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Peace talks between Israel and the PA set to resume today
Substantive peace talks will resume today following a three year hiatus, although the negotiations will take place under a media blackout, in an attempt to prevent leaks which could hamper the talks.
Israel’s Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s envoy Yitzhak Molcho will lead the Israeli delegation, while the Palestinian Authority (PA) will be led by senior negotiators Saeb Erekat and Muhammad Shtayyeh. United States’ envoy to the talks, Martin Indyk is also expected to attend, while Frank Lowenstein, a top aide to US Secretary of State John Kerry, is likely to accompany him. The time, location and agenda for today’s meeting have not been announced, although it is assumed that the talks will take place in Jerusalem.
Speaking yesterday, Israel’s Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon admitted to a degree of personal “scepticism” over the talks, but said “We set ourselves the goal of nine months in which we will try to reach something with the Palestinians… We’ve been trying for twenty years since Oslo, and for over 120 years of the conflict.” Meanwhile, senior Palestinian official Yasser Abed Rabbo responded to the announcement by Israel’s Interior Ministry yesterday of building plans for nine hundred new homes in the East Jerusalem suburb of Gilo, saying that it “threatens” the talks. Kerry appeared to diffuse such rhetoric, saying that the construction plans were “to some degree expected.”
It was also announced yesterday that United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will visit the region tomorrow and Friday in a public show of support for the peace talks. He will travel from Jordan to meet with Palestinian officials before arriving in Jerusalem where he will meet Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials.
Meanwhile, Channel Two last night aired an expose of Palestinian summer camps run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), at which children were taught that “Jews are the wolf” and that they will one day return to Israeli cities within pre-1967 boundaries.