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UN chief: Jerusalem subject of final negotiation
Yitzhak Benhorin
Published: 16.03.10, 20:10
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25 Talkbacks for this article
1. Ban the UN Ban
Eyal ,   USA   (03.16.10)
I guess it's ok to kill Jews, as long as we open Gaza? Mr. Ban, you don't make sense. You think Israel will open the strip, while Gilad is still a prisoner of Hamas, you got another thing coming. Regarding International law about Jerusalem, your UN law is not above G-D. Jerusalem belongs to Israel, so GET THAT THROUGH YOUR THICK HEAD MORON. Way da go Hussain Obama, we know you are behind this. Good luck on your next elections.
2.  Is it true?
yehoshua ,   usa   (03.16.10)
Can someone please clarify for me? Tell me if the UN chief is telling the truth.? Is it true that settlements are are illegal under international law? where my I find information to disprove this or PROVE IT.
3. Jerusalem Will be a cup of trembling for the UN
Galut ,   Selah   (03.16.10)
Zechariah 12:2 "Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the peoples around; and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against Judah.
4. It never ceases to amaze me ...
Paul ,   USA   (03.16.10)
That all you hear from this guy, and his cohorts, is about Israel, Israel, Israel. I've got news for Ban ki moon - it's that his MODERATES that are rioting in Jerusalem. And who the hell is he to tell the Israelis where east Jerusalem ends and the west bank begins ?
5. Stop dreaming, Jerusalem is ours forever
Yuval Lerner ,   Panama City, Panama   (03.16.10)
Accept it, you lost it and you wont get it back, time and time it was offered to you but you rejected it, so just forget about it at lets move on...
6. Where was the UN in 48 & now absent in Sudan & Georgia
John Phee ,   Sydney AUSTRALIA   (03.16.10)
In '48 the Jews were expelled from the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem (East Jerusalem). Rape & murder was the method used. Opsss no word from the UJM. When Jewish sites were destroyed again no UN. When Jews persecuted in Arab Lands yep again no UN. That's the UN's attitute to Israel & Jews. But there's more West Papua is having its local population exterminated by the Indonesians (yes genocide is acceptable to the UN in this case). What about the Georgia territory Russia took a few years ago (not a word). Why is the UN obsesed about the Jew's & Israel. It's because the UN is a disfunction bunch & easily sidetracked by the Arabs (& their votes) to use it as a method of distraction.
7. International Law
Mark ,   US   (03.16.10)
Ok, wait a minute. Does International Law outlaw what G_d already deemed Israel's possession? Uhhh, Nope. It certainly will all come out in the wash, as we say. It's a courtesy that the Arabs are permitted to live there, correct?
8. Violent clashes in the capital.......
tiki ,   belgium   (03.16.10)
"It undercuts moderates and empowers extremists". Was he talking about Teheran? If I'm right he didn't open his mouth and didn't express any "deep concern" about that situation and those moderates. When Iranian "leaders of the opposition, the moderates, where hanged in public, he didnt give a 'peeps. (neither did Obama or Clinton). 1600 Israeli houses and an ancient Jewish synagogue bring them to fury, Iranian young people are not worth it.
9. Israeli settlements are illegal, Palestinians' aren't
observer   (03.16.10)
At this point, Israel can't demand condemnation of Palestinian settlements for those are legal by International law. Israel is caught in the trap which she could have avoided by not creating preconditions to blow up negotiations.
10. Can't Jews Live in Palestine?
Jethro ,   Marquette< MI   (03.16.10)
So what if they build housing. If the land will be given to the Palestinians in the end does that mean no Jews can live there? So they want it Jew Free? Does that seem right? Seems like a double standard to me.
11. The status of Seoul is also subject to negotiation
Eitan ,   Chicago   (03.16.10)
What a silly remark for a Korean like Ban Ki-Moon to make. Over 40,000 US and UN soldiers died to protect his people. Yet no one outside Pyonyang seriously thinks that South Korea is still up for grabs, and so the Korean War Armistice stands. If Ban Ki-Moon wants to become the next Folke Bernadotte, good riddance to him.
12. To Jethro: a Jew-free West Bank is exactly their aim
Eitan ,   Chicago   (03.16.10)
The UN and many governments believe that no Jew should be permitted to reside in the West Bank, and pretend that Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention makes that residence illegal. Yet Article 49 states clearly: “Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive.” In other words, voluntarily establishing residence in territory gained as a result of war is not illegal, especially in lieu of previous tenants on the land (typical of the Jordan Valley) or where adjacent tenants lack registered title and/or deed to the land under the government(s) that previously administered said territory (namely, the Ottoman Empire, the British Mandate, and Transjordan/Jordan). Georg Cohn, an author of Article 49, explained to the Danish foreign ministry at the time that by this wording, he sought to prevent such acts as Germany's deportation of its own Jews to slave and extermination camps in Poland and other occupied countries, as well as Germany's forcible transfer of Germans to portions of Poland and other occupied countries. The proof of bias is astounding: the UN gives Sudan (ethnic cleansing of Christians and animists), Syria (forced migration of its own citizens), China (forced Han settlement in Tibet), and Croatia (expulsion of Serbs from Krajina) free reign to violate the very letter of the law in Article 49 of the 4th Geneva Convention, whereas the letter of the law is actively spun and manipulated to seemingly incur upon Israel a responsibility to prohibit voluntary Jewish residence in the West Bank - a hallmark of the arbitrary and often racist nature of the application of international law. Furthermore, there is no other sovereign claimant to the West Bank - its previous occupiers were the Ottoman Caliphate and Jordan, of which the latter signed a lasting peace treaty with Israel. Even the Germans have a stronger legal claim to the territory of the former East Prussia than the PLO horse-traders in Ramallah have to the West Bank.
13. To Yehoshua: the proven legality of Jewish residence in WB
Eitan ,   Chicago   (03.16.10)
Read the article at http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/the-illegal-settlements-myth-15295 for the complete facts. Jewish residence in the West Bank is legal, but many media outlets and government claim, with no basis, that Israel has incurred an obligation to prevent Jews from residing in the West Bank. David Phillips' expert analysis at the URL above in fact anticipates and debunks the anti-"settlement" arguments in the BBC's own international-law spin-doctoring, which can be found at URL http://www.bbcgovernorsarchive.co.uk/docs/reviews/lubell_law_report.pdf. Please forward the Commentary article on to your friends and family!
14. UN now just a microcosm of Islamic theocracies
Eitan ,   Chicago   (03.16.10)
It used to be that the UN was a microcosm of all the world's governmental ineptitude, moral bankruptcy, and lax attitudes toward embezzlement. Now, it's just a rubber-stamp for the Organization of the Islamic Conference, whose member-states have tried to supplant Article 18 of the UN's none-too-sacrosanct Universal Declaration on Human Rights, which reads "Everyone has the right ...to change his religion," with the statement that people have "freedom and right to a dignified life in accordance with the Islamic Shari’ah," since apostasy is punishable by death in Islam. The answer: petition your respective governments to withholding funding from this racist institution!
15. cowboys and indians
Jeffrey Brock   (03.17.10)
if the U/N dude wants to push Israel into the dark ages, and demand that no new Jewish homes go up, and to deem them illegal... then I have a newsflash for him.... my family history is part of the Cherokee Indians in the Eastern USA AND I WANT ALL OUR LAND TO BE GIVEN BACK TO US.... TODAY. yep, I want all of it .... <<<>>>>
16. Mr moon! what occupied territories?
One Goy ,   NZ   (03.17.10)
Judea and Samaria fell in 1948 into the hands of Jordan. These are armistice lines not final borders. Status quo or Shmatus quo don't you dare deny the Jewish people of their only and most holy city: Jerusalem! We Goys really don't care whether muhamed stopped by for a piss. Yerushalyim is the eternal capital of the Jewish people- God bless them!
17. Arabs in Israel but no Jews in the future Palestinain state?
(03.17.10)
18. Israel vs. Palestine
mayer ,   usa   (03.17.10)
When was Palestine founded? Who was its first president? What was there before? Why do Jews want to live in Israel? Why are Jews in the ME? What was established first the UN or Israel? Why are we so scared of the truth? True Peace must be based on truth Think about
19. Jerusalem is part of israel
bernard ross ,   st anns bay jamaica   (03.17.10)
U N notwithstanding. Ban should direct his opinions elsewhere but not to the jews of israel.
20. Amazing video ;-)
(03.17.10)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQowILC51dw&feature=player_embedded
21. Never in your life
Dan David   (03.17.10)
Ban ki Mun in Yidish we say: Kik im Mun - Jerusalem was, is and will be Jewish for posterity. Learn history honorable Ban ki Mun.
22. What is the long-term prospect?
Ron B. ,   Lod   (03.17.10)
On one hand, there will be decades more—an entire generation at least—without formal peace. Yet that doesn’t mean war either but rather a status quo punctuated by sporadic low- to medium-level violence. The biggest danger, a Hamas takeover of the West Bank, has been pushed back. Israel’s defensive capacity grows steadily stronger. All this talk of freezing construction, final status negotiations, Western pressure, Palestinian threats, and so on has amounted to absolutely nothing in practice. Life will go on. More at : http://xrl.us/bftj9t
23. “Land for Peace” didn’t bring peace.
Ron B. ,   Lod   (03.17.10)
Every square inch of land, which was ceded by the Jewish State to the Palestinians, has been transformed into a platform of hate-education and terrorism. The hope of "Land-for-Peace" has been crashed by the reality of "Land-for-Terrorism." The root cause of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict – as far as PLO and Hamas are concerned - is the existence, and not the size, of the Jewish State. The result of the “Land for Peace” policy : http://xrl.us/bfq9oi
24. Through the Looking Glass
Sarah B ,   U.S.A. / Israel   (03.17.10)
This nonsense has gone on long enough. Jerusalem is the eternal, undivided capital of Israel. Period. Full stop. Here is a link that will put paid to all claims that Israel's presence in Judea and Samaria, and the settlements, are illegal. http://www.globalpolitician.com/24388-israel-jerusalem Although you would benefit from reading the treatise in its entirety, feel free to skip down to the section titled "Law on Israel's Takeover of 1967 Lands." Read both subparagraph 1 and 2 -- the first examines the issue under Security Council Resolution 242 (and confirms that SCR 242 it is neither binding nor enforceable, as it was issued under Chapter Six of the United Nations Charter, and not Chapter Seven). The second section discusses Acquisition of Non-Sovereign Land in a Defensive War and concludes that international law does not preclude Israel from retaining AND settling Judea and Samaria and, in fact, fully supports Israel’s right to do precisely that. The status of Jerusalem is discussed at the top of the treatise. We truly have gone through the looking glass. Please understand that Israel has been forced to fight six wars it never sought. Please understand that Israel has been subject to over sixty years of unrelenting terror attacks. Please understand that in 1967, Jordan inititated the conflict with Israel, and lost. Is it necessary for me to give a historical account of every time one nation fooolishly decided to initiate armed aggression and lost both the aggression and land as a result? Nothing has changed. Von Clausewitz is not just turning in his grave, he is doing backflips. Because it involves Jews and Israel, the world seems hell-bent on rewriting rules of engagement that have prevailed throughout history. And that is wrong on any number of levels. You choose. The rights of a sovereign state. The consequences of initiating a conflict, and losing said conflict. The absolute, incontrovertible and inalienable right of a nation-state to make decisions concerning its own territory. I highly doubt that the United States would allow foreign powers or bodies to exert any sort of hegemony over Washington D.C. The same holds true for any nation. Jerusalem does not belong to the world. It belongs to Israel, and was hard-fought and hard-won. But Israel did win. The rules of engagement that have been in effect since mankind began must prevail. They do in every other instance. And those rules do not change just because Israel is a Jewish state and people do not like Jews. Why they feel this way is their problem; not mine. Let’s turn to practical facts on the ground. It is a fact that the Palestinians have on three occasions rejected a two-state solution – including one that would have allowed them to claim East Jerusalem as a capital. Common sense dictates that the only interpretation permissible is that they are not interested in a two-state solution. We also know this basis the charters of the thirty-odd Palestinian organizations, each purporting to be the true representative of the Palestinian people. The common thread? The charters of each and every one of these organizations call for the destruction of the State of Israel and the extermination and/or expulsion of the Jewish people. That is NOT going to happen. The Palestinians have had more than enough bites at the apple. Moreover, they have perpetrated a huge fraud upon the world. They are not a persecuted people. They are not a suffering people. What they are is a violent, aggressive and amoral people who seem to think that the world owes them something. It doesn’t. They had their opportunities. They not-terribly-cleverly managed to overlook them all. How is that the fault of Israel? Right. It isn’t. Time to move on.
25. settlements are NOT illegal!
UN = ARAB LEAGUE 2   (03.17.10)
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