THE PALESTINIAN leadership has rejected Israel’s latest attempt to revive the Middle East peace process, saying the declaration of a 10-month settlement freeze fell short of Palestinian demands for a total cessation of all construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Announcing the 10-month building freeze at a news conference in Jerusalem last night, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was taking a “far-reaching and painful step”. He expressed hope the decision would lead to “meaningful negotiations” towards a “historic peace agreement” with the Palestinians.
But Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad stressed there was nothing new in the Israeli proposals, which do not include Arab areas of east Jerusalem captured by Israel, along with the West Bank, in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
“What has changed to make something that was not acceptable a week or 10 days ago acceptable now?,” he asked reporters. “The exclusion of Jerusalem is a very serious problem for us.” The Israeli moratorium also excludes the 3,000 or so housing units currently under construction at settlements across the West Bank.
US secretary of state Hilary Clinton welcomed the Israeli declaration, saying it “helps move forward toward resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”. US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, who spoke at the state department shortly after Mr Netanyahu’s news conference, noted the Israeli move went beyond anything that had happened during the Bush administration. “It falls short of a full settlement freeze, but it is more than any Israeli government has done before and can help movement towards agreement between the parties,” he said.
Mr Netanyahu has made it clear to US officials, who have been working for months to come up with a formula acceptable to both sides, that the current government will not accept restrictions on construction anywhere in Jerusalem, which he views as the indivisible capital of Israel. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent state.
The settlement freeze was approved by Israel’s security cabinet yesterday in a 11-1 vote. It is expected to win the endorsement of the full cabinet next Sunday. However, the measure failed to win the backing of key members of the governing coalition, and was condemned by some right-wing politicians and settler representatives.
Ministers from the religious Shas party were absent from the vote. Party leader Eli Yishai said Shas opposes any construction freeze which he said “creates an image of weakness”. Defence minister Ehud Barak said the aim of the freeze was to keep the window open for the renewal of talks with the Palestinians: “It is imperative to move towards a two-state solution. There are no alternatives.”
The announcement on a settlement freeze came as contacts over a prisoner swap between Israel and Hamas hit difficulties. Hamas leaders, meeting in Damascus, rejected Israel’s latest proposals to free hundreds of prisoners in return for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier seized on the Gaza border 3 years ago. Negotiations are expected to resume next week.