Abbas Slams ‘Ferocious’ Settlement Expansion in East Jerusalem
Says Settlement Freeze 'Not a Precondition' But a Longstanding Part of Deal
In a yet-to-be-broadcast interview given today with CNN, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned Israel’s “ferocious” settlement expansion in occupied East Jerusalem, while defending his refusal to continue peace talks without a new settlement freeze.
“Our demand to halt settlement construction is not a precondition,” Abbas insisted, “we reached an agreement with the Israelis on this matter when we accepted the road map back in 1995.” Israel’s government has ruled out a new settlement freeze, and talks have stalled since the previous one expired in September.
Abbas added that any permanent peace deal would have to include the dismantling of all settlements built on Palestinian land since 1967. Since Israel has moved around half a million settlers into this land since the occupation began, this is likely to be rejected.
But Abbas had vowed to stand firm on the call for a freeze, saying that if his government continued to negotiate while Israel expanded further and further into the occupied territories, eventually they would have no land left to negotiate over.
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davidgrayling
November 4th, 2010 at 9:35 pm
The Palestinians must live in a dream world. Israel will give them nothing.
If they want something, they will have to fight for it as they once did. Arafat realized this but, following his death, Abbas sold out the Palestinians and is a traitor of immense stature.
There is only one language that Israelis understand and that's the singing of the sword.
http://www.dangerouscreation.com
JDonald
November 5th, 2010 at 6:23 am
The amazing thing is that the rest of the world and the USA sit back and allow Israel to implement this policy of land takeover whiich the United Nations has ruled illegal. No wonder the Arab nations are assembling a massive political and military force to do the bidding of the UN. The Western world should cut off all contact with the Israeli government until such time as they de-occupy Palesinian lands. The Palestinians have been made so week by Israel over the past 50 years that they cannot do it themselves.
Klutz
November 5th, 2010 at 9:10 am
I love how the Arabs want to have their cake and eat it too. They lost the 67' war and the 73' war and still make demands. Besides, there's already a Palestinian State in Jordan, Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon.