GAZA CITY: Standing on the rubble of an apartment building destroyed during Israel’s recent offensive, Northern Ireland politician Gerry Adams yesterday called on Israel and the Palestinians to stop fighting and negotiate an end to their decades-old conflict.
Adams, president of Sinn Fein, is in Gaza as part of a tour of Israel and the Palestinian territories. He called Gaza’s reconstruction “a necessity” and said all fighting should cease to allow for negotiations.
During his Gaza tour, Adams drove through a heavily damaged neighborhood and past tent camps inhabited by displaced Gazans since the war’s end on Jan. 18. Israel launched the three-week offensive Dec. 27 to end rocket fire on southern Israel by the Islamist group Hamas, which governs Gaza.
Palestinian human rights groups say more than 1,400 people were killed, including more than 900 civilians, while Israel insists most of the dead were militants. Thousands of buildings and much of Gaza’s infrastructure were destroyed or damaged.
Adams toured the ruins of an ice cream factory and of the American International School of Gaza, a US-style school the Israeli Army flattened during the offensive because it said militants launched rockets from nearby.
Israel and Egypt have kept Gaza’s borders largely closed since Hamas seized Gaza in June 2007. Restrictions on cement and other building materials — which Israel says could benefit Hamas — have largely prevented any reconstruction effort.
Adams was considered a key player in the Northern Ireland peace process for his ability to negotiate with both politicians and combatants. While discouraging comparisons between Ireland and the Middle East, Adams did refer to his home country.
“If there is one lesson out of Ireland, it’s that dialogue works,” he said. The international community has a responsibility to encourage this process, he said.
During his two-day visit to Gaza, Adams is meeting with UN officials, civil society leaders and Zakariya Al-Agha, a leading member of Hamas’ political rival, the Fatah movement of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Meanwhile, stone-throwing Israeli settlers and Palestinian villagers in the West Bank clashed near the site of an ax attack last week that killed a Jewish teenager, leaving at least eight Palestinians wounded.
The Palestinians were wounded when Israeli troops fired tear gas and live ammunition to break up the disturbances, medics said. One person was in serious condition.
Safa and the neighboring Jewish settlement of Bat Ayin have a long history of poor relations. But tensions have been heightened since a Palestinian wielding a pickax last week killed a 13-year-old boy and wounded a 7-year-old boy. The assailant fled and has not been caught.
The Israeli military said yesterday’s violence erupted when settlers from Bat Ayin went to a ridge on the edge of Safa to recite a traditional Jewish “blessing for the sun” — an open-air ritual that is performed once every 28 years.
