The Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now has documented 492 violations of a partial “moratorium” on new construction in the occupied West Bank set to expire in September, the group said on Tuesday.
Based in part on aerial photographs, the group said construction had begun on at least 600 housing units in 60 different settlements, at least 492 of them in “direct violation” of the moratorium which was imposed late last year.
Peace Now director Yariv Oppenheimer said the government has taken significant steps to enforce the moratorium but that the newly documented violations show it has not been entirely successful.
“In some places the government doesn’t know about it and in some places it is trying to ignore it,” he told AFP.
An Israeli government spokesperson referred questions to the Defense Ministry, which could not immediately be reached for comment.
In an ordinary eight-month period 1,130 new homes would be built in the settlements, the group said, meaning that the government’s “freeze” has only reduced construction by half. And the 600 units are in addition to 2,000 housing units approved just before the freeze was imposed in November 2009.
Israel’s hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reluctantly agreed to the moratorium after months of US pressure aimed at reviving peace talks with the Palestinians last suspended during the December 2008 Gaza war.
The Palestinians rejected the move as insufficient because it excluded public buildings, housing projects already under way, and occupied and annexed east Jerusalem, which they view as the capital of their promised state.
Israel has adamantly rejected Palestinian demands that it extend the moratorium and expand it to mostly Arab East Jerusalem – a requirement if international law and numerous UN resolutions – which it has occupied since the 1967 war.
In June Peace Now said that because the settlers had prepared for the slowdown by approving a raft of new construction projects before it took effect the partial freeze would have little impact if it were not extended past September.
The United States said Monday now was the right time for Palestinians and Israelis to resume direct negotiations, warning there would be consequences if they failed to do so.
US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley declined to confirm that President Barack Obama had warned Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that a failure could undermine US-Palestinian ties, but also failed to deny reports to that effect.
“We strongly believe that this is the time when the parties need to move from proximity talks into direct negotiations,” Crowley told reporters.
“Our message is that this is the right time and it’s an opportunity that both sides should not forsake,” he added.
The Palestinians and Israelis have since May been holding indirect “proximity” talks – with former US Senator George Mitchell acting as a go-between – but they have not held direct negotiations since Israel launched a military offensive against Hamas militants in December 2007. Abbas has conditioned the resumption of direct negotiations on a complete Israeli halt to settlement building in the Palestinian West Bank.
Under international law, all settlements built on land occupied since 1967 must be dismantled as part of a full Israeli withdrawal from those areas.
Israeli officials in Jerusalem gave the green light on Monday to the construction of 40 new homes in the Israeli-occupied eastern part of the city, a municipal official said.
“The commission in charge of planning and construction in the municipality has authorized the construction of 40 homes in Pisgat Zeev,” Councilor Elisha Peleg told AFP.
The settlement was founded in 1984 and is home to 41,000 residents. The go-ahead to build 40 new homes is part of an overall project to build 220 apartments, Deputy Mayor Kobi Khalon said earlier.
“Pisgat Zeev must be treated like any other Jerusalem neighborhood,” Khalon told the news website Ynet. – Agencies
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)