Yahoo – AFP,
8 November 2014
Ramallah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - The European Union's top diplomat Federica Mogherini said on Saturday that Jerusalem "should be the capital of two states", as tensions gripped the holy city hit by Israeli-Palestinian violence.
EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini speaks on a visit to a UN-run Bahrain boys school sheltering displaced Palestinian families, on November 8, 2014 in Gaza City (AFP Photo/Mahmud Hams) |
Ramallah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - The European Union's top diplomat Federica Mogherini said on Saturday that Jerusalem "should be the capital of two states", as tensions gripped the holy city hit by Israeli-Palestinian violence.
"I
think Jerusalem can be and should be the capital of two states," Mogherini
told reporters in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, touching on
a sensitive issue that has blocked peace efforts for decades.
Her appeal,
at a joint news conference with Palestinian prime minister Rami Hamdallah, came
hours after the killing of an Arab-Israeli by police fanned tensions between
Israel and the Palestinians.
The
shooting in northern Israel came after another night of clashes in east
Jerusalem between youths hurling stones and firecrackers at police, who
retaliated with rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas.
The
violence has spiked as Israel has pushed ahead with its policy to build Jewish
settlements on lands the Palestinians want for a future state and against the
background of efforts by Jewish extremists to secure rights to pray at
Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque.
"Jerusalem
is not just a beautiful city, the challenge is to show that Jerusalem can be
shared in peace and respect," said Mogherini.
"The
message is not for the people who live here, the message is to the rest of the
world," she said.
"It is
not a Palestinian-Israeli situation, it is a global issue."
On Friday,
Mogherini met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who dismissed her
criticism of Israeli settlement building in annexed east Jerusalem and the West
Bank.
"Jerusalem
is our capital and as such is not a settlement," he insisted.
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