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U.S. Joins Europeans in Decrying Israeli Settlement Announcement
The U.S., the United Nations and the European Union criticized Israel’s approval of 1,100 new Jewish housing units on disputed territory, saying the move imperils the latest effort to revive Mideast peace efforts.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said today Israel’s announcement that it would expand construction of Jewish housing in the Gilo area outside east Jerusalem, which Palestinians want as the future capital of an independent state, is “counterproductive” to efforts to broker a peaceful, two-state solution.
“We have long urged both sides to avoid any kind of action which could undermine trust, including, and perhaps most particularly in Jerusalem, any action that could be viewed as provocative,” Clinton said.
The international community’s focus “must remain on working to convince the parties to return to direct negotiations,” without which “nothing changes on the ground,” she told reporters today in Washington.
The decision by an Israeli Interior Ministry committee follows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s vehement opposition to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s application for statehood at the UN last week.
The U.S., the UN, the European Union and Russia -- the so- called Quartet for Middle East Peace -- responded to Abbas’s bid with a Sept. 23 proposal for Israel and the Palestinians to restart peace talks within a month. The statement called on both sides to refrain from “provocative actions.”
‘Provocative Actions’
Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s high representative for foreign affairs, today deplored the settlement decision and called on Israel to reverse it.
“Settlement activity threatens the viability of an agreed two-state solution and runs contrary to the Israeli stated commitment to resume negotiations,” she told the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. “The Quartet has called the parties to refrain from provocative actions if negotiations are to resume and be effective.”
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and other world leaders have called settlements illegal.
Netanyahu defended the action in comments published today in The Jerusalem Post. “This is nothing new,” he said. “We plan in Jerusalem. We build in Jerusalem. Period.”
Peace negotiations broke down last year when Netanyahu refused to renew a partial, 10-month moratorium on settlement expansion, which the Palestinian Authority had made a precondition for negotiations.
‘Serious Threat’
The U.S. has repeatedly criticized Israel for building on land seized from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War, and President Barack Obama called on Netanyahu in May 2009 to halt settlements. He dropped the demand last year in the face of Israel’s refusal.
The French Foreign Ministry today condemned the “colonization” of the east Jerusalem area, calling it “illegal” and “a serious threat to the two-state solution.”
Addressing the UN Security Council in New York today, UN Under-Secretary-General Lynn Pascoe said, “We have repeatedly stated that settlement activity is illegal and contrary to Israel’s Roadmap commitments.”
The Roadmap for Peace, a two-state peace plan outlined by the Quartet in 2002, requires Israel to end settlement activity and the Palestinians to abandon violence, ensure Israel’s security and adopt democratic reforms.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat condemned Israel’s announcement today as “unilateral” in a phone interview. “Israel doesn’t want to stop settlement activities.”
The planned construction is “Netanyahu’s answer to the Quartet and to the world -- another ‘No’ in his book,” Erakat said.
The Israeli Interior Ministry’s district planning committee’s backing of construction in the Gilo area is one step in a lengthy process before any construction begins, ministry spokeswoman Efrat Orbach said today.
To contact the reporters on this story: Indira A.R. Lakshmanan in Washington at ilakshmanan@bloomberg.net; Calev Ben-David in Jerusalem at cbendavid@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva in Washington at msilva34@bloomberg.net
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