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October 1, 2008
Quartet Calls for Agreement This Year
Jerusalem
JTA Wire Service
World powers guiding the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks pressed for an agreement before year’s end and praised modest successes. Foreign minister-level representatives of the Quartet, the group comprising the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations, met Friday in New York at the end of the opening week of the General Assembly. A concluding statement called for a peace plan this year, something unlikely to happen while Israel is in political turmoil and the Palestinians remain split between relatively moderate Palestinian Authority rule in the West Bank and the control of Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip. “The Quartet recognized that a meaningful and results-oriented process is under way and called upon the parties to continue to make every effort to conclude an agreement before the end of 2008,” the statement said, comporting with President Bush’s expectation that he would achieve an agreement before he left office. The statement “commended the Palestinian Authority for the encouraging results of its efforts to reform the security sector, to confront militias and terrorism, and to enforce the rule of law in areas subject to its security control” as well as “recent measures by the Israeli government to lift restrictions on access and movement and encouraged further steps to ease conditions for Palestinian civilian life and the economy.” The Israeli and Palestinian sides have similarly commended each other for the measures cited by the Quartet, but also insist that they represent just a fraction of what needs to be done. The Quartet statement singled out for criticism settler violence and settlement expansion, as well as continued rocket attacks on Israel launched from the Gaza Strip. The statement “called on Israel to freeze all settlement activity, including natural growth” and “condemned the recent rise in settler violence against Palestinian civilians, urging the enforcement of the rule of law without discrimination or exception.” It also “condemned acts of terrorism against Israelis, including any rocket attacks emanating from the Palestinian territories, and stressed the need for further Palestinian efforts to fight terrorism and dismantle the infrastructure of terror, as well as foster an atmosphere of tolerance.”
Holy Land Retrial Begins
The retrial of leaders of a Muslim charity accused of financing Hamas began in Dallas. Five members of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development are charged with funneling more than $12 million to the terrorist group before the charity was shut down by the U.S. government in 2001. In opening arguments Sept. 23, federal prosecutors argued that Holy Land existed to support Hamas and the schools and community organizations run by the movement, according to The Associated Press. Defense attorneys countered that the foundation’s funds went to humanitarian aid for victims of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The first trial ended last year with a mistrial on most of the charges.
Report: Israel “Possibly” Committed War Crime
A United Nations body adopted a report accusing Israel of “possibly” committing a war crime. The U.N. Rights Council approved a report Sept. 24 centering on the 2006 Israeli shelling of the Gaza village of Beit Hanoun by a 32-9 vote. Written by a fact-finding group led by South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the document states that Israel’s refusal to cooperate with the investigation had “hampered its work.” “Faced with the absence of a well-founded explanation from the Israeli military, the Mission had to conclude that there was a possibility that the shelling of Beit Hanoun constituted a war crime,” according to the report. The United States stopped participating in the council earlier this year because of what it called the group’s “pathetic” record on human rights. Such human rights violators as Cuba, China and Saudi Arabia are all members of the body—and all voted in favor of adopting the report.
This story reprinted courtesy of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.