Word: settlement
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...first stage of the road map calls for Israel to immediately remove settlement outposts built since March 2001 and to completely freeze all settlement activity after a general cease-fire. At the same time, it obligates the Palestinian leadership to immediately end the armed intifada and all acts of violence against Israelis. Sensibly, the most difficult issues—such as the final borders of the two states and the disposition of Palestinian refugees—are left to the last phase of negotiations...
...road map before formal negotiations even get underway. In the interview with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Sharon offered to make “painful concessions” on settlements—but in the same interview, and in an Israeli cabinet meeting just over a week ago, he said settlement discussions would be left until the final status negotiations. Yet Sharon says that the Palestinians must compromise on the right of return for refugees “right from the outset...
Asking the Palestinian leadership to abandon the right of return as a precondition to negotiations, while offering nothing on settlements, is more than a diplomatic nonstarter—it mocks the very idea of negotiations. For a final settlement to be reached, it is widely recognized that the Palestinians must eventually drop the demand that all refugees be allowed to return to Israel—but presumably in exchange for major concessions on other issues (like settlements), not to mention compensation for those refugees who are not permitted to return home...
...road map rightly sets out a settlement freeze as one of the first moves that needs to be made, not one of the last. As multiple Security Council resolutions have stated, settling Israeli civilians in the occupied territories contravenes the Geneva Conventions of 1949. The settlements are expanding as every day goes by, strangling Palestinian development and dividing a future Palestinian state. Some of the isolated outposts are actually a detriment to Israeli security—not only in the larger context by fomenting Palestinian rage, but also by stretching the Israeli Defense Forces’ capability to protect them...
...Freezing settlement activity and dismantling outposts in the first stage of negotiations, as the road map states, would be an unmistakable indication that Israel means business—and would do it without endangering Israeli security. Combined with a simultaneous Palestinian commitment to take all possible steps to crack down on terrorism, a settlement freeze would be serious progress towards a final settlement...