[January 04, 2014]RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) — Palestinian protesters on Friday condemned the latest efforts by U.S.
Secretary of State John Kerry to advance peace talks with Israel, using
chants evoking the Arab uprisings and telling him to go home.
Hours before Kerry was due to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas, a raucous crowd of several hundred took to the streets of
Ramallah, the West Bank's de facto capital, chanting "Kerry, you
coward, there's no place for you in Palestine!"
Separately, an official close to Abbas dismissed Kerry's drive for a
"framework agreement" as biased toward Israel.
Kerry has said such an accord would narrow gaps between the sides
and pave the way for a final deal when the nine-month period
allotted the U.S.-backed talks expires on April 29.
But Yasser Abed Rabbo, Abbas's deputy in the Palestine Liberation
Organisation, said the plan, still being finalized, "restricts
Palestinian sovereignty on Palestinian land".
"The Palestinian side will not even look at a worthless piece of
paper, a framework agreement, which contains general principles for
later negotiations, when the two sides have already been negotiating
for months and years," Abed Rabo said in a statement published in
the al-Ayyam newspaper on Friday.
Palestinian and Israeli officials have publicly differed on the
future status of the West Bank's border with Jordan, where Israelis
want a permanent security presence but Palestinians want a full
withdrawal of Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers.
Israel said last week it planned to build another 1,400 homes in
settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Kerry has told reporters that the agreement, besides borders and
security, would aim to address all the conflict's key issues such as
refugees and Jerusalem.
The U.S. top diplomat held five hours of talks with Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday and saw him again on Friday.
He is due to see Abbas later in the day.
Around three hundred activists with the left-wing Democratic Front
for the Liberation of Palestine party rallied in downtown Ramallah
hours before Kerry's scheduled arrival.
"The people want the fall of the framework!" they chanted, evoking
the chants heard in protests throughout the Middle East in 2011.
"It's clear, Kerry, we don't want to see you! The Americans are the
enemy of our people!" they added.
Dozens of riot policemen and plainclothes security forces prevented
their march from reaching Ramallah's presidential compound, where
Abbas was expected to receive Kerry.
U.S. Republican Senator John McCain, who is also in Israel and has
conferred with the Israeli Prime minister, told a news conference on
Friday that Netanyahu doubted the proposals.
"Netanyahu has serious, serious concerns about the plan as it has
been presented to him, whether it be on the ability of Israel to
defend its borders, on the reliability of a Palestinian state ...
and particularly on the overall security," he said.
"We also are very concerned," he said, standing alongside fellow
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.
(Reporting by Noah Browning in Ramallah and Arshad Mohammed in
Jerusalem; editing by Alison Williams)
Hours before Kerry was due to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas, a raucous crowd of several hundred took to the streets of
Ramallah, the West Bank's de facto capital, chanting "Kerry, you
coward, there's no place for you in Palestine!"
