Foreign
Minister Katz says Israelis will participate in the June 25-26 workshop 'if all
coordination are made,' while sources claim that Israel is expected to send a
business delegation only; Palestinians vowed to boycott the conference,
alleging pro-Israeli bias.
Israelis will attend a U.S-led
conference in Bahrain next week on proposals for the
Palestinian economy as part of a coming peace plan, Foreign Minister Israel
Katz said today(18.6.2019).
The
United States
has billed the gathering as a workshop to boost the Palestinian economy as part
of a broader effort by President Donald Trump's administration to address the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
A source briefed on the event said Israel
would send a business delegation but no government officials to the June 25-26
workshop, which is being boycotted by the Palestinian leadership.
"Israel
will be at the Bahrain
conference and all the coordination will be made," Katz said told Israeli
Channel 13 News in New York.
He gave no further details. The Foreign Ministry declined comment, as did a
spokesman for Katz. The White House did not immediately respond to a request
for comment on what level of representation Israel
was expected to have at the conference.
U.S. officials have
said they are inviting economy and finance ministers, as well as business
leaders, to Bahrain to discuss investment in the Palestinian territories –
Publish Reuters today (18.6.2019).
Palestinian leaders
have spurned the conference, alleging pro-Israeli bias from Washington.
The
Palestinians say the still unpublished U.S.
peace plan falls short of their goal of statehood. They blame a halt in U.S.
aid and Israeli restrictions for an economic crisis in the occupied West
Bank and Gaza Strip.
A White House official said on Tuesday that Egypt,
Jordan and Morocco
planned to attend the conference . Egypt
and Jordan's participation
is considered particularly important because they have historically been major
players in Middle East peace efforts and are the only Arab states that have
peace treaties with Israel.
One of the sources
said that U.S. and Bahrain had deliberated over whether a non-official Israeli
presence was preferable to a government-level delegation, given that Israel
currently has a caretaker government in place, pending a September election.
A second source said Israel
would be sending a private business delegation.
Trump's plan faces possible
delays due to political upheaval in Israel, after Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu failed to form a government last month and must fight a second
election this year, set for September 17.
Trump's Middle East envoy Jason
Greenblatt said the unveiling of the peace plan may be delayed until November,
when a new Israeli government is expected to be in place.
"Had
the election not been called again perhaps we would have released it during the
summer," Greenblatt said on Sunday. "If we
wanted to wait until a new government is formed we really do have to wait until
potentially as late as November 6 but we'll decide that after Bahrain,"
said Greenblatt.