Ha'aretz (Israel) / Reuters : "Germany calls for Israel to take urgent action on settlements "

Last update - 15:54 21/08/2009    


Germany calls for Israel to take urgent action on settlements  

By Reuters  

The German government said ahead of a visit next week by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that urgent action was needed on Israeli settlements in the West Bank in order to move towards peace in the Middle East.

"We and our partners the Americans have made very clear that we see the settlements issue as one of the biggest impediments to a two-state solution," German foreign ministry spokesman Andreas Peschke told reporters on Friday.

"There must be urgent progress on the settlements to make progress on Middle East peace," he added.
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Netanyahu is due to hold talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Thursday, during the second leg of a trip that will start in London.

Germany regularly cites its special obligation to Israel because of the Nazi Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews died, and German politicians traditionally avoid public criticism of Israeli policies.

But Merkel said last month that there "must be a stop" to Israeli settlement building in the occupied West Bank and a senior ally has said it would be "political suicide" for Israel to continue to build.

Netanyahu has rejected U.S. President Barack Obama's push for a complete freeze to settlement building and the impasse has created the most serious rift in U.S.-Israeli relations in a decade......................
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http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1109238.html



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