Israel on Friday invited bids to further develop two settlements in the occupied West Bank, despite international calls to freeze such activity seen as a major obstacle to Middle East peace efforts. The housing ministry invited bidding for the construction of 100 housing units in the El Kana and Ariel settlements, both in the northern West Bank.
The move drew immediate criticism from Palestinian officials and Israeli anti-settlement activists, who say expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied territory undermine already arduous peace talks. The internationally drafted 2003 roadmap that forms the basis of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks requires Israel to freeze settlement construction.
The United States and Europe have pressed Israel to halt settlement activity, but Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on March 26 that construction would continue at settlements in the West Bank.
The Israeli government stresses that while it is building new homes, it is not creating new settlements. "This construction of 50 (housing units) in Ariel and 50 in EL Kana are in the framework of the policy of the government because it will be construction inside the built-up area of existing settlement blocks," said Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev.
"This is consistent with what we said: one, no new settlements; two, no expropriation of land; three, no policy to outwardly expand existing settlement," he told AFP. But Saeb Erakat, one of the top Palestinian negotiators, expressed anger over the announcement. "We firmly condemn the continuation of settlements. Such a decision sabotages the peace process and the negotiations" between Israel and Palestinians, he told AFP.
The United States, Israel's staunchest ally, has said new construction is unhelpful to the peace process, which has made little progress since it was restarted at an international conference in Annapolis, Maryland last November. But anti-settlement activists sharply criticised the construction plans.
"It's a very bad decision that harms negotiations with Palestinians and Israel's international standing," said Yariv Oppenheimer, who heads the Peace Now movement. "It's a present made to the settlers for the Passover holidays," he said. Settlers, on the other hand, welcomed the decision, and said it did not go far enough.
"Thousands of housing units need to be built to cope with population growth," said Dani Dayan, of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria - the Israeli term for the West Bank.
About 270,000 Israelis live in the West Bank and 200,000 more live in east Jerusalem. Israel captured them in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, and claims the city as its eternal and undivided capital. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, while the international community considers all Israeli settlement construction in the occupied territories to be illegal.
In another development, Israel authorised the Palestinian Authority to open an additional 20 police stations in West Bank areas that are under Israeli security control, a military spokesman said. He said the move was part of measures aimed at improving day-to-day life in the territories.
The police stations will open in the so-called area B, which covers those parts of the occupied West Bank that are under Palestinian administration but Israeli control. Police stations in area B were shut down after the Palestinian uprising began in 2000.
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