Barak-Mitchell meeting ends with no agreement on stopping illegal Israeli settlement activities

Wednesday July 01, 2009 11:53 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

A four-hour Tuesday meeting between the Israeli occupation government defense minister, Ehud Barak, and US Middle East Special Envoy, George Mitchell, came to an end without an agreement on the illegal Israeli construction of settlements. Mitchell would be holding a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in two weeks.

Barak and Mitchell held talks on different issues regarding the stalled Middle East peace process and the contribution of Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the Arab world to the peace process.

They also focused on steps that ‘should’ be taken by the Arab world towards Israel, while Mitchell also said that Israel should ease the restrictions imposed in the West Bank and ‘take actions’ regarding its settlement activities.

Mitchell failed to tell Barak that settlements in the occupied territories actually violate the International Law and constitute a war crime.

He demanded the Palestinians to ‘stop terrorism’ and ‘end incitement against Israel’, but did not demand Israel to halt its settlement activities and its ongoing invasions and violations in the occupied territories.

The US administration demanded Israel to halt its settlement activities, an issue that caused tension between the US and Israel. But the Obama administration said that it wants to decrease the tension with the Jewish State.

Israel is trying to link halting the already illegal settlement activities with goodwill gestures from the Arab world, such as a regional peace agreement and normalization before a final status peace deal is signed with the Palestinians.

Several media sources in Israel reported that Barak believes that Israel would not freeze the construction of settlements in the West Bank, and that further talks on the issue would be conducted in the coming three weeks.

In London, UK Foreign Minister, David Miliband, stated that it is unfortunate the Israel approved a plan to construct 1450 homes for the settlers in a West Bank settlement.

Speaking to UK parliamentarians, Miliband stated that settlements are illegal, violate the International Law and obstruct Middle East peace talks on a two-state solution.

Besides the basic fact that all settlements are illegal and violate the Fourth Geneva Conventions, Israel itself admits that there are more than 120 settlements that are considered illegal under the Israeli law.

The Fourth Geneva Conventions forbids the occupying state from settling part of its population in territories it occupies. Israel claims that this does not apply to its settlements.

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