WEST BANK/JERUSALEM: ISRAEL HAS CREATED 34 NEW JEWISH SETTLEMENTS UNDER PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON IN VIOLATION OF STATED PUBLIC POLICY

Record ID: 400734

  • Title: WEST BANK/JERUSALEM: ISRAEL HAS CREATED 34 NEW JEWISH SETTLEMENTS UNDER PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON IN VIOLATION OF STATED PUBLIC POLICY
  • Date: 19th March 2002
  • Summary: (U6) VARIOUS LOCATIONS, WEST BANK (FEBRUARY, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. AERIAL VIEW OF WEST BANK THROUGH WINDOW OF PLANE 0.07 2. CU PLANE INTERIOR - DROR ITKES, SETTLEMENT EXPERT FROM 'PEACE NOW' GROUP, POINTING OUT WEST BANK AREA SETTLED BY ISRAELIS ON MAP 0.18 3. AERIALS OF WEST BANK LANDSCAPE FROM PLANE WINDOW 0.24 4. AERIAL
  • Embargoed: 3rd April 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NEAR ZATARA VILLAGE, AND RAMALLAH WEST BANK/ JERUSALEM
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVA7CCCARI3GNRJZISNX75NFVFB1
  • Story Text: Israeli settlers have staked out 34 new footholds on
    occupied land in the 12 months since the election of Prime
    Minister Ariel Sharon, flying in the face of international
    calls to halt such construction. An aerial survey conducted in recent weeks by an Israeli peace group has revealed tha 34 new settlements have been erected on disputed West Bank land, in violation of stated
    public policy, since Sharon's election in February 2001.



    Israel has created 34 new Jewish settlements in 12
    months under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, jeopardising Israeli
    security and obstructing U.S. peace efforts, the Israeli Peace
    Now Movement charged on Tuesday (March 19).

    An aerial survey conducted by Peace Now in recent weeks
    revealed that 34 new settlements had been set up on occupied
    West Bank land, in violation of stated public policy, since
    Sharons election in February 2001.

    "The (settlements) create on the ground an impossible
    situation for the soldiers and of course for the Palestinian
    inhabitants. All that indicates that we are going to a bad
    place. We are already in a bad place," said Dror Itkes, Peace
    Now's settlement researcher, who conducts the flight surveys.

    The international community generally considers
    settlements illegal. Washington has frequently urged Israel to
    stop building them, calling such action destructive to the
    peace process.

    Israel denies creating new settlements, saying it is
    merely expanding existing ones.

    "There is absolutely no new settlement. It is the policy
    of this government not to build new settlement. There was an
    agreement between the Likud and the Labour Party when they
    formed the government that there should be no new settlement,"
    Israeli government spokesman Avi Pazner said.

    "What can happen is that within the settlements there
    might be some building of new houses due to natural increases.

    That is all what it is about."
    There are already 145 established Jewish settlements in
    the West Bank and Gaza, on land the Palestinians intend to
    declare as an independent state.

    Migration to those settlements had dropped significantly
    since the start of the Palestinian uprising against Israeli
    occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in September 2000.

    In the past 18 months, Palestinian militants have targeted
    settlers and soldiers in the occupied territories, while
    settlers have attacked and killed Palestinians.

    U.S. efforts led by Anthony Zinni to end the violence and
    revive peace talks in line with the U.S.-led Mitchell report
    would be hindered by creation of new settlements which daily
    change the geopolitical map in the occupied lands.

    Statistics of the Yesha settler council put the population
    of settlers in lands Israel occupied in the 1967 war,
    excluding Arab East Jerusalem, at 227,000.

    Palestinians warn that continued settlement activity
    further dashes hopes for finding a way out of the current
    conflict.

    "Sharon speaks about accepting Mitchell (truce-to-talks
    proposal), he builds settlements. He says, 'I accept Tenet
    (ceasefire guidelines)', he builds settlements. He wants to
    say 'I want peace', he builds settlements. That is the true
    policy of this government. And settlements and peace are two
    parallels that will never meet. And Sharon had made the choice
    a long time
    ago. He chose settlement and not peace," Saeb Erekat, senior
    Palestinian negotiator, said.

    The Mitchell truce-to-talks recommendations calls for a
    total freeze on settlement building as a key
    confidence-building measure.


    os/os/

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