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Israel removes Palestinian encampment outside East Jerusalem
JERUSALEM |
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli forces removed Palestinian protest tents on Thursday from land earmarked for Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, having evicted activists from the encampment earlier this week, police said.
"The area was cleared of all tents," said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. "There were no disturbances."
On Sunday, police evicted 50 protesters from the so-called "E1" area outside the Arab suburbs of East Jerusalem, where planned Israeli settlements could split much of the West Bank - a worry for world powers who want to see a Palestinian state set up in the territory seized by the Jewish state in the 1967 war.
The activists' large, steel-framed tents had remained standing in accordance with an Israeli court order while judges considered a Palestinian claim of ownership of land where the encampment, dubbed "Bab al-Shams", was built.
The Supreme Court approved removal of the tents on Wednesday, agreeing with the government's argument that they could be a magnet for violent Palestinian protests. That ruling was decried by activists who describe Bab al-Shams as a non-violent implementation of Palestinian rights.
Most countries view Jewish settlements in areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war as illegal and echo concerns voiced by Palestinians that building more settler homes could deny them a viable and contiguous state.
E1 covers some 12 square km (4.6 square miles) and is considered particularly important because it not only juts into the narrow "waist" of the West Bank, but also backs onto East Jerusalem, where Palestinians want to establish their capital.
About 500,000 Israelis and 2.5 million Palestinians live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians broke down in 2010.
(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by David Brunnstrom)
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The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is the basis of the international nuclear non-proliferation accord. All states are now party to it apart from India, Pakistan and South Sudan, with Israel being the only undeclared nuclear weapons state anywhere in the world.
There are now 189 states that have signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The aims of the NPT are to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons of mass destruction and to ultimately eliminate them through total nuclear disarmament.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) supports the NPT. The agency exists to ensure the benefits of safe and secure nuclear energy worldwide and to inspect the nuclear programs of member states.
The spread of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) poses a threat to the international community and the use of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) weapons, and ballistic missiles, gives rise to serious humanitarian, political and economic problems on a global scale.
Currently, international partners such as the UN, the EU, the G8 and NATO make concerted efforts to reduce the ability of regimes and governments worldwide to create, obtain or use CBRN technologies.
These partners are committed to the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) which bans the production, holding and use of chemical weapons by all states and supports the destruction of remaining chemical weapons stocks.
The UN Security Council Resolution 1540, requires all states not to support NGAs from developing, acquiring, manufacturing, possessing, transporting, transferring or using nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and their delivery systems.
The Global Partnership against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction was agreed between G8 members, in Canada, in 2002.
The state of Israel is the only undeclared nuclear state that is NOT a signatory to the following international efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear, biological & chemical weapons of mass destruction (WMD):
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
http://www.opcw.org/chemical-weapons-convention/
Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC)
http://www.un.org/disarmament/WMD/Nuclear/NPT.shtml
Missile Technology Control Regime
Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction
UN Security Council Resolution 1540,
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