VARIOUS: PALESTINIAN FOREIGN MINISTER NASSER AL-KIDWA URGES PALESTINIANS TO HOLD MASS DEMONSTRATIONS AGAINST CONTROVERSIAL BARRIER
Record ID:
278304
VARIOUS: PALESTINIAN FOREIGN MINISTER NASSER AL-KIDWA URGES PALESTINIANS TO HOLD MASS DEMONSTRATIONS AGAINST CONTROVERSIAL BARRIER
- Title: VARIOUS: PALESTINIAN FOREIGN MINISTER NASSER AL-KIDWA URGES PALESTINIANS TO HOLD MASS DEMONSTRATIONS AGAINST CONTROVERSIAL BARRIER
- Date: 12th July 2005
- Summary: (BN11) JERUSALEM (JULY 10, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. MV ISRAEL PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON ARRIVING FOR WEEKLY CABINET MEETING 0.10 2. (SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) ISRAEL PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON, SAYING: "We will examine government ministry suggestions with regard to closing off the barrier around Jerusalem." 3. WIDE OF CABINET MEETING 0.27
- Embargoed: 27th July 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: JERUSALEM / QALANDIA CHECKPOINT AND RAMALLAH, WEST BANK / ABU DIS, WEST BANK
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Reuters ID: LVA92TDKEM8K64MDV6R3KZ0NRX0C
- Story Text: Palestinian foreign minister urges Palestinians to
hold mass demonstrations against controversial barrier.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Nasser al-Kidwa urged
Palestinians on Monday (July 11, 2005) to take an active role
in putting pressure on Israel to stop its construction of the
controversial West Bank barrier cutting off tens of
thousands of Palestinians from their land.
Al-Kidwa held a news conference in the West Bank city
of Ramallah, briefing Palestinian lawmakers, foreign
diplomats and ministers on the progress of the construction
and the impact on the lives of Palestinian populations
effected by the barrier.
During the conference, Al-Kidwa called on Palestinians
to hold mass demonstrations and quit participating in the
construction of the wall.
"There should be efforts toward a mass-movement that
will bring together broad demonstrations which would
constitute a higher level of daily confrontation against
the wall," said al-Kidwa and called on the Palestinian
Legislative Council to issue a law that prohibits working
on the construction of the barrier.
"Second, the legislative council should enact a law
which takes into consideration a decision by the PLO to
accede to the Geneva Conventions which consequently
prohibits the work of any Palestinian civilian or entry in
the construction of the wall or the settlements or in any
other measures in violation of the fourth Geneva Convention
and also protocol one which prohibits the trade involving
settlement products and any dealings with these
settlements," Al-Kidwa told reporters following a
presentation of maps of the barrier.
Some 55,000 Palestinian residents of Jerusalem will be
separated from work, schools and hospitals in the holy city
by September 1 when Israel's barrier is completed,
according to a cabinet decision on Sunday (July 11).
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has called for workers to
speed up building the barrier, which Israel says stops
suicide bombers and Palestinians call a grab for West Bank
land.
The cabinet on Sunday set September 1 as completion
date for the barrier around Jerusalem, which will separate
more than one-fifth of the Palestinian residents of the
city that they want as the capital of a future state.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled a year
ago that the barrier of concrete walls and razor
wire-tipped fences was illegal because it was built on
occupied land.
For long stretches the barrier follows roughly the
pre-1967 boundary line, but elsewhere it will loop deep
into the West Bank to take in Jewish settlements. More than
a third of the planned 600 km (370 mile) barrier has been
completed.
The Jerusalem barrier will make it harder for
Palestinians to reach East Jerusalem, which they seek as
the capital of an eventual independent state in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip.
Israeli ministers agreed on the need for arrangements
to let residents cross the barrier at 12 points as well as
expanding services such as schools and medical centres
beyond the obstacle at the Shuafat refugee camp and village
of Aqab.
Israel will only "close" the barrier after it judges
the basic needs of residents have been met, a cabinet
statement said.
At Qalandia checkpoint, part of the Jerusalem barrier,
a handful of Palestinians protested the construction of the
wall. Protesters held signs and chanted slogans against the
construction of the wall reaching into Palestinian
territory and annexing parts they seek for a future
Palestinian state.
European Union Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana held
a series of meetings with Israeli officials in Jerusalem
and was scheduled to hold talks with Palestinian leaders in
the coming days.
Solana, reacting to the cabinet decision, said the EU
will closely examine the impact of the barrier on
Palestinian populations and on future negotiations over
final status issues.
"We think that Israel has the right to defend itself
but we think that the fence which will stand outside the
territory of Israel is not legally proper and it creates
also humanitarian problems," Solana said during a news
conference with Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom.
"With the last part of the decision taken
yesterday, it's a part of the fence that would not be in
territory that is Israeli. It will also be in Palestinian
territory and it will create not only from a symbolic point
of view of Jerusalem, but also a real effect on the lives
of many people," he added.
Along with the other occupied territories, Israel
captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war. It
then annexed it as part of its own "indivisible capital" in
a move not recognised internationally.
The barrier has remained a major source of tension
between Israel and the Palestinians as Sharon prepares to
implement his plan to evacuate settlements in Gaza and a
corner of the West Bank starting in mid-August.
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