Israel is planning to build thou-sands of housing units in the West Bank settlement of Maaleh Adumim in an attempt to connect the community to Jerusalem, Israeli officials said yesterday.
It appears the plan is meant to ensure a large Jewish majority in Jerusalem to counter a high Arab population growth rate. Maaleh Adumim is 6km east of Jerusalem.
PHOTO: AFP
The US publicly condemned a smaller plan to expand Maaleh Adumim earlier this week, but Israeli officials said they will seek US approval for this and similar expansion projects.
US officials said the US opposes all settlement construction. Another US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said US Mideast envoy Elliot Abrams was to discuss the Maaleh Adumim plans during a meeting in Jerusalem later yesterday with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia discussed the Maaleh Adumim scheme at a meeting yesterday with Abrams. The construction plan amounts to a "land grab" meant to deny the Palestinians a state, Erekat said.
Israeli officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they believe the expansion plan fits President George W. Bush's acknowledgment that large settlement blocs will remain in Israeli control under a final peace deal.
Meanwhile, Israeli troops left the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, where they have been "conducting an operation" for six weeks, allegedly to clear areas used as launching pads for rocket attacks against Israeli towns and settlements. One military official said, however, that the troops will redeploy around the town.
Israel raided Beit Hanoun last month after rockets killed two people in the Israeli town of Sderot.
Though hundreds of acres of Palestinian land were cleared of crops and orchards and several houses demolished, the army operation in Beit Hanoun failed to stop the rocket barrage on Sderot. Several Palestinians were killed by the Israelis during the six weeks of military occupation.
Sharon says he is determined to stamp out the rocket fire, which could torpedo his plan to evacuate the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements by late 2005.sraeli towns within rocket range.
As part of the withdrawal plan, Sharon sought and received US backing for Israel's plan to hold onto large West Bank settlement blocs such as Maaleh Adumim, home to 31,000 Israelis, under a final peace deal.
However, the US has repeatedly called on Israel to abide by a settlement freeze outlined in the ``road map'' peace plan.
``This will kill the road map and this will kill any attempts to have final status negotiations one day,'' Erekat said.
This week, the State Department denounced a report that Israel planned to build 600 housing units in Maaleh Adumim, calling it a violation of the road map.
Israel said the plan was old, predating the road map, and that many of the housing units already have been built.
Yet three months ago, Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz declared 3,750 acres of land between Maaleh Adumim and Jeru-salem to be state land, the first step toward using the land for housing construction, said one government official on condition of anonymity.
PRECARIOUS RELATIONS: Commentators in Saudi Arabia accuse the UAE of growing too bold, backing forces at odds with Saudi interests in various conflicts A Saudi Arabian media campaign targeting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deepened the Gulf’s worst row in years, stoking fears of a damaging fall-out in the financial heart of the Middle East. Fiery accusations of rights abuses and betrayal have circulated for weeks in state-run and social media after a brief conflict in Yemen, where Saudi airstrikes quelled an offensive by UAE-backed separatists. The United Arab Emirates is “investing in chaos and supporting secessionists” from Libya to Yemen and the Horn of Africa, Saudi Arabia’s al-Ekhbariya TV charged in a report this week. Such invective has been unheard of
US President Donald Trump on Saturday warned Canada that if it concludes a trade deal with China, he would impose a 100 percent tariff on all goods coming over the border. Relations between the US and its northern neighbor have been rocky since Trump returned to the White House a year ago, with spats over trade and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney decrying a “rupture” in the US-led global order. During a visit to Beijing earlier this month, Carney hailed a “new strategic partnership” with China that resulted in a “preliminary, but landmark trade agreement” to reduce tariffs — but
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) purge of his most senior general is driven by his effort to both secure “total control” of his military and root out corruption, US Ambassador to China David Perdue said told Bloomberg Television yesterday. The probe into Zhang Youxia (張又俠), Xi’s second-in-command, announced over the weekend, is a “major development,” Perdue said, citing the family connections the vice chair of China’s apex military commission has with Xi. Chinese authorities said Zhang was being investigated for suspected serious discipline and law violations, without disclosing further details. “I take him at his word that there’s a corruption effort under
China executed 11 people linked to Myanmar criminal gangs, including “key members” of telecom scam operations, state media reported yesterday, as Beijing toughens its response to the sprawling, transnational industry. Fraud compounds where scammers lure Internet users into fake romantic relationships and cryptocurrency investments have flourished across Southeast Asia, including in Myanmar. Initially largely targeting Chinese speakers, the criminal groups behind the compounds have expanded operations into multiple languages to steal from victims around the world. Those conducting the scams are sometimes willing con artists, and other times trafficked foreign nationals forced to work. In the past few years, Beijing has stepped up cooperation
RSS