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No Compromise On Settlements, Refugees : Arafat
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"Peace
cannot be established without the total end of the Israeli
occupation and the settlements," said Arafat (AFP)
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GAZA
CITY, April 15 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The
Palestinian leadership dismissed as "unacceptable" U.S.
President George W. Bush's support of Israel's claim to Palestinian
land occupied after the 1967 war and denial of the Palestinian
refugees’ right of return.
Palestinian
President Yasser Arafat warned there would be no peace in the region
until all Jewish settlements had been removed, reported Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
He
also asserted that the Palestinians would never relinquish their right
of return, stipulated by the U.N. General Assembly resolution
194.
"Peace
cannot be established without the total end of the Israeli occupation
and the settlements," Arafat said in an uncompromising televised
speech.
"Our
destiny is to defend our land, holy sites, Al-Quds and our right to
freedom, independence and the right of refugees to return to their
homeland," said the Palestinian leader, confined to his Ramallah
headquarters by the Israeli army for more than two years.
The
Palestinians were enraged after Bush said Israel could keep parts of
the territories it occupied after the 1967 war, saying it was
"unrealistic" to return to the pre-war borders.
Bush
also said after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at the
White House Wednesday, April 14, that Palestinian refugees must settle
in an eventual Palestinian state, essentially ruling out their right
of return to homes inside what is now Israel.
‘Unacceptable’
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Qorei
slammed Bush’s "absolute bias against the Palestinian
position." (AFP)
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Qorei denounced Bush's statements,
asserting that issues such as the refugees and final borders should be
determined in negotiations under the framework of the
internationally-sponsored roadmap plan.
"It
cannot be decided by the president of the United States what is
realistic and what is not realistic," a furious Qorei told
reporters.
He
also criticized Bush for not asking Israel to tear down its
controversial West Bank separation wall, which snakes
through large swathes of Palestinian lands and presets
boundaries of the future Palestinian state.
In
a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, the
Palestinian premier accused Washington of brazen bias against the
Palestinians, his office said.
The
U.S. position was "an absolute bias against the Palestinian
position, and we fully reject these unilateral measures and their
consequences," Qurei told Powell.
Thirty-two
draft resolutions criticizing Israel since 1972 have
never seen the light because the U.S. used its Security
Council veto to block them, the Guardian reported on September
24.
Pressures
Other
Palestinian officials urged the other members of the so-called Mideast
quartet, the E.U., Russia and the United Nations, to press Washington
to renege on its new position.
"We
would like the (other) members of the quartet to tell the Americans
that this cannot lead to any positive effect," Palestinian
Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said.
The
United Nations and the European Union earlier rebuked
Bush over the statements, saying they are against any change to
Israel’s borders.
Shaath
urged British Prime Minister Tony Blair to oppose Bush's policy shift
when they meet in Washington on Friday, April 15.
Speaking
on BBC radio, Shaath said: "I'd like very much to see Mr Blair
continue to explain to the Bush administration the folly of going into
this present situation and the dangers that it contains not only for
Israelis and Palestinians but for all the
Middle East".
Blair,
who has been on holiday in Bermuda, is to see U.N. Secretary General
Kofi Annan in New York on Thursday before proceeding to Washington for
talks with Bush.
Bush
had recently rebuffed
a request from his closest war ally British Prime Minister Tony Blair
to deploy a U.S.-led "monitoring force" to act as a buffer
between Israel and the Palestinians.
Adding
Fuel
The
Palestinian press reacted with similar consternation, accusing Bush of
adding fuel to the fire by capitulating to Sharon’s demands.
"Bush
has given Sharon everything that he wanted but he has certainly not
demonstrated the even-handedness and impartiality that the peace
process requires," said an editorial in the top-selling Al-Quds
daily.
Al-Hayat
Al-Jadida, the
official paper of the Palestinian Authority, said Bush had torpedoed
the roadmap, which envisages the creation of a Palestinian state next
year.
"Bush
is without doubt the first leader in the world to deliver the coup de
grace to a plan that he himself has drawn up," the paper said.
"These
declarations not only nullify the roadmap but destroy all hope for
negotiation or a settlement. The American position amounts to telling
the Palestinians "we are leading you to despair," it
asserted.
Under
the headline, "the Bushfour
declaration", the paper compared Bush's comments to the
1917 Balfour Declaration, when the British committed themselves to a
Jewish homeland in the state of Palestine.
Palestinian
factions earlier accused Bush of killing
stone dead the roadmap and called for all parties to pool
efforts for increasing resistance against Israeli occupation.
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