Israeli Prime Minister tells Cabinet he won't stifle settlement activity

Tuesday November 20, 2007 10:33 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC

Just hours after announcing to the international community that Israel was committed to the 'Roadmap Plan' for peace and would agree to freeze settlement activity on occupied Palestinian land, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made his Cabinet a very different promise.

To his top advisors, Olmert promised that he would not stifle settlement activity, indicating that he does not see a freeze on settlement activity as part of Israel's obligations under the Road Map plan.

The original Road Map plan indicated clearly that Israel must stop building colonies on occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank and Gaza. 

According to the road map's first phase, Palestinians must undertake reforms and implement security measures, while Israel must "immediately dismantle settlement outposts erected since March 2001," and "consistent with the Mitchell Report, freeze all settlement activity (including natural growth of settlements)."

Israel pulled 8,000 settlers out of the Gaza Strip in 2005, but massively increased settlement activity in the West Bank, where 500,000 Israelis, many of them new immigrants, live on illegally-seized Palestinian land.

Olmert appears to be interpreting the Road Map plan based on a 2005 letter from U.S. President George Bush in which Bush indicated that Israel did not have to stop its settlement activity. 

Peace Now secretary-general Yariv Oppenheimer said 762 housing units had been completed so far this year and work began on another 603 units, based on figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics.

Unlike Olmert, Oppenheimer said he felt the directive as set out by the road map was very clear.

The road map, he said, calls for a "total freeze of settlement activity. I do not think there is any justification to build more housing, even if it is for natural growth."

All Israeli settlement activity, in which civilians are transferred to land seized by military conquest, is illegal under international law.

Meanwhile, right-wing Israeli settlers continue to expand colonial outposts in the West Bank.  In the settlement of Efrat, settlers plan to build eight outposts over the upcoming Hanukka holiday in December, one for each day of the festival.

In addition, the settlers plan to set out for three new sites outside of Kochav Hashahar, Beit El and in the contested E-1 area of Ma'aleh Adumim.

israel | prisoners | news report saed at imemc dot org