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Rights orgs: Uphold international law at Annapolis
The following letter was sent on 26 November 2007 to key negotiating parties including the President of the Palestinian National Authority, the Israeli Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, and EU and UN Officials: As Palestinian human rights and civil society organizations, we the undersigned, are deeply concerned by the lack of a clearly articulated legal framework for the upcoming diplomatic negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) to be held at Annapolis on 27 November.
The Palestinian protest against the Annapolis conference
As leaders commenced the Annapolis conference in Maryland USA, Palestinians took to the streets in the West Bank city of Ramallah and Gaza city in protest against the conference. In Ramallah scores of Palestinians responded to the call by the popular committees against the Wall and a number of Palestinian nongovernmental organizations to protest in the city center. The protesters called for the Palestinian delegation at the conference not to make any more compromises until Israel ends its occupation of Palestinian land.
"Abbas a traitor" chant thousands at Hamas rally
Tens of thousands of Palestinians joined an anti-Annapolis rally in Hamas-run Gaza on Tuesday, chanting "Death to Israel, death to America" and calling President Mahmoud Abbas a traitor for attending the peace talks. Speaking at the protest in Gaza City, leaders of the Islamist group which seized the enclave from Abbas's forces in June said the president had no right to make concessions to Israel at the U.S.-sponsored conference near Washington.
PA police break up Ramallah rally, 1000s of Gazans protest summit
Baton-wielding Palestinian police, enforcing a ban on all West Bank activities related to the Annapolis summit, scuffled with protestors in Ramallah Tuesday morning as they broke up a small demonstration against the international meeting.
Israeli sources: PA has yet to sign joint statement
The Palestinian Authority has yet to agree to a joint statement formulated by the Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams in the U.S. late Monday night, sources in the Israeli delegation to the summit said Tuesday. The Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams met late into the night Monday in a failed attempt to finalize the statement, to be presented at Tuesday's Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland.
Palestinians in Lebanon expect little from Mideast meet - Feature: Beirut - Palestinians living in refugee camps in Lebanon on Monday said they had few expectations regarding the US-backed Middle East peace talks set to get underway on Tuesday in Annapolis, Maryland. "This is a photo-op session for the leaders - nothing more than that," said 76-year-old Palestinian shoemaker Ahmed Saloum, a resident of the Chatilla refugee camp on the outskirts of Beirut.
Chasing a ghost
If Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas is to be believed, the Annapolis peace conference "will be a historic opportunity to open a new page in the history of the Middle East based on the establishment of our independent Palestinian state". But this seems more like wishful thinking. For aside from being more concerned with preparing the ground for the approaching attack on Iran than with resolving the Palestinian Israeli conflict, the conference is subject to a set of limitations that combine to lower its threshold and shrink its potential.
Middle East push hits early snag
A US-championed Middle East peace summit hit an early snag Monday as Palestinian and Israeli negotiators struggled to agree on a written framework for future negotiations, officials said. The hurdle did little to dampen sunny forecasts for the three-day drive to thaw frozen peace talks, as US President George W. Bush warmed up leaders on all sides with a warning not to repeat mistakes that doomed past efforts.
PM: Arabs should open consular offices in Israel follwing summit
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday that he expects Arab states to open consular offices in Israel following the Annapolis summit. Olmert told Ban that "every Arab or Muslim state which participates in the Annapolis summit should demonstrate its support of the process in this way."
Gaza trader's challenge
In a symbol of fragile hopes for this week's US-hosted Middle East peace conference, one Palestinian shopkeeper is selling souvenir mugs for the event - complete with instructions to smash them if talks break down. "Please keep this souvenir, but in case of the conference's failure; you are only asked to break the mug", read the mugs in English.
OPT: Gaza - date palms and olive trees on levelled land
Over the past two decades, farmers of the community of El Qarara in the Gaza Strip have seen their land levelled and some of it taken over completely as security zones were expanded. The ICRC is helping the farmers rehabilitate their land, livelihoods – and community spirit. "It was like paradise here. Everything was green. We had citrus trees and could export our products abroad," remembers Abdel, a farmer of El Qarara in the Gaza Strip. But this was many years ago.
While the world fiddles, genocide in Gaza is underway
The silent but real slow-motion genocide against the Gaza Strip's estimated 1.5 million inhabitants is being stepped up as the Israeli occupation army continues to blockade the east Mediterranean coastal territory for the sixteenth successive month. Moreover, apart from some symbolic consumer products such as flour, which Israel allows into the Gaza Strip, the Israeli government has decided to effectively stop allowing the entry of more than 200 important commodities into Gaza, including many varieties of medicine, essential food products and raw materials.
PM: Abbas welcome to consider separating Gaza from West Bank
As far as Israel is concerned, there will be no separation between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian Authority will need to fight terror there as part of negotiations, Army Radio quoted Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as saying Monday. However, if Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas wished to relinquish the Gaza Strip as a part of a future Palestinian state, that would be a new situation and would have to be discussed, Olmert said.
Annapolis conference finds little popular support in Middle East
JERUSALEM — The television set in Aroma Cafe was tuned to Fox News coverage of the Annapolis peace conference, but on Monday the sound had been muted and no one seemed to be paying attention.
Feature: Palestinian refugees dream of returning home on eve of Annapolis meeting
Abu Mohammed al-Hessi lives in the beach refugee camp to the west of Gaza City where he recounted his migration story to his grandchildren again and again. The 76-year-old sheikh left behind his house and land and fled to Gaza when Jewish forces attacked Palestinian villages and cities in 1948.
Hamas-sponsored conference opens in Gaza against Annapolis meeting
A Hamas-sponsored conference kicked off in Gaza City at noon on Monday in opposition to an upcoming U.S.-hosted peace conference to be held in Annapolis on Tuesday.
Hamas slams Annapolis, vows to keep fighting Israel
Vowing to go on fighting the "Zionist enemy", Hamas called Mahmoud Abbas the worst leader in Palestinian history on Monday and said he had no right to make concessions to Israel at the Annapolis peace conference.
Iran rebukes Saudi Arabia over Mideast conference
TEHRAN (AFP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad chided Saudi Arabia for taking part in a US-hosted Middle East peace meeting, after Arab participation in the event left Tehran isolated, media reported on Monday.
Iran: The uninvited guest a peace summit
Tuesday's Arab-Israeli peace summit in Annapolis, Maryland, is supposed to be about resolving long-standing Palestinian issues, the Golan Heights, and other contentious matters. But, increasingly, it is framed in the United States and Israeli media as a dual-purpose conference, the other being the containment of Iran.
Iraq won't attend Annapolis conference – official
Iraq will not participate in the Middle East peace conference to be held in Annapolis, Maryland, on Tuesday, an Iraqi foreign ministry official said.
US to offer specific Mideast proposals-Saudi official
The United States has offered Saudi Arabia assurances that it will offer specific proposals to help the Israelis and Palestinians forge a peace deal, a top Saudi official said on Monday.
Hamas: Abbas has no right to give up one inch of Palestine
Hours before the start of a U.S.-hosted Middle East peace conference, Gaza's Hamas rulers stepped up their attacks on Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, calling him a traitor and saying they would reject any decisions that come out of the international gathering.
Palestinian official: Israelis aren't serious
Palestinian advisors to President Abbas seem divided over atmosphere at negotiations table on eve of Annapolis conference, with Nabil Shaath spouting optimism and Nabil Abu Rdeneh doubting any progress can be made 'when the Israelis are divided amongst themselves.' Meanwhile Livni, Rice and Qureia gather for last-ditch effort to draft joint statement.
Fantasy vs. Reality in Palestine-Israel
The "Annapolis establishment," as it might be called -- those in Israel, Palestine, and the U.S. who have a vested interest in making the Annapolis summit look like producing something meaningful -- engaged in a strangely unreal burst of enthusiasm as the conference neared, predicting impossible successes and purporting to see a new level of U.S. determination to forge some kind of peace. Most Palestinians, intensely skeptical, know better.
Palestinians say final-status talks to start Wednesday
Final-status negotiations towards a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians will be formally launched here on Wednesday, a Palestinian official told AFP Monday. "The negotiations on the final status will begin on Wednesday in the presence of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas," Palestinian negotiator Yasser Abed Rabbo said.
Right-wing activists hold anti-Annapolis rally at Western Wall
Around 15,000 people on Monday took part in a demonstration at the Western Wall to protest the Annapolis Summit being held Tuesday in Maryland. Protest organizers challenged whether Israeli government representatives at the summit were heeding the wishes of the Jewish people and argued that the current Israeli government is performing like a dictatorship.
Dovish U.S. Jewish groups plan pro-Annapolis rally on Tuesday
A coalition of dovish American Jewish organizations are to hold a rally for Israeli-Palestinian Peace to coincide with the Annapolis Middle East peace conference on Tuesday.
Olmert: Israel, not U.S. Jews, will decide the future of Jerusalem
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Monday categorically rejected assertions by American Jewish leaders that Jerusalem is not an Israeli issue but "a Jewish one." The Jewish leaders are demanding that American Jews should have a say in any discussion about dividing Jerusalem.
FACTBOX-Names of participants in Annapolis meeting
The following is a list of attendees at the U.S.-hosted Middle East conference on Tuesday in Annapolis, Maryland, as provided to the State Department by participating countries and organizations...
Saudi official rules out handshake with Israelis
Saudi Arabia's participation in the U.S.-sponsored talks on Middle East peace was seen as a diplomatic coup for the Bush administration but the kingdom has made clear there will be no handshakes with Israeli officials.
ANALYSIS-Pangs at start of new push for Palestinian state
If ever there was a sign of the obstacles to U.S. President George W. Bush's goal of fathering a Palestinian state, it was in the haggling over a paper to chart the course to Middle East peace.
Analysis: To have any success in talks, PA delegates lower hopes
After years of bitter experience, only augmented by jet-lag, Palestinians have learned to lower expectations if they are to have any success in political talks. So now, even an unpleasant diplomatic "incident" at the Israeli delegation's Mandarin Orient Hotel here didn't faze the Palestinian team.
Mideast state dinner itself is statement
WASHINGTON - Throwing a fancy dinner party is never easy. But it takes the stress up a notch when some of the guests won't even shake hands. Monday night's dinner at the State Department for participants in the Mideast peace conference was akin to the Super Bowl of suppertime protocol.
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