Confirming to the Security Council today that there existed, once again, a window of opportunity to revitalize the Middle East peace process, the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Kieran Prendergast, urged the international community to encourage the parties to persevere as they moved along the narrow and difficult road to a just, lasting and comprehensive peace. Mr. Prendergast said in his regular monthly briefing on that situation that both parties seemed to have realized the potential for change inherent in the present situation. Read more about Opportunity now exists to revitalize peace process, Security Council told
The main United Nations agency helping Palestinian refugees today handed over keys to new homes to most of the 435 families whose houses were destroyed during an Israeli incursion into the West Bank town of Jenin in 2002. “The relief effort geared towards the refugees in Jenin and the rebuilding of their homes has been the biggest humanitarian project undertaken in the occupied Palestinian territory since the outbreak of the conflict four years ago,” UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Commissioner-General Peter Hansen said, referring to the latest Palestinian intifada, or uprising. Read more about UN aid agency replaces Palestinian homes destroyed in Israeli raid on Jenin
“I think Marwan wanted to make a point about democracy in Fateh, that it’s not only Abu Mazen, that the door should be open to more people to run in Fateh. I think he feels that inside Fateh we should hold a conference and at this conference people should nominate themselves, in a kind of primary, before we agree on one [candidate]. He was making the point that such a process did not happen, and he wanted to send the message that Fateh needs to reform after Arafat, because this is not a simple time. Only institutions, democracy and elections can replace Arafat.” Palestine Report interviews Fateh Member of the Legislative Council from Jerusalem Hatem Abdel Qadar. Read more about "Message received": Hatem Abdel Qader on Barghouti's presidential election withdrawal
The European Union Election Observation Mission for the Presidential elections in West Bank and Gaza has begun work. In total, the EU is deploying more than 260 observers. This includes the EU Election Observation Mission with a core team of 13 staff, which arrived in the West Bank and Gaza this week, some 40 long-term observers, arriving around 15 December, and more than 130 short-term observers, arriving in early January. The total also comprises an observation delegation from the European Parliament made up of 30 Members of Parliament plus 16 assistants, and contributions from the governments of Switzerland, Norway and Canada. Read more about EU monitors for Palestinian elections begin their work
Palestinian presidential candidate Mustafa al-Barghuthi has accused Israel of disrupting the upcoming Palestinian election due on 9 January. Mustafa al-Barghuthi, a prominent independent candidate, at a press conference on Wednesday in Ramallah said Israel was not allowing candidates freedom of movement within the West Bank and between the West Bank and Gaza Strip. “The Israeli occupation authorities have been barring me from travelling to the Gaza Strip. How can we conduct an effective and orderly election campaign if one is unable to meet one’s supporters?” he said. Al-Jazeera’s Khalid Amayreh reports from the occupied West Bank. Read more about Israel censured over Palestinian elections
The European Commission has allocated a further €7 million in humanitarian aid for people made vulnerable by the Middle East crisis. The aid will provide access to food, clean water and sanitation for the poorest Palestinians living on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip. There is also a major funding component to help rehabilitate the shelters of thousands of Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. The aid will be channelled through ECHO, the Commission’s humanitarian aid department. It brings the Commission’s humanitarian assistance to victims of the Middle East crisis to €37 million for 2004. Read more about European Commission provides €7 million in humanitarian aid to the most vulnerable Palestinians
Eighteen donor countries pledged approximately $90 million for the 2005 budget of the UN refugee agency UNRWA, during this morning’s meeting of the General Assembly’s Ad Hoc Committee for Voluntary Contributions. Opening the meeting, Peter Tesch, speaking on behalf of General Assembly President Jean Ping, said it was tragic that UNRWA was still desperately needed some 55 years after the international community had attempted to find a just and lasting solution to the Palestinian situation. The Palestinian refugee population had swelled 500 per cent to some 400,000 since UNRWA’s inception. The Agency, however, remained considerably cash-strapped, and its staff worked under extremely difficult circumstances. Read more about Eighteen donors pledge nearly $90 million for UN Palestine refugee agency
The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) has been instructed to recruit and train a maximum of 11 election observers, 7 of whom are to be short-term observers. The Swedish election observers will be part of the joint EU election observation mission. “Sweden supports democratic development in the Palestinian areas and we therefore consider it important to contribute election observers to the forthcoming presidential elections. Free and democratic elections in the Palestinian areas would be an important step forward in the Palestinian reform process and can contribute to better conditions for a resumption of the peace process,” says Carin Jämtin, Minister for International Development Cooperation. Read more about Swedish election observers to Palestinian presidential elections
Convinced that achieving a final and peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine — the core of the Arab-Israeli conflict –- would serve as the cornerstone of stability in the Middle East, the General Assembly today adopted resolutions concerning Palestine, Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan, among others. the world body stressed the need for Israel’s withdrawal from the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 and the realization of the Palestinian people’s inalienable rights, primarily the right to self-determination and to an independent state. Additionally, the Assembly called on both sides, the diplomatic Quartet and other interested parties to work to halt the situation’s further deterioration. Read more about General Assembly concludes debate on Palestine
The General Assembly this afternoon began its consideration of the question of Palestine and the situation in the Middle East. Before the Assembly is the report of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, the report of the Secretary-General on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine, the report of the Secretary-General on the situation in the Middle East, a draft resolution entitled Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, a draft resolution on the division for Palestinian Rights of the Secretariat, and a text, entitled Peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine. Read more about General Assembly debates question of Palestine (2/2)
