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Kerry’s peace ideas not acceptable: Palestinians

Ideas proposed by US Secretary of State John Kerry to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas cannot “serve as the basis for a framework accord” with Israel, a Palestinian official said on Friday.

“The ideas proposed cannot be accepted by the Palestinian side as the basis for a framework accord between the Palestinians and Israel as they do not take into account the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity, after Abbas and Kerry met in Paris this week. “The Palestinian position explained to Mr Kerry is that the proposed ideas, particularly the insistences on recognition of the state of Israel as the Jewish nation-state, are unacceptable,” the official said.

Proposals for the future of Israeli-occupied east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim as the capital of the state, are “vague”, the official added. Abbas, the official said, “restated the Palestinian position and his vision of a solution based on United Nations resolutions and the positions of the Palestinian leadership and the Arab League.”



Hundreds demand reopening of Hebron street

Meanwhile, Palestinians held a protest on Friday in the West Bank city of Hebron to demand its main street be reopened, 20 years after the Israeli military closed it on security grounds. About 1,000 Palestinians joined by Israeli and international activists marched from the Ali mosque to a flashpoint Israeli military post on Shuhada Street, chanting “Stop occupation” and “No occupation, no settlements.” Troops called on the marchers to disperse, and when they ignored the order fired stun grenades and tear gas, he said. A dozen marchers were wounded in clashes by rubber-coated bullets. — AFP

Kerry has spent months trying to get the Israelis and the Palestinians to agree on a framework to guide talks towards a full peace treaty, but the negotiations have shown little sign of progress, with each side blaming the other. US ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro said on Friday that he expected Palestinian recognition of Israel’s Jewish character to be part of that framework. “It has always been US policy, that Israel is a Jewish state and should remain a Jewish state. That is one of the elements of the framework on which we are working,” he told Israeli public radio.

“I imagine that in the framework that we are preparing now, we shall see recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, the national state of the Jewish people,” he added.