Israel building 3,000 new settler homes: Watchdog

Jerusalem, Feb 22: Israel is building more than 3,000 homes in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank despite a commitment under a US-backed peace plan to stop such expansion, the Peace Now group said in a report.

In its annual report, the anti-settlement watchdog said yesterday there had been fewer housing starts in 2006 than in 2005, and that the number of settlements had not grown, although their population had increased over the year by 5 per cent.

Construction is under way on more than 3,000 new homes, said the Jerusalem-based peace activist group, which says the 121 settlements Israel has built on land captured in the 1967 West Asia war are obstacles to peace with the Palestinians.

The report said most of the construction is taking place in major settlement enclaves Israel says it would keep under any peace deal, including Maaleh Adumim, Ariel and the Gush Etsion bloc.

The expansion of settlements ''does not indicate any intention (by Israel) to withdraw from any part of the West Bank'', the report said.

Palestinians fear the expansion of the settlements will deny them enough land to build a viable state.

The YESHA settler movement responded to the Peace Now report with a statement pledging that settlements ''would continue to thrive, grow, develop and expand by births despite the left's meddling and persecution''.

ROAD MAP

Israel's continued building in settlements is in violation of a US-backed peace ''road map'' that calls for a freeze to such construction. Israel says the Palestinians have failed to live up to their obligations under the plan to disarm militants.

The World Court has ruled that the settlements are illegal.

Israel disputes this.

In addition to construction in settlements, some 90 trailer homes have been put in place to expand some of the 102 settler- outposts that have been built without Israeli government authorisation, the report said.

The Israeli government has promised the United States to remove dozens of outposts but has done little to fulfill the pledge in the absence of peacemaking with the Palestinians.

Citing figures from Israel's Interior Ministry, Peace Now said 268,000 Israelis lived in the West Bank by the close of 2006, up from 247,000 at the end of 2005. The figures do not include Israelis living in Arab East Jerusalem and in the Golan Heights, which were also captured in the 1967 conflict.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was elected a year ago on a platform to remove isolated settlements. He put the plan on hold after an inconclusive war with Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon in July and no movement towards peace with the Palestinians.

Constant rocket launchings during the 34-day summer war from southern Lebanon territory Israel quit in 2000 after 22 years of occupation raised fears among many Israelis of similar strikes from the West Bank after any future pullback.

REUTERS

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