Israel OKS new settlement homes
Plan to build on warwon lands seen as retaliation for U.N. Palestinian vote.
JERUSALEM — Israel on Friday approved construction of 3,000 homes in Jewish settlements on Israeli-occupied lands, a government official said, drawing condemnation from the Palestinians a day after their successful U.N. recognition bid.
The Palestinians reiterated their refusal to resume negotiations with Israel while building continues. With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apparently poised for re-election to another four-year term and insisting that any negotiations begin without preconditions, prospects for
The Obama administration sought Friday to direct Israel and the Palestinians back toward peace talks, even as the two sides and much of the world seemed to be ignoring the U.S. attempts at leadership on a Mideast peace strategy.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was scheduled to meet senior Israeli and Palestinian officials Friday, with each side taking actions that the United States had expressly warned against: the Palestinians winning U.N. recognition of their claim to a state on Thursday and the Israelis retaliating Friday by approving 3,000 new homes on Israeli-occupied territory.
Clinton was expected to reiterate strong U.S. support for Israel, but also reassure the Palestinians that Washington would remain engaged in peace efforts. The Obama administration doesn’t want to shut out the Western-backed government of President Mahmoud Abbas despite its disagreements, especially after the militant group Hamas gained wider legitimacy in the Arab world after its recent week-long war with the Jewish state. Unlike Hamas, Abbas’government publicly supports a two-state agreement with Israel. an Israeli-Palestinian partition deal appear to be going into deep freeze.
The United Nations voted overwhelmingly to accept a Palestinian state in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem as a nonmember observer state on Thursday, setting off jubilant celebrations among Palestinians.
Israel fiercely objected to the U.N. vote, saying Palestinian statehood could only come from direct negotiations and unilateral moves would harm that prospect. The Palestinians said the U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state in the territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war was an attempt to salvage a possible peace deal.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says Israel’s settlement expansion on war-won land was making a partition deal increasingly difficult.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat condemned Israel’s announcement, saying it was “defying the whole international community and insisting on destroying the two-state solution.” He said the Palestinian leadership is studying its options.
Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh also said Friday the Palestinian position hadn’t changed, and settlement building “is not just illegal, it’s against the resolution.”
More than 500,000 Israelis have moved to the West Bank and east Jerusalem since 1967. Israel unilaterally withdrew its soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005 but continues to partially control access.
The Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Israel also decided to begin preparations for construction in other areas of the West Bank, including corridor that connects Jerusalem with settlement bloc Maaleh Adumim. Construction there would pose a major obstacle for Palestinian statehood by cutting off east Jerusalem from the West Bank.