WEST BANK: Israeli ministers lay cornerstone for new West Bank settlement construction
Record ID:
560924
WEST BANK: Israeli ministers lay cornerstone for new West Bank settlement construction
- Title: WEST BANK: Israeli ministers lay cornerstone for new West Bank settlement construction
- Date: 28th September 2010
- Summary: ISRAELI HOUSE
- Embargoed: 13th October 2010 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVA1N6AWR5JG5FGBCAWUGSAR24YO
- Story Text: After Israel's freeze on new housing in settlements expires, Deputy Education Minister Meir Porush lays a cornerstone for a new kindergarten to be built in a settlement located in the heart of the Palestinian town of Hebron. Israeli Vice Premier Silvan Shalom says the lives of Israelis who live in the West Bank cannot be stopped.
Israeli ministers on Monday (September 27) visited the West Bank town of Hebron where they laid the cornerstone for a Jewish kindergarten, after Israel's freeze on new housing settlements expired.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held back from acting on a threat to quit peace negotiations, leaving more time for diplomacy to save the talks.
Earth-moving equipment began work in at least two settlements in the occupied West Bank but there was little sign, during a Jewish holiday, of widescale resumption of construction following the 10-month moratorium's midnight expiration.
"And we now ask Mr Netanyahu (Israeli Prime Minister) please honour your work, honour your signature and allow the Jews to have, to inherit, to purchase and to use the property in Hebron," said Israeli Deputy Education Minister Meir Porush at a cornerstone laying ceremony for a Jewish kindergarten in the heart of the town of Hebron.
Hebron, dotted with Jewish settlements and divided into zones of Israeli and Palestinian control, is a microcosm of the occupied West Bank, where the Palestinians have self-rule over islands of territory surrounded by areas of Israeli control.
Today, some 500,000 Jews live on land where the Palestinians hope to found their state.
Israeli Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom was also visiting the flashpoint town on Monday. He told reporters the building freeze had to end.
"I think the decision that Israel took come to an end, we can't stop the lives of the Israelis that are living here. The Palestinians didn't use those ten months to negotiate with us unfortunately they did it only few weeks before. And now what we are asking them is to stick to their decision to continue negotiating with Israel in order to find out if there is a way to reach an agreement or peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinians," Shalom said.
A window of at least one week was open for U.S. diplomatic efforts to avert what would be a major embarrassment for President Barack Obama -- the collapse of a peace process launched at the White House nearly four weeks ago.
Abbas, who had threatened to abandon the negotiations if settlement building was revived, said he would withhold his decision until after an Arab League forum met on October 4 and consultations with a Palestine Liberation Organisation council.
Palestinians fear settlements, built on land Israel captured from Jordan in a 1967 war, will deny them the viable state they hope to create in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, an enclave run by Hamas Islamists opposed to Abbas's peace efforts.
Netanyahu has described demands for a further building freeze as unacceptable preconditions for peace talks and said the settlement issue should be decided at the negotiating table.
The right-wing Israeli leader defied Obama's call for a moratorium extension but at the same time avoided antagonising pro-settler parties in his governing coalition.
Netanyahu earlier urged settlers to show restraint once the 10-month period expired. He has held out the prospect of limiting the scope of renewed construction, a message he seemed to underscore in his public plea to them.
Netanyahu imposed the freeze on housing construction in the West Bank settlements in November under pressure from Obama to help coax Abbas back into direct talks after a 20-month hiatus.
The moratorium did not cover homes whose construction was under way and government statistics show nearly 2,400 units are currently being built on land Palestinians want for a state.
Settler groups pledged that construction would begin on some 2,000 homes next week, after the end of the Jewish religious festival of Sukkoth when many Israelis are on vacation and businesses operate on a limited holiday schedule.
Nearly 500,000 Jews live in well over 100 settlements established across the West Bank and East Jerusalem on land that Israel captured from Jordan in a 1967 Middle East war. The World Court deems settlements illegal but Israel disputes this. Some 2.5 million Palestinians live in the same areas. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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