Talking reform

last updated 8 January 2015

West Bank

Palestinian diplomats, refused permission to travel abroad, had to talk with international mediators at a conference in London by videolink this week. Israel revoked their travel authorization after a branch of Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement claimed responsibility for two recent deadly suicide bombings. The London conference was convened to discuss ways to reform the Palestinian Authority, but Israeli Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said such a discussion would do nothing to end terrorism. He said Arafat could simply tell militant groups “to stop murdering innocent people. That he can do right away; he doesn’t have to go to London for it.” U.N. envoy Terje Roed-Larsen agreed. “Even if the capabilities are limited under Israeli reoccupation,” he said, “it’s apparent to everybody that much more could have been done and should be done” by Arafat.