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Israel's new Jerusalem plan angers Palestinians
Israel plans to build thousands of new homes in the occupied West Bank to cement its hold on Jerusalem, government sources said Monday, drawing a Palestinian warning that peace efforts were at risk.
The blueprint for two new neighborhoods linking the Jewish settlement of Maaleh Adumim to Arab East Jerusalem appeared to flout a U.S.-backed peace "road map" whose final vision is disputed by Israel and the Palestinians. The road map requires a halt to settlement-building on land Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and which Palestinians want as part of a future state.
The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon last week approved the construction of 3,500 new homes to secure "Greater Jerusalem," which Israel calls its undivided capital in a move not recognized internationally.
Government sources confirmed the report apart from the number of homes.
BYPASS ROAD
One source said the figure would be in the "low thousands" and added Sharon had also ordered the building of a road to bypass the area and link the Palestinian-ruled cities to the north and south of Jerusalem, Ramallah and Bethlehem.
"The prime minister is thinking ahead, to giving the Palestinians territorial contiguity," the source said.
But the Palestinians, whose President Mahmoud Abbas joined Sharon last month in declaring a cease-fire and who wants East Jerusalem for a capital, accused the Jewish state of poor faith in peacemaking.
"By expanding settlements in the West Bank, Israel gives the impression that it intends to exchange Gaza for a 'Greater Israel'," said Palestinian Planning Minister Ghassan al-Khatib.
"Israel is responsible for any consequences resulting from this continuous violation of the road map," he said. "I don't think the Palestinian leadership and people can tolerate this."
As part of the Abbas-Sharon cease-fire, Israel agreed to give security control of five West Bank cities to the Palestinians.
The handovers were seen as a gesture to Abbas after he won a commitment from Palestinian militants to extend a de facto truce until the end of this year -- although it fell far short of the road map's demand that the factions to be disarmed.
The first city, Jericho, was handed over last week. But a snag in security arrangements held up the transfer of the second city, Tulkarm, which was expected Monday, officials said.
Israel refused to give Palestinians control of several villages near Tulkarm that were under their jurisdiction before a 4-1/2-year-old Palestinian uprising began.
Israeli security sources called two of the villages launch-pads for a Palestinian suicide bombing that killed five people at a Tel Aviv nightclub last month.
Israel's network of checkpoints, restricting Palestinian travel across the West Bank, is one of the most hated symbols of Israeli occupation for the 2.3 million Palestinians who live in the territory. Israel calls the roadblocks a security necessity.
But violence has dropped dramatically since Abbas, elected on Jan. 9 to replace the late Yasser Arafat, and Sharon declared their cease-fire at a summit in Egypt. Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told reporters the Jewish state was keeping a close eye on Palestinian efforts to contain militants in cities it was handing over "step by step." He called on local Palestinian security authorities to "dismantle terrorist infrastructure." |
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