JERUSALEM: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper rebuffed journalists' questions' regarding his country's stance on Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank

Record ID: 397988

  • Title: JERUSALEM: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper rebuffed journalists' questions' regarding his country's stance on Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank
  • Date: 21st January 2014
  • Summary: JERUSALEM (JANUARY 21, 2014) (REUTERS FOR POOL) ISRAELI PRESIDENT, SHIMON PERES, MEETING HARPER HARPER AND PERES ENTERING BUILDING HARPER SIGNING GUEST BOOK PERES WATCHING PERES AND OFFICIALS WATCHING WHILE HARPER SIGNS GUEST BOOK (SOUNDBITE) (English) ISRAELI PRESIDENT, SHIMON PERES, SAYING: "I want to thank you for your outstanding friendship, we have many friends, but
  • Embargoed: 5th February 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Jerusalem, Israel
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAETN2ZYWYZMXI3F8VPKUM4RZVN
  • Story Text: In a news conference with Israel's leadership on Tuesday (January 21) Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper rebuffed journalists' questions' regarding his country's stance on Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank.
    Harper and a large delegation of ministers and officials arrived in the Middle East on Sunday (January 19) for a six-day visit aimed to include Israel, the West Bank and Jordan.
    On Monday (January 20) he met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and spoke in the Israeli parliament where he criticised comparisons between the Jewish state and apartheid South Africa.
    "I'm not here to single out Israel for criticism," Harper said on Tuesday during a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
    "I find it, you know, interesting, let me just make it as an observation, that yesterday in the Palestinian Authority, no one asked me there no asked me there, to single out the Palestinian Authority in terms of governance or human rights or anything else, I'm asked to single out Israel, when I'm in Israel I'm asked to single out Israel, when I'm in the Palestinian Authority I'm asked to single out Israel and in half the other places around the world you ask me to single out Israel," Harper said.
    Speaking alongside his Canadian counterpart, Netanyahu blamed Abbas for refusing to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, an issue considered one of a number of stumbling blocks in peace negotiations currently underway.
    "Will you recognize the nation state of the Jewish people, will you co-exist?" Netanyahu asked. "Here's the core of the conflict and here is the key to its solution."
    Harper also met with Israeli President Shimon Peres, who thanked Harper for the stalwart support of his government on the diplomatic stage.
    "I want to thank you for your outstanding friendship, we have many friends, but nobody knows to speak friendly the way you do. You really get the feeling what friendship is," Peres said.
    According to the Canadian prime minister's website, during his meetings with Israel's leadership Harper was to discuss bilateral issues as well as the Middle East peace process and regional security.
    Canada has long backed Israel on the diplomatic stage, voting in 2012 against a Palestinian U.N. bid to win statehood and in the same year cutting ties with Iran.
    Palestinian official Nabil Shaath, in an op-ed published in the Canadian Globe and Mail on Monday, voiced disappointment over what Palestinians see as Harper's pro-Israel tilt.
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