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."
Despite Israel's argument that it is only accounting for "natural growth," more than 40 percent of the 12,000 new settlers in the West Bank and Gaza last year migrated from other areas, according to the statistics bureau. The population growth rate in the settlements is more than three times the total Israeli growth rate -- because of both migration and a high birth rate.
A settlement freeze would pose political difficulties for the rightist Sharon government. The roughly 220,000 settlers living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip comprise a strong base of support for the government, and the hardline majority in the Cabinet would likely torpedo any attempt to halt construction.
Most of the new homes, 530, were to be built in the ultra-Orthodox settlement of Beitar Illit outside of Jerusalem where more than 20,000 people live.
Expansion
The government is taking advantage of the needs of some Israelis to try to push its policy of settlement expansion, said Yariv Oppenheimer of Peace Now.
"If you have a large family and are Orthodox and you want to live in Jerusalem, it's very hard, it's very expensive. But if you want to live in Beitar Illit, this is the solution for you," he said.
Despite the government's arguments, it is still bound by the road map, Oppenheimer said.
"If the road map is dead, the Israeli government should tell the public they are not going to follow it. If it is still alive, they should keep it," he said.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft