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Israel
will build more 25 housing units inside a Gaza settlement
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OCCUPIED
JERUSALEM, July 31 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Few hours
after Palestinian and Israeli ministers failed to agree on new Israeli
withdrawals from occupied Palestinian areas and in a new blow to peace
efforts, Israel on Thursday, July 31, invited tenders for building 22
housing units in a Jewish settlement in the southern Gaza Strip.
This
came as the Israeli Knesset approved the second and third readings of
a "racist" bill to prevent Palestinians who marry Israeli
citizens from receiving citizenship or permanent residency status.
The
new tender is the first for construction in a Gaza settlement for more
than a year, said the Israeli military radio which carried the news.
The
Israeli Peace Now Movement immediately condemned the decision as
"new proof that the government of (prime minister) Ariel Sharon
is not meeting its commitments within the framework of the
roadmap."
The
U.S.-backed peace plan calls for Israel to freeze "all settlement
activity (including the so-called natural growth of
settlements)."
The
move came just days after Sharon told U.S. President George W. Bush
that Israel would remove unauthorized settlement outposts in the
territories, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
A
senior aide to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat also lambasted the
Israeli decision as "a very dangerous step."
"This
is a very dangerous step taken by the Israeli
government," the Israeli Haaretz newspaper quoted Nabil
Abu Rdeinah as saying.
According
to Israeli interior ministry figures, 7,700 Israeli settlers live in
the Gaza Strip.
The
international community considers all Israeli settlements in the
occupied territories illegal and call for their dismantlement.
Racist
Bill
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"This
is a very dangerous step taken by the Israeli government,"
said Abu Rdeinah
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The
new law, which has been denounced by its opponents as
"racist" and "inhumane," passed by a majority of
53 votes to 25, with one abstention, Haaretz reported.
The
vote on the amendment to a clause in the citizenship law relating to
family unification was preceded by efforts by the opposition to stall
the ballot.
Labor,
Meretz and Arab parties asked that the vote be a vote of no confidence
in the government, which would delay the ballot.
But
Acting Prime Minister Silvan Shalom rejected this request, saying the
vote would be viewed by the government as a vote of confidence, and
therefore could go ahead immediately, said the Israeli daily.
The
law would disqualify Palestinians from the West Bank or Gaza Strip
from gaining Israeli nationality through marriage and block the
reunification of families split between Israel and the occupied
territories.
"Inhuman"
was the verdict of Arab MP Ahmad Tibi, while leftist deputy Zeeva
Galon warned the draft law would "deny the fundamental right of
Arab Israelis to start families".
Orna
Cohen, member of a judicial committee on Israel’s Arab minority,
said the measure amounted to "collective punishment".
The
estimated 1.1 million Israeli Arabs in Israel are Palestinians and
their descendants who stayed on when Israel was established on
captured Palestinian land in 1948, unlike others who fled or were
expelled from their homes.
Collapse
The
new Israeli provocations came shortly after four hours of talks
between Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and Palestinian Minister
of State for Security Affairs Mohammed Dahlan came to failure late
Wednesday, July 30, after Israel snubbed a Palestinian request for a
pullout from Ramallah.
Dahlan
urged Mofaz to follow up Israeli withdrawals from the West Bank town
of Bethlehem
and parts of the Gaza Strip four weeks ago with a pullout from
Ramallah, where Arafat has been confined by Israeli troops since
December 2001, a Palestinian source told AFP.
The
Palestinian minister also proposed a withdrawal from the town of
Al-Khalil (Hebron), while Mofaz suggested Qalqiliya and Ariha
(Jericho).
The
Palestinians saw the offer as little more than a joke because as
Israeli troops have long been absent from the sleepy town of Ariha.
Israeli
officials had before the meeting ruled out a withdrawal from Ramallah,
and Mofaz reiterated his deep hostility to Arafat Wednesday saying he
believed it had been a "historic mistake" not to expel the
Palestinian leader altogether.
The
Israeli army claimed on July 2 that it had completed the transfer of
security control in the West Bank city of Bethlehem to Palestinian
authorities, a move seen by most of the Palestinians as a "trick."
‘No
Progress’
With
clear signs of disagreement between the two sides, a member of the
Palestinian negotiating team said there "had been no substantial
progress on this issue of withdrawals.
"There
was an agreement before (Palestinian prime minister Mahmud Abbas and
Sharon visited) Washington to withdraw from two main cities -- like
Ramallah and Qalqilya or Nablus. But Israeli forces never entered
Ariha."
The
Palestinians' former chief negotiator, Saeb Erakat, also dismissed the
Israeli offer.
"We
want a time schedule for the complete withdrawal from all cities and
towns to pre-Intifada lines. This is the only way to implement the
roadmap," added Erakat who remains a member of the Palestinians'
negotiating committee.
Mofaz
announced he had instructed the Israeli army to prepare for a
resumption of attacks by Palestinian resistance groups amid growing
pessimism over the peace process.
Palestinian
factions declared
in June a suspension of attacks against Israel, provided that the
Jewish state halt aggressions against the Palestinian-ruled areas.
The
Israeli defense minister told the Israeli army radio the security
situation was in danger of becoming "worse than before
Aqaba", in reference to the June 4 summit in Jordan which grouped
Abbas, Sharon and U.S. President George W. Bush.
