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| Palestinians reject temporary settlement freeze |
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Thursday, November 26, 2009
OCCUPIED-al-Quds: Israel’s prime minister on Wednesday pushed for a temporary ease in settlement building amid US pressure for concessions towards peace, even as the Palestinians rejected the offer as insufficient.
“As part of the efforts to kick-start peace efforts ... the prime minister will today ask the security cabinet to approve the temporary suspension of new construction permits for houses and new building starts” in the occupied West Bank, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
The statement did not mention east al-Quds, implying that the halt would not extend to the mostly Arab part of the Holy City, a key Palestinian demand.
In Washington, a US official told AFP that “we’re hopeful this will lead to a resumption” of the peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians that were suspended during the Gaza war at the turn of the year. Israel’s security cabinet was widely expected to approve Netanyahu’s measure despite protests from hardline supporters of Israeli settlements.
But the Palestinians warned even before the announcement that they would reject the measure as it fell short of their demand for a complete freeze on settlements in the West Bank, including east al-Quds.
“This sort of announcement is not a halt to settlements, because Israel will continue to build 3,000 settlement units and government buildings in the West Bank and will exclude al-Quds,” chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP.
A spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, Nabil Abu Rudeina, said after the announcement: “The return to negotiations must be made on the base of a total stop of settlements in the West Bank, including al-Quds ... “al-Quds is a red line not to be crossed in the eyes of the Palestinians and the Arabs.”
The United States has struggled for months to get Israel and the Palestinians to resume their peace negotiations, but those efforts have so far been futile amid deep divisions over the thorny issue of settlements. The Palestinians insist that Israel first freeze all settlement activity.
But the Jewish state has only offered a temporary and partial halt, excluding east al-Quds, which it views as an integral part of its capital but which the Palestinians want to make the capital of their promised state.
The international community considers all Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land as illegal and does not recognise Israel’s annexation of east al-Quds.
With Washington pushing for a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, a cornerstone of its Middle East policy, both sides have blamed each other for the impasse.
The Palestinians insist that without a total settlement freeze, Israel is not living up to the obligations it undertook as part of the 2003 international roadmap for peace plan. Israel says the Palestinians are setting pre-conditions for a resumption of talks.
Speaking ahead of the cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Netanyahu said his right-wing government should approve his initiative even though most of its members firmly support the settlement enterprise.
The measure “allows us to show the world a simple truth, which the government of Israel wants to enter negotiations with the Palestinians, and is taking real steps to bring about negotiations and is serious in its intentions to reach peace,” he said.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
