UNITED NATIONS/jerusalem: United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon yesterday toughened his language as he once more urged Israel to halt plans to build new settler homes on occupied Palestinian territory.
“The Middle East peace process is in a deep freeze. The two sides seem more polarised than ever, and a two-state solution is farther away than at any time since the Oslo process began,” Ban warned.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday his government would press ahead with expanding Jewish settlements around Jerusalem despite Western criticism of its plan to build 6,000 more homes in territory Palestinians seek for a state.
In addition to several thousand housing units approved earlier this month, Israeli media said initial approval was granted yesterday for construction of another 3,400 units in Jerusalem and in the West Bank. Israel captured east Jerusalem in a 1967 war and annexed it as part of its capital in a move never recognised internationally. Palestinians want the area to be capital of a state they seek to establish in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, land also captured by Israel.
“We are going to build in Jerusalem for all its residents, this is something that has been done by all previous governments and this is something that my government will continue to do,” Netanyahu said in a meeting with foreign ambassadors.
This week, Israel has pushed through plans for 5,158 new settler homes, more than 80 percent of them in east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians see as a capital for a future state.It has stepped up the building programme since November 29, when Palestine won a vote to be accepted as a United Nations non-member state.
“I am deeply concerned by heightened settlement activity in the West Bank, in particular around Jerusalem. This gravely threatens efforts to establish a viable Palestinian state,” Ban complained.
“I call on Israel to refrain from continuing on this dangerous path, which will undermine the prospects for a resumption of dialogue and a peaceful future for Palestinians and Israelis alike,” he said. “Let us get the peace process back on track before it is too late.”
Earlier, Ban’s secretary general for political affairs Jeffrey Feltman reaffirmed the view that Israel’s settlement building violates international law and could destroy hopes for a negotiated solution. “If implemented, these plans would represent an almost fatal blow to remaining chances of securing a two-state solution,” he told the Security Council.
“We strongly urge the Israeli government to heed the international calls to rescind these plans,” Feltman said.
He also condemned Israel’s move to freeze payments of tax and customs fees that it collects for Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas’ administration.
The action “undermines the integrity of the Palestinian Authority” and “casts doubt on Israeli compliance” with an international protocol on the transfers, Feltman said. Israel’s plans for the construction of 2,610 homes in the as yet unbuilt Givat HaMatos district in east Jerusalem was quickly followed by the announcement of tenders for another 1,048 units, most of them in the occupied West Bank.
Yesterday’s developments came two days after the approval of another 1,500 homes in east Jerusalem, which prompted Washington to denounce Israel for its “pattern of provocative action.”
Palestinian negotiator Mohamed Shtayyeh warned that Israeli steps to push through new settler homes were pushing the Palestinians to accelerate their plans to approach the International Criminal Court. “The intensification of settlement activity and all the Israeli actions, from killings to arrests, are pushing us to accelerate our recourse to the International Criminal Court,” he said.
The Palestinians are not signatories to the agreement that established the court, but could seek accession after winning upgraded United Nations membership. Over the past three weeks, Israel - which is in the middle of an election campaign - has announced several major plans for construction in Arab east Jerusalem and the West Bank, triggering a torrent of criticism from the international community.
Yesterday morning, Jerusalem municipal planning committee gave final approval to a proposal for 2,610 homes in Givat HaMatos, which is set to become the city’s first new settlement neighbourhood in 15 years, Israeli monitoring groups said. Until now, there has been no construction at the site, which is located on the southern flank of east Jerusalem, close to Bethlehem.
The Terrestrial Jerusalem group said the approval was the final stage of a years-long planning process, with construction likely to start “within a matter of weeks or a few months.”
And Peace Now’s Lior Amihai said the plans would be published in the coming days, with tenders expected to be published around two weeks after that.
Building in Givat HaMatos would mark the start of the first new settlement neighbourhood in east Jerusalem since the establishment of Har Homa in 1997, which was set up during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s first term of office.
Yesterday afternoon, housing ministry published tenders to build another 1,048 settler homes - some of them in Har Homa, although most of them would be in the West Bank settlements of Beitar, Karnei Shomron, Givat Zeev and Efrat, a spokesman said.
Plans to build Givat HaMatos were first made public in January 2008 under the government of Ehud Olmert but they could not be implemented without passing through a lengthy approvals process.AFP
