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Israel to build 1,500 more homes in settlements Israel to build 1,500 more homes in settlements
(about 4 hours later)
Israel's housing ministry has said it is advancing plans for nearly 1,500 new settlement homes in the West Bank and east Jerusalem in response to the new Palestinian unity government backed by the Islamic militant group Hamas. Israel's housing ministry has announced new plans for almost 1,500 new settlement housing units in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, described as a "fitting Zionist response" to the new Palestinian unity government, backed by the Islamic militant group Hamas.
The housing minister, Uri Ariel, said the move was a "fitting Zionist response to the formation of a Palestinian terror government', adding that the housing plans were "just the beginning". The announcement by housing minister Uri Ariel was immediately condemned by chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who accused Israel of planning a "major escalation" in response to the new unity government, and by the US ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro.
Tenders were issued on Wednesday for about 900 housing units in the West Bank and about 560 units in east Jerusalem, territories that Israel captured in the 1967 war and which the Palestinians claim for their future state. The tenders represent the final governmental approval before construction can begin. "When Israel is spat upon, it has to do something about it," said Ariel, a far-right member of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition. Asked who had insulted Israel, he replied: "Our neighbours, and to a certain extent, the world."
The chief Palestinian peace negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said the settlement announcement was "a clear sign that Israel is moving toward a major escalation" and that the Palestinians were weighing their response to the announcement. The disclosure of the planned settlement construction was described by the justice minister, Tzipi Livni, as a political mistake. Livni was Israel's chief negotiator in the recently collapsed peace talks. She added that the move would "only distance us from the ability to recruit the world against Hamas."
It was the first announcement of settlement construction after nine months of US-mediated Israeli-Palestinian peace talks officially ended in April. The US ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, told Army Radio on Thursday that the US opposed the planned settlement construction. The move comes amid the growing and bitter row between Israel and the US which, like the EU and UN, has vowed to continue working with the new Palestinian government.
The Israeli justice minister, Tzipi Livni, who was Israel's chief negotiator in the last round of peace talks, told the radio station the announcement was a "political mistake … that will only distance us from the ability to recruit the world against Hamas". That row in turn has sparked a round of loud recriminations in Israel itself, over Netanyahu's handling of the response to the formation of the new Palestinian government and over what has been seen in some quarters as a US betrayal.
Lior Amichai, of the Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now, also condemned the announcement. He said: "It shows the government's policy is moving us towards one state." The strongest criticism of Netanyahu came from opposition leader Yitzhak Herzog who accused the Israeli prime minister of overseeing "a complete collapse of Israeli foreign policy".
As the peace talks ended with few signs of progress, rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah moved to end their seven-year rift. Last week the two groups agreed to a new unity government comprising independent technocrats but backed by the two groups. "Netanyahu talks and the world no longer listens," he added.
Israel had vowed to take action in response to the new Palestinian unity government because it is supported by Hamas, which is pledged to the destruction of the Jewish state and has carried out scores of deadly attacks against Israelis since it was founded in the late 1980s. His comments came as Israeli anger at Washington continued to grow, with senior officials quoted anonymously in several Israeli media denouncing the US position.
The construction and housing ministry announcement said the settlement tenders were "part of the reaction efforts" to the new Palestinian government. "This isn't a failure of Israel diplomacy, it's a knife in the back," one senior official told Maariv.
Israel has urged the west to shun the new government, but the US and the European Union have said they would work with it. The US secretary of state, John Kerry, defended the decision during a visit to Lebanon on Wednesday, saying none of the ministers had ties to Hamas. Others accused the US secretary of state, John Kerry, of violating an understanding with Israel not to rush into recognising the Palestinian unity government.
Hamas has been blacklisted as a terror group by the west, while Fatah is led by the western-backed Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. Long-running tensions between the two groups boiled over in 2007, when Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip, in effect confining Abbas's security forces to the West Bank. Reports in Hebrew media claim Israeli officials in Washington have appealed directly to supporters in the US Congress to cut funding to the Palestinian Authority.
Galia Golan, who heads the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy compared the current problems between Israel and Washington to diplomatic low points in 1975 and 1991: "Netanyahu has been mistaken in his outlook with regard to the Obama administration all along. And it is a serious mistake. There is a view – we don't need them. But who else would back Israel the way that America has?
"And the risk is not that Washington pressures Israel but that it decides to do nothing and allows the European Union to pressure Israel further down the line."
Recent Israeli-US diplomatic relations have lurched between a series of disagreements about issues including US-led negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme and blame for collapse of the Middle East peace process.
There have been repeated warnings from senior western diplomats that Israel risks increasing international isolation if it cannot negotiate an end to decades of occupation of Palestinian land.
The heated diplomatic wrangling has come as the Australian government has announced it will no longer refer to east Jerusalem as "occupied territory".
During a senate hearing, which focused on the country's foreign policy in the Middle East, attorney general George Brandis, responding to questions, rejected use of the term "occupied", saying it predetermined an issue subject to Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
Most of the international community regards territory seized by Israel in the 1967 war as illegally occupied.