The Israeli army’s coordinator of activities in the territories has presented a key Knesset committee with a Palestinian list of alleged Israeli violations of the self-rule accords.
In his appearance Tuesday before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Maj. Gen. Oren Shahor said the 34-point list included complaints about the long delay in the Israel Defense Force redeployment in Hebron.
The Palestinians also charged that Israel had failed to open a safe passage route for Arabs traveling between the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as called for in the Interim Agreement signed last year in Washington.
Shahor, who last week presented the Knesset committee with a list of Israeli complaints against the Palestinians, said that many of Israel’s delays in implementing the accords were due to security considerations.
He said that other Israeli violations of the accords were isolated and unintentional.
Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert, who also appeared before the committee, discussed what he said were efforts by the Palestinian Authority to strengthen its hold on eastern Jerusalem.
Olmert, a Likud Knesset member, proposed this week that West Bank settlements and satellite communities around the capital be annexed to Jerusalem before the start of the final status negotiations, which will include discussions regarding the future of Jerusalem.
Olmert had proposed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu annex Ma’aleh Adumim, Givat Ze’ev and the Etzion bloc of settlements in the Bethlehem area, according to the Israeli daily Yediot Achronot.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
