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Illegal Israeli settlements increase sharply: report

Palestinian fishing boats carry international activists off the Gaza coast on Monday. The boats defied an Israeli-led naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. PHOTO: EPA

The construction of Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, seen as a major barrier to US-backed peace talks, has nearly doubled since last year, an Israeli watchdog said yesterday.

In a report published during the visit of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the settlement watchdog Peace Now said settlement building in the first half of this year was double that in the same period last year.

“Construction in the settlements has increased by a factor of 1.8 by comparison to the same period last year,” the group said, citing government statistics.

“The housing ministry initiated 433 new housing units during the period of January to May 2008, compared to just 240 units during the period January to May 2007,” it said.

Another 125 structures, including 30 permanent houses, have been built in the so-called “outposts” — wildcat settlements considered illegal under Israel law that Israel is committed to removing as part of the peace process.

The report said about 1,000 new buildings were being constructed in settlements in the occupied West Bank, which will include about 2,600 housing units.

The number of tenders for construction in the settlements has meanwhile increased by 550 percent, from 417 housing units in the period surveyed compared to 65 units in the same period last year.

In mostly Arab east Jerusalem, occupied and annexed by Israel following the 1967 Six Day War, the number of tenders has increased by a factor of 38, the group said, from just 46 units last year to 1,761 this year.

The international community considers all Israeli settlements in the occupied territories to be illegal and the Palestinians view the settlements as the main obstacle to reaching a full peace agreement.

“There is a deliberate policy aimed at making a separation with the Palestinians impossible and this will risk forcing us to live in a single bi-national state,” said Yariv Oppenheimer, the head of Peace Now.

The findings were released as Rice was holding meetings with senior Israeli and Palestinian officials in a bid to encourage peace talks formally relaunched in November.

They have vowed to try to reach a full agreement by the time US President George W. Bush leaves office, but the talks have made little progress and have been marred by violence in the Gaza Strip and Israeli settlement expansions.
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