Palestine
Donor nations: Israel must lift West Bank barriers
By Avi Issacharoff and Asaf Uni
May 2, 2008, 01:40

Donor states to the Palestinian Authority are expected to express grave concern for the suffering of the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip at a conference that opens Friday in London.

A meeting of the Middle East Quartet of peacemakers will take place on the sidelines of this conference, chaired by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and attended by several Arab foreign ministers. They will discuss ways of developing economic institutions in the West Bank and Gaza.

Diplomatic sources said the donor states' closing statement will call for the opening of the Gaza border crossings and express concern over Israel's increasing traffic restrictions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Conference delegates will present a World Bank report censuring Israel for not doing enough to help the Palestinian Authority by removing roadblocks or reducing traffic restrictions to help revive the Palestinian economy.

According to UN figures, there are 612 roadblocks and obstructions, a rise of more than 60 percent compared to their number when the freedom of access and movement agreement was signed in 2005.

Palestinian sources said the PA was acting to bring about a denunciation of Israel at both the conference and the Quartet's meeting. The conference's closing statement is also expected to praise the PA for beginning to implement Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's reforms.

Sources in Jerusalem on Thursday said that the Quartet is expected to support Russia's plan to convene an international peace conference in Moscow. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has been making efforts to bring about this event, with the encouragement of PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

Palestinian sources say Abbas believes that such a conference in Moscow would force Israel to speed up the peace talks, or alternatively, lead to harsh criticism of Israel if it refuses.

However, a senior PA official blasted Russia's conduct. He said the Russians have been playing a double role, wishing to mediate between Hamas and Fatah while at the same time keeping open channels to Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas, so as to act as a counterbalance to the United States.

British Middle East envoy Michael Williams said yesterday that Israel's failure to remove West Bank roadblocks is a source of "grave concern."

However, he said a balance must be struck between removing the roadblocks, which is essential for the Palestinian economy's growth, and Israel's security needs. Fayyad is expected to call on the donor states to pressure Israel to remove the roadblocks.

Conference host Britain said it intended to ensure that the donor states meet their undertaking to contribute $7.7 billion to building economic institutions in the Palestinian Authority, as they resolved to do at the Paris conference in December.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who will represent Israel in London, is expected to meet her Egyptian counterpart Aboul Gheit there. The two, who have not met since their highly publicized confrontation in December over arms smuggling from Sinai into Gaza, are expected to discuss the peace process between Israel and the PA and the situation in the Gaza Strip.

Livni is also due to discuss the Iranian nuclear program and the peace talks with Ban and with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. She is also scheduled to meet Foreign Secretary David Miliband, and Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/980061.html

Related articles: (use Haaretz' URL for access )
Top U.S. official: America would look favorably on PA request for additional funding
State recycles promise to remove dozens of roadblocks in the West Bank
Human rights groups call on Israel to stop limiting fuel to Gaza