Ramallah - European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana
said in Ramallah Saturday that any government in Israel should
continue to honour commitments made by previous governments.
After meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Solana told
reporters that the international community would deal with the next
Israeli government 'according to its programme and platform.'
He said he hoped the incoming government of rightwing Israeli
leader Benyamin Netanyahu would honour past commitments of a two-
state solution and also freeze settlement activities in the West
Bank.
For his part, Palestinian leader Abbas said a freeze on Israeli
settlement activities 'is a primary demand we raised with (US peace
envoy George) Mitchell and with Solana.'
'We demand that the next Israeli government honour past
commitments so that we will not return to point zero,' said Abbas in
the press meeting with Solana, adding this government should also
'accept the two-state solution, stop settlements and remove
checkpoints.'
Abbas met Mitchell Friday night in Ramallah and according to
Palestinian officials, Abbas told the US envoy that he would be ready
to deal with any government in Israel that accepted previous
commitments and halted settlement activities.
Meanwhile, shops, businesses and schools in the West Bank shut
down for the day Saturday heeding a call by the Palestinian Authority
to observe a general strike protesting an Israeli decision to
demolish 88 homes in the Jerusalem area village of Silwan.
The Israeli government informed Palestinian residents of Silwan
last week that it intended to demolish their homes to build a
national park.
Fakhri Abu Diab told Deutsche Presse Agentur dpa that Israeli
officials informed representatives of the area residents that they
can either leave on their own and find alternative housing elsewhere
or become homeless after Israeli authorities forcibly evict them.
Abu Diab said the residents are determined to fight the order,
stressing that most of the more than 1500 residents targeted in the
measure would have no where to go if they are forced out of the homes
in which they have lived for decades.
Palestinians have accused Israel of ethnic cleansing in East
Jerusalem, which it occupied in the June 1967 Arab-Israeli war, in an
attempt to keep a Jewish majority in the area of the city it annexed
soon after its occupation.
Israel has surrounded the city with settlements built on
expropriated Palestinian land and which now house more than 200,000
Israelis.
Israel says Silwan, located just south of the Old City wall of
Jerusalem where 45,000 Palestinians live, is the location of the
biblical City of King David. Israel has been carrying excavations in
that area and Palestinians have expressed concern that the
excavations done under their homes may lead to the buildings'
collapse.
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