RI tells Israel to quit killing Palestinians
RI tells Israel to quit killing Palestinians
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesia demanded on Monday that Israel return to negotiations
with Palestinian leaders and quit using violence to settle heated
disputes between the two peoples, Antara news agency reported
from New York on Tuesday.
"Not with weapons or bullets," Indonesian representative to
the United Nations Rezlan Ishar Jenie emphasized while conveying
the Indonesian government's stance before an emergency session of
the UN Security Council.
The session had been demanded by Arab nations following the
assassination of Hamas leader Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi on Saturday.
"It is very important to stop the killing of Palestinians
because the action will merely cause revenge attacks," explained
Rezlan.
"We convey our condolences to the Palestinian families and
people."
The United States and Israel came under fire at the meeting on
Monday requested by Arab and Muslim nations furious over Israel's
killing of the Hamas chief.
Dozens of countries condemned the assassination of Rantissi on
Saturday, which came just three weeks after Hamas founder Sheikh
Ahmed Yassin was killed in a similar Israeli attack in the Gaza
Strip.
Meanwhile, the South African government has also joined the
international community in expressing its outrage and
condemnation of the assassination of Rantissi on Saturday.
"South Africa views the assassination of the Hamas leader as
an act of provocation that will only fuel the cycle of violence
and counter-violence that is fast destroying any prospects for
peace in the region," the South African Embassy in Jakarta said
in a press release sent to the The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
Arab nations presented a strongly worded draft resolution all
but certain to draw another veto from the United States, which
blocked a similar measure in the council after Yassin was killed.
"I think the draft resolution is quite outspoken," the
Security Council president, German ambassador Gunter Pleuger told
AFP. He said discussions on the draft would begin on Tuesday.
Frustration with U.S. policy on Israel has intensified since
President George W. Bush said last week that Israel should be
allowed to keep part of the West Bank in any future peace deal
with the Palestinians.
"Israel, the occupying power, continues its reign of terror,"
Nasser al-Kidwa, the Palestinian representative to the United
Nations, told the council during a two-hour public session.
He added that Israel's claim that targeting militant
Palestinian leaders for assassination constituted part of the
fight against terrorism was inappropriate and inaccurate.
"It's about Israel's refusal to end this occupation, seeking
all the while to acquire more land by force and to eliminate more
of the indigenous population," Kidwa said.
Israeli UN ambassador Dan Gillerman said the killing of
Rantissi was "not merely a defensive act" but "part of the global
struggle against terrorism that has been thrust upon all of us."
He called Rantissi "a trader in death."