A Palestinian official Thursday dismissed Israel's planned withdrawal from Gaza as a "recipe for continuing Palestinian suffering" as long as Israel continues to build settlements on the West Bank and there are no negotiations for an overall peace accord.
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While Israel prepares to give up its settlements in Gaza it is building many more on the West Bank, constructing a separation barrier and insulating Jerusalem, said Hassan Abu Libdeh, the Palestinian minister of Labor and Social Affairs. In those circumstances, "the disengagement does not represent a step forward," the Cornell-educated economist said at the 20th anniversary dinner of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a private research group. "It is a recipe for continuing Palestinian suffering."
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"The Israelis have to stop violence against Palestinians everywhere," he said. Sharing the platform with him, Israeli Transportation Minister Meir Shitrit also spoke warily of the Israeli pullback from the contested territory where 7,000 Israelis will lose their homes, probably this summer. "There will be no more unilateral disengagements," he said. "They will depend on stopping terror." |