Middle East Aggregator

Housing Minister Ze'ev Boim said Monday that the decision to build hundreds of new apartments in the East Jerusalem neighborhoods of Pisgat Ze'ev and Har Homa was approved by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Tenders were issued for the construction of 884 homes last week. Both the White House and the United Nations on Monday expressed concern over the plans to build in eastern parts of the Jerusalem municipality, due to the obstacles such construction pose for peace talks with the Palestinians.
Boim said that the apartments will all be built within the municipal borders of Jerusalem. He added that while Jerusalem must remain united, solutions must be found for the large Arab population in the city.

Boim also said that no decision has been made to build in the controversial E1 area between Jerusalem and the settlement of Ma'ale Adumim, because it would disrupt the territorial contiguity between the north and south West Bank.
Meretz MK Zehava Gal-On said Monday that Boim and Olmert's decision to issue the tenders reveals the true nature of the current government, which talks about peace, but in fact is sabotaging any chance of a future agreement.
On Monday, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters at a press briefing that "our position on the settlements is that we don't believe that any more settlements should be built, and we know that it exacerbates the tension when it comes to the negotiations with the Palestinians." (Haaretz)

Labels: Israel, Palestine, Settlements

The Israeli government has announced plans to build nearly 900 new housing units in a part of East Jerusalem that is considered occupied territory.

The contentious move comes amid the ongoing political battle swirling around Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is accused of corruption.

Mr Olmert's cabinet met for the first time since Defence Minister Ehud Barak said it was time for him to step down.

An Israeli official said Mr Olmert was getting on with government business.

The prime minister, he said, was keeping his cards close to his chest and did not discuss his future with his colleagues during the meeting.

Mr Olmert remained convinced he was innocent of the accusations that relate to his time as mayor of Jerusalem, the official said.

On Monday, the prime minister will have one of his regular meetings with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in an attempt to push forward peace talks.

Those talks will take place in the wake of the new housing announcement.

The Palestinian Authority has condemned the news of more settlement building on occupied territory.

The Israeli government insists that any final peace deal will see these districts redrawn inside the Israeli border.

In addition to Mr Barak's call for him to step aside, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said that the Kadima Party, to which both she and Mr Olmert belong, should hold new leadership elections. (BBC)

Labels: Israel, Palestine, Settlements

The United Nations said in a report Friday that the number of Israeli obstacles in the West Bank has increased by 7 percent since last September, despite an Israeli pledge to ease Palestinian movement in the area as part of fledgling peace talks.
The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Jerusalem
said the overall number of obstacles increased from 566 on September 4, 2007 to 607 on April 29, 2008. The shift included the construction of 144 new closures and the removal of 103 in the same time period.

The UN agency, OCHA, added that the army removed an additional seven closure obstacles so far in May. It said its findings amounted to a slight deterioration in overall access in the reported period.
The report came out shortly after visiting French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner criticized Israel's network of roadblocks and checkpoints, which are seen as a key impediment to the recovery of the Palestinian economy.
"The restrictions on access and mobility are still significant," Kouchner said at a Palestinian investment conference in Bethlehem. "They have not yet been alleviated as they should have. Israel should and Israel can exert more efforts in this regard without endangering its security."
Israel says it cannot move faster in easing restrictions because Palestinian militants still pose a threat. (Haaretz)

Labels: Israel, Palestine, Settlements, U.N.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner on Friday criticized ongoing Israeli settlement construction, and added that Israel can do more to lift restrictions on Palestinian movement.
"Nothing justifies the settlement expansion which constitutes an impediment to peace, as well as an obstacle obstructing the development of the Palestinian economy," Koucher told delegates at the closing session of a Palestinian investors' conference in Bethlehem.
Government spokesman Mark Regev said settlement construction continues only in Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, which Israel does not consider settlements, and inside large West Bank settlement blocs that Israel intends to retain in any final peace accord.

Kouchner also said Israeli restrictions on Palestinian mobility remain significant. "Israel should and can exert more efforts [to ease the restrictions]without endangering security," he said.
Regev said that was what Israel was trying to do. "That's our challenge: To take down roadblocks, to try to create greater movement and access for Palestinians while maintaining security," he said.
The French foreign minister met on Thursday with senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni before heading to the West Bank for talks with the Palestinian Authority. (Haaretz)

Labels: France, Israel, Palestine, Settlements

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's approval Wednesday of 286 new housing units in the haredi settlement of Betar Illit marked the second time in less than three months that Shas has freed up a major haredi construction project in the West Bank.

In March, Shas leader Eli Yishai took credit for the green light given to a new 750-unit project in the West Bank settlement of Givat Ze'ev. At the time, Yishai announced that further construction would be authorized in Betar Illit as well.

Although construction is continuing in many settlements, the work is based on old permits. In the last year, the government has approved only a smattering of small-scale projects in the settlements.

The largest of those construction projects was for 100 new homes in the Mevo Horon settlement, and that was a direct result of the voluntary evacuation of an outpost just outside the settlement. (JPost)

Labels: Israel, Palestine, Settlements

Less than a week after a speech by US President George W. Bush spurred condemnation from Palestinian Authority officials - who accused the American leader of being one-sided in peace negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis - PA President Mahmoud Abbas has come to the conclusion that peace talks have failed, the London-based newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabi reported on Monday.

Citing PA sources, the article said that prior to his departure from Sharm el-Sheikh, Abbas was informed that the United States intended to backtrack on efforts to achieve progress in the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. According to the paper, the report was given to Abbas from a European source, who claimed that the Americans were not interested in exerting pressure or confronting Israel, and that the US was "allowing Israel full freedom to take a stance which would serve its policies, its security, and its interests alone."

Another diplomatic source told the paper that the PA president received reports that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Shas chairman Eli Yishai had come to an understanding in which the former has promised the latter that plans to build thousands of apartment units around Jerusalem and in the West Bank would be approved - this in an attempt to reinforce the premier's foundering coalition. (JPost)

Labels: Israel, Palestine, Settlements

Close to three years since they were pulled from their homes, 40.2 percent of the Gaza evacuees are still waiting for lots on which to build their new homes, according to statistics released Sunday by the Sela Disengagement Authority at a press conference in Ashkelon.

Out of those 547 families, 15.5% - 211 families - won't be able to start construction for at least another nine months due to infrastructure work in their new communities, according to the authority.

Slightly more than 13% - 180 families - are likely to get their housing lots in a month, pending the resolution of a boundary dispute over the Nitzanim site outside of Ashkelon, according to the authority.

A lawsuit filed by the evacuees regarding the Lachish site has kept 8.1% - 111 families - from working on their new homes. And 3.3% - 45 families - are only in the initial stages of site development.

However, according to Disengagement Authority head Tzvia Shimon, 43% - 586 families - have received housing lots and can start construction.

According to the authority, 1,941 families applied for housing compensation as a result of the August 2005 disengagement in which the government evacuated 21 communities in the Gaza Strip and four in northern Samaria. (JPost)

Labels: Israel, Palestine, Settlements

Did Barack Obama call Israel a "constant sore," as Republican leaders are saying? Both House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (Ohio) and Deputy Minority Whip Eric Cantor (Va.) have taken the Democratic presidential front-runner to task for allegedly saying that Israel is a "constant wound" in U.S. foreign policy. The right-wing blogosphere is lending its voice to the chorus. But a fair-minded reading of Obama's remarks shows that his comment has been taken completely out of context.

Obama gave an interview over the weekend to Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic in which, among other things, he rejected former president Jimmy Carter's characterization of Israel as an "apartheid state." Here is the passage that has now become controversial. (Key phrases in italics.)

Goldberg:"What do you make of Jimmy Carter's suggestion that Israel resembles an apartheid state?"

Obama: "I strongly reject the characterization. Israel is a vibrant democracy, the only one in the Middle East, and there's no doubt that Israel and the Palestinians have tough issues to work out to get to the goal of two states living side by side in peace and security, but injecting a term like 'apartheid' into the discussion doesn't advance that goal. It's emotionally loaded, historically inaccurate, and it's not what I believe."

Goldberg:"If you become president, will you denounce settlements publicly?"

Obama:"What I will say is what I've said previously. Settlements at this juncture are not helpful. Look, my interest is in solving this problem not only for Israel but for the United States."

Goldberg:"Do you think that Israel is a drag on America's reputation overseas?"

Obama:"No, no, no. But what I think is that this constant wound, that this constant sore, does infect all of our foreign policy. The lack of a resolution to this problem provides an excuse for anti-American militant jihadists to engage in inexcusable actions, and so we have a national-security interest in solving this, and I also believe that Israel has a security interest in solving this, because I believe that the status quo is unsustainable." (Washington Post)

Labels: Israel, Palestine, Settlements, U.S.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has promised to build about 600 housing units in contentious West Bank settlements, a political ally of the prime minister said Wednesday, adding new tensions to peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
The announcement came shortly before U.S. President George W. Bush arrived in Israel to take part in the Jewish state's 60th anniversary celebrations - and to try to nudge forward Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.
Palestinians want all of the West Bank as part of their future state. They oppose all Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank, saying it undermines peace talks. Some 270,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements.

New settlement building could help the embattled Olmert keep his coalition together while police investigate corruption suspicions against him. But it would make it tougher for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to convince his people that diplomacy, not violence, could win them a state.
Bush's plane hadn't even landed before the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party, a member of Olmert's coalition, affirmed that the prime minister had agreed to new construction in the Beitar Ilit settlement near Jerusalem.
"I am happy that ... they will approve the construction," Shas Chairman Eli Yishai told Israel Radio. (AP)

Labels: Israel, Palestine, Settlements

Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, has met Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, to discuss the removal of roadblocks dotting the Palestinian territory of the West Bank.

Sunday's meeting came a day after Rice held talks with Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, and urged him not to undermine Palestinian security forces.

Later on Sunday, Rice appeared at a joint news conference with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, in Ramallah, and described Jewish settlements in the West Bank as "particularly problematic" to efforts to establish a Palestinian state.

She said she was pressing Israel to do more to ease restrictions on Palestinian movement but also stressed that Palestinians needed to take further action to meet Israeli security demands. (Al Jazeera)

Labels: Israel, Palestine, Settlements, U.S.

Members of the Middle East Quartet have called on Israel to freeze the construction of further settlements in the West Bank.
The Quartet "called on Israel to freeze all settlement activity," Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, said on Friday reading from a statement agreed at the meeting of the UN, the US, Russia and the European Union.

The Quartet members met at London on a day donor countries were also scheduled to meet to explore options to tide over the Palestinian economic crisis.

The Quartet members also called on Israel to dismantle outposts erected since March 2001.

Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, speaking at a press conference after the Quartet meeting, said there were now measures in place to help improve the situation in the region.

She said: "It's very difficult to do this in a kind of macro way, or a  general way. It comes down to very specific issues, that issue of that checkpoint or that roadblock that's preventing that kind of economic activity in that town ... it gets that specific." (Al Jazeera)

Labels: European Union, Israel, Palestine, Russia, Settlements, U.N., U.S.

The US has denied a report that it gave Israel permission to expand West Bank settlements before a final peace deal with the Palestinians.

Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, said that George Bush, the US president, had given Ariel Sharon, Olmert's predecessor, a letter giving the green light on expansions, the Washington Post reported.

But Sean McCormack, the US state department spokesman, denied that the story was true on Thursday.

Under the 2003 road map peace deal drafted by the US and its key partners, Israel is required to freeze settlement building and the Palestinians must end attacks.

The newspaper quotes Israeli officials as saying that they have clear guidance from Bush administration officials to continue building settlements under certain criteria. (Al Jazeera)

Labels: Israel, Palestine, Settlements, U.S.

The gaps between the two sides in the peace negotiations are still wide, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Washington on Wednesday.

A senior Palestinian official said Abbas told Rice that the administration needs to put more pressure on Israel to stop expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

En route to Washington, Abbas had said that Israel and the PA were in constant contact with each other regarding reaching a peace agreement and that the two sides were dealing extensively with the issue of Palestinian refugees.

"If a deal is signed between Israel and the PA, no Palestinian refugee will be left in Lebanon," Abbas told reporters on his plane.

The Palestinian Authority president will meet with US President George W. Bush on Thursday as part of two days of Middle East diplomacy at the White House. (JPost)

Labels: Israel, Palestine, Settlements, U.S.

The German government expressed its consternation on Friday after Israeli settlers in the Occupied West Bank city of Hebron threatened and insulted a visiting German parliamentary delegation. A German Foreign Ministry spokesman said it had sent a note of protest to Israel's Foreign Ministry about Wednesday's "regrettable" incident and that it had contacted the office of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. "This is a very unhappy incident that we took note of with great surprise," the spokesman said, without giving further details about what happened. Delegation member Jerzy Montag said Wednesday that Israeli police did nothing to protect them and that they have changed the program for their one-week visit as a result. The incident follows an historic visit to Israel in March by German Chancellor Angela Merkel when she pledged her unwavering support for the Jewish state 60 years after it was founded in the aftermath of the Nazi Holocaust. (AFP)

Labels: Germany, Israel, Settlements

The Israeli government revealed plans Friday to build 100 homes in two Jewish settlements - one of them deep in the West Bank - in violation of its pledge to freeze settlement expansion.

Palestinian officials said the new construction in the settlements of Ariel and Elkana is undermining U.S.-backed efforts to reach a peace deal by the end of 2008.

Since a U.S.-hosted Mideast peace conference in November, Israel has announced several new building projects in areas of Jerusalem claimed by the Palestinians for their future state. However, Friday's announcement marked the first time the Israeli government approved construction deep in the West Bank.

An Israeli security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the new construction apparently is part of ongoing negotiations between the Israeli government and Jewish settler leaders. Approval for the 100 homes came in return for the recent voluntary evacuation of two small unauthorized settlement outposts, the official said. (AP)

Labels: Israel, Palestine, Settlements, U.S.

After more than 25 years of holding onto his IDF-issued gun, Moshe Grosberg was surprised to learn from the head of security in Ofra, the Samarian settlement where he lives, that he had to give it up.

"I haven't killed anyone with the weapon," said Grosberg, who notes that he lives close to Palestinian areas and needs the gun for protection when he walks or drives outside of the community.

Still, like 50 others in Ofra, he handed in his gun last week.

The measure is one of a number of changes that have settler leaders up in arms. In recent weeks, the IDF has collected army-issued weapons held by Israelis living in the West Bank, as well as caches of weapons held in storage in the settlements. It has also stopped providing bulletproof windows for settlers' cars. (JPost)

Labels: Israel, Palestine, Settlements

Unilateral Israeli activity in east Jerusalem has increased in the four months since the Annapolis peace conference, diminishing chances for a peace settlement with the Palestinians, an Israeli watchdog group that advocates Palestinian rights in the city said Sunday.

"Instead of being used as a catalyst for a political agreement, the Annapolis summit has become a starting point for unilateral Israeli actions in east Jerusalem," the Ir Amim organization said in a report released Sunday.

The report cites the planned or approved construction of thousands of Israeli apartments in predominantly Jewish neighborhoods of east Jerusalem, the scheduled opening of a new Israeli police station in the West Bank in the coming weeks, and the destruction of illegally constructed houses belonging to 14 Palestinian families in east Jerusalem as among the major unilateral measures Israel has taken in the east of the city.

"Building thousands of Jewish housing units in east Jerusalem contradicts the very statements about compromises over Jerusalem," the report states.

"Opportunistic building to create facts on the ground cannot occur alongside serious negotiations about the future of this very land." (JPost)

Labels: Israel, Palestine, Settlements

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Wednesday that he expected that only a framework of a peace deal could be reached with Palestinians by the end of the year, not an actual agreement. The Israeli premier also announced that Israel would continue construction in large settlement blocs in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

"There will be additional building as part of reality of life, and this fact was well explained to everyone involved," he told reporters from the foreign press.

Israel's pursuit of construction in its settlements in East Jerusalem and the  West Bank, both of which are occupied territories, is one of the major reasons why peace talks have made little progress since they were renewed at a US conference in late November.

But Olmert said Washington and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas "knew from the outset that in the population centers and in Jerusalem the reality on the ground will not be the same in the future as it is today." (Daily Star)

Labels: Israel, Palestine, Settlements

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday that Israel would keep expanding a neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem, defying international criticism and triggering a spat with the Palestinians ahead of a new round of peace talks.
Israel plans to build hundreds of new apartments in Har Homa, a neighborhood in the section of Jerusalem claimed by the Palestinians. The U.S. has said such construction is unhelpful to peace efforts, and the Palestinians say the project is undermining peace talks.
In a joint news conference with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Olmert called Har Homa an inseparable part of Jerusalem.

He said Israel would continue building in those areas of Jerusalem, including Har Homa, that it expects to keep under a final peace agreement.  (Link)

Labels: Israel, Palestine, Settlements