Hamas on Saturday condemned a decision by Arab powers to endorse next weekÂ’s US-hosted Israeli-Palestinian peace conference, saying the talks would favour the Jewish stateÂ’s policies rather than Palestinian demands. Hamas, which refuses to recognise Israel and broke with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after seizing control of the Gaza Strip in a June civil war, is excluded from the Nov. 27 conference in Annapolis. Arab League ministers agreed on Friday to attend the conference in the hope of promoting the creation of a Palestinian state and pushing for Israel to return the occupied Golan Heights to Syria as part of a regional peace process.
Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri called the announcement “a great shock for Palestinians because it opened the door for direct normalisation with the occupier Israel amid its continued escalation and aggression”.
“The Palestinian people had awaited an Arab consensus for breaking the siege,” Abu Zuhri said in a statement, referring to a Western aid embargo and Israeli military crackdowns on Gaza since Hamas swept to power in 2006 elections. “This meeting will only achieve more failure and more harm to the Palestinian cause and to Arab and Palestinian rights.”
The Arab League has offered Israel recognition if it quits lands captured in a 1967 Middle East war and agrees to solve the problem of Palestinian refugees. Israel has balked at discussing “core issues” like refugees and borders at this stage.
Human rights: The talks on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must match peace pledges with “clear and concrete steps” to end “grave” rights abuses such as killings, Amnesty International said on Saturday.
If the talks are to make progress towards a “just and durable” solution, “peace pledges must be accompanied by clear and concrete steps to halt and redress the grave human rights abuses and serious violations of international humanitarian law that continue to destroy lives on both sides,” Amnesty said.
The group called for the Annapolis parties to agree on deploying international human rights monitors in Israel and the Palestinian territories to check compliance and then report publicly.