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New Israeli Settlement Plans Draw Swift Condemnation Israel Expands Settlements to Rebuke Palestinians
(about 14 hours later)
JERUSALEM — New Israeli plans for settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as retaliation against the new Palestinian consensus government backed by Hamas have added to tensions between Israel and Washington, and prompted threats on Thursday of countermeasures from Palestinian officials. JERUSALEM — Israel says it is moving ahead with the planning and construction of hundreds of Jewish settlement homes as retaliation against the new Palestinian government, which has been accepted by the United States and much of the world even though it is supported by Hamas. The announcement enraged the Palestinians and flouted international opinion.
The Israeli Housing Ministry published bids late Wednesday for the construction of nearly 1,500 housing units in various settlements in what the housing minister, Uri Ariel, called “an appropriate Zionist response to the establishment of the Palestinian terror government.” He added in a statement that he believed the marketing of these units “will be just the beginning.” By presenting the new building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as a punishment over the newly constituted government of the Palestinians, who regard that territory as theirs for part of a future state, Israel set itself further apart from international consensus and drew criticism from foreign allies, including Britain, France and the United States.
Palestinian officials reacted furiously to the announcement. Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the official spokesman for Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, said in a statement on Thursday that the Palestinian leadership would “respond in an unprecedented way” to the Israeli step. He did not elaborate. Israel has condemned the new government backed by Hamas, the Islamic militant group that refuses to recognize Israel and is considered a terrorist organization by much of the West. While the government does not include any members of Hamas or other Palestinian partisan movements, Israel says such a distinction is irrelevant.
Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator in American-brokered peace talks, said in a statement, “We believe this latest announcement is a clear sign that Israel is moving toward a major escalation,” adding, “We are carefully studying and weighing our response.” He called on the world powers “to hold this Israeli government and its members accountable under international law.” In a statement late Wednesday, Israel’s housing minister, Uri Ariel, published bids for the construction of nearly 1,500 housing units in settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, calling them “an appropriate Zionist response to the establishment of the Palestinian terror government.” He said he believed this would be “just the beginning.” In addition, the authorities revived plans on Thursday for 1,800 more housing units.
The move came against the backdrop of a dispute between Israel and the Obama administration over the new Palestinian government, which grew out of a recent reconciliation pact between the Palestine Liberation Organization, led by Mr. Abbas, and Hamas, the Islamic militant group that has controlled Gaza since 2007. The issuing of bids angered Israel’s allies, who have long been frustrated with the settlements. “We are deeply disappointed,” Marie Harf, a State Department spokeswoman, said. “As we have consistently said, these actions are unhelpful and counterproductive to achieving a two-state outcome.”
Israel has urged the world to shun the Palestinian government, which was sworn in on Monday, on the grounds that it rests on the support of Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and much of the Western world and which refuses to recognize Israel’s right to exist. William Hague, the British foreign secretary, said in a statement that he deplored the Israeli decision “to expand a number of illegal settlements, many of which are deep within the West Bank, and in East Jerusalem.”
But the Palestinian cabinet is made up largely of professionals who are not formally tied to either Mr. Abbas’s mainstream Fatah party or to Hamas, and who have declared themselves committed to Mr. Abbas’s peaceful program and to international principles like the renunciation of violence and the recognition of Israel. Israel’s settlement move threatened to isolate it further just as it was urging the world, without much success, to shun the new Palestinian government.
On that basis, the Obama administration says it will continue to work with the Palestinian government and provide aid to it while continuing to monitor it. The European Union and several other major countries have followed suit. Though the new government is the outcome of a reconciliation pact between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since 2007, the cabinet is made up largely of nonpartisan professionals. The government has said it will follow a peaceful program and is committed to international principles like the renunciation of violence and the recognition of Israel. Hamas itself has not accepted those principles.
The new government is supposed to prepare for elections in about six months and is intended to reunite the West Bank and Gaza Strip after a bitter seven-year political schism. Experts said that the settlement announcement could set off an escalation of Israeli and Palestinian countermeasures and that it signaled a breakdown of coordination with the United States, Israel’s principal ally.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said this week that he was “deeply troubled” by the American decision to work with the Palestinian government, telling The Associated Press that Hamas has murdered “countless innocent civilians” and “seeks Israel’s liquidation.” Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, said in a statement that the Palestinian leadership would “respond in an unprecedented way.” He did not elaborate.
He said “the United States must make it absolutely clear” to Mr. Abbas that the pact with Hamas “is simply unacceptable.” Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian official, said the Palestinians were carefully weighing their response. Speaking to reporters and diplomats earlier this week, he said that any Israeli escalation would be met with a response and that the Palestinians were preparing letters of complaint to the international bodies they had joined in April, including the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Israeli settlement activity has long been a source of friction between Israel and the United States. The Obama administration has described settlements as “illegitimate” and American officials have pointed to repeated Israeli announcements over the past few months advancing plans for thousands of housing units as a prime contributing factor to the failure of the American-brokered peace talks. Most countries consider the settlements a violation of international law. While the Israeli authorities had previously reacted to Palestinian violence with steps that included settlement expansions, this time they used settlements as a retaliation over a political change.
Israel suspended the negotiations in late April a day after the Palestinians announced their reconciliation pact and days before the talks were due to expire. Israel’s settlement construction has long been a source of friction with the Obama administration, which calls the settlements illegitimate. American officials have pointed to Israeli settlement announcements over the past few months as a prime contributor to the failure of the American-brokered peace talks. The last few announcements came as compensation to the Israeli right for the release of Palestinian prisoners.
Dan Shapiro, the American ambassador to Israel, on Thursday defended the administration’s decision to continue working with the Palestinian government and criticized the settlement construction plans, addressing the Israeli public in fluent Hebrew in morning interviews with the two main radio stations. But the latest one was made amid a growing dispute between Israel and the Obama administration over the new Palestinian government that was sworn in Monday. The United States said it would continue to provide aid to it and to monitor it. The European Union and several major countries have followed suit.
“We are against building in the settlements and announcements regarding building in the settlements,” he told Israel Radio and Army Radio, adding, “this was our stand with or without the present disagreement over the new Palestinian interim government.” Israel had expected the United States at first to take a wait-and-see approach to the government, so Israel’s immediate reaction was relatively mild, with harsh warnings rather than actual sanctions.
Mr. Shapiro emphasized that the administration still considered Hamas a terrorist organization and would not have any contacts or dealings with it. Regarding the new Palestinian government, he said the decision to continue working with it was taken after “a scrupulous examination.” But American officials soon announced that they would work with the Palestinian government, surprising the Israelis, who toughened their response.
“This is not a unity government, of sharing rule with Hamas. There are no ministers from Hamas that are members of Hamas. There is no direct Hamas influence that we discern behind the scenes,” Mr. Shapiro said, adding that the administration would continue to work with the Palestinian government “according to United States law and policy.” United States law bars financing any Palestinian government under “undue influence by Hamas.” Israeli analysts pointed to a crisis of confidence between Israel and Washington and weakened American influence over events in the region.
American willingness to continue working with the Palestinian government is meant, at least in part, to prevent any sharp deterioration in the area that could lead to a collapse of the Palestinian Authority. “I think the United States lost control,” said Oded Eran, a former Israeli ambassador to the European Union and to Jordan, now a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University. “They failed to prevent the Palestinians from going to the international community, they failed to salvage the peace process and to get Israel to carry out the fourth prisoner release, and they have failed to stop the knee-jerk Israeli announcements of settlement construction every time something doesn’t go their way.”
The settlement plans also widened fissures in Israel’s governing coalition. Tzipi Livni, the justice minister who served as the government’s chief negotiator during the recent round of talks with the Palestinians, called the Housing Ministry announcement “a political mistake,” telling Army Radio on Thursday that it would only harm Israel’s “ability to recruit the world against Hamas.” Noting that the issue of a reconciliation between Hamas and Mr. Abbas’s Fatah faction had been on the table for a while, Mr. Eran asked, “How come Israel and the United States failed to reach an understanding?”
Giora Eiland, a former Israeli national security adviser, described Israel’s settlement announcement as “damaging and counterproductive.”
An Israeli official in the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the latest construction bids would have been issued along with the fourth release of Palestinian prisoners in late March, had it taken place. He said the new construction would all be in areas that Israel intended to keep under any future peace deal with the Palestinians.
Zakaria al-Qaq, a Palestinian expert in national security at Al-Quds University in East Jerusalem, said that the Palestinian side, too, was in a “very serious crisis,” despite, or because of, the reconciliation. “It adds to the problems of the Palestinian Authority,” Mr. Qaq said.
The young government is already encountering problems. In Gaza, fights broke out around automated teller machines from which public-sector workers tried to withdraw their salaries Wednesday night and Thursday morning, and police officers ultimately broke up the crowds and shuttered the banks.
For the past seven years, the 70,000 Palestinian Authority employees in Gaza have been paid but sat idle. The 40,000 who worked for the Hamas government, now disbanded, have not been paid in full for months. They showed up at the banks to block the others from collecting their pay, and skirmishes broke out.
“This government is responsible for everything; it can’t pay for a group of its employees and deprive the other one,” said one Hamas security officer, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
A Palestinian Authority worker who gave his name only as Abu al-Abed said the clashes showed that the reconciliation deal was doomed. “Rest in peace,” he said.
Later, Hamas said that Qatar, which has provided aid to Gaza before, would help the new government pay the salaries, especially for employees of Gaza’s former government.