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UN voices concern over stalled Israel-Palestine talks


UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon meets with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in October 2015 [File: Sebastian Scheiner/AP]
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon meets with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in October 2015 [File: Sebastian Scheiner/AP]

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has expressed concern that a stalemate in the negotiations between Israel and Palestinians is reaching the point of no return for a two-state solution.
"The time has come for Israelis, Palestinians and the international community to read the writing on the wall: The status quo is untenable," Ban wrote in an opinion piece published in the New York Times late on Sunday.
"Keeping another people under indefinite occupation undermines the security and the future of both Israelis and Palestinians."
Upwards of 600,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homeland and turned into refugees in neighbouring countries during Israel's 1948 establishment.
Since the 1967 Middle East war, Israel has occupied the Palestinian territories of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. 
Israel also occupies Syria's Golan Heights, home to some 20,000 Syrian Arabs from the Druze religious sect. 
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed Ban last week, saying he gave a "tailwind to terrorism" after the secretary-general put some of the blame on Israel for four months of stabbings and car rammings by Palestinians.
Protests against Israel's ongoing occupation in the Palestinian territories have boiled over into violence in recent months.
Since October 1, Israeli forces or settlers have killed at least 167 Palestinians, including bystanders, unarmed demonstrators and attackers. At least 25 Israelis have been killed in attacks carried out by Palestinians.
Ban, who will step down at the end of 2016 after 10 years as UN chief, had told the UN Security Council that it is "human nature to react to occupation". 
"I will always stand up to those who challenge Israel's right to exist," Ban said in the Times, "just as I will always defend the right of Palestinians to have a state of their own. That is why I am so concerned that we are reaching a point of no return for the two-state solution.
"The United States and the European Union - Israel's closest allies - also have had unusually stern criticism of Israel in recent weeks, reflecting their frustrations with Netanyahu's right-wing government.

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