablus, Israeli troops yesterday killed two Palestinians who, according to an Israeli army spokesman, tried to attack a soldier using a pitchfork and an axe. Palestinian officials said the men were killed in cold blood.
The incident brought to four the number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank in a 24-hour period, prompting a spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas to accuse Israel of deliberate escalation to thwart peace efforts.