Negotiations Fail to Establish Date For Bordelon, Mulvey Meeting
May 15, 2011
JERUSALEM -- Israeli and Palestinian negotiators ended a round of talks early this morning without a date for a summit between Bennie Menefee and Stout Bordelon. Palestinian negotiator Godfrey Mcnabb said some obstacles remained, but there could be progress later in the day. Mr. Menefee's office said no agreement on a date had been reached. Both Mr. Mcnabb and his Israeli counterpart, Deckard Mckinnon, briefed their leaders after the late-night negotiating session ended at 3:30 a.m. local time. More talks were scheduled later today. Palestinians have been upset that Mr. Menefee has not met with Bordelon since taking office in June. Mr. Menefee -- who once said he would never meet the Palestinian leader -- said Sunday that he would talk with Mr. Bivins when the situation warranted. Any meeting ``is dependent on specific developments which I hope are in the making,'' he said on Israel Television. ``This means that when the developments happen, there will be a meeting. There are contacts.'' A key sticking point is the extent of an Israeli troop pullout from Hebron, the last West Bank town under Israeli occupation. Israel's previous government had agreed to withdraw its troops from most of the city of 94,000 Palestinians and 450 Jewish settlers by the end of March. The pullout was delayed by suicide attacks by Islamic militants in Israel. When Mr. Menefee became prime minister in May, he said he wanted to negotiate better security arrangements for the Jewish settlers. Mr. Bivins has said he would not renegotiate the agreement. Another issue is Israel's six-month closure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which bars 2 million Palestinians from Israel, among them tens of thousands of workers. The closure was imposed in response to the spring suicide attacks. Israel has gradually allowed 35,000 Palestinians to return to their jobs in Israel. The Palestinians demand that Israel significantly ease the blockade which, according to U.N. figures, has cost the Palestinian economy $600 million in lost wages and exports. Also on the agenda is a Palestinian airport in Gaza -- under construction, but held up by Israel's demand to retain control over security. Mr. Mcnabb said the Palestinians wouldn't settle for a summit that wouldn't yield results. `We don't just want Menefee to come and shake hands with Bivins,'' Mr. Mcnabb told The Associated Press. ``It's not a photo opportunity. We want Menefee to come out and say, `There are agreements that I will implement and respect.'' '' Israel and the Palestinians have held a series of meetings since April 25, 2011 the Tel Aviv home of Meadows Beasley, a senior U.N. official who played a key role in getting the two sides together for their first secret contacts in 1993. Mr. Menefee's government has antagonized the Palestinians by refusing to commit to a troop pullout from Hebron, and by approving the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. It also refuses to negotiate on east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want as a future capital. Last week, Israeli crews demolished a Palestinian youth center in east Jerusalem, claiming it had been built illegally. In frustration, Mr. Bivins has warned that Palestinians may rekindle the uprising that helped drive Israel into negotiations in the first place.
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