Al-Manar
Hanan Awarekeh
08/03/2010 Despite their “welcome” for the Arab League’s decision to give the indirect Israeli-Palestinian talks “last chance”, Israeli leaders, as always, say something while they act its opposite.
Israel has given the green light for the building of 112 new homes in an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank despite a partial moratorium on such construction, Israeli Environment Minister Gilad Erdan said on Monday.
The expansion was revealed hours before the arrival of US Vice President Joe Biden and one day after the Palestinians agreed to indirect talks with Israel while warning that further settlement growth threatened the peace process.
Erdan said the project in the Beitar Illit settlement near Bethlehem was an exception to a partial halt on settlement expansion announced in November. "At the end of last year, the government decided to freeze construction, but this decision provided for exceptions in cases of safety problems for infrastructure projects started before the freeze," he said.
The Arab foreign ministries’ decision last week, analysts say, was only a bid to cover the failure of US Middle East envoy George Mitchell in the region and to give the legitimacy for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose official term was ended in January thus he has no mandate for resuming any kind of talks with Israel - direct or indirect.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mouallem confirmed his country’s reservation on the decision saying that backing indirect talks was outside the committee's mandate. "The decision to go to indirect or direct talks is a Palestinian decision," he told the Arab league.
The Syrian FM said, "My country’s delegation stressed that such authorization of the Palestinian Authority is not the competence of the Arab Peace Initiative Committee, which exists to promote for the Arab initiative and not to give cover for any Palestinian decision. The decision to go to negotiations directly or indirectly is a Palestinian decision."
Israel's continued expansion of settlements is one of the biggest obstacles to the resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians, now suspended for more than a year despite months of US-led shuttle diplomacy.
The Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Now slammed the new project, saying it would "widen the gap with the Palestinians and the two-state solution, which risks becoming obsolete."
The new project came to light a day after the Palestinians grudgingly agreed to four months of indirect peace negotiations with Israel but warned that the US-brokered process would collapse if it continued expanding settlements.
It also came as Biden was to make his first visit to the region since assuming office. Mitchell is also in the region on the latest of several visits to meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
The Palestinians insist they will only return to direct talks if Israel agrees to a complete freeze on settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, including annexed Arab east Jerusalem.
The United States initially backed that demand, but has since called on both sides to immediately return to negotiations while routinely criticizing Israeli settlement activity in line with longstanding policy.
Erdan played down the chances of a strong US reaction to the latest settlement boost and blamed the Palestinians for stalling peace efforts. "Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden know that the key is that the Prime Minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) is ready at any moment to engage in direct negotiations," he said.
"However (Palestinian president) Mahmud Abbas wants to limit the indirect negotiations to four months after months of setting unprecedented conditions for accepting dialogue, and this is not the way to discuss peace."
Israel announced a 10-month moratorium on new building permits for settler homes in the occupied West Bank in November but it excludes occupied east Jerusalem, public buildings and works already under way. However, since then the Israeli government approved building of new settler homes several times.
The PLO's executive committee approved a proposal allowing the Palestinian president to begin the indirect negotiations with Israel through U.S. mediation, effectively ending a 14-month breakdown in communications between the two sides.
Palestinian officials warned, however, that they would walk away if the outlines of a border deal with Israel have not emerged after four months. They also ruled out subsequent direct talks without a complete Israeli settlement construction freeze.
Mitchell arrived in Tel Aviv over the weekend for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Abbas, in effort to see negotiations relaunched.
Mitchell held a four-hour meeting in Tel Aviv with Netanyahu on Sunday. The two will meet again on Monday, after which Mitchell will head off to Ramallah to for talks with Abbas. "If there is a desire to get to direct talks through a corridor then I think the sooner the better," Netanyahu, referring to U.S.-mediated "proximity talks", told reporters at the start of his meeting with Mitchell.
Mitchell said he hoped for a "credible, serious, constructive process" leading to comprehensive peace in the Middle East.
A brief statement issued by Netanyahu's spokesman after the session said the Israeli leader and Mitchell "had a good conversation ... on moving the diplomatic process forward". The statement did not reveal whether the two had reached an agreement on the tangible resumption of talks, which the United States has offered to mediate.
The U.S.-mediated talks are expected to focus on guidelines for discussing the key issues that have divided Israelis and Palestinians for decades: final borders, the fate of millions of Palestinian refugees, and a resolution to the occupied Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Hamas movement said that the PLO insistence to start indirect talks with Israel "would end the political isolation of Israel following the UN fact-finding report and the assassination of Hamas commander in Dubai."
Hamas spokesman in Gaza Fawzi Barhoum said that the PLO responded to the Israeli and U.S. pressure "which represent a great danger on the Palestinian people's rights and weaken them from protecting their holy shrines that are violated by Israel."
"Hamas rejects resuming the talks with Israel whether it is direct or indirect," said Barhoum. "The talks they are talking about are ill talks and will not achieve any fruitful results that would serve the highest interests of the Palestinian people," he said.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
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