the UN passed a resolution<\/a> last month denouncing Israel’s settlement activity on occupied land.<\/p>\nIsrael accused the Obama administration of engineering the motion and enabling it to pass by not using its power of veto in the UN Security Council.<\/p>\n
The White House denied colluding to get the resolution passed.<\/p>\n
Conference ‘rigged’<\/h2>\n
Reports say a draft statement for the meeting calls on Israel and the Palestinians “to officially restate their commitment to the two-state solution” and avoid taking “unilateral steps that prejudge the outcome of final status negotiations”.<\/p>\n
A “two-state solution” of a Palestinian country alongside Israel has long been endorsed by both sides but there are sharply divergent visions as to the type of state which should emerge.<\/p>\n
Israel rejects international involvement in the peace process, saying a settlement can only come through direct talks.<\/p>\n
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the Paris meeting “a rigged conference” which Israel would not be bound by.<\/p>\n
“[It’s] rigged by the Palestinians with French auspices to adopt additional anti-Israel stances,” he said on Thursday. “This pushes peace backwards.”<\/p>\n
The US State Department said Secretary of State John Kerry would be at the meeting to ensure “whatever happens in this conference is constructive and balanced”.<\/p>\n
Spokesman Mark Toner said the US did not “want to see anything that attempts to impose a solution on Israel”.<\/p>\n
Israel is concerned that the conference might set the terms for a final agreement and seek to get it adopted at the UN, a move it feels would undermine future negotiations.<\/p>\n
Sticking points<\/h2>\n
Despite years of on-off peace talks, major differences still separate Israel and the Palestinians.<\/p>\n
Palestinians fiercely object to Israeli settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, territory it wants for a future state.<\/p>\n
The settlements, home to about 600,000 Israelis, are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.<\/p>\n
Israel says Palestinian incitement and violence, and a refusal to accept Israel as a Jewish state, are key obstacles to peace.<\/p>\n
Other core issues include the future status of Jerusalem and the fate of millions of Palestinian refugees.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A major international conference to try to kick-start peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians is being held in the French capital, Paris. Delegates from 70 nations are expected to reaffirm support for a two-state solution to the decades-old conflict. Palestinians have welcomed the meeting but Israel – which is not attending – says the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[3013,3014,3015],"class_list":["post-284918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international","tag-france-summit","tag-israel","tag-israel-palenstine-deal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=284918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284918\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=284918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=284918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=284918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}