Send refugees to South America, says US

 

Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state under George Bush, suggested in 2008 that Palestinian refugees could be resettled in Chile and Argentina. Palestinians have expressed shock and dismay at the US suggestion to settle Palestinian refugees in Argentina and Chile rather than let them return to ancestral land in Israel. Representatives of the Palestinian diaspora said the plan to ship displaced Palestinians from the Middle East to a new homeland across the Atlantic clashed with their fundamental right to go home. "It's completely unacceptable. It contradicts our inalienable right to return to our own homeland," said Daniel Jadue, vice-president of Chile's Palestine Federation. "That right cannot be renounced. To make this suggestion shows the mediation was not honest. It was clearly tilted in favour of Israel. This is extremely grave." Condoleezza Rice, who was secretary of state in the Bush administration, floated the idea at a meeting on 28 June 2008 with US, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Berlin, according to minutes of the encounter obtained by al-Jazeera and shared with the Guardian. The suggestion dumbfounded South America's Palestinians – a largely Christian community which emigrated in waves over the past century and settled across the region, especially in Chile which is said to be home to more than 200,000. Chile's Palestinians would welcome compatriots who chose to settle in the Andes, said Jadue. "If a Palestinian accepted to come here that would be their right and we would show solidarity." But that did not justify a US proposal to funnel refugees from the Middle East to reduce pressure on Israel to give up land, he said. "That's wrong." Tilda Rabi, president of the Federation of Palestinian Organisations in Argentina, said the proposal violated the UN's affirmation of refugees' right to return home. "This is an extension of a long campaign of ethnic cleansing, of clearing people from their own homelands." She doubted many refugees would have accepted such an offer. "In the camps people still have keys to the homes they left behind." It is unclear whether the Bush administration lobbied Argentina and Chile to take Palestinians. The foreign ministries in Buenos Aires and Santiago did not respond to email and phone queries. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said it received no such request. "UNRWA has never been approached by any government to assist with the movement of refugees to South America," said a spokesman, Chris Gunness. "If such an offer was made refugees could accept or reject it," he said. "It would be their choice." Hillary Clinton, Rice's successor as secretary of state, played down the importance of the documents in her first comments on the leak last night. "I don't think it comes as any surprise what the issues are between the Palestinians and the Israelis," she told reporters in Mexico. "They have been well known for 20 years or more. They are difficult issues. They do not lend themselves easily to compromise." However, the state department spokesman Philip Crowley earlier acknowledged that the disclosure would have an impact on efforts to get peace talks restarted. "We don't deny that this release will, at least for a time, make the situation more difficult than it already was," he said. "None of this changes our understanding of what is at stake, or what needs to be done. We continue to believe a framework agreement is both possible and necessary. We continue to work with and engage the parties." The United Nations special co-ordinator for the Middle East peace process, Robert Serry, said some of the interpretation of the documents conveyed an "inaccurate impression". The Palestinian negotiators were committed to reaching a deal in the interests of the Palestinian people, he said. "At this crucial time, I would urge both parties to show their readiness for a negotiated peace based on a two-state solution, and to deliver on the ground. It is to the genuine credit of the Palestinian leadership that they are doing so." Israel radio reported that Nabil Shaath, a member of the Palestinian negotiating team, said the documents released by al-Jazeera were authentic, unofficial and did not obligate the Palestinian side.

The Palestine Papers

“Are you serious about the two-state solution?” Abbas asked, according to Erekat. “If you are, I cannot comprehend that you would allow a single settlement housing unit to be built in the West Bank… you have the choice. You can take the cost free road, applying double standards, which would shoot me and other moderates in the head and make this Bin Laden’s region. Or say we are not against Israel but against Israel’s actions. If you cannot make Israel stop settlements and resume permanent status negotiations, who can?”
 This is an excerpt of the Palestine Papers, obtained by Al jazeera  in which the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas

 told President Obama in June 2009 that peace could never proceed without a complete freeze of Israeli settlements.

Obama ignored this and accepted Israel's "concession" to suspend any new construction in the West Bank. This didn't last long.

The papers have also sparked mass outrage, revealing that PA negotiators were willing to exclude over 6 million Palestinian refugees from their homeland. In addition, Tzipi Livni, Israel's former foreign minister, proposed annexing several Arab villages to a future Palestinian state, which would force thousands of Israeli Arabs to choose between their citizenship and their land.

According to the Israeli Defence Forces Civil Administration, close to 500,000 Israelis now occupy settlements deemed illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Golan Heights. In November last year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans to build a further 1,300 homes in East Jerusalem. Earlier this month, the European Union expressed concern that the ever expanding force field of security and infrastructure required to support the burgeoning settler population would further splinter the occupied territory. In a statement to the Consuls General, the EU stated that settlements impinged on the lives of Palestinians and resulted in an inequitable education policy, difficulty in accessing health care and the inadequate provision of resources and investment.

Australian Family Reunion

The Australian Federal Police have arrested three men on charges of people smuggling in relation the the Christmas Island tragedy.
There has been no inquest into the disaster so far.
Go here to see the trailer for Australian Family Reunion, a short film about the El Ibrahimy family whose lives were ripped apart after 15th December when 23 year old mother Zman was killed with her two children.

Monday

I have been sucked back into the largely pointless and self serving occupation of online publishing. I like to call it this instead of "blogging" because it sounds far more intellectual, encouraging the reader to picture a "I'm sexy but smart because I wear glasses" kind of author rather than an overweight adolescent smearing Twisties seasoning all over the keyboard in their eagerness to play World of Warcraft.

Also, I have to return to my varied and far reaching audience (two people from Mauritania).

The usual symptoms of social malaise have infested national headlines since those expensive, airborne shards of glitter disappeared into the sky above the Harbour Bridge. A gushing body of water succeeded in wiping away a large part of Queensland and has now started work on Victoria. The PM has decided this is a unique opportunity for the people of Australia to pay for the effects of climate change. What has been a traumatic and terrifying ordeal for many continues to serve as a handy national narrative from which "true Australians" and "un-Australians" will emerge.

On the bus yesterday I sat three seats behind the beauty school drop out pumping the latest Ke$ha hit on her iPod and in front of the robust man scoffing a meat pie.

Then boarded two members of Sydney's finest sub culture. Young males from the wealthiest suburbs of the North Shore, they invariably sport Nautica polo shirts, Nike shorts, Adidas trainers... basically the entire alphabet of crappy sportswear never worn as casual street attire by any self respecting citizen. They enjoy adorning public transport with badly executed grafitti, especially employing witty catchesisms such as adlay eshay cuntsay etc etc.

After accusing a group of Asian teenagers of having bird flu (inexplicably squawking like chickens through swigs of VB) the lads disembarked the bus to go home and suck on their communal bong. I was reminded of coming arrivals on Sydney's streets over the next few days.

Lads are neither "hip", "jiggy" nor "down with it". But this song is