Biden Urges Israel to "Take Risks for Peace", March 9, 2010 


 

Vice President Joseph Biden told Israel Tuesday that the U.S. is willing to stand by those who will "take risks for peace." According to the AP and CBS News, Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he was confident Israel was prepared to take such risks. Israelis and Palestinians face a "moment of real opportunity" to make peace after agreeing to resume American-brokered talks, Biden said as he launched the highest-level visit by an Obama administration official to Israel. Monday's announcement of indirect talks, which will be held through a U.S. mediator, broke a 14-month deadlock and marked President Obama's first substantive diplomatic achievement in the region. But the new peace push is sure to face enormous challenges, including sharp divisions among the Palestinians and a hardline Israeli government seen as unlikely to make wide-ranging concessions.  "I think we are at a moment of real opportunity, and I think that the interests of the Israeli and Palestinian people, if everybody stops and takes a deep breath, are actually more in line than they are opposites," Biden said ahead of a meeting with Israel's president, Shimon Peres. Biden said he hoped the beginning of indirect talks would be "a vehicle by which we can begin to allay that layer of mistrust that has built up in the last several years."

 

Ahead of Biden's Visit, Israel OKs New West Bank Settlements, March 8, 2010

 

Israel authorized the construction of 112 new apartments in the West Bank despite a pledge to slow down settlement building, the government disclosed Monday -- enraging the Palestinians just a day after they reluctantly agreed to resume peace talks. Word of the new construction in the Beitar Illit settlement and their possible complication of the talks came amid a flurry of activity by the U.S. to try to salvage peacemaking. Vice President Joseph Biden is due to land later Monday on the highest-level visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories by an Obama administration official. Washington's special envoy to the Mideast, George Mitchell, was also in the area, meeting Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat accused Israel of trying to undermine the talks even before they began. "If the Israeli government wants to sabotage Mitchell's efforts by taking such steps, let's talk to Mitchell about maybe not doing this (indirect talks) if the price is so high," Erekat told the AP. 


2009 Safest Year for Israelis, Most Damaging for Palestinians, March 1, 2010

 

"The year 2009 was the quietest for Israelis from the security point of view and the most violent for the Palestinians from the point of view of attacks by settlers in the West Bank," said Palestinian Agriculture Minister Ismail Daiq. The negotiations affairs department of the Palestine Liberation Organization collects information daily from all the districts of the occupied territories (Gaza and the West Bank, as well as Jerusalem) and publishes it in a daily situation report by the Palestinian Monitoring Group. On February 24, for example, a total of 212 occupation-related incidents were recorded.  Incidents include physical assault, military raids, arrests, home demolitions and detention at checkpoints. The philosophy behind the situation report is clear: an "event" is not just a fatality, assault, shooting or demolition. It is something that entails permanent damage, and stems from the policy of imposing closures, building the wall and maintaining the blockade of the Gaza Strip. But even without these occupation-related items, the vast majority of the incidents are not made known to the vast majority of Israelis. According to Amira Hass of Haaretz, "Any news item we report that deals with Israeli rule over the Palestinians is misleading. It creates the impression that whatever has been reported is all that has happened on the Palestinian side and that otherwise everything is normal, or even flourishing. Any news item that is published in Israeli papers is a sign of what is missing, what no one wants to know."

 

Fairtrade Brings Business and Hope to Palestinian Farmers, March 1, 2010 

 

 

In 2008, Nahed Sharia, a farmer from the Palestinian village of Aboud, joined the Aboud Agricultural Co-operative, which has just gained organic and Fairtrade certification for olive oil production through an Oxfam GB project, “Support to small and medium scale olive producers.” According to Reuters, with funding from the European Commission, the Oxfam project aims to certify 30 Palestinian olive farming collectives as organic and Fairtrade. Through local partners, the Palestinian Farmers Union and Bethlehem University’s Fairtrade Development Centre, the farmers receive training on producing a quality product that can improve their livelihoods through the guarantee of a fair price. The project is also working with Zaytoun, an ethical trading company in the UK, to make sure the farmers’ products reach Fairtrade consumers abroad. Nahed says he is really excited about the Fairtrade certification. After years of lost income due to harassment and destruction perpetrated by Israeli settlers, he can now harvest his olives and produce his oil knowing that he will recover the costs and receive a fair market price. In addition to the income he will earn from Fairtrade, Nahed says that he is grateful for the opportunity to have his product sold in European markets because he thinks it’s a way for Palestinians to be seen in a different light.

 

East Jerusalem Settlement to Grow by 600 Homes, February 26, 2010 

According to the BBC, an Israeli planning committee has pushed forward plans for 600 new settlement homes in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem. The move comes as the Palestinians are refusing to restart peace talks unless Israel stops all building in the area, where they want their future capital. The plan will expand the Pisgat Zeev settlement in the city's north-east. Palestinian official Ghassan al-Khatib denounced the decision as "another Israeli violation of international law", according to Reuters news agency. Hagit Ofran of the Israeli rights group Peace Now said the Israeli government was continuing to promote building plans in East Jerusalem "in order to torpedo the two-state solution". Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said the government made a distinction between the West Bank and Jerusalem. "In the West Bank, we've agreed to unprecedented restrictions on growth but Jerusalem is different, it's our capital," he said. But the international community considers East Jerusalem occupied territory. Building on occupied land is illegal under international law. Nearly 500,000 Israeli settlers live in more than 100 settlements built on occupied territory in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.