US envoy accuses Israel of adopting ‘double standards’
AMBASSADOR SEES DUAL JUSTICE SYSTEMS, QUESTIONS COMMITMENT TO TWO-STATE PLAN
US ambassador Daniel Shapiro on Monday charged that Israel seems to apply separate “standards” of justice for Israelis and Palestinians, drawing a rebuke from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Too much [Jewish] vigilantism goes unchecked, and at times there seems to be two standards of adherence to the rule of law, one for Israelis, and another for Palestinians,” Shapiro said in a speech at the annual meeting of the Institute for Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv.
“Hovering over all these questions is the larger one about Israel’s political strategy vis-a-vis its conflict with the Palestinians,” he added,
The ambassador welcomed the indictment in early January of two Israelis over a firebombing in the occupied West Bank last year that killed a Palestinian couple and their toddler.
The indictments were “an important demonstration of Israel’s commitment to prosecute acts of terrorism, regardless of their source, but too many attacks on Palestinians lack a vigorous investigation or response by Israeli authorities”, he said.
Netanyahu’s office insisted his regime “applies the law on Israelis just as it does on Palestinians” and said Shapiro’s comments were “not acceptable or just”.
Netanyahu added in a text message, “Israel enforces the law for Israelis and Palestinians”.
He blamed the Palestinian Authority for refusing to resume peace talks. Palestinian officials say Israel’s continued expansion of colonies makes further talks with Netanyahu pointless.
Shapiro told the conference, attended by Israeli politicians and military officials, that the Obama administration questions whether Netanyahu’s government really wants peace with the Palestinians.
Israel needs to halt colony expansion, mount a “more credible” campaign to control colonist violence and open more West Bank land to Palestinians to show its commitment to peace efforts, Shapiro said.
The ambassador’s criticism comes two months after Netanyahu’s latest trip to the White House, where he and President Barack Obama pledged to cooperate and put angry disputes over the nuclear deal with Iran behind them.
‘Strategic turning point’
Earlier at the conference, Lieutenant General Gadi Eisenkot, Israel’s military chief of staff, said Iran’s agreement to halt its nuclear programme in return for relief from international economic sanctions presents “grave dangers, but also opportunities”.
Eisenkot called the deal a “strategic turning point”, without describing specific opportunities.
Army strategists expect Iran to observe the terms of the nuclear agreement for several years while increasing its support for Lebanese and Palestinian groups fighting Israel, he said.