After 43 years of occupation, Israel has chosen apartheid over peace, says Erekat

PLO negotiations chief marks 43 years of occupation

Published yesterday (updated) 04/06/2010 20:32

Bethlehem - Ma'an -

Ahead of the anniversary of Israel's 1967 invasion of Arab lands, PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat declared Thursday that after 43 years of occupation, Israel has chosen apartheid over peace.

"The Israeli colonization process destroys any hope for a two-state solution," Erekat said in a statement. "Ongoing provocations and systematic discrimination against Palestinians signify Israel's continuous disrespect of international law and human rights and destabilize the region."

Israel continues to occupy Lebanon's Sheba Farms, the Syrian Golan Heights as well as the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip to this day. United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 (1967) and numerous other UN resolutions call on Israel to withdraw from the territory it occupied in 1967. This call is echoed by the international community as a whole.

Erekat challenged Israeli claims that the central obstacle to achieving peace is its non-recognition by Arab countries. "Who doesn't want peace? It is Israel that rejected the Arabs' offer to recognize and normalize relations with Israel, provided that Israel ends its occupation of all Arab land. This is an offer by 57 Arab and Islamic states that Israel has missed entirely of its own volition."

Calling on US President Obama to take swift and decisive action to end the occupation, Erakat declared that "only an end to Israel's occupation of all Arab lands will usher in a new era of peace, cooperation, and prosperity throughout the Middle East."

Proximity talks still on

Between President Mahmoud Abbas and US officials, the start of so-called proximity talks appear not to have been derailed by Israel's attack on an aid ship and killing of at least nine activists Monday.

On Wednesday, both Abbas and the US deputy treasurer spoke at the Palestinian Investment Conference, stressing the need for talks, while US special envoy to the Mideast George Mitchell addressed the conference Thursday and said talks must go on despite the attack.

Mitchell, who met Abbas after the opening session, said the raid illustrated the need to move forward with peace talks.

Abbas was less clear in his determination to move forward, but made no mention of halting the indirect negotiations. Rather, Abbas again laid out his conditions for peace by highlighting the need to lift the siege on Gaza more than in the past.

"We will not accept that the peace process be a means of evading peace and its dues. The first step toward peace is a complete halt of settlement activities, without conditions, and lifting the siege off Gaza and Jerusalem, and all our cities and villages, as well as committing to the references of peace," he said.

At the same time, Abbas said he would ask Obama to make "brave decisions" when he visits Washington on Wednesday.

With US officials promising to take action against any party that spoils the negotiations' atmosphere, Palestinians hope the attack on the flotilla in international waters and the stringent maintenance of the siege on Gaza despite international calls for its immediate halt could force American officials into action.

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