LOC19:51
16:51 GMT
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 22 (KUNA) -- Richard Falk, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, said on Friday that the Israeli continued policy of building settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem makes the creation of a Palestinian State an "illusion" and "almost clearly a political impossibility." "The accelerated expansion of settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, the coupling of settlement expansion with a series of other policies such as house demolitions, evictions, has made the vision of Peace based on the two state consensus almost clearly a political impossibility at this stage. You have a disconnect between an inter-governmental peace process which appeared premised on an illusion that at the end of the peace process there is an independent Palestinian State," Falk told a press conference.
"The idea of a separate Palestinian State seems increasingly problematic as a solution, because it would require the substantial reversal of the settlement process, and the political reality in Israel and among the settlers makes that a non viable possibility," he added.
Commenting on Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Leiberman's speech to the UN General Assembly last month when he recommended a "two-staged" solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that "could take a few decades," and a final status agreement entailing "not land-for-peace, but rather, exchange of populated territory," Falk said "that's where they (negotiations) are going. what it amounts to is de facto annexation under the banner of temporary occupation, creeping annexation. It is an important reality that has to be exposed." He noted that the US, initially and in early years, condemned the establishment of these settlements. "Now there is a creeping reformulation of the issue as if only the expansion of the settlements is contrary to the creation of a political atmosphere that makes peace negotiations possible." The fundamental Palestinian rights connects to "all settlements not just to their expansion," he noted.
He depicted a grim situation in Gaza and said "it is my judgment that Israel has made a huge mistake" not to deal with Hamas as a political actor and not as a terrorist organisation, and until it does, then "no progress will be made.
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