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Jerusalem/Ramallah:
Israel okayed the construction of 112 apartments in a West Bank
settlement Monday, a move that angered Palestinians a day after they
reluctantly agreed to hold indirect peace negotations with Israel’s
hardline government.
The move also comes as US
Vice-President Joe Biden was due to arrive for a visit to Israel,
the highest-ranking official from Barack Obama’s administration to
visit the region so far.
During Biden’s visit, the US hopes to
announce the restart of - indirect - Israeli-Palestinian “proximity
talks”, to be mediated by Obama’s special envoy to the Middle East,
George Mitchell, who was holding last-minute preparatory talks with
the sides in Jerusalem and Ramallah Sunday and Monday.
Defence Minister Ehud Barak, of the
left-to-centre coalition Labour Party, authorised builders to
continue the construction of 112 aparments in the ultra-Orthodox
settlement of Beitar Illit, south-west of Jerusalem.
A spokeswoman for his office said the
project of 112 apartments had already been given the green light by
the previous Israeli government of Ehud Olmert and its first phase
had started before
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
declared a moratorium on construction in the occupied West Bank in
November.
She said the project was given
“exceptional” authorization despite the moratorium for “safety
reasons,” because it was dangerous to leave the construction site as
is.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb
Erekat condemned the move.
“We cannot tolerate that every time we
have a round of negotiations, more settlements will be built. This
will put a question mark on what we are trying to do,” he told
reporters after Mitchell met Abbas in Ramallah.
“The president has raised this issue
with Mitchell,” he added.
Asked when an announcement of the
start of indirect talks could be expected, he said this was
“premature.”
“Our discussions will continue,” he
said.
He said Abbas received a letter of
assurances from Obama over the weekend, which said the US was
committed to playing an active role of mediator and, more
importantly, that if the indirect talks failed, it would stipulate
who was responsible.
Such a stipulation has been one of the
demands raised by the Palestinians, who have been reluctant to enter
into negotiations with the Israeli government of hardline Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who took office just under one year
ago.
The Palestine Liberation Organisation
(PLO) Sunday backed the start of the US-mediated “proximity talks,”
with a four-month time limit.
Intense negotiations between a team
appointed by Abbas and the previous Israeli government of centrist
premier Ehud Olmert were broken off some 15 months ago, just before
Israel headed into
elections that saw Netanyahu’s
nationalist Likud party return to power, while Olmert’s Kadima was
sent into the opposition.
Biden was due to land in Tel Aviv
Monday afternoon for a three-day trip that is also to include the
West Bank cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem on Wednesday, a statement
from the US embassy in Tel Aviv confirmed.
He is slated to depart for Amman,
Jordan, Thursday evening. The Cairo leg of his visit was postponed
because Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who is recovering from
surgery in Germany, will be out of the country.
Amid the frozen peace process, Obama
himself has thus far refrained from visiting Israel, or the West
Bank.
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