UN / MIDDLE EAST

The United Nations (UN) head of Political Affairs today (21 July) characterized the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations as being at a critical juncture again in achieving a two State solution.

The government of Israel had announced on 5 July 2010 a series of measures aimed at easing the blockade in Gaza. The Israeli government had switched from a ‘positive’ list of goods allowed to Gaza to a ‘negative’ list of goods whose entry was prohibited or restricted.

Under the new guidelines, anything that might be used as military material including so called ‘dual use’ goods continued to be subject to exceptional permission to enter Gaza, and since the announcement of that new policy, new food and productive items had entered Gaza. The volume of imports into Gaza had also increased steadily, with a 40 per cent increase in the number of truckloads entering Gaza every week.

While Pascoe recognized those as “positive steps” he hoped they could be enhanced to address the “hardship conditions” in the strip. He cautioned that further measures need to be taken to enable exports and movement of people.

Pascoe stressed that “our goal remains full opening of land crossings, in the framework of the Agreement on Movement and Access.”

Since early July 2010, the Rafah border crossing with Egypt remained opened and a significant amount of people had been allowed to cross.

Egypt also continued its efforts to counter smuggling along its border with Gaza. The United Nations Coordinator office for the Middle East (UNSCO) had reached arrangements to ensure that the cargo from the Turkish vessels in the 31 May convoy reached beneficiaries in Gaza while the Libyan sponsored vessel which sailed on 12 July with aid for Gaza arrived in Egyptian port without incidents. And arrangements were being made by the Egyptian government as well to transfer the material into Gaza.

Pascoe warned that such convoys “are not helpful to resolving the basic economic problems in Gaza and needless carry the potential for escalation.”

Pascoe also informed the Council that the ten-month moratorium on the West Bank settlements construction was “largely being observed”, but that it was expiring on 26 September. He asked for it to be extended and expanded “to cover all settlement activity throughout the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.”

In conclusion, Pascoe recommended to Council members that the work must be continue to bring the parties into direct talks without delay in order to produce genuine progress on the core issues and on the ground “including restraint in Jerusalem, implementation of Roadmap obligations on settlement and further measures to empower the Palestinian Authority.”

Also addressing the Council, the Permanent Observer of Palestine to the UN, Ambassador Riyad Mansour told the Council President that there was an “extremely wide gap” between Israel’s words and its deeds. He said that while Israel professed to want peace all of its actions were “absolutely to the contrary.” Mansour also said that the position was casting a “dark shadow on the efforts to resume the peace process, raising grave doubts about Israel’s credibility as a peace partner and its willingness to abide by legal obligations and commitments.”

Responding to his remarks, Israel’s Ambassador Gabriela Shalev said that Israel’s security would never “be compromised.” She added that since the advent of peace talks, the threats facing Israel had grown more diverse and dangerous. She added that “the rockets of Iranian proxies Hamas and Hizbullah, global terrorism, and the pursuit of nuclear weapons by Iran. In direct negotiations, we stand prepared to take political risks for peace.”