Mideast - AFP
World can't be held hostage by Israeli settlers: Spain
Date: Mon, May 03, 2004
MADRID (AFP) - Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos accused Israeli settlers of obstructing peace, after a large majority of supporters of the ruling Likud party rejected a proposal that Israel withdraw unilaterally from the Gaza Strip (news - web sites).
The fate of six million Israelis and three million Palestinians hung on the decision of "50,000 people who are settlers and do not want to leave Gaza or the West Bank and are blocking all momentum towards peace," Moratinos told Telecino television on Monday.
The international community "can no longer be held hostage by so few people," said Moratinos, once the EU's special envoy to the Middle East.
Moratinos also condemned Sunday's shooting of a pregnant Israeli woman and her four young daughters by two Palestinians in Gaza.
The Palestinian gunmen were also killed in the attack.
Official results of a referendum held in Israel on Sunday showed that 59.5 percent of Likud voters who took part opposed a plan by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) to withdraw unilaterally from the Gaza Strip, home to some 8,000 Jewish settlers in 21 settlements and 1.5 million Palestinians.
About 96,700 registered party members, or 40 percent of the total, took part in the ballot and 39.7 percent approved the plan.
"The international community should take its responsibilities because we cannot support the policy of settlement of territories occupied by Israel. This must be said clearly," Moratinos stressed.
SOURCE
FAIR USE NOTICE
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.