Israel to build 100 settler homes
Byrnzie
Posts: 21,037
Friday, 18 April 2008 14:44 UK
Israel to build 100 settler homes
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7354146.stm
The Israeli housing ministry has invited tenders for the construction of 100 new homes at settlements in the occupied West Bank.
The houses are to be built at Ariel and El Kana in the northern West Bank, despite international calls for a freeze on settlement activity.
Israel argues its requirement to freeze settlements under the 2003 peace roadmap does not apply here.
Palestinian official Saeb Erakat said the building "sabotaged" peace efforts.
Israel has also announced it will allow the reopening of 20 Palestinian police stations in the West Bank.
A Palestinian spokesman said it would help to boost the security efforts of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Earlier, the Israeli army announced that troops had shot dead a leading Palestinian militant at the Balata refugee camp near the West Bank town of Nablus.
He was named as Hani al-Kabi, a local leader of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades group.
The Israeli government argues that it is building new homes on existing settlements, not establishing new settlements.
"This construction... [is] in the framework of the policy of the government because it will be construction inside the built-up area of existing settlement blocks," Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev told AFP.
Palestinians see continued settlement building as a sign of Israeli bad faith in the peace talks being conducted with the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas, which runs Palestinian areas of the West Bank.
"We firmly condemn the continuation of settlements," said Mr Erekat.
"Such a decision sabotages the peace process and the negotiations."
All Jewish settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.
Meanwhile, an Israeli decision to close off the West Bank and Gaza Strip for a week over the Jewish holiday of Passover has come into effect.
Israel says the ban has been introduced for security reasons
Israel to build 100 settler homes
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7354146.stm
The Israeli housing ministry has invited tenders for the construction of 100 new homes at settlements in the occupied West Bank.
The houses are to be built at Ariel and El Kana in the northern West Bank, despite international calls for a freeze on settlement activity.
Israel argues its requirement to freeze settlements under the 2003 peace roadmap does not apply here.
Palestinian official Saeb Erakat said the building "sabotaged" peace efforts.
Israel has also announced it will allow the reopening of 20 Palestinian police stations in the West Bank.
A Palestinian spokesman said it would help to boost the security efforts of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Earlier, the Israeli army announced that troops had shot dead a leading Palestinian militant at the Balata refugee camp near the West Bank town of Nablus.
He was named as Hani al-Kabi, a local leader of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades group.
The Israeli government argues that it is building new homes on existing settlements, not establishing new settlements.
"This construction... [is] in the framework of the policy of the government because it will be construction inside the built-up area of existing settlement blocks," Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev told AFP.
Palestinians see continued settlement building as a sign of Israeli bad faith in the peace talks being conducted with the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas, which runs Palestinian areas of the West Bank.
"We firmly condemn the continuation of settlements," said Mr Erekat.
"Such a decision sabotages the peace process and the negotiations."
All Jewish settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.
Meanwhile, an Israeli decision to close off the West Bank and Gaza Strip for a week over the Jewish holiday of Passover has come into effect.
Israel says the ban has been introduced for security reasons
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edit: spelling was never my strong suit.
I suggest you buy yourself a dictionary before spouting any more gibberish.
Friday, 18 April 2008 14:47 UK
Carter in Damascus to meet Hamas
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7354027.stm
Jimmy Carter says peace will not be achieved without talking to Hamas
Former US President Jimmy Carter is in Syria, where he is due to meet exiled Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal.
Mr Carter met President Bashar al-Assad after arriving in Damascus as part of his tour of the region to discus the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
He has met Hamas officials in Egypt and Israeli President Shimon Peres, but was snubbed by other senior Israelis.
However, Israeli industry minister Eli Yishai has since told Mr Carter he is willing to meet Hamas for talks.
His spokesman said Mr Yishai had passed the proposal to Mr Carter ahead of his trip to Syria, saying he was "ready to meet with all necessary Hamas members" - including Mr Meshaal - for talks about the release of an Israeli soldier.
Palestinian militant groups including Hamas captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in a raid into Israel two years ago.
Such a meeting involving Mr Yishai - the leader of the orthodox Shas party - would be against Israeli government policy. Shas is an important member of the governing coalition in Israel, holding four cabinet posts.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper he did not meet Mr Carter as it would have been perceived as negotiations with Hamas.
"Were Jimmy Carter to have met with me, and two days later with Khaled Meshaal, it could have created a facade of negotiations between us and Hamas," he said.
Other cabinet ministers have raised doubts about Mr Yishai being allowed to negotiate a prisoner deal alone.
Israel's welfare minister, Yitzak Hertzog, accused Mr Carter of lending credibility to what some countries class as a terrorist group.
"He's giving this image some sort of recognition with one of the world's most brutal arch terrorists and, worst of all, I think Jimmy Carter is forgetting the lessons of 9/11," he said.
"And Jimmy Carter, in a way, is forgetting his own legacy."
Mr Carter, awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, brokered the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty, the first in between Israel and an Arab state.
Mr Meshaal, who survived an assassination attempt by Israeli agents in 1997, became Hamas political chief after Israel's killing of the group's founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, in March 2004.
He has said that Hamas accepts and supports the Arab peace initiative, which offers peace and recognition to Israel in return for a full withdrawal from the land captured in 1967 in the West Bank, the dismantling of Jewish settlements and the establishment of a Palestinian state with a capital in east Jerusalem.
He says Hamas wants a mutual ceasefire, that would also include the West Bank and which would reopen Gaza's borders - but anything else would be Israel dictating a Palestinian "surrender".
The United States, which is trying to isolate Hamas, has distanced itself from Mr Carter's trip, saying it is in a personal capacity and not helpful to the peace process.
Mr Carter is also expected to meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during his visit. After Syria, he is due to travel to Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
The former US president has said he is not trying to mediate in the Arab-Israeli conflict, but believes peace will not be achieved without talking to Hamas and Syria.
Israel, the US and the European Union consider the Islamist militant movement Hamas a terrorist organisation, refuse to deal with it directly and all pursue policies to isolate it.
I think the part of this article I've highlighted says it all:
1. Israel snubs a Nobel peace prize winners efforts to broker peace.
2. Hamas states that it seeks a two-state solution if only Israel will withdraw to the internationally recognized borders.
3. The U.S snubs Hamas and distances itself from Jimmy Carters peace mission, saying that '...it's not helpful to the peace process'.
He he he, 'peace process' my arse!
4. And Israel today announces that it's going to build another 100 homes on illegally occupied Palestinian land.
I think we can see clearly what Israel's and the U.S's motives are here.