GAZA CITY: During a rare visit to Hamas-ruled Gaza, German Foreign Minister, Guido Westerwelle, said Monday that the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of 1.5 million Palestinians living in the coastal strip is unacceptable and must end. Guido Westerwelle also said after touring a UN school and a German-funded sewage treatment plant that the border closure is strengthening extremists at the expense of moderates. Israel and Egypt closed Gaza's borders after Hamas seized the territory more than three years ago. Westerwelle is one of just a few senior Western diplomats to have visited Gaza since 2007. Israel eased the blockade over the summer, but still bans the import of crucial raw materials and virtually all exports. Westerwelle said Germany has not forgotten Gaza. “Some 1.5 million people live in Gaza, and this means, of course, that the blockade deprives them of opportunities,” he said. “This strengthens radicals and weakens moderates, and the opposite needs to be achieved.” He also noted that Germany's call for an end to the blockade is the view of the European Union. Germany is one of Israel's staunchest supporters in the EU, and Westerwelle's comments seemed unusually forceful, even though he did not mention Israel by name. Westerwelle did not meet with Gaza's Hamas rulers. Israel sabotaging peace talks: Erakat The Palestinians accused Israeli prime minister of working to sabotage peace talks by approving the building of 1,300 new settler homes in annexed East Jerusalem. “We thought that (Benjamin) Netanyahu was going to the United States to stop settlement activity and restart negotiations but it is clear to us that he is determined to destroy the talks,” chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said in Ramallah. The Israeli prime minister is currently on a five-day trip to the United States where he is holding a series of top-level talks with US officials aimed at reviving the moribund peace process. “He has shut all the doors to negotiations and we hold him responsible for destroying them,” Erakat said. Direct peace talks which began in early September quickly ran aground when an Israeli moratorium on West Bank settlement construction expired six weeks ago, prompting the Palestinians to freeze ties until Israel reimposes the ban.
