GAZA CITY, 13 October 2007 — Former Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a senior Hamas leader, yesterday warned President Mahmoud Abbas against making too many concessions to Israel at a scheduled Middle East international summit in the US.
“There will be a new peace conference later this year, but this conference will bring great losses, not only for the Palestinian cause but the entire Arab and Muslim world,” said Haniyeh after leading thousands in prayer here.
In a Friday sermon delivered to a packed soccer stadium, Haniyeh called on Abbas to “reject new concessions to the Israeli occupation, on the refugees, on the land, on Jerusalem, to our sacred right to that holy land.”
Haniyeh spoke in a crowded football stadium after leading morning prayers marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan and the start of the Eid Al-Fitr holiday.
He went on to accuse Israel of using the conference as a way of naturalizing relations with Arab countries “without giving anything to the Palestinian people” and America of using the conference to advance its regional interests.
His remarks come with Israeli and Palestinian teams preparing the ground for the US-sponsored conference, expected next month and aimed at reviving the stalled Middle East peace process.
Israelis and Palestinians remain divided, however, on what they should agree before the peace conference.
The Palestinians want a detailed agreement and timeframe for implementing solutions to the thorniest issues in the conflict, including borders, sovereignty over Jerusalem, and the fate of 4.4 million refugees.
The Israelis want a more vague document with core issues left to bilateral talks after the conference.
Meanwhile, Israel denied yesterday that freshly ordered Arab land expropriations between Jerusalem and a key Jewish settlement would be used to expand settlements in the occupied West Bank.
“The confiscated land is intended to build roads, given the completion of the security fence around Jerusalem, and has nothing to do with any expansion of Maale Adumim,” Miri Eisin, a government spokeswoman, told AFP.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said late Thursday that she asked Israel for “clarification” over the confiscation orders, which sparked Palestinian fears that the land would be used to benefit Jewish settlers.
More than 400,000 people live in Jewish settlements across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in 1967 and where the Palestinians want to create their future state.
Under international law, all Israeli settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal. Jewish settlement activity has been one of several stumbling blocks precluding an agreement in past negotiations.
“Security is the aim. The fence has proven able to stop terrorist attacks, which incidentally, is in the Palestinian interest, because stopping attacks fosters a propitious climate for relaunching the peace process,” Eisin said.
Israel says its massive security wall, made of electric fencing, barbed wire and concrete walls, is needed to stop potential attackers from infiltrating the country and Jewish settlements.
The Palestinians denounce it as an “apartheid wall” aimed at grabbing their land and undermining the viability of their promised state.
In 2004, the International Court of Justice issued a nonbinding ruling that parts of the 650-kilometer wall criss-crossing the West Bank are illegal and should be torn down. Israel has vowed to complete the project.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev also denied that the land would be used to build settler homes, saying that the planned roads would instead ease traffic for the Palestinians by avoiding Israeli checkpoints.
“In keeping with commitments made to Washington, Israel is not building a residential district between Jerusalem and Maale Adumim,” he said.
Israel, however, has built a new West Bank police headquarters in the area.
— With input from agencies
