OCCUPIED
JERUSALEM, February 15 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Israel
intends to build a new settlement in the West Bank that could take in
settlers uprooted from Gaza, Israeli officials said Tuesday, February
15, drawing swift protest from Palestinians who fear losing land for a
state they seek.
Disclosing
the Gvaot settlement project, Housing Minister Isaac Herzog said
Jewish settlers slated for evacuation from Gaza this year would be
encouraged to relocate to sparsely populated areas of Israel, but
could also go to the West Bank if they chose.
“I
cannot prevent an individual who wants to use his compensation to buy
a house in Gush Etzion from doing so,” Herzog told Reuters. “This
would be totally within his rights.”
Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon aims to remove 8,500 settlers from Gaza
under his plan to “disengage” from conflict with Palestinians,
while cementing Israel's hold on swathes of the larger West Bank where
230,000 settlers live.
The
new settlement is planned as an extension to the Gush Etzion
settlement bloc, according to Reuters, citing Israeli Public Radio.
The
bloc, about 20 km (12 miles) south of Al-Quds (occupied East
Jerusalem), has about 15,000 settlers alone and is among several
sprawling enclaves Sharon regards as strategic assets not to be ceded.
Palestinian
Protest
Palestinian
officials, engaged in security coordination talks with Israel since
President Mahmoud Abbas and Sharon declared a ceasefire
in
Egypt last week, cried foul over the new settlement plan.
“Israel
is throwing sand in our eyes by continuing with the settlement process
(in the West Bank),” Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad Qurei told
Reuters before a cabinet meeting.
Palestinians
fear West Bank settlement expansion could dash their hope for a viable
state envisioned by the roadmap.
Violating
the so-called Sharm El-Sheikh Understandings, Israeli occupation
troops gunned down Monday, February 14, a young Palestinian in the
southern West Bank town of Al-Khalil (Hebron).
Main
Palestinian resistance groups, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, pledged
Saturday, February 12, to maintain a de facto truce and not to
immediately retaliate any Israeli aggression, while they weigh a
formal ceasefire with Tel Aviv.
Resistance
fighters fired mortars at Jewish settlements Thursday, February 10, in
reprisal for the killing of two Palestinians the day before by Israeli
soldiers.
US
Says not Helpful
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“
Israel
is throwing sand in our eyes by continuing with the settlement
process,” said Qurei.
|
The
new settlement appeared to fall within the cracks of a US-led
“roadmap” peace plan whose final vision is hotly disputed as the
Palestinians try to stabilize a tentative ceasefire.
A
US official suggested Tuesday the new Israeli plan would not be
helpful for fresh efforts to revive the roadmap.
“We
are concerned about any building of new or additional settlements in
the West Bank, basically because the roadmap calls for a cessation of
settlement activity, and we will be looking into this,” he told
Reuters.
The
“roadmap” requires a halt to settlement-building on Palestinian
lands Israel occupied in 1967 and where Palestinians want statehood.
But
US President George W. Bush said in 2004 that Israel could expect to
keep some of the West Bank land under an accord.
Bush
said in April it was
“unrealistic”
to expect a complete Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank as he
endorsed Sharon's controversial disengagement plan.
Sharon
has faced strong opposition from right-wing Israelis to abandoning
territory they regard as a biblical birthright -- including within his
government -- although polls show most Israelis favor a pullout from
tiny Gaza.
Senior
political sources said that Sharon hoped to win a key cabinet vote on
the Gaza plan this Sunday by tabling another resolution on extending
Israel’s controversial West Bank barrier to encompass Gush Etzion.
The
UN General Assembly
demanded
Israel on July 20 to abide by an
International Court of Justice's ruling and tear down the separation
wall, but Tel Aviv defiantly pledged to pursue the construction.
