Israel plans to build more than 500 new homes in Jewish settlements in the West Bank, violating a US-backed peace plan and angering Palestinians already seething over plans to build a security barrier deep into the West Bank.
Tenders for the new housing units appeared in an Israeli newspaper on Thursday, inviting contractors to bid on the projects, despite the strictures of the peace plan.
The "road map" plan requires a complete freeze in all construction in some 150 Jewish settlements throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which Israel seized during the 1967 war.
However, an Israeli official said Israel did not have any responsibility to meet its road map obligations until Palestinians crack down on militant groups.
"The road map is stalled as long as there is no action taken by the Palestinians to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure," said Zalman Shoval, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
The Israeli government says it needs the new buildings to account for what it calls the "natural growth" of the settlements, but the road map freeze does not make exceptions.
The government announcement that it planned to build 565 housing units in three West Bank settlements came a day after the Cabinet approved a portion of a security barrier of fences and walls that runs into the West Bank to shield key settlements -- as well as Israel -- from suicide bombers, who have killed hundreds of Israelis over the past three years.
Proposed cabinet
Also on Thursday, incoming Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia announced he would submit his proposed Cabinet for approval to the Palestinian Parliament on Wednesday.
He then accused Israel of trying to circumvent peace talks by seizing land Palestinians want for an eventual state.
"The Israeli decision to continue building the wall and today's decision to build 600 settlement units proves that the Israeli government is not serious about peace and that its goal is to draw the borders unilaterally and to sabotage the possibility for establishing a viable Palestinian state," he said.
The US has said the barrier's route could be interpreted as an effort to pre-empt negotiations and unilaterally define the border of a future Palestinian state.
US President George W. Bush's administration has said it might deduct some of the construction cost for the barrier from US$9 billion in US loan guarantees to Israel, and Congress has authorized the administration to reduce the guarantees, dollar-for-dollar, for what Israel spends on new settlement construction.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday the fence "presents a problem" and that "we also have concerns" about settlement construction.
"We are examining the loan guarantees to determine what we should do about it," he said.
According to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, 3,525 homes were under construction in West Bank and Gaza settlements in the first three months of this year. Since then, the government has announced plans to build another 1,261 homes, according to Peace Now, a group that monitors settlement activity, though other homes are likely being built privately.
`Natural growth'
The housing ministry said in a statement Thursday it was building the new homes "according to the government's policy to promote and develop communities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip according to their needs and natural growth."
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