Reuters, United Nations :
Israel should stop building settlements, denying Palestinian development and designating land for exclusive Israeli use that Palestinians seek for a future state, the Middle East peace Quartet recommended on Friday in an eagerly awaited report.
The report by the Quartet entities sponsoring the stalled peace process – the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations – said the Israeli policy “is steadily eroding the viability of the two-state solution”.
“This raises legitimate questions about Israel’s long-term intentions, which are compounded by the statements of some Israeli ministers that there should never be a Palestinian state,” according to the eight-page report.
Amid a spike in violence, the Quartet also criticised Palestinian leaders for “not consistently and clearly” condemning terrorist attacks and said illicit arms build-up and militant activities in Gaza must stop.
Netanyahu’s office and spokesman for Palestinian president both express disappointment over report
According to diplomatic sources, the report carries significant political weight as it has the backing of close Israeli ally the United States, which has struggled to revive the peace talks amid tensions between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama.
Relations between the rightist Israeli leader and the Democratic president have yet to recover from their feud over last year’s US-led nuclear deal with Iran.
Netanyahu’s office welcomed some aspects of the Quartet report but said Israel took issue with numerous factual and policy assertions. The report also “perpetuates the myth that Israeli construction in the West Bank is an obstacle to peace”, the statement said.
Nabil Abu Rdainah, the spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, expressed disappointment with the Quartet report.
“Any report that does not include the full withdrawal to the 1967 borders, including occupied Jerusalem, and does not include a recognition of the illegality of settlement will not lead to real and lasting peace and will lead to more tension and more instability in the region,” he said in a statement.
The Quartet said urgent affirmative steps should be taken to “prevent entrenching a one-state reality of perpetual occupation and conflict”.
The report said Israel had taken for its exclusive use some 70 per cent of Area C, which makes up 60 per cent of the occupied West Bank and includes the majority of agricultural lands, natural resources and land reserves.
Under the Oslo accords of the mid-1990s, Israel retains full control over Area C, where large tracts have been declared closed military areas.
It said only one permit for Palestinian housing construction in Area C was reportedly approved in 2014, while there did not appear to have been any approved in 2015.
The report said at least 570,000 Israelis were living in the settlements, which most countries deemed illegal.
The Palestinians want an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem – areas Israel captured in 1967. The last round of peace talks broke down in April 2014 and Israeli-Palestinian violence has surged in recent months.
Israel should stop building settlements, denying Palestinian development and designating land for exclusive Israeli use that Palestinians seek for a future state, the Middle East peace Quartet recommended on Friday in an eagerly awaited report.
The report by the Quartet entities sponsoring the stalled peace process – the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations – said the Israeli policy “is steadily eroding the viability of the two-state solution”.
“This raises legitimate questions about Israel’s long-term intentions, which are compounded by the statements of some Israeli ministers that there should never be a Palestinian state,” according to the eight-page report.
Amid a spike in violence, the Quartet also criticised Palestinian leaders for “not consistently and clearly” condemning terrorist attacks and said illicit arms build-up and militant activities in Gaza must stop.
Netanyahu’s office and spokesman for Palestinian president both express disappointment over report
According to diplomatic sources, the report carries significant political weight as it has the backing of close Israeli ally the United States, which has struggled to revive the peace talks amid tensions between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama.
Relations between the rightist Israeli leader and the Democratic president have yet to recover from their feud over last year’s US-led nuclear deal with Iran.
Netanyahu’s office welcomed some aspects of the Quartet report but said Israel took issue with numerous factual and policy assertions. The report also “perpetuates the myth that Israeli construction in the West Bank is an obstacle to peace”, the statement said.
Nabil Abu Rdainah, the spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, expressed disappointment with the Quartet report.
“Any report that does not include the full withdrawal to the 1967 borders, including occupied Jerusalem, and does not include a recognition of the illegality of settlement will not lead to real and lasting peace and will lead to more tension and more instability in the region,” he said in a statement.
The Quartet said urgent affirmative steps should be taken to “prevent entrenching a one-state reality of perpetual occupation and conflict”.
The report said Israel had taken for its exclusive use some 70 per cent of Area C, which makes up 60 per cent of the occupied West Bank and includes the majority of agricultural lands, natural resources and land reserves.
Under the Oslo accords of the mid-1990s, Israel retains full control over Area C, where large tracts have been declared closed military areas.
It said only one permit for Palestinian housing construction in Area C was reportedly approved in 2014, while there did not appear to have been any approved in 2015.
The report said at least 570,000 Israelis were living in the settlements, which most countries deemed illegal.
The Palestinians want an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem – areas Israel captured in 1967. The last round of peace talks broke down in April 2014 and Israeli-Palestinian violence has surged in recent months.
