Palestinians warn about US policy shift
Israel to expand West Bank settlements. US quietly concurs.
The United States now supports
expanded construction within major Israeli settlements in the West Bank, reports the
Jerusalem Post.Palestinian officials expressed shock at the new policy which came to light in response to the weekend
announcement by Israel that it has approved construction of more than 500 more homes in the West Bank, reports
The Associated Press. The new
units are in addition to bids for construction of some 1,000 new homes in four of its large West Bank settlements announced last week. Palestinians are especially concerned that Israel will seal its hold on Arab East Jerusalem - captured along with the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Middle East war - by increasing settlement around the holy city. Israel annexed East Jerusalem as its capital in a move not recognized internationally. "If Israel does not stop this expansionist policy, we will
not be able to find enough space to establish our state on," Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat, told
Reuters. Failure on the part of the US to condemn the expansion of settlements is a shift in policy, he said. Reuters quoted Erekat critiquing the new US policy as "destroying the road map." A senior Israeli source said there was a clear understanding that the United States was trying to help Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon see through his plan for "disengagement" from conflict with the Palestinians. "Israel would not issue this without
a green light from the United States," a source close to Mr. Sharon said, reports
Reuters.
For the past three years
US policy called for "a freeze of 'all settlement activity,' including the 'natural growth' brought about by an increase in the birthrate and other factors, reports the
New York Times.The original policy resulted from negotiations with a commission led by former US Senator George J. Mitchell in 2001. It became part of what is popularly known as a "road map" toward peace and was negotiated by the US, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations, reports the
Times.
But Israel still interprets a freeze on settlement activity as allowing "thickening" - the building of new apartments within settlement boundaries, either in empty areas or as higher floors to existing buildings. Israeli officials suggested that the Bush administration, by "discussing the issue now, was trying to appeal to Jewish voters in the American elections," reports the
Times. On Monday, the Israel Lands Authority - responsible for some West Bank lands - announced, that it has decided that contractors will be allowed to begin
building 300 units next year, as well, reports
AP. US officials in Israel told
AP that the American government is "not objecting to construction in the main West Bank settlement blocs, as long as the settlements themselves are not expanded - while an internal administration debate over the issue continues." Continued new settlements on the West Bank, when seen as possessing a tacit understanding between the Bush administration and the Sharon government, fuels Palestinian fears that uprooting Gaza settlers "is a cover for strengthening Israel's hold on bigger West Bank enclaves," reports
AP. A Palestinian state would be on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip - Arab areas where Israel has placed more than 235,000 settlers in 150 settlements, reports
AP. All but 8,000 settlers are on the West Bank. The Palestinians want all settlements removed. The result is "
effectively a new road map" says Jeff Halper, an Israeli political activist who specializes in Israeli control of the Palestinian territories. The new map, Halper told the
Guardian, "has been drawn between the US and Israel, which the United Nations, the European Union, and Russia do not agree with." According to an unnamed European diplomat quoted by the
Guardian on Sunday, "The road map calls for a freeze in all settlement activity. End of story,"
The Israelis have never accepted that and the US has tacitly agreed that their position has validity and has shown that limited building is permissible. ...In these meetings the US has indicated areas where Israel cannot build. Israel has taken that to mean it is permissible to build in other areas. The US is effectively deciding how the West Bank will look in the future.
Yossi Sarid, a leftist member of the Knesset (Israel's Parliament), charged that Prime Minister
Sharon was exploiting the closely fought presidential race to further his own agenda, reports the Israeli newspaper,
Ha'aretz on Monday.
Ha'aretz quotes Sarid declaring that the Bush administration "mistaken if it believes American Jews support the destructive policies of the settlers." Leading members of Israel's right-wing Likud party take the opposite view. Having voted down Sharon's efforts to remove settlements from Gaza, Deputy Minister Michael Ratzon a principal spokesman and unofficial "party whip" told
Ha'aretz:
The more that we make it difficult for Sharon, the more the Americans support him, and the more they support the state of Israel. Flushed with victory, Ratzon indicated that Israel could leverage its newfound understanding into further tacit agreements, reports
Ha'aretz, "in particular by turning a blind eye to Israeli pledges to Bush to uproot illegal outposts."
'There is no one who is capable of evacuating settlements,' Ratzon said, adding that he believes that Sharon knows this as well. Using the biblical term for the West Bank, Ratzon said that Sharon 'hasn't even managed to evacuate a tent or an illegal outpost in Judea and Samaria. So do they really think they'll succeed in evacuating those settlements?' To date, Israel has
not withdrawn any settlements from Gaza, reports Gamal, a Jerusalem-based Israeli non-profit organization which calls itself an "ideological watchdog" for the nation of Israel.
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