Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs
10 May 2002
The Department of Foreign Affairs today welcomed the announcement and implementation of an agreement between the Israeli and Palestinian authorities for the ending of the siege by the Israeli Defence Forces of the Holy Nativity Church in Bethlehem.
In responding to the announcement, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Aziz Pahad, said that once more the key role that the international community can play in ending the confrontation between Israel and the Palestinians has been highlighted. In this regard, he said that the United States and Great Britain had to be commended for the extremely helpful facultative roles which they had played in ending this tense and volatile situation. It emphasised that the present conflict has reached such dimensions, that both sides were unable to find resolution to the issues dividing them, without the assistance of outside third parties.
It was therefore South Africa's view that more serious consideration had to be given to the growing calls for the establishment of an international observer force in order to assist the Israelis and Palestinian to re-establish the conditions under which the agenda could be refocused once more on peace making rather than on responses to the spiralling cycle of violence.