Posted on 08/02/2004 1:17:30 PM PDT by anotherview
Last Update: 02/08/2004 23:02
U.S., U.K. officials slam clearance to expand Ma'aleh Adumim
By Haaretz Service and News Agencies
American and British government officials criticized Monday the Defense Ministry's approval of plans to expand Ma'aleh Adumim, the largest settlement in the West Bank, in apparent violation of the U.S.-backed road map peace plan.
The Defense Ministry confirmed Monday that it had granted permission to build 600 new housing units in Ma'aleh Adumim, a few kilometers east of Jerusalem. Political sources said clearance for the housing was given two months ago by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz.
Nonetheless, the settlement does not have plans at this time for any expansion and no tenders for construction have been issued, said Kobi Bleich, a spokesman for the Housing and Construction Ministry.
Israel has in the past said that it is only broadening existing settlements to allow for "natural growth," or expansion according to the settler birth rate.
Mofaz also said Monday that he wants Ma'aleh Adumim and the large settlement bloc of Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem, to be included within the West Bank separation fence, Army Radio reported.
"I see Ma'aleh Adumim as part of Jerusalem that will form territorial contiguity with the capital," Mofaz said.
The clearance for building new housing appears to violate the U.S.-backed road map, which bans such construction. The Israeli political sources said the plan could breach an understanding with the United States not to build more homes beyond the existing construction line in West Bank settlements.
"We look forward to Israel abiding by that commitment and sticking by the road map," said U.S. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli.
However, U.S. President George W. Bush told Sharon at a meeting in April that Israel could expect to be able to retain some West Bank land under any future peace deal with Palestinians if it carries out a unilateral plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip next year.
"We will discuss this new neighborhood with the Americans," a security official said.
British Foreign Office Minister Baroness Symons urged Israel to freeze all settlement activity.
"I am very concerned by reports that the Israeli government has decided in principle to build 600 new housing units in Ma'aleh Adumim," she said.
"I urge the Israeli government, in accordance with phase one of the road map that Ariel Sharon agreed to last year, to freeze all settlement activity including the natural growth of existing settlements, and to dismantle all outposts built since 2001."
Palestinian minister Saeb Erekat also criticized the settlement expansion. "This is in total defiance of the road map ... and total defiance of Bush's vision. Settlements and peace do not go together," he said.
Ma'aleh Adumim, with 28,000 people, is one of several large West Bank settlements Sharon wants to consolidate as part of the disengagement plan, which entails evacuating the much smaller settler population in Gaza as well as four isolated settlements in the West Bank.
Mofaz, who toured the latest proposed route for the separation fence Monday, also said the amount of Palestinian territory on the Israeli side of the fence will be reduced by nearly half, from a planned 13,000 dunams to 7,000 dunams. The decision comes in the wake of the recent High Court of Justice ruling that Israel must take Palestinian needs into consideration in constructing of the fence.
I wish the U.S. administration would stop talking out of both sides of it's mouth.
Lilah tov.
Someone tell me why this is any of our damned business.
Someone tell me why this is any of our damned business.
When my wife & I walk past new condos going up (all the time) here in NYC, she says "look...more SETTLEMENTS!" We laugh at the utter absurdity of the concept, but it's not really funny. Arabs build "homes", Jews build "settlements", as if the world never considers any Jew's house to be permanent, but a mere holding place until the next "solution", "plan" or "map" is devised to "deal" with them. It just makes me sad as an American that we cooperate with the bloodthirsty Euronazis in the whole process.
Maybe it's the U.S.' business because 1) Israel is a key ally in the region, and 2) because the U.S. is supposed to be a nation that stands for freedom and justice, not the hypocrisy and double-standards most of the world seems to apply to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Ma'aleh Adumim is a suburb of Jerusalem less than three miles outside the capital. It has 28,000 people in it. To call this a settlement is hypocrisy.
And a ping for those on Alouette's list, she's away from her computor.
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