“Let them build without talking,” Sharon

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, June 24 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - In another clear violation of U.S.-backed “roadmap” peace plan, Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon said he would allow construction in Jewish settlements to continue, a leading Israeli daily reported Monday, June 24.

“They (the settlers) can build in the settlements, but they should not talk about it and go out dancing every time they get a building permit. Let them build without talking,” he was quoted by Yedioth Ahronoth as telling his Cabinet a day before.

The roadmap commits Israel to freeze immediately all settlement activity in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including construction within existing ones. In the plan’s first phase, Israel must also remove about 60 new outposts erected since Sharon first took office in March 2001.

With a fierce opposition in some of the outposts inhabited by radical settlers, Israel fell short of its obligation so far, putting the three-stage plan, charting a number of reciprocal confidence building measures between Palestinians and Israel leading the establishment of a Palestinian state by 2005, on the line.

On June 11, Israel delayed dismantling five inhabited Jewish settlement outposts pending a Supreme Court ruling on appeals by settlers against the measure.

The Palestinian Authority, for its part, must undertake “visible efforts on the ground” against resistance factions and confiscate illegal weapons, Arab News daily said.

Palestinian Premier Mahmoud Abbas wants to avoid a confrontation with the Palestinian groups, including Hamas, and has instead tried to get them to declare a cease-fire with Israel.

Hamas is expected to announce its decision to Abbas’ cease-fire demand in the coming days.

Israeli officials, however, said the Jewish state would not necessarily accept the cease-fire, as its forces detained more than 100 members of Hamas on Tuesday, few days after the assassination of Abdallah Qawasmeh, which was .

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell scolded Israel for the assassinating Kawasmeh as it might impede peace efforts, while Hamas warned that it would not go unpunished.

Powell told the Israeli paper Ma’ariv daily he was disappointed by the slow pace of the roadmap’s implementation, saying there were only two weeks to save the plan and the coming days were of critical importance, he said in an interview published yesterday.

‘Counterproductive’

Also, a senior European Union official called on Israel to end its policy of “targeted assassination” of Palestinians, calling the move “counterproductive”.

“There is no evidence that targeted assassinations have made Israel more secure. Indeed, there is a lot of evidence that they are counter-productive,” EU Commissioner Chris Patten told BBC radio.

“Israel has been taking these measures for a couple of years, but they haven’t stopped the violence,” Patten added.