The birthrate in the Palestinian Authority (PA) declined from six percent in 1997 to 4.6 percent in 2009, according to figures released Thursday by the PA's Central Bureau of Statistics. According to the bureau, the population of the PA-assigned areas of Judea and Samaria is 2.4 million, while the Gaza population is 1.5 million.
And while we're dealing with Pal. news, they don't use "settlements", even when quoting Haaretz, a story I dealt with earlier today:
No Chance of Colonies Deal with Israel, EU Official Says
TEL AVIV, July 9, 2009 (WAFA)- A senior European Union official rules out any compromise with Israel over the issue of colonies, unless reached in the framework of a final-status agreement with the Palestinians, Akiva Eldar wrote Thursday in the Israeli daily Haaretz.
Robert Rydberg, head of the Middle East desk in the Swedish Foreign Ministry, stressed on Monday it was inconceivable for the international community to legitimize natural growth of the colonizer population, since all colonies beyond the 1949 Line of Armistice were illegal.
Rydberg, whose country holds the EU presidency, said the only conceivable compromise would come with Israeli and Palestinian agreement on borders in an all-encompassing final-status agreement between the two parties.
Speaking at a conference in Munich, Rydberg slammed the colonies as creating a new reality on the ground in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and spawning obstacles, and he said that roadblocks were intended mainly to protect the colonies rather than Israel proper within the Line of Armistice.
Rydberg said Israel's colonization policy did not build credibility among the Palestinian leadership and that President Mahmoud Abbas wanted to reach an agreement with Israel. He said the ideology that guides most colonizers is based on utter denial of the rights of Palestinians in the OPT.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment