Back to...

GET VISIBLE! Advertise Here. Find Out More




Share Our Stories! - Click Here






 

Israel Won’t Divide
Jerusalem in Future Peace Talks


By Stephen Lendman
stephenlendman.org
7-16-17

 
Decades of Israeli/Palestinian peace talks were dead on arrival each time initiated because Israel doesn’t negotiate.

It demands, offering nothing in return but empty promises - consistently broken every time, why “negotiating” is a waste of time. Nothing is ever accomplished, furthering equity and justice for long-suffering Palestinians.

Refusing to equitably negotiate the status of Jerusalem in future talks rules out holding them.

On Sunday, Israeli hardliners dominating its ministerial committee for legislation unanimously backed a measure, making it virtually impossible for Palestinians to have East Jerusalem as their exclusive capital - if it passes three Knesset readings and at least two legislative committee write-ups.

Current law requires a simple 61-vote Knesset majority for another government, entity, or Palestinians to have control over any part of Israel.

The proposed measure raises the threshold to a minimum 80-vote super-majority. With two weeks left in the current Knesset session, readings on it won’t be scheduled until MKs return in October.

Debate in the fall may change current provisions, so it’s unclear what the final bill will look like if enacted, which appears certain in some form.

On July 30, 1980, the Knesset-enacted Jerusalem Law annexed the city as Israel’s exclusive capital.

Months earlier on March 1, 1980, UN Security Council Resolution 465 declared that “all measures taken by Israel to change the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure or status of the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, or any part thereof, have no legal validity and that Israel’s policy and practices of settling parts of its population and new immigrants in those territories constitute a flagrant (Fourth Geneva) violation…”

They “also constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East.”
 
On July 9, 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that "Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territory, including East Jerusalem, are illegal and an obstacle to peace and to economic and social development (and) have been established in breach of international law.”

Israel wants Jerusalem entirely Judaized, Palestinians ethnically cleansed to make way for exclusive Jewish development.

In early July, UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee passed a resolution, rejecting Israel’s claims of sovereignty over occupied East Jerusalem.
 
Netanyahu and his hardline coalition partners are committed to a united Jerusalem exclusively for Jews. Some form of the proposed legislation looks certain to past later this year.

VISIT MY NEW WEB SITE: stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman). Contact at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
 
My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.