Comments (0)Hamas: Declare Palestinian State from Sea to River
November 17, 2009Jerusalem
JTA Wire Service
Hamas rejected the Palestinian Authority’s decision to unilaterally declare a state in the West Bank and Gaza, saying it should take over all of Israel.
“(W)hy not declare a Palestinian state from the sea [Mediterranean] to the river [Jordan]” rather than in the West Bank and Gaza only?” Hamas spokesman Salah Bardweel said Monday, Ha’aretz reported.
His remarks followed declarations over the weekend by chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat that the Palestinian Authority would ask the United Nations Security Council to recognize an independent state along the 1967 border lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
“This move is not a meaningful declaration. It simply aims at escaping the benefits of resistance against the occupation,” Bardweel said. “Instead of threatening to unilaterally declare a Palestinian state to be established in the air, we should work on liberating the occupied territories and end the current internal [Palestinian] division.”
Bibi Threatens Israeli Unilateral Action to Mirror Palestinians
Unilateral actions to declare a Palestinian state could cause Israel to take unilateral action of its own, Benjamin Netanyahu said.
“The way to achieve peace is through negotiations, cooperation and the agreement of both sides,” the Israeli prime minister told the prestigious Saban Forum in Jerusalem Sunday evening. “This is true with regard to security and economic issues, and also with regard to a genuine political process.
“There is no substitute for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and any unilateral attempt outside that framework will unravel the existing agreements between us and could entail unilateral steps by Israel.”
Those unilateral steps, some Netanyahu administration officials said Monday, could include annexing West Bank settlements or halting the transfer of tax money collected for the Palestinian Authority.
The prime minister’s comments came on the same weekend as Palestinian Authority officials said they would ask the United Nations Security Council to recognize an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders and Jerusalem as its capital.
Netanyahu stressed that a strong economy and a stable security situation will help bring peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
He cited the easing of movement in the West Bank and the improvement of the quality of life for Palestinians as ways in which Israel has contributed to a prosperous Palestinian economy that has helped to “eliminate the scourge of poverty and desperation, and strengthen internal forces within Palestinian society that oppose terrorism.”
Addressing the main obstacles to Israel’s security, Netanyahu said that Iran must be prevented from developing a nuclear military capability and a solution was against the threat of missile and rocket attacks on Israel from surrounding countries. A new Palestinian state, for example, must be demilitarized and a mechanism installed in which missiles cannot be smuggled in, he explained.
Finally, the Israeli leader said, his country’s right to self-defense must be acknowledged.
Israeli Soldiers Heading to Prison for Protesting Evacuations
Two Israeli soldiers were demoted and sentenced to prison for protesting the evacuation of Jewish settlers in violation of army protocol.
The soldiers, from the Nachshon Battalion of the Kfir Brigade, unfurled a banner Monday reading “Nachshon doesn’t evict Jews either” on the roof of a building on their West Bank military base near Hebron.
They were sentenced to 30 days in jail, demoted and barred from serving as combat soldiers in the future, according to Ha’aretz.
The banner incident took place just hours after members of the soldiers’ battalion guarded the perimeter of a settlement near Hebron while two illegal homes at the settlement were razed, according to reports.
In a similar incident last month, two members of the Shimshon Battalion unfurled a sign at their swearing-in ceremony that read “Shimshon will not evacuate Homesh”—a West Bank settlement evacuated in 2005.
The Israel Defense Forces sentenced the Shimshon soldiers to 20 days in a military prison and barred them from serving as combat soldiers.
This story reprinted courtesy of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.