New Israeli settlements a concern for New Zealand
New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully says his country is deeply concerned at the announcement by Israel’s Civil Administration Authority that they will appropriate 400 hectares of privately owned Palestinian land near Bethlehem for Israeli settlements.
Murray McCully
“Israel’s settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem undermine efforts to negotiate a final status agreement with the Palestinians based on a two state solution,” Mr McCully says.
“In a meeting with Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister at the UN SIDS Conference in Apia this morning, I encouraged Israel to reconsider the announcement.
“Its timing is particularly disappointing, coming when the focus should be on supporting the ceasefire in Gaza, and the peace talks in Cairo, not deepening Israel’s occupation in the West Bank.
“New Zealand would like to see a return to negotiations to agree on a two state solution, whereby Israel and a Palestinian state can exist peacefully side by side.
“Announcements like this are deeply unhelpful to efforts to restart peace negotiations,” Mr McCully says.
Israel has offered ‘the Palestinians’ a state numerous times, I understand in the West Bank and also in Gaza – and always the offer has been spat upon. With the passing of the years, I doubt that the Two State Solution is ever going to come, especially given how Gaza was promptly converted into an urban rocket launch-site paradise – rocket launching, being far the preferred activity to the humble art of market gardening and agriculture in general.
It is a great pity that the Israeli Govt. never deems it fit to tell people like McCully and others to butt out and go and “deeply concern” themselves with something else and that the two state solution is dead and buried.
Don’t you want peace? Israel has failed to establish peace for decades and the international community has suppressed it’s outrage at Israel’s actions for long enough. There can be no security for Israel while it provokes its neighbours with land grabs and illegal settlements. Any other nation would be sanctioned for far less. Israel is doomed to repeat this violent cycle if something does not change.
Lara D,
Time and time again the so called “Palestinians” have rejected every offer of peace. It is abundantly clear to all who know history and are not being duped by the media that the only peace these people are looking for with Israel is the peace of the grave.
There is no point in trying to give you a meaningful history lesson in a few short lines of this site. The real hurdle would be where to start.
I agree, he could’ve gone through the embassy if he had any concerns istead of the media if he had any goodwill.