Source: ft.com, 30-8-2007
Jerusalem (al-Quds) - "Israeli" infrastructure that divides the West Bank and confines 2.5m Palestinians to enclaves does not provide a basis for a two-state solution to the conflict, said a United Nations report on Thursday.
The critical report from the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs comes at a time when diplomatic efforts are expected to pick up pace amid what Michael Williams, the world body's outgoing Middle East co-ordinator, calls "signs of hope".
Mr. Williams also pointed to the Jewish settlements in his final briefing to the UN Security Council on Wednesday before taking up his post as envoy for Gordon Brown, the UK prime minister. "Settlement activity undermines hope for a contiguous Palestinian state," he said.
Almost 40 per cent of the West Bank is off-limits to Palestinians because of "Israeli" settlements, military infrastructure and a system of roads designed to ease access for Jewish (Zionist) settlers (see map below), justified by "Israel" as protection from terrorism.
The report points out: "These measures are also intimately linked to maintaining settler access and their quality of life."
"Israel" took the West Bank, East Jerusalem (al-Quds) and the Gaza Strip in 1967. Settlements are deemed illegal under international law, but about 450,000 Jewish settlers now live in East ‘Jerusalem' and the West Bank. Settlers left Gaza in 2005.
The West Bank closely resembles "Israeli" proposals first made after the 1967 war in terms of infrastructure and territory set aside for Palestinians. Restrictions have tightened since the intifada uprising began in 2000 through the enclave system and the building of a separation barrier.
A US-sponsored Middle East conference is due to be held in November although little has been decided yet.
Ehud Olmert, "Israel's" prime minister, came to power promising pull-outs from the West Bank, but was left badly weakened by last year's Lebanon war. Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, lost control in Gaza when the Islamic movement Hamas seized power in June.
Nonetheless, Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, and Tony Blair, the new international Middle East envoy, are due in the region next month to nudge both sides towards progress.
Observers say that Mr. Williams, as British envoy, might have more leeway to push for a peace deal than Mr. Blair, who would have to take his lead from the US.