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Latest update: 21/07/2009
- European Union - France - Israel - Israeli settlements - Israeli-Palestinian conflict - West Bank
International pressure mounts on settlement issue
International pressure is growing over Israel's building project in an annexed Arab quarter of East Jerusalem (pictured). France has summoned the Israeli ambassador in Paris to demand a halt to Jewish settlement building.
Israel should avoid provocative actions in East Jerusalem, the Swedish presidency of the European Union said on Tuesday, as diplomatic pressure grew over its building project in the annexed Arab quarter.
"The Presidency of the European Union urges Israel to refrain from provocative actions in East Jerusalem, including home demolitions and evictions, as stated also by the Quartet 26 June 2009," said the statement.
"Such actions are illegal under international law," it added.
France has summoned the Israeli ambassador in Paris to demand a halt to Jewish settlement building in East Jerusalem, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Tuesday, following similar US action.
"The Israeli ambassador in Washington was summoned and the ambassador in Paris has now been summoned to the foreign ministry," Kouchner told reporters at a weekly news conference.
"He will be received this afternoon or tomorrow," he said, referring to Israel's envoy in France, Daniel Shek.
Separately, President Nicolas Sarkozy repeated "the need for a complete freeze" of settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, following a working lunch in Paris with his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak.
The Middle East quartet -- the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States -- called on the Jewish state to halt West Bank settlements at a meeting in the Italian city of Trieste last month.
The EU was concerned at the latest in a series of eviction orders issued to families in East Jerusalem, the statement continued.
"We have raised our concerns with the Israeli government and call on Israel to suspend these eviction notices immediately..." it added.
Israel has repeatedly resisted pressure from the United States and other major powers over its settlement programme on the West Bank, one of the main obstacles to the Middle East peace process with the Palestinians.
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Comments (5)
F24: Erasing the line between reporting and editorializing
The concluding paragraph of this lopsided story breathtakingly punctuated the bias that characterizes France 24's coverage of the Arab/Israel conflict. France 24 declared without attribution that the construction of homes by Jews, and not Arabs, on the territories claimed by Israel and the Arabs is "one of the main obstacles to the Middle East peace process". Of course, this France 24 statement is not a news report but a verbatim regurgitation of the patently disingenuous propaganda narrative advanced by the Palestinian Authority. Hamas, whose voter-ratified charter publicly calls for Israel's unconditional destruction, dominates the PA. The sole obstacle to peace, as far as Israel's negotiating partners are concerned, is Israel's existence. And the sole obstacle to truth, as far as readers of this Web site are concerned, is the flagrant disregard for journalism ethics the partisan activists masquerading as reporters exhibit in their professionalism at France 24
...and by the way
no-one puts words in my mouth, i say what i think unlike journalists. i am fluent in advanced mathematics, statistics and probability and i can predict things with high precision... (i dont like academics they got no balls)
PS. France 24 got the hottest female tv presenters! ;)
to Dsour, sao Paulo
Where does this comment comes from ? Stop being ridiculous ! The situation has nothing to do with France or our President. The article states that France and other members of the international community condemns the fact that Israel evicts family in order to establish Jewish families... to me this policy is an obvious provocation from Israel. Why don't they build new houses on "their" land ? Why do they always have to take somebody else's house ? Why is that somebody else necessarily non-jewish ?
Israel settlements
Stealing land for over 60 years is nothing more than theft and makes Israel look like its been built at the cost of suffering and misery to others. Devine rights aside.
International Pressure on Settlements????
Since when Jerusalem is a "settlement"? I want to know if the United States would demand that Sweden or France forbid muslims or buddists to live in a certain neighborhood of Stockholm or Paris what their response would be. Just go to the Arab sites and see if the building of one building in East Jerusalem is the cause of their refusal for peace. Nothing short of total eradication of Israel is acceptable to the Arabs. So Mr. Sarkozy, as far as I am concerned, you can just shove your comments.