Caritas Jerusalem director welcomes peace talks but not optimistic

Jerusalem

While welcoming the resumption of peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinian Authority, brokered by US Secretary of State John Kerry, the path forward is fraught with many major obstacles, in particular the settlements which the Israelis are continuing to build in the Palestinian Territories, and the Separation Wall, Fr Raed Abusahliah, general director of Caritas Jerusalem said yesterday.

"The only way to solve problems is to negotiate" he said, but Fr Raed added that he did not have "too many" expectations."

According to Fr. Raed the beginning of a negotiation is always good news, and "even the decision to ask for a deadline, nine months, to reach an agreement is appropriate". On the other hand, "the Palestinian side is weak: President Abu Mazen does not have the support of Hamas, and even some groups of the OLP challenge the basis on which one began to discuss".

In particular, any excessive expectations on the outcome of further negotiations is fatally contradicted by the facts of the policy pursued by the Israeli government. "I am afraid that the solution: two peoples - two States is made impossable by the fact that within the Palestinian Territories there are already hundreds of settlements inhabited by thousands of settlers ideologically oriented and they continue to build new ones. Who has the power and the intention to convince them to leave? And then there is the Separation Wall that the Israelis are building and will try to propose as a new frontier, even if it does not correspond to the border established by the UN in 1967 and includes several Palestinian Territories.

"From the Churches and other religious communities point of view, the agreement should protect the freedom of movement and access to the Holy Places which has incredibly decreased since the beginning of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. After the Oslo agreements, freedom of access to Holy Places is no longer guaranteed. Many cities, including Ramallah, are surrounded by checkpoints. International guarantees for the implementation of any agreement are needed, especially with regard to the freedom of access to Holy Places".

Source: Fides