ISRAEL: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he will accept a Palestinian state on the condition it is demilitarized and recognizes Israel

Record ID: 397243

  • Title: ISRAEL: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he will accept a Palestinian state on the condition it is demilitarized and recognizes Israel
  • Date: 15th June 2009
  • Summary: RAMAT GAN, ISRAEL (JUNE 14, 2009) (REUTERS) ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU ENTERING AUDITORIUM, AHEAD OF MAJOR POLICY SPEECH VARIOUS OF NETANYAHU STANDING ON PODIUM (SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU SAYING: "If we receive this guarantee for demilitarisation and the security arrangements required by Israel, and if the Palestinians
  • Embargoed: 30th June 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAES1EVQKGPUY4VXVY9TZMOBOJD
  • Story Text: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he will accept a Palestinian state on the condition it is demilitarized and recognizes Israel, as protests ahead of his speech turned to scuffles.
    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted on Sunday (June 14) the U.S.-backed goal of a Palestinian state but balked at meeting President Barack Obama's demand to stop Jewish settlement expansion.
    Netanyahu's reversal on statehood appeared to be a bid to end the worst rift in U.S.-Israeli relations in a decade. But further friction appeared likely over his refusal to budge on settlements.
    Netanyahu said he would support the establishment of a Palestinian state -- but only if Israel received in advance international guarantees the new nation would have no military and Palestinians recognised Israel as a Jewish state.
    "If we receive this guarantee for demilitarisation and the security arrangements required by Israel, and if the Palestinians recognise Israel as the nation of the Jewish people, we will be prepared for a true peace agreement (and) to reach a solution of a demilitarised Palestinian state alongside the Jewish state," Netanyahu said in the much anticipated address in Bar Ilan university.
    A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Netanyahu had not gone far enough. Palestinians have long resisted calls to declare that Israel is a Jewish state.
    But Netanyahu stood by his refusal to declare a complete settlement freeze sought by Washington under a 2003 peace "road map".
    "We have no intention to build new settlements and to expropriate land for new settlements," Netanyahu said at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv.
    "But there is a need to allow settlers to lead normal lives, to allow mothers and fathers to raise their children," he said, alluding to the concept of "natural growth" or construction within existing settlements.
    Obama, in a speech on June 4 aimed at repairing U.S. relations with Muslims, said such building must stop.
    In his address, Netanyahu, leader of right-leaning coalition, reiterated his readiness to meet Arab leaders and urged Palestinians to resume peace talks.
    But on the thorny issue of Palestinian refugees, Netanyahu repeated long-standing Israeli policy by saying they could not return to areas in Israel from which they fled or were forced to flee during a 1948 war that led to its creation.
    Israel says such an influx would erase the country's Jewish identity.
    It was not immediately clear whether Abbas would accept Netanyahu's call to resume talks.
    Abbas has said talks with Israel could not be renewed until Netanyahu accepted the goal of a two-state solution and halted settlements. A settlement freeze could fracture the governing coalition that came to power in Israel last March.
    In his address, Natanyahu also called upon Abbas to regain control of the Gaza Strip.
    "Above all Palestinians must make one important choice. They must decide between the way of peace and the way of Hamas. The Palestinian Authority must impose law and order in the Gaza Strip and overcome Hamas. Israel will not negotiate with terrorists trying to destroy it," he said.
    Earlier, peace activists and Jewish settlers both demonstrated outside of Bar Ilan university, where the speech took place.
    Holding signs reading 'American Jews say no to occupation', peace activists scuffled with police who tried to disperse them, resulting in the injury of one activist who was then evacuated by an ambulance.
    "As an American tax payer, and a Jew who does not support policies of the State of Israel, I wanted to come and express my opinions," Richard, an American peace activist told Reuters.
    Jewish settlers and right wing activists staged a simultaneous protest at the site, calling US President Obama a 'Jew hater' and 'Anti-Semitic'.
    "We came here to warn Netanyahu that if he betrays us again, he will have to count the days until we take him down the same way we did the last time. Because he was elected to guard the land of Israel, to go by the Bible, to listen to God, and he is going against God, against the Bible, and he will fall the same way Obama, as a Jew-hater, as an Anti-Semite, that starts with the people of the Holy Land, will fall," threatened ultra nationalist activist Baruch Marzel.
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