Canadian Foreign Minister John
Baird traveled to Ramallah Sunday to meet with Palestinian Authority
Foreign Minister Riyad Maliki. After the meeting, as Baird left the
city, dozens of Palestinian protesters pelted his convoy with eggs and
shoes.
The protesters held aloft signs reading: “Baird you are not welcome in Palestine” and “Baird, Jerusalem is our capital.”
Activists from Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party earlier had called for a boycott of Baird
because of Canada’s Middle East policies. “This person backs up the
Zionist movement,” protester Abdullah Abu-Rahmeh said. “This person
diminishes the rights of our people, takes part and backs up building of
settlements. We tell him that he’s not welcome.”
Baird said after the meeting with Maliki that
he had asked the Palestinians to refrain from diplomatic moves that
would make reaching an agreement with Israel even more difficult.
“I asked that the minister strongly reconsider
the consequences of moving forward with any action that may be
counterproductive to a negotiated solution with the State of Israel,” he
said, in an apparent reference to a Palestinian request for the
International Criminal Court to investigate Israel over alleged war
crimes during last summer’s conflict in the Gaza Strip.
Policemen
stand guard in front of Palestinian protesters holding placards before a
meeting between Palestinian Authority Minister of Foreign Affairs Riyad
al-Maliki and his Canadian counterpart John Baird on January 18, 2015,
Ramallah. (AFP/ABBAS MOMANI)
“Minister Maliki and I held cordial and
constructive talks today in the West Bank, discussing key regional
issues, as well as the Middle East Peace Process,” he said.
Last Friday the ICC opened a preliminary
investigation into the Gaza conflict, during which some 2,200
Palestinian were killed, according to Gazan figures. Israel
maintains that at least half of those were combatants and that the high
number of civilian casualties was due to Hamas tactics. Israeli
casualties included 66 IDF soldiers and six civilians.
The probe, however, may also pave the way for Palestinians to be prosecuted for war crimes.
Israeli
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, center left, shakes hands with his
Canadian counterpart John Baird during their meeting in Jerusalem,
Sunday, Jan. 18, 2015. (photo credit: AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)
Later in the day Baird met with in Jerusalem
with Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, who told Baird that the ICC
probe was unjustified.
“It’s inconceivable that a terror organization
is lodging a criminal petition against Israel,” he said. “Hamas used
their own civilians as human shields while it fired rockets at Israel.
The Palestinian Authority is making a mockery of International law.”
Baird is in the region for five days of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials.
Activists from PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s
Fatah party had earlier called for a boycott of Baird because of
Canada’s perceived pro-Israel stance. Baird nevertheless reported the
meeting with Mailki was productive.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat
demanded that the Canadian government apologize for backing Israel and
its “apartheid policies” and for preventing the Palestinian people from
achieving statehood. He also called on Arab countries to foil Canadian
diplomacy.
A
Palestinian policeman stops a protester after Palestinian youths hurled
eggs at the motorcade of Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird in
Ramallah on Sunday, January 18, 2015 (photo credit: AFP/ABBAS MOMANI)
“The Palestinian people as well as the rest of
the Arab and Muslim countries deserve an apology from the Canadian
government for years of systematic attempts at blocking the right of the
Palestinian people to a state of their own,” Erakat said in a
statement.
“We regret the Canadian government’s decision
to stand on the wrong side of history by blindly supporting the Israeli
occupation and its apartheid policies,” he declared. “Canadian FM John
Baird has contributed to Israeli violations of Palestinian inalienable
rights, including our right to self-determination, by systematically
lobbying against all Palestinian diplomatic initiatives.”
Baird has in the past voiced strong support
for Israel’s right to defend itself and has called for
the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip. Recently he
urged the European Union to reverse a decision to remove Hamas from its list of terror groups.
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