4 March 2009 457 views No Comment Email This Post

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday said that Israel’s demolition of Arab homes in Jerusalem had been “unhelpful” to Middle East peace efforts.

Speaking in Ramallah on Wednesday, Clinton said the demolitions violated Israeli pledges under the “road map” peace plan. She added that she would take up the issue with the incoming Israeli government.

Earlier, Palestinian leaders urged Clinton to push Israel to freeze settlement construction and open the crossings to the Gaza Strip.

Clinton arrived in the West Bank under heavy security, meeting first with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayad and then with PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

She repeated that the US was committed to the establishment of a Palestinian state and she praised Fayad’s plan for rebuilding Gaza. Fayad’s government outlined the plan Monday at an international donors’ conference for the territory.

Clinton met briefly with young Palestinians studying English, and announced a US initiative to help poorer Palestinian students attend four-year Palestinian universities and give grants to other Palestinians to attend US schools.

“For a Palestinian state to be prosperous, accountable to its people and be able to live up to its obligations in the international community, it has to have more people who can do the job in the 21st century,” she said.

Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said the Palestinian leader was seeking a tougher US stance toward Israel.

“The main point is that the Israeli government needs to accept the two-state solution and … stop settlement expansion,” Erekat said.

He said Abbas would specifically raise Israeli construction plans in east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want as their future capital. Settlement construction is considered illegal under international law.

“We want the US to help us open the passages to get material for reconstruction into Gaza,” Erekat added.

In Jerusalem on Tuesday, Clinton said that working toward the creation of a Palestinian state as part of a peace agreement with Israel “seems inescapable.”

Clinton met with prime minister-designate Netanyahu, as well as Foreign minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, on Tuesday.

In her meeting with Barak, Clinton urged easing the flow of goods into Gaza to alleviate the hardships of ordinary Gazans, Israeli officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were private.

Clinton also demanded Tuesday that Hamas cease its rocket attacks, saying Israel should not “be expected to sit idly by and allow rockets (to) assault its people and its territory.”
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said Wednesday that Clinton’s remarks throughout her Mideast trip have been “totally biased in favor of the Zionist occupation and do not reflect any change in American foreign policy.”