Israel plans more homes in West Bank settlements
 |
Ads in an Israeli newspaper have called for more homes in three West Bank settlements, including Ariel.
Story Tools
VIDEO
|
CNN's Matthew Chance has a look at a Palestinian village that stands to be further isolated by new barriers that Israel plans to build in the West Bank.
Israel views a barrier as a security measure, while Palestinians see it as a land grab.
|
SPECIAL REPORT
|
|
|
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israel issued plans Thursday for about 600 more homes in West Bank settlements despite the Mideast "road map" peace plan, which calls for a freeze on new settlement construction.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz advertised government tenders for building housing units in three West Bank settlements.
The ads call for 530 housing units in the Beitar Ilit settlement, 24 units in the settlement of Ariel and 50 units in the settlement of Maale Adumim.
The move comes a day after the Israeli Cabinet approved a plan to build the next segment of a controversial security barrier that Israel says will keep terrorists out of the country. A new barrier would be built east of Ariel as part of that plan.
Palestinians have called expansion of the barrier a land grab, noting construction around the settlements does not follow the so-called Green Line, the frontier between Israel and the West Bank before the 1967 Mideast war. (Full story)
Reacting to the Israeli plans to build more homes, Yasser Abed Rabbo, an acting Palestinian Cabinet minister, said that "the Israeli government always wanted to assassinate the road map, and they are doing just that under the eyes of the American administration."
"As long as the American administration doesn't show enough commitment toward implementation of the road map, the Israeli government believes and got the message that they can continue with expansion of settlements in order to prevent establishment of an independent Palestinian state," Rabbo said.
The road map to Mideast peace -- backed by the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia -- is aimed at resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and establishing an independent Palestinian state by 2005.
But little progress with the road map has been made because of repeated Palestinian terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians and Israeli strikes on Palestinian extremist group members that also have killed and injured bystanders.
The road map calls for steps toward peace by both sides, including a stipulation that Israel freeze all construction in Jewish settlements, dismantle illegal settlement outposts built since March 2001 and withdraw from certain areas.
According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, some 231,000 people live in Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories.
