Israel vowed on Monday to expand its largest Jewish settlements in the West Bank despite Palestinian fury, as a process began to hand over security control to Palestinian forces in the Tulkarem area.
A high-ranking official said Israel would "continue to build homes, administrative offices and industrial areas" in Maale Adumim, Gush Etzion and Ariel, less than two weeks after a report slammed the authorities for helping to build unauthorized settler outposts.
His comments came a day after the defense ministry approved the construction of over 3,500 new homes in Maale Adumim, which has 28,000 residents.
PHOTO: EPA
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said the decision "sabotages all efforts seeking to get the peace process back on track."
Maaleh Adumim, 5km east of Jerusalem, is the most populous Jewish settlement in the West Bank. Gush Etzion lies south of Jerusalem and the town of Ariel in the northern West Bank.
"These areas will never be transferred to the Palestinian Authority," the official from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office told reporters. "We're not talking about rogue outposts, but perfectly legal settlements."
He denied that the move would further carve up a future Palestinian state, saying it would "not deprive the Palestinians of territorial continuity... thanks to a [bypass] road being built linking Bethlehem to Ramallah."
Israel is also due to revive a proposal to link Maale Adumim to Jewish settlements in annexed east Jerusalem, as the government presses ahead with plans to withdraw completely from the Gaza Strip by the end of August.
The move prompted furious criticism from the Palestinians.
"Jerusalem is in real danger. If 3,500 homes are added to Maale Adumim and it is surrounded by the apartheid wall as planned, it will threaten the fate of all Jerusalem," said Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei, of the West Bank separation barrier.
"What happened to the two-state vision and how can we have peace while settlements and the wall continue to be built?" Erakat asked, in comments addressed to the Middle East quartet and US President George Bush.
The quartet, made up of diplomats from the EU, Russia, the UN and US, drafted the roadmap peace plan which seeks to freeze all settlement activity and create an independent Palestinian state.
A US diplomatic source said Washington expected Israel to respect its roadmap commitments to halt settlement activity and dismantle outposts, but he refused to comment on the Maale Adumim issue.
Earlier this month, Bush called on Israel to freeze settlement activity after a report commissioned by the premier accused the authorities of methodically helping build scores of outposts in the West Bank.
But Bush -- who will host Sharon at his Texas ranch next month -- has also said the final borders of any lasting settlement must take into account the demographic realities on the ground.
Israel has interpreted his comments as carte blanche to hold on to the main West Bank settlements where most of the 240,000 settlers live.
In the north of the territory, Israeli forces were to begin a symbolic transfer of security control to the Palestinian Authority in Tulkarem after agreeing on the scope of the handover at a third round of talks in 24 hours.
"The security transfer will take place on Monday evening," said an Israeli military spokesman.
The Palestinian security chief in Tulkarem, Said Abu Fashi, told reporters that Palestinian police would begin to deploy in the town from Monday evening while Israeli forces would start to redeploy in the area from early yesterday.
Tulkarem governor Ezzedine al-Sharif said under the terms of the agreement, armed Palestinian security forces would deploy "in the entire Tulkarem region aside from three villages" where troops would go unarmed.
Ceding security in five West Bank towns was a key issue agreed at a landmark Israeli-Palestinian peace summit in Egypt last month. Last Wednesday, Israel transferred limited security control in Jericho to the Palestinian Authority.
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