Word: palestinians
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Have Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas achieved anything in their talks? No, that is one of the great disappointments. Everybody had hoped by the time they reached the conference, that Olmert and Abbas had reached some kind of understanding especially about what needs to be done on the ground, issues like a freeze on settlements, the wall, and other issues that make Palestinian life easier. How reasonable is it to assume that you can have negotiations for removing the occupation and at the same time the Israelis are acquiring more land and building more settlements? Here...
...Lebanon is seen by many as a microcosm of the regional power struggle between the United States, Iran and Syria. Some analysts here believe that the Lebanese impasse could be broken if Syria is given a prominent role at the forthcoming peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, to revive Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. Syria, which backs the Lebanese opposition, says it will only participate in the conference if the Golan Heights, Syrian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, is included on the agenda. If Syria's demand is met, Damascus could use its influence over the opposition to accept a compromise...
...been that way since the start of the al-Aqsa intifadeh, the wave of Palestinian suicide bombings that raged from 2000 until 2002, when Israelis started closing off the Palestinian territories. "The intifadeh was like a centrifuge that flung Arabs and Jews apart," says Seidemann. For Arabs in the city, the divisions have exacerbated the bitterness of 40 years of Israeli rule. Through a combination of purposeful neglect by Israelis and a refusal by Arabs to deal with municipal authorities (doing so might compromise the phantom sovereignty of Palestine, Arab leaders say), the eastern side of Jerusalem is withering like...
Arabs might stand a better chance of improving East Jerusalem if they ran for office in local elections. They don't. Palestinian leaders in the West Bank warn that casting ballots is like collaborating with the enemy. So when the city council elections were last held, in 2003, only 4,000 of 125,000 Arabs voted. As a result, East Jerusalem's residents pay 30% of total municipal taxes, but they get back services worth only 5% of the city's budget. Israeli courts have said the municipality should add 1,400 new classrooms in the East...
...their own part of the city. At the same time, nobody wants to see barbed wire cutting Jerusalem in two, as was the case from 1948 to 1967. Those in East Jerusalem look to the Israeli side for work opportunities and health care. The mere rumor that Israelis and Palestinians might reach an accord in Annapolis prompted a flood of applicants for Israeli citizenship, but only a lucky few will get it; most East Jerusalem Arabs have Jordanian passports. The rush was telling; however much Arabs may feel harassed by Israelis, they fear that annexation of East Jerusalem...