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New Israeli Settlements Plan Ignores Mitchell Report
additional reporting by Mohamed al-Beshawy & Saleh
al-Noamy
PALESTINE, May 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Despite an international call for a freeze on Jewish settlements, Israel said Tuesday it has approved the construction of more than 700 homes in two West Bank settlements.
Israel's Housing Minister Nathan Sharansky said he had given the green light for the building of 493 housing units in Maale Adumim, the largest Jewish settlement that lies just north of Jerusalem, and 217 housing units in Alfei Menashe in the northern West Bank, the AFP news agency reported.
"It is necessary to respond to the urgent need for housing in these settlements, whose development [enjoys] a large consensus among the Israeli population," Sharansky said.
A report into the eight months of deadly Israeli-Palestinian violence by the U.S.-led Mitchell commission called for a total freeze on settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian territories, as well as an immediate halt to the fighting.
"For the moment, we are not at the stage of discussing settlements. The Mitchell report calls first for a halt to violence and terrorism, and we don't have in [Palestinian President] Yasser Arafat a peace partner," said Sharansky, the leader of the right-wing Russian immigrant party Israel B'Aliya.
"There is no link between the violence that Yasser Arafat encourages and settlement activity," he added.
But as Sharansky was speaking, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said that Israel accepted the Mitchell report "in its entirety."
"We do not intend to use the pretext of the need to respond to population growth to expand existing settlements," Peres said on Israeli army radio, news agencies said.
Israel is halting the building of new settlements and land confiscation to expand existing settlements, he added.
However, many Israeli ministers have criticized Israeli defense minister Binjamin Ben Eliezer for his earlier statement of Israel's full acceptance of Mitchell report.
A Likud minister said Eliezer must not stay in the government if he believed in what he said earlier, reported Israel's state radio.
Israel will ignore the Mitchell report recommendations to halt the building of more settlements, he added, contradicting Peres.
For its part, the Palestinian Authority warned that Israel's decision was jeopardizing the mission of U.S. envoy William Burns to push for the implementation of the Mitchell report.
"This is destroying Burns' mission. It is a message to the settlers that the Israeli government is not changing its policy," said Ahmed Abdel Rahman, secretary general of the Palestinian cabinet.
The settlement decision came after the Palestinians and Israelis jointly decided to hold security meetings Tuesday and Wednesday.
Peres announced that the first meeting would be held on Tuesday following Burns' request for talks in order to end violence in the occupied territories.
The second meeting on Wednesday will bring together Palestinian security officials in the Gaza Strip and Israel's military officials.
The last time such a security meeting took place - on April 29 - it ended without any agreements being reached.
The Israeli plan for more settlements drew Russian criticism as Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov on Tuesday called for Israel to halt the expansion of Jewish settlements in Palestinian areas, in line with the recommendations of the Mitchell commission.
"It is necessary to underline the importance of stopping the Israeli settlements which will help to resolve the other questions," he said after talks with visiting Arafat.
Russia will send a special envoy to the Middle East next week in a bid to help restart the peace process, Ivanov added.
"A special envoy from Russia will visit the region next week," Ivanov told journalists after Arafat called on Moscow, a co-sponsor of the stalled peace process, to take a more assertive role in ending the eight-month spiral of violence in the Middle East.
The high-ranking envoy was named as Vasily Sredin, who is Russian President Vladimir Putin's special ambassador to the Middle East, Interfax reported.
Arafat flew to Moscow early Tuesday in order to discuss the escalating violence and the latest round of diplomacy aimed at reconvening peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
Violence in the Palestinian occupied territories continued as the Brigade of the Martyrs of al-Aqsa claimed responsibility for an early-morning attack that killed an Israeli near Nablus in the West Bank.
"Our mujahideen [fighters] attacked with machineguns ... a settlers' car on the road near the settlement of Kfar Kedumim ... on the road between Nablus and Qalqiliya," it said in a statement faxed to AFP.
"The car received a direct hit and our mujahideen retreated safely," it added.
The Israeli settler's death brings to 570 the number of people killed since the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian violence eight months ago, comprising 467 Palestinians, 87 Israelis, 13 Arab Israelis, two Romanians and a German.
In further violence Tuesday, five Palestinian police were wounded by tank shellfire near the flashpoint settlement of Netzarim in the central Gaza Strip, security sources said.
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