The Arab League has approved a package of measures aimed at countering what it calls “Israeli aggression” in East Jerusalem. Fourteen Arab heads of state, meeting at Sirte in Libya, discussed the building of Jewish settlements in the disputed area and passed a resolution which comprises political and legal initiatives to “confront Israel’s attempts to Judaise Jerusalem and the repeated aggression on its holy sites”.
Referring to the Israeli government’s settlement policy as a “dangerous obstacle” to achieving peace in the Middle East, the Arab leaders explicitly said they would not enter into any future peace talks with Israel until the Israelis stop building settlements.
They said: “The resumption of Palestinian-Israeli negotiations demands that Israel implements its legal commitments by stopping all settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem.”
They also earmarked $500 million to the Palestinian authorities in the West Bank for the building and repairing of schools and medical establishments as well as laying a foundation to prevent a change in the demographic situation in East Jerusalem in favour of the Israelis.
Israel’s construction of settlements in areas internationally recognised as belonging to a future independent Palestinian state is a major impediment to securing a comprehensive peace treaty between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
The recent visit by United States Vice-President Joe Biden to Israel was marred by the Israeli government’s announcement that it intends to build 1,600 new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, a clear violation of United Nations Security Council resolution 446 which states that the construction of Jewish homes in Palestinian areas occupied by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War has “no legal validity and constitutes a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East”.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton responded to the decision to build new settlements as an “insult to the US” as Mr Biden, according to Mrs Clinton, had visited the region in an attempt to kick start peace negotiations there.
As a result of the Israeli announcement, relations between the US and Israel have become strained. Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, was quoted as saying that relations between the two countries are “facing the most severe crisis since 1975” – the year in which the United States called on Israel to partially withdraw its forces from Sinai in Egypt, then under Israeli occupation.
