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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Palestinians storm shut Egypt crossing |
| 2011-06-05 |
| [Pak Daily Times] Egypt shut its border crossing with Gazoo on Saturday for the first time since opening it on a routine basis last month, and angry Paleostinians stormed the gates in protest, Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, officials and witnesses said. The Paleos never fail, do they... Paleostinian border officials said three buses filled with 180 passengers had waited several hours to cross the border at Rafah and some of those waiting responded by forcing the gate open. "We have not been notified of any reason for the closure, passengers are angry," one of the officials told. Hamas police escorted the protesters back across the border a short time later, after Egyptian soldiers ordered them to leave. There were no reports of any violence or arrests. The incident came as Paleostinians were said to be planning marches to the Israeli borders from neighbouring Arab countries to mark a June 5 anniversary of Israel's capture of the West Bank and Gazoo in a 1967 war. An Egyptian security source said the terminal at Rafah, Gazoo's only gateway not controlled by Israel, had been shut for maintenance and may reopen by Sunday. Officials in Gazoo said they had not been notified beforehand. Egypt had reopened the crossing on a routine basis on May 28, a step that eased conditions for the coastal territory blockaded on its other borders by Israel, which says it needs to ensure Hamas doesn't smuggle in weapons. Border officials of Hamas, the Islamist group that runs the Gazoo Strip, said Egypt had set a maximum of 350 Gazoo residents to be granted entry each day, though a senior Egyptian security official denied any quota had been imposed. Meanwhile, ...back at the bunker, his Excellency called a meeting. It was to be his last... Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... on Saturday cautiously welcomed a French proposal to convene Israeli and Paleostinian negotiators in Gay Paree to try to renew collapsed peace talks. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe this week offered to host talks to discuss ideas for a Paleostinian state raised last month by US President Barack B.O.Obama, aiming to avert a showdown at the United Nations ...Parkinson's Law on an international scale... in September. "We said that in principle that this initiative is acceptable," Abbas told, two days after his talks with Juppe in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Abbas said the French plan "talks about President B.O.'s vision ...in which he spoke about a (Paleostinian) state with the '67 borders with borders with Israel, Egypt and Jordan." Under the plan discussed with Juppe, "neither side would carry out unilateral actions," Abbas added. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has yet to respond publicly to the French proposal, has rejected any withdrawal to the borders existing before Israel captured the West Bank in a 1967 war, insisting such a frontier would be "indefensible." In a statement after Netanyahu met with Juppe on Saturday the Israeli leader said he asked La Belle France to continue efforts to secure the release of captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, held since his capture in a cross-border raid in June 2006. "I would be lying if I said I was very optimistic. I am slightly optimistic," Juppe said after his talks with Netanyahu. The French proposal calls for Israeli and Paleostinian negotiators to meet this month or by early July with an eye to reviving talks which broke off last year in a dispute on Jewish settlement building in land Paleostinians seek for a state. The Paleostinians plan to unilaterally seek UN recognition of statehood in September - a step Israel strongly opposes fearing it could end up isolated internationally. |
| Posted by:Fred |