IMRA Newsletter
Annan urges "immediate, specific" Steps to implement "Roadmap"
PLO challenges Israel's UN Credentials
2004-03-13
Palestine Media Center - PMC [Official PA website]
www.palestine-pmc.com/details.asp?cat=1&id=1244
Secretary General of the United Nations Koffi Annan urged Israelis and Palestinians to take "immediate and specific" steps to implement the "roadmap" peace plan as Palestinian officials were urging the UN to revoke Israeli occupation's jurisdiction over the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and east Jerusalem by transferring Israel's credentials to the PLO observer mission.
Addressing the annual meeting of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People of the UN General Assembly, Annan reiterated Thursday his call for ending the violence and resumption of talks in the Middle East.
"The situation between the Palestinians and Israelis remains extremely tense," he said. "There has been no discernible progress in peace efforts."
"The goal of the Palestinians, an end to the occupation and the establishment of an independent State of Palestine, is still out of reach," he said. "The hope of the Israelis for security is yet to be realized."
He warned that the situation on the ground has once again been shaken by a wave of violence, and efforts to achieve a comprehensive cease-fire have so far produced no results.
"Israeli incursions into Palestinian cities, arrests, house demolitions, closures and curfews have continued," Annan indicated. "(Israeli) Targeted assassinations have resumed. Their victims have not only been their intended targets," he added.
The UN chief said that Palestinians are dismayed to see more and more of their land being taken to make way for the expansion of the Apartheid Wall Israel is building on occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank, the construction of which has generated heated protests, only adding to Palestinian anger and desperation.
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) on Thursday expropriated 300 hectares (3,000 dunums) of Palestinian land in four villages northwest of Ramallah to build a section of Israel's Apartheid Wall in the West Bank.
"I urge the Israeli Government to halt further settlement expansion and the construction of the barrier," Annan said.
He welcomed the Israeli announcement to evacuate the Gaza Strip settlements. "I look forward to seeing a timetable for that," he said.
But Annan insisted that such an evacuation should be part of a broader process.
"An evacuation of Gaza strip settlements should be seen as part of a broader process, an interim step that could revitalize stalled peace efforts, consistent with the Road Map," he said.
He called on both parties to take "immediate and specific" steps to implement the "roadmap" plan introduced by the Middle East Quartet of the United Nations, the Russian Federation, the United States and the European Union.
The UN Security Council in November adopted the "roadmap" in Resolution 1515.
"The price already paid by both Israelis and Palestinians has been far too high. Let us waste no more time. There is an urgent need for a negotiated settlement to this deadly conflict," he said.
Annan also urged the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) to take resolute action to halt attacks against Israelis.
The Palestinian leadership on Friday approved "a series of strict and decisive measures to enforce order" and to the "rule of law," Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam reported on Saturday, following a meeting chaired by President Yaser Arafat of the executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and representatives of the national factions at his besieged headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramalllah.
However in a statement issued on Friday night in the aftermath of the meeting the PLO said that the Israeli provocative measures "would also block reviving the peace process."
The daily Israeli killings, demolitions, siege and all other measures "are done on purpose to block any implementation of the US-backed Roadmap plan for peace in the Middle East," the statement said, according to Palestinian official news agency WAFA.
The Palestinian leadership called upon the Quartet Committee composed of the US, UN, EU and Russia, to exert all possible pressure on Israel to end its continued military aggressions against the Palestinian people.
PLO Challenges Israel's UN Credentials
Separately, Palestinian officials were urging the UN to revoke Israeli jurisdiction over the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and east Jerusalem by transferring Israel's credentials to the PLO observer mission.
A similar effort was blocked in December when a majority of General Assembly members refused to back a resolution stating that PLO observer mission "represents the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967" and that Israel's credentials "do not cover that territory," Israeli daily The Jerusalem Post reported.
According to an official at the Irish mission to the UN - Ireland currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union - the credentials issue will be one of many topics discussed at meetings next week with Palestinian envoy Nasser al-Kidwa and Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman.
"The Palestinians have indicated they want to discuss a range of issues, including representing the occupied territories and the International Court of Justice," said the mission's First Secretary Damien Cole.
According to a UN source, the Palestinians are planning to present a General Assembly resolution at the end of the month calling on nations to recognize that the PLO observer mission, rather than Israel, as the representative of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, the Post said.
The Israeli daily quoted an official at the US mission to the UN that Washington has a long-standing opposition to challenging Israel's credentials.
"The Palestinians need to spend more time trying to live up to their obligations under the road map and less time trying to embarrass Israel internationally," the US official said.