In an unusually frank insight into British assessments of Israeli intentions, the document says that Ariel Sharon's government is jeopardising the prospect of a peace agreement by trying to put the future of Arab East Jerusalem beyond negotiation and risks driving Palestinians living in the city into radical groups. The document, obtained by the Guardian, was presented to an EU council of ministers meeting chaired by the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, on Monday with recommendations to counter the Israeli policy, including recognition of Palestinian political activities in East Jerusalem.
But the council put the issue on hold until next month under pressure from Italy, according to sources, which Israel considers its most reliable EU ally.
Israel has described a recommendation for moving EU meetings with the Palestinian Authority from Ramallah to East Jerusalem in recognition of the Arab claim as "negative occurrence". It claims the eastern part of Jerusalem it occupied in the 1967 war is part of its "indivisible capital". Almost all governments maintain embassies in Tel Aviv because they do not recognise the Israeli claim.
The document, drawn up by the British consulate in East Jerusalem as part of the UK's presidency of the EU, says Israeli policies are designed to prevent Jerusalem from becoming a Palestinian capital, particularly settlement expansion in and around the city. It says Mr Sharon's plan to link Jerusalem with the large Ma'ale Adumim settlement in the West Bank by building thousands of new homes "threatens to complete the encircling of the city by Jewish settlements, dividing the West Bank into two separate geographical areas".
It adds: "Israeli activities in Jerusalem are in violation of both its Roadmap (peace plan) obligations and international law."
The Foreign Office also concludes that the vast concrete barrier, which Israel asserts is a security measure, is being used to expropriate Arab land in and around the city. "This de facto annexation of Palestinian land will be irreversible without very large-scale forced evacuations of settlers and the re-routing of the barrier."
The document says stringent Israeli controls on the movement of Palestinians in and out of the city are an attempt to restrict Arab population growth. "When the barrier is completed, Israel will control all access to East Jerusalem, cutting off its Palestinian satellite cities of Bethlehem and Ramallah, and the West Bank beyond. This will have serious ... consequences for the Palestinians," it says.
"Israel's main motivation is almost certainly demographic ... the Jerusalem master plan has an explicit goal to keep the proportion of Palestinian Jerusalemites at no more than 30% of the total." All of this, the document says, greatly reduces the prospects of a two-state solution because a core demand of the Palestinians is for sovereignty over the east of the city.
"Palestinians are deeply alarmed about East Jerusalem," the document says. "They fear that Israel will 'get away with it', under the cover of disengagement. Israeli measures also risk radicalising the hitherto relatively quiescent Palestinian population of East Jerusalem."
The Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, Mark Regev, said: "Israel believes that Jerusalem should remain the united capital of Israel. At the same time Israel has committed itself that Jerusalem is one of those final status issues."
| | |||||||||||
He wore the anonymous uniform of youth - faded jeans, sweatshirt, and anorak. Ali lived in a Palestinian refugee camp called Dehaisheh, a squalid corner of biblical Bethlehem. The camp houses generations of displaced Palestinians, people who fled their homes or were driven out when Israel was created in 1948. Ali spent his nights at a modest local gym, lifting weights, like his older brother Mahmud used to do. Mahmud wanted to win the title Champion of Palestine, but was dead at 25. I met Ali and his other brother Omar five years ago, in the early days of the Palestinian intifada. I had just arrived in the Middle East, and I wanted to see the future, to talk to the young generation. They led me through the camp, along rough winding roads to a large and imposing building three storeys high. This was their house. And it was home to the family from Israel's worst nightmare.
Hatred The father Youssef was a burly man with a hazy past. He would not say how he lost his leg, or why Mahmud was shot dead by Israeli troops. He remembers Mahmud as a young man who came home crying because the Israelis were killing Palestinian children. Israel remembers Mahmud as a man who was shot dead planting a bomb.
Over tea served with mint leaves, I asked Ali what kind of future he wanted for himself. His reply made me shudder. "From a long time back my feelings towards Jews are feelings of hatred," he said. "What I want to do most is kill Jews. It's in my blood. Ever since I was a child I have dreamed of this." His words stayed with me through the years, imprinted on my memory like a stain. Before leaving the Middle East, I went to find Ali, to see if he was dead or alive, and if he had got his wish.
New scar Bethlehem has changed since my first visit.
This is Israel's West Bank barrier, supposed to block suicide bombers, but making a virtual prisoner of the entire town. At Ali's house, or what is left of it, I meet his father. "The Israelis came and tore down the house," Youssef says, gesturing at the ruins. "They gave us 10 minutes to take what we could. They said it was because of my son." We sit on green and gold chairs near an animal shed, in which the family now sleep. As Youssef's grandchildren play around his feet, I learn what has become of Ali. Behind bars The fresh-faced teenager that I met is now a man, behind bars in an Israeli jail. Youssef says he was charged with sending out a suicide bomber who killed two Israelis and injured 37. He was sentenced to 235 years. Youssef does not claim that Ali is innocent. Ali has been joined in jail by his brother Omar, now 21. Five years ago he was the quiet one, a polite boy who told me he wanted to join the Palestinian police.
Their father shows no sign of regret about what his sons have done. "It was their duty," he says. "This is our land, not Israeli land." He cannot send letters or make visits. He knows he may never see Ali again. "My faith is so big," he says, "that if I do not see him in this life, I will see him in the next." Uncertain future As we speak his grandson Mahmud climbs onto the chair, and hugs him from behind. He's a smiling brown-eyed four-year-old, with chubby bare feet, named after the uncle who died fighting the Israelis. "I hope he will copy him," his grandfather says. But even this most hard-line of men says the conflict will end if Palestinians get back their occupied land and are able to establish their state.
But is that credible? In the Middle East there are many truths and many lies, and many versions of history. But five years here have taught me one thing. This fight is not about religion, or ideology, or race. In the wise words of Amos Oz - one of Israel's greatest living writers - the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is "a dispute over real estate." And if I return in 15 years time - and there is still no viable Palestinian state on this land - I will know where to go looking for young Mahmud, the barefoot boy I saw at his grandfather's house. I will search first in jail, and then in the graveyard. From Our Own Correspondent was broadcast on Thursday, 1 December, 2005, at 1130 GMT on BBC Radio 4. | |||||||||||
http://www.susaonline.org.uk/forums/topic.php?s=0&t=4554 
Bravenet Blog 
Blog Community
Get a Free Blog
Manage your Blog
What I want to do most is kill Jews. It's in my blood 
bravenet.com