Peace will not prevail in the Middle East unless Israel stops its aggression against Palestinian people, Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils said on Friday.
Speaking during the Intelligence Department’s budget-vote debate in the National Assembly, Kasrils said Israel must start making positive moves.
”Essential to progress is the need for Israel, with its superior power and resources … to release the Palestinian customs revenue it withholds, end its occupation … and halt its aggression against Palestinian people,” he said.
Israel, Kasrils said, should also start implementing the United Nations resolutions.
”[It should] embark on good-faith negotiations with the democratically elected leadership of the Palestinian national unity government, which we believe is doing its best to reciprocate under the most adverse of circumstances,” he said.
He said the cutting of certain international funds constituted a cruel and collective punishment on the Palestinian people for electing leaders unpopular to the West. — Sapa