WEST BANK: As the Annapolis peace conference approaches, Israeli settlers say they are no obstacle to peace

Record ID: 396354

  • Title: WEST BANK: As the Annapolis peace conference approaches, Israeli settlers say they are no obstacle to peace
  • Date: 23rd November 2007
  • Summary: MAYOR OF MARDA SADIK AL-KHOFASH TALKING ON PHONE IN HIS OFFICE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SADIK AL-KHOFASH, MAYOR OF MARDA, SAYING: "We have been talking since the Madrid agreements, and until today we hear the same words and the same stance: they want to freeze the settlement activity, large and small. But as far as I know, back in the days of the Madrid negotiations, Ariel was
  • Embargoed: 8th December 2007 12:00
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  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAAXMN2BVLFBM1DZ3UNYD2BZRD4
  • Story Text: Ahead of a U.S.-hosted Mideast peace conference on Monday, the mayor of the Israeli West Bank settlement, Ariel, says settlements are no obstacle to peace; while the mayor of neighbouring Palestinian village, Marda, says that nothing will be achieved in Annapolis.When Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reaffirmed on Monday (November 20) his pledge to freeze new Israeli settlement activity in the occupied West Bank, he was met with little enthusiasm.
    Speaking ahead of a U.S-hosted Mideast peace conference scheduled for Nov. 26-27, Olmert told his cabinet "there will be no new settlements and no land confiscations" from Palestinians, as called for under a 2003 U.S.-backed "road map" plan that charts reciprocal steps towards a peace agreement.
    He said Israel would fulfil all its obligations under the road map, but gave no timeframe and did not say whether he would agree to U.S. and Palestinian demands to halt all construction in existing settlements in the occupied West Bank.
    Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, latching on to the uncertainty, described Olmert's comments as "nonsense" unless they included halting new building in established settlements.
    Israeli settlers are not too pleased with their prime minister either.
    "When he (Olmert) talks about freezing the settlements, he thinks he can cheat the world, the whole world, and the Palestinians can cheat the whole world. Until 1967, I, Ron Nahman, the mayor of Ariel, I was not here.
    Ariel did not exist and we had the six days war, so the settlements are not obstacles to peace," says Ran Nahman, mayor of Ariel, the second largest Jewish settlement in the West Bank.
    Located on a hilltop 20 kilometres from the Green Line, Ariel was established in 1978 by an initial population of forty settlers on land expropriated from nearby Palestinian villages and towns -- Yasouf, Iskaka, Marda, Hares, and Kifl Hares.
    It now counts a population of eighteen thousand and, despite being illegal under international law, is still growing.
    "We have been talking since the Madrid agreements, and until today we hear the same words and the same stance: they want to freeze the settlement activity, large and small. But as far as I know, back in the days of the Madrid negotiations, Ariel was not nearly as large or as densely populated as it is today," says Sadik el-Khofash, mayor of the neighbouring Marda village.
    Israel has not built a new settlement in the West Bank, which it seized from Jordan in the 1967 war, in nearly 10 years. But it has pressed on with construction in existing ones. In addition, settlers have set up several dozen hilltop outposts without government approval.
    "We have plans. I tell you the future, my vision, not Mr Bush's vision. My vision is -- and the government of Israel's vision was -- to build here a city of sixty thousand people. As long as I live and I have the power and strength, I'll do everything in order to fulfil this vision," says Nahman.
    Olmert has said the Annapolis conference would not produce any peace deals but instead launch formal talks aimed at producing an agreement before U.S. President George W. Bush, faced with the legacy of an unpopular war in Iraq, leaves office in January 2009.
    Olmert, weakened by corruption allegations he has denied and criticism of his handling of the 2006 Lebanon war, has said he will not put any future peace deals into motion until Palestinians fulfil their commitments under a U.S.-backed road map, including reining in militants.
    The United States is putting heavy pressure on Israeli and Palestinian negotiators to agree a joint document that would address in general terms core issues, like borders and the future of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees, without offering any specific resolutions.
    But the mayors of both Ariel and Marda concur that there isn't much to look forward to.
    "I am not optimistic, not because of us but because the stupidity of the government of Israel, the stupidity of the European countries union and the stupidity of the administration, the state department specially in the United States," says Nahman.
    "Of course the situation will remain as it is. Nothing will change for us Palestinians. In addition to this, we have to deal with the siege and the starvation that is imposed on us and the high cost of living," says al-Khofash.
    Some 270,000 Jewish settlers still live among 2.5 million West Bank Palestinians. Under international law, all Israeli settlements on land captured by Israel in the 1967 war are illegal.
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