Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Biodun Iginla, BBC News
Showing posts with label Mahmud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mahmud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Show all posts

Monday, October 9, 2017

Women march to Jerusalem to ask for peace


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© Menahem Kahana, AFP | Israeli and Palestinian activists of the Women Wage Peace movement march in Jerusalem on October 8, 2017, as they end a two-week peace march.
Video by FRANCE 24

Latest update : 2017-10-09  08H09  GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Jenny Feder and Biodun Iginla, France24, Jerusalem. Disclosure: Jenny  Feder and Biodun Iginla had a romantic relationship when she was based in New York.

Thousands of Israeli and Palestinian women arrived in Jerusalem Sunday at the end of a two-week march through Israel and the West Bank to demand a peace deal.

The Women Wage Peace movement organised the march, which began on September 24 and included participants who have themselves been affected by violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Several thousand activists joined the march over the two weeks.
Several thousand women, mostly Israelis, arrived in Jerusalem late on Sunday, mostly dressed in white and carrying placards calling for peace.
TWEET WOMEN WAGE PEACE
One of the organisers, Marie-Lyne Smadja, said the march was meant to "give voice to those tens of thousands of Israeli Jewish and Arab women of the left, centre and right, and their Palestinian partners, who hand in hand together took this road towards peace."
"Israeli women want to prevent the next war if possible and try as soon as possible to reach an agreement between Israelis and Palestinians," she said.
Huda Abuarquob, another organiser and a Palestinian from Hebron in the occupied West Bank, said: "This march is not just another protest, but a way of saying that we want peace, and together we can obtain it."
The march comes at a time when many analysts see little hope for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas is 82 and unpopular, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads what is seen as the most right-wing government in his country's history.
In 2015, Women Wage Peace members fasted in relays over 50 days, the length of the 2014 war between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.
"The men who have power believe only in war, but with the strength of women we can bring something else, something new," said Amira Zidan, an Arab Israeli mother of one of the organisation's founders.
Sunday's arrival in Jerusalem coincides with the week-long Jewish holiday of Sukkot, which commemorates the Jews' journey through the Sinai after their exodus from Egypt.
Earlier Sunday, thousands of Jews gathered at Jerusalem's Western Wall for a priestly blessing held during the holiday each year.

Date created : 2017-10-09

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Thursday, August 24, 2017

Pessimism as Kushner set for Israeli-Palestinian talks


by Jenny Feder and Biodun Iginla, France24, Jerusalem. Disclosure: Jenny Feder and Biodun Iginla had a romantic relationship when she was based in New York.


    © AFP/File / by Mike Smith | File picture taken on August 11, 2017 shows White House adviser Jared Kushner listening as US President Donald Trump speaks to the press on at his Bedminster National Golf Club in New Jersey

    JERUSALEM - 
    White House aide Jared Kushner meets Israeli and Palestinian leaders Thursday with the aim of restarting long-stalled peace talks, but pessimism is high over President Donald Trump's pledge to reach the "ultimate deal".
    The visit comes with both Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not in position to make major concessions, some analysts say, and no details have emerged of how Trump's team would overcome that.
    Trump also faces a range of crises in addition to controversies at home that may make it difficult for him to focus on the complexities of a major Israeli-Palestinian peace push.
    "President Trump has made it clear that it is a top priority for him to work toward achieving a comprehensive and lasting peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians," a US official said.
    "He remains optimistic that progress toward a deal can be achieved."
    The visit is part of a regional tour by Kushner, who is also Trump's son-in-law, Trump aide Jason Greenblatt and Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell.
    They have also held talks with Egyptian, Saudi, Emirati, Qatari and Jordanian officials.
    "I think (Israeli-Palestinian conflict) clearly remains important, important enough that senior officials continue to engage on it, including Jared Kushner," Dan Shapiro, US ambassador to Israel under Barack Obama, told journalists this week.
    "But given the very poor prospects of a significant political breakthrough, I'd be surprised it if warrants a major investment by the president."
    Palestinian leaders have grown frustrated with the White House after initially holding out hope that Trump could bring a fresh approach to peace efforts despite his pledges of staunch support for Israel.
    Trump aides have held a series of meetings with both sides, portraying them as hearing out concerns before deciding on a way forward, while the US president himself visited Israel and the Palestinian territories in May.
    But Palestinian leaders note that the White House has not even said clearly whether its focus will be a two-state solution to the conflict, which has been longstanding US policy.
    The two-state solution envisions an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel and has been the focus of international diplomacy for years.
    - Dissolve the PA? -
    When Trump met Netanyahu at the White House in February, he said he would support a single state if it led to peace, delighting right-wing Israelis who want to annex most of the West Bank, but raising deep concern among Palestinians.
    Signalling their frustration, some Palestinian leaders have spoken of taking a harder line in recent days.
    Ahmed Majdalani, a senior Palestinian Liberation Organisation official who is close to Abbas, told us at France24  that one option if no progress is reached would be to dissolve the Palestinian Authority -- a threat that has been made in the past.
    That would in theory leave Israel with the responsibility of governing and providing services to Palestinian cities in the occupied West Bank.
    But at the same time, Majdalani said they could also unilaterally declare Palestinian statehood.
    He said it was an option under consideration because "the American administration has not presented any initiative until now, while the Israelis continue with their settlement activities and refuse to abide by obligations they signed up to."
    Netanyahu is meanwhile under pressure from his right-wing base not to make any concessions to the Palestinians and to continue Israeli settlement building, and there is little incentive at the moment for him to change course, some analysts say.
    He is also facing a graft investigation that limits his room for political manoeuvre, Shapiro noted.
    Shapiro, currently a fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies think-tank in Tel Aviv, said the focus should instead be on short-term goals such as improving the Palestinian economy in order to keep the possibility of a two-state solution alive.
    "I believe (Trump's) leverage has declined considerably, at least from the point-of-view of getting major concessions or a commitment to a major programme toward two states from the leaders, so that's why I think the shift should come to the more practical on-the-ground steps," he said.


     
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