Author
IMEMC
5:00 mp3
Dr. Mustapha Barghouti, Head of the Palestinian Medical Relief Committee and former Presidential Candidate, comments on the Sharm al-Shaikh "Peace talk" today
also, a produced 4:00 piece about Sharm al-Shaikh
lede:
The Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas is meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon today at Sharm al-Sheikh resort in Egypt, in the first meeting between the two sides in over four years. Mahmoud Abbas will be announcing a cease-fire by Palestian groups, while Sharon is expected to balk at making any definite offers to the Palestinian Authority.
report:
With Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas securing yesterday a ceasefire by all Palestinian resistance groups, U.S. and Israeli officials are expressing their support for Abbas, a man who just last year was called an "American agent" by prominent Palestinians.
Today Abbas is facing the challenge of negotiating with the government of Israel, a government whose military has been occupying the territory of Palestine for over 30 years. Israel is the only country in the Middle East that possesses a store of over 100 nuclear warheads, as well as maintaining chemical and biological weapons programs. The Israeli army, the sixth-largest in the world in per-capita spending, while the provisional Palestinian government, the Palestinian Authority, has no army.
The main issues for the Palestinian Authority in these talks are the release of the 8,000 Palestinian political prisoners held by prisoners, the right of return for Palestinian refugees, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will be pushing for the ongoing expansion of Israeli settlements and maintaining Israeli control over the city of Jerusalem. The planned evacuation of Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip, unheard of in Israeli history, has brought militant opposition from Israeli groups, and put Sharon under considerable pressure to maintain control of much of the West Bank. The possibility of Israel handing over control of five West Bank cities to the Palestinian Authority is not off the table, but hasn't been mentioned by either side as a likely outcome of today's talks.
Head of the Palestinian Medical Relief Committee and former Presidential Candidate Mustapha Barghouti:
Todays talks are being accompanied by a complete cease-fire by Palestinian resistance groups. Israel has not agreed to any weakening of its military occupation, but has agreed to temporarily halt extrajudicial assassinations of Palestinian leaders -- executions that are illegal according to the Geneva Conventions.
Israel has also agreed to release 500 of the 8,000 Palestinian prisoners currently held in Israeli jails and detention camps, with several hundred more being released over the next three months.
Khamel Hamid, with the Palestinian Authority in Bethlehem :
The number of Palestinian prisoners being released this week is roughly equal to the number of Palestinians arrested by Israeli authorities each month, according to a recent report by the Israeli human rights group B'tselem. At least 500 prisoners are going on hunger strike beginning today to protest the failure of the Palestinian leadership to successfully negotiate their release before the summit began.
But while talks were underway in Sharm al-Sheikh, Israeli forces invaded a village east of Ramallah, closed the road to Nablus, and erected a new checkpoint near Qalqilia. Also, an Israeli court released a commander charged with 'confirming the kill' of a 13-year old Palestinian girl in Gaza, and the Israeli High Court issued a ruling allowing for the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank, and the construction of the Israeli annexation wall deep within Palestinian territory.
Judeh Jamal, executive director of the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee:
Meanwhile, while many Palestinians are placing their hope in Abbas' ability to negotiate, the Palestinian resistance movements are reserving judgment until after the Summit is completed.
E-mail
Link