Israel has Frozen New Building in West Bank and East Jerusalem Settlements in an Effort to Revive Peace Talks with Palestinians
June 18, 2013
Reuters - Israel has frozen nearly all housing starts in settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Housing Minister Uri Ariel said on Tuesday, in an apparent bid to help U.S. efforts to revive peace talks with the Palestinians.
The step, confirmed several weeks ago by the Israel's
anti-settlement Peace Now movement, has had no impact on construction
already under way in settlements - projects that have raised Palestinian
concern and drawn international condemnation.
Settlement construction on land
the Palestinians want for a state was the main reason for the breakdown
of U.S.-sponsored negotiations in 2010 and has been cited as a stumbling
block to Secretary of State John Kerry's latest bid to restart talks.
"I'll give you the facts: in
Jerusalem, since the beginning of the year, there have been no tenders
except for one ... and the same goes for Judea and Samaria," Ariel,
using the Biblical names for the Israeli-occupied West Bank, told Army Radio.
Ariel, a member of the pro-settler Jewish Home party, said he
believed the step was temporary and that he was working to end it.
The Palestinians rejected Ariel's remarks.
"While such statements are made to placate Secretary Kerry, the fact
remains that settlement activity has continued unabated under
successive Netanyahu governments," the Palestine Liberation Organisation
said in a statement.
Last week, officials said Israel was pressing on with plans for the construction of more than 1,000 new homes in two West Bank settlements.
Those proposals have not reached the stage where bids are sought
from contractors, a process entailing public announcements that could
clash with Kerry's diplomatic drive.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
has not publicly confirmed housing starts have been suspended. But he
said last week Israel had to be "smart about" where it built and hinted
it was ready to limit expansion to settlement clusters it intends to
keep in any future land-for-peace deal.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has so far linked a resumption
of peace talks to a complete freeze of settlement building, which
Palestinians see as establishing facts on the ground that deny them land
they need for a viable state.
Most countries consider settlements illegal under international law.
Israel, which cites Biblical and historical links to the West Bank and
Jerusalem, disputes that and says the settlement issue should be worked
out in negotiations.
Some 500,000 Israelis have settled in the two areas, which Israel
captured along with the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war. About
2.5 million Palestinians live there.
Since taking office in February, Kerry has visited Israel and the
Palestinian territories four times to try to get both sides to renew
negotiations, so far with little success.