Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/394213
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 8 OCTOBER 2014 3 News Republic Street, Valletta next to the Courts Government condemns new Israeli settlement plans THE government has joined the EU in condemning Israel's decision to approve a plan for new settlements in the Givat Hamatos neighbour- hood in east Jerusalem. "We are concerned that this latest announcement will seriously un- dermine the viability of a two-state solution," a Foreign Affairs Minis- try said. "This latest announcement puts into question Israel's commit- ment to a peaceful, negotiated set- tlement with the Palestinians. "We therefore call on the Israeli government to reverse its decision and revise its settlement policy in East Jerusalem and the West Bank." The ministry reiterated the EU's and its own position that such settle- ments are illegal under international law and only undermine prospects for a peaceful two-state solution. Israel's decision to advance plans for the construction of 2,610 set- tlement units in Givat Hamatos has been met with a strong international backlash. An EU statement said that they "will not recognize any changes to the pre-1967 borders, including with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed by the parties" and that "the future development of relations between the EU and Israel will de- pend on the latter's engagement towards a lasting peace based on a two-state solution." The White House and US State Department said that these new settlements will "poison the atmos- phere" between Israel and the Pales- tinians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he was "baf- fled" by the US reaction. "What if I said to you in any part of the United States or the world, 'Jews cannot buy apartments here?'" Netanyahu told an interviewer on MSNBC. NGO says that Valletta will benefit from becoming intercultural TIM DIACONO VALLETTA can benefit from becom- ing more intercultural, SOS Malta, a human-rights NGO, said during a meeting with Council of Europe ex- perts for their 'Valletta Living Togeth- er' project. This 16-month project is co-financed by the EU Fund for the In- tegration of Third Country Nationals and aims to improve integration and intercultural exchange in Valletta. "We will soon come up with a three- year written strategy to make Val- letta more intercultural by 2018, the year Valletta will become the Euro- pean Capital of Culture," SOS Malta project manager Susan Vassallo said. "This strategy will include proposals for policy changes which we will send to the Valletta Local Council." In a statement, SOS Malta said that successful integration must come with migrants' access to political rights. "Academic literature points at the need to adapt representative democ- racy to the multiplicity and complex- ity of identities in diverse societies," SOS Malta said. After researching into cities that embraced diversity, SOS Malta found "convincing evidence that diversity and intercultural interaction can im- prove productivity and wages and in- crease entrepreneurship and trade." Valletta currently ranks within the bottom quarter of the Intercultural Cities Index, which has so far evalu- ated how intercultural 55 cities in the world are. "Multi-culturalism is flawed as it simply creates divisions between cul- tures living next to each other," Phil Wood from city development experts Comedia said. "What we are looking at is a dynamic and intercultural ap- proach with all cultures in constant negotiation with each other. We must expect some conflict between differ- ent culture, prepare for it and man- age it, rather than sweep it under the carpet." "Integration is a two-way street," Wood said. "We must stop looking at integration as immigrants having to adapt to the dominant culture. We must also stop looking at immigrants as people in need of our help, but rather as people with assets we can utilise." A group of people with different ways of looking at the world all work- ing together on one project tend to be more innovative, he said. However, the experts admitted that gaining public support for integration could be a hindrance. "It is important to challenge false rumours about immigrants that can spread and destroy entire intercultur- al programmes," Wood said. "There is no quick fix for public dissent against immigration," Irena Guidikova from the Council of Europe admitted. "However, people who pro- test against immigration are often dis- satisfied with their economic situation or their government or their general life and take it out on immigrants."