JERUSALEM: Israel has signed off on plans for nearly 300 new settler homes near Ramallah, angering the Palestinians who accused the Israeli government yesterday of trying to “sabotage” US moves to rekindle peace talks.
The announcement came just days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly ordered a freeze on tenders for new West Bank settler homes to avoid harming efforts by US Secretary of State John Kerry to bring both sides back to the negotiating table.
“The Civil Administration has given the green light for 296 housing units at Beit El,” said the spokesman for a defence ministry unit which administers the West Bank.
He said the plan was announced last year as a compensatory measure after the government ordered the evacuation of the unauthorised Ulpana outpost on the outskirts of Beit El.
Washington warned Israel that its plans for settlement housing were “counterproductive.”
“As the president said, Israelis must recognise that continued settlement activity is counterproductive to the cause of peace and that an independent Palestine must be viable, with real borders that have to be drawn,” State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said the move sent a clear message to Washington that Israel was not interested in resuming the direct talks, frozen in 2010.
“We condemn this new decision which is proof that the Israeli government wants to sabotage and ruin the US administration’s efforts to revive the peace process,” he told AFP.
“This is a message to the American administration and a blow to the peace process,” he said, suggesting it would drag the region towards violence rather than peace.
But his Israeli counterpart, Tzipi Livni, sought to play down the development, news of which reached her as she was meeting Kerry in Rome on Wednesday afternoon.
“There is no need for this to become a pretext for drama or anger,” she told army radio, saying she had updated the Americans about the development. AFP
