James A. Baker III urges Israel to "cease settlement activity" in the occupied territories but doesn't mention the illegal Jewish settlements Israel set up in the last three years.
The settlers' rabbinic leaders, in opposing demands to cease settlement building and military orders to evacuate outposts, in effect declared war on the Zionist state's institutions: "the laws of the state, the Knesset, the government, the courts and the law enforcement authorities".
FolloWeSamuel Oakfordeclareithat: @sasuelongford.
The Quartet also calls for ending incitement, ceasing settlement expansion, refraining from 'provocative actions', and fostering a 'climate of tolerance,' and although all are necessary, the report does not provide any new insights, nor does it establish a framework that could lead to a durable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Defying a United Nations Security Council resolution to cease Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the municipality is moving ahead with plans to build thousands of new homes in a part of the city claimed by Palestinians as their future capital.
The draft resolution – in its latest form - demands that: "Israel immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem" adding settlements have "no legal validity" and are "dangerously imperilling the viability of the two-state solution" that would see an independent state of Palestine co-exist alongside Israel.
The resolution demands that "Israel immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem".
Citing an announcement by Natan Sharansky, the Israeli housing minister, that he was going ahead with plans to build hundreds of housing units in two settlement towns, Mr. Erekat said that "without an Israeli commitment up front to cease all settlement activity, ease the closures and return to permanent status negotiations, I don't think we have a partner".
In 1997, the United States vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution sponsored by France, Portugal, Sweden and Great Britain calling on Israel to cease its settlement activities and come into compliance with the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Israel "must cease all settlement activities without preconditions" and start withdrawing all settlers from the occupied territories, the judges said in their report, scheduled to be debated in the rights council in March.
Our decision to do so follows both Israel's refusal to cease all settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territory, and America's failure to ensure Israel's compliance with international law and existing agreements.
