Israeli daily, Haaretz, reported that EU Foreign Ministers are expected to issue a condemnation of Israel’s actions in the occupied West Bank, and the escalating attacks carried out by extremist settlers against the Palestinians and their property. Netanyahu’s Envoy meets Abbas in Ramallah.The 27 Ministers are also expected to demand Israel to lift its restrictions that are hindering construction and economic development in Area “C” in the West Bank that falls that under the Oslo Accords falls temporarily under full Israeli control.
The report, Haaretz said, details Israeli violations in the West Bank over the past several months, and denounces Israel for its expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank, and in occupied East Jerusalem.
The report also denounces the increasing and escalating attacks carried out by extremist Israeli settlers, and calls on Israel to prosecute the assailants.
On Saturday evening, Israeli envoy Yitzhak Molcho, met Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas in the central West Bank city of Ramallah and handed him a letter written by Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in response to a letter sent by Abbas on April 17 detailing the Palestinian vision for resuming peace talks.
During the meeting that was also attended by Palestinian Chief Negotiator, Dr. Saeb Erekat, Abbas stressed on the importance of ending the suffering of the detainees by releasing them, especially those who have been imprisoned since before the Oslo peace agreement was signed in 1994.
Abbas added that Israel must end its solitary confinement polices, and must stop all of its violations against the detainees, including allowing families of Gaza Strip detainees to be able to visit their imprisoned loved one.
Furthermore, the Palestinian President said that “the road to the resumption of peace talks requires ending all settlement activities, including in occupied East Jerusalem, and accepting the two-state solution”.
