"We Don't Need American Approval To Expand Settlements"

Officials: Israel To Allow Construction In Existing W. Bank Settlements

By Reuters
Last update - 03:29 18/12/2007
Haaretz

Israel will allow construction within built up areas of existing Jewish settlements in the West Bank, but will not expand beyond those areas, Israeli officials said on Monday.

The position could widen the rift in U.S.-backed peace talks launched by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during a regional peace summit held in Annapolis, Maryland last month.

...A senior Israeli official said "We don't need American approval if we are doing something that we think, as a sovereign state, we should do."

...The senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Har Homa development plan was approved 10 years ago by the Israeli government and called for 6,500 units, 4,500 of which are already being built and lived in.

"We told the Americans and the Palestinians that in those places, within the built-up line, Israel will continue to build, because there is no other way," the official said.

The official said the fate of Har Homa and other building projects depended on the outcome of the negotiations, which Olmert and Abbas said they hoped to complete before Bush leaves office in January 2009.

"If Har Homa will not be part of Israel, it doesn't matter if Har Homa is 5,000 units or 6,000 units, Har Homa will be dismantled," the official said.

Israeli officials have sought to play down the rift over settlements, saying Abbas and Olmert were expected to meet as early as next week and that their negotiating teams would reconvene on December 23 or 24 ahead of a visit early next month by U.S. President George W. Bush.

...Included in its definition of a settlement freeze, the official said Israel will not provide economic incentives for more Israelis to move to existing settlements.

"It doesn't mean people cannot go and live in existing settlements. Where there are vacant places, vacant apartments, people can go and live there with their families," he said.

"If somebody bought an empty lot in one of the settlements 10 years ago and he owns it, and he decides now in the year 2007, 10 or 15 years after he purchased it, to build on it, the government of Israel cannot do anything about it."

The official said it was unclear what "natural growth" included.

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