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Israel defends illegal settlements
Thursday, November 19, 2009
OCCUPIED-AL-QUDS/DOHA: Israel defended on Wednesday its decision to build hundreds of illegal Jewish homes in annexed Arab east al-Quds as US President Barack Obama warned the “dangerous” move pushed peace further away.
New settlement construction “embitters the Palestinians in a way that could end up being very dangerous,” Obama said in an interview with Fox News.
“I think that additional settlement building does not contribute to Israel’s security. I think it makes it harder for them to make peace with their neighbours,” he said.
Earlier on Wednesday, Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai defended his ministry’s decision to build 900 new homes in east al-Quds that drew international criticism.
Israel considers mainly Arab east al-Quds to be an integral part of its capital, but the Palestinians want to make it the capital of their promised state.
“Freezing construction in Gilo is just like freezing construction ... in any other neighbourhood in al-Quds and Israel,” Yishai told AFP. “Construction in al-Quds cannot be halted, and Gilo is in al-Quds.”
Gilo is one of a dozen Jewish settlements in the eastern part of the Holy City, which Israel has annexed in a move not recognised by the international community. Israeli news reports said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had rejected a request from US ally to halt construction in Gilo, but it was not clear whether the request concerned the project approved on Tuesday night.
Only hours after the decision was announced, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said he was “dismayed.”
“At a time when we are working to relaunch negotiations, these actions make it more difficult for our efforts to succeed,” Gibbs said. Russia slammed the expansion as “unacceptable for the Middle Eastern peace process.”
The move is likely to further hamper Washington’s so far futile efforts to get Israel and the Palestinians to restart peace talks, which were suspended during the Gaza war at the turn of the year.
In another move likely to exacerbate tensions, Israel demolished a Palestinian house in east al-Quds. Palestinians often build in east al-Quds without permits because these are nearly impossible to get.
The European Union, United Nations, Britain, France and Saudi Arabia added their voices to the criticism of the decision to expand Gilo, a move that flew in the face of Palestinian calls for a complete freeze on all settlement activity for peace talks to resume.
The EU presidency stressed that “settlement activities, house demolitions and evictions in east al-Quds are illegal under international law.”
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who was holding talks with Israeli leaders in al-Quds on Wednesday, said: “It is a decision that we regret.”
The Palestinians’ chief negotiator Saeb Erakat accused Israel of “making a mockery of existing agreements and sabotaging all prospects for a return to genuine negotiations.” Israel captured east al-Quds during the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it. It views the entire Holy City as its “eternal, indivisible” capital and does not consider Jewish neighbourhoods in the eastern sector as settlements.
Meanwhile, a group of visiting US Jews on Wednesday laid a symbolic cornerstone of a new Jewish neighbourhood in east al-Quds.
“I’m sending a message to President Obama—leave al-Quds alone,” Danny Danon, an MP with Netanyahu’s Likud faction, said at the ceremony. Meanwhile, French President Nicolas Sarkozy wrapped up on Wednesday a Gulf visit during which he agreed with Saudi King Abdullah on the need to restart Middle East peace talks and took a firm stance on Iran.
In three hours of “deep” talks at Abdullah’s Janadiriyah desert farm, north of Riyadh, late on Tuesday, the leaders “were agreed on the need for rapid steps to relaunch the peace process,” an official of the French presidency told AFP.
King Abdullah is “on the same wavelength” as France on the need to relaunch the peace process, the official said.
On Wednesday, Sarkozy made a brief stopover in Doha where his wife Carla Bruni arrived a day earlier to take part in a conference on education, following an invitation by the emir’s wife, Sheikha Moza al-Misnid.
Sarkozy held talks with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, before the presidential couple headed back to Paris.
The president arrived in the Saudi capital on Tuesday for an overnight stay to discuss mainly regional political issues and build a closer working relationship.
The two leaders discussed the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Lebanese politics and other key issues over a three-hour meeting.
The presidency official would not comment on reports that France is offering to host a new Middle East peace conference.
But in a Saudi newspaper interview, Sarkozy said: “I told (Syrian) President (Bashar al-) Assad ... and (Israeli) Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu: France is ready to facilitate the resumption of talks, if the parties consider that we can be helpful.”
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