 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
||
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||||||
 |
|
||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
 |
|
||
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
||
|
|
|
|
 |
|
||
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
||
Latest Developments on the Road Towards Peace
Talking Points - July 9, 2003In recent days, there have been some new developments in the efforts to achieve peace amongst Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The following are the main issues that are currently on the agenda:
1) Release of Prisoners
- As an act of good faith, and as a gesture toward building confidence, the Israeli government decided on Sunday, July 6, 2003, to release 350 Palestinian prisoners.
- "Freeing prisoners could make a significant contribution to strengthening Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, with whom we are negotiating. A stronger Palestinian government will be able to operate more effectively against terror, and that is in Israel's interest," - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
- Israel is strongly committed to the peace process. As much as Israel desires to cooperate with the Palestinians, Israel cannot release Palestinian prisoners who were involved with terror attacks after the Oslo Agreements or who were responsible for the killing of Israeli citizens. Experience of the past few years indicates that releasing such prisoners will only strengthen the terrorist organizations, and will encourage them to continue their attacks against Israel.
2) Incitement
- On Monday, July 7, 2003, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and Palestinian Minister of Information Nabil Amr held the first meeting of the Joint Israeli-Palestinian Committee on the Prevention of Incitement.
- "Educating our children to peace, democracy and mutual respect is an essential component of our drive for peace. We are sure that if we succeed in our joint effort to establish a culture of peace in place of the culture of hate, we will be making a profound contribution to a better future for both our peoples." - DPM Silvan Shalom
- Israel hopes that the meeting on incitement will lead to a genuine effort from the Palestinians to stop the incitement against Israel in the mosques, schools, and media.
- The Palestinian Authority has recently made some steps to end incitement, such as whitewashing over anti-Israeli graffiti in Gaza City and asking the Palestinian media to tone down the incitement. Israel welcomes these steps, and hopes that further measures will follow.
3) Security Fence
- In the last two and a half years, 250 suicide bombers have entered Israel from the West Bank. On the other hand, not a single suicide bomber has entered Israel from the Gaza Strip, which is separated from Israel by a fence.
- In light of the daily attempted attacks originating from the West Bank on Israel, and in order to fulfill its main and most important task that is providing security to its citizens, the Israeli government has decided to build a security fence that will separate the Palestinian Authority from the Israeli cities.
- The fence has no political meaning. It is only being used to protect the Israeli cities and people from terrorist attacks originating from the West Bank.
4) Palestinian Leadership Dispute
- On Tuesday, July 8, 2003, following an internal dispute with senior members of the Fatah movement, Palestinian PM Abbas threatened to resign from his position in the Central Committee of Fatah. PM Abbas was subject to tough criticism from Fatah members who are loyal to Chairman Yasser Arafat regarding the way he handles negotiations with Israel.
- The criticism of PM Abbas is part of Arafat's attempts to undermine PM Abbas' political power.
- Israel hopes that the Palestinians will solve their problems, and will continue with their efforts to maintain the cease-fire and to follow the Road Map.
