Press Release (14 February 2001)
Israeli caretaker Prime Minister Ehud Barak said today that
he "expects the world to act to influence the Palestinian Authority and its
leader in order to put a halt to the terror and violence." Ambassador Nasser
Al-Kidwa, Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations, made the
following comments in response:
Yesterday, the same Mr. Barak sent his "heartfelt
congratulations" to the army for yet another assassination of a Palestinian
man, stating that this policy would in fact continue. These remarks by Mr.
Barak effectively make him the only public official in the world who
officially condones the crime of extra-judicial killing and clearly lead to
further violence. In addition to the statement by Mr. Barak, a barrage of
statements have been made by Israeli officials, including the Foreign Ministry
Director-General, the trio dispatched to Washington, D.C., and another envoy
dispatched to Paris. These statements spoke of "Palestinian violence",
attacked President Yasser Arafat, and attempted to place responsibility on the
Palestinian side for the deterioration of the situation. Such pre-peace
process tactics and positions only further underscore the insistence by the
Israeli side to ignore the real reason for the conflict: the existence of the
Israeli occupation and the military violence carried out by the Israeli army
and Israeli settlers against the Palestinian people.
Unfortunately, these statements have been coupled with
statements made by the Prime Minister-elect, Mr. Ariel Sharon, as well as in
the so-called negotiated guidelines for the proposed coalition government
between the Israeli Likud and Labor parties, making it clear that the aim of
the government will be negotiating "interim agreements". That basically
amounts to discarding the existing agreements, burying the current peace
process, and not even attempting to have an alternative. The existing
agreements mandate the end of the interim period and the conclusion of a final
settlement between the two sides. The agreements do not allow for a perpetual
transitional period. Mr. Sharon and Mr. Barak well know that negotiations
aimed at imposing yet another interim agreement cannot be accepted by the
Palestinian people and their leadership.
We are very concerned at the serious situation unfolding,
wherein the Israeli side is destroying the peace process and the potential for
a final settlement and is causing further deterioration of the situation on
the ground by using more lethal force and other methods against the
Palestinian people.