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Israel approves building new homes in West Bank

Palestinian men walk past a vendor covered with plastic wrapping after crossing the Israeli army's Hawara Checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Richard Boudreaux Los Angeles Times
Palestinian men walk past a vendor covered with plastic wrapping after crossing the Israeli army's Hawara Checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

JERUSALEM – Israel has approved construction of new housing for Jewish settlers in the West Bank, officials said Tuesday, drawing protests from Palestinian leaders and Israeli peace activists who said the decision violates a 3-year-old pledge to the United States to freeze settlement activity.

Israeli officials insisted there was no such breach, saying the site of the new homes for 100 families in the northern Jordanian Valley had been a Jewish settlement since 1981.

But Palestinian leaders said that the announcement, coming just three days after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas launched an effort to revive peace talks, undermined the cooperative spirit of the weekend meeting.

Saeb Erekat, an aide to Abbas who attended the meeting, said the plans for new West Bank housing was a breach of the 2003 U.S.-backed “road map” peace plan. Under that accord, Israel agreed to freeze settlement expansion while the Palestinians promised to crack down on militants. The accord broke down when neither side followed through.

“This is certain to destroy the atmosphere created after the meeting,” Erekat said. “What message are the Israelis trying to send? Israel must choose between peace and settlements, because there is no peace with settlements.”

Hopes of advancing the peace effort faded further late Tuesday when Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip launched seven rockets into Israel, wounding two 14-year-old boys who were running toward a bomb shelter in the town of Sderot. One of the boys was hospitalized in critical condition. They were the first Israeli casualties from 63 rockets fired by Palestinians in violation of a month-old cease-fire in the coastal territory, Israeli officials said.

Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian militant group, claimed that its forces had fired the rocket and said it was striking back for Israel’s continued military raids on its West Bank hideouts.

Olmert convened a meeting of his top security advisers today to debate Israel’s policy of restraint. Defense Minister Amir Peretz was pressing for a resumption of retaliatory strikes, his aides said.

Saturday’s two-hour summit, the first formal meeting between Olmert and Abbas, had been called in an effort to build on the cease-fire. Olmert made several concessions to the Palestinians, promising to release $100 million in frozen taxes and duties that Israel had collected for them and to ease West Bank travel restrictions. On Sunday, Olmert indicated he might free some Palestinian prisoners in the coming days, softening his opposition to such a move.

The settlement plan was first reported by Dubi Tal, an Israeli official who heads the Jordan Valley regional council, and confirmed by the Defense Ministry, which gave final go-ahead last week.

Tal said the settlement will initially house 23 Jewish settler families who were evacuated when Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip last year, and will eventually house 100 families.