Jordan's king warns of new intifada as Israel approves settlements

May 23, 2011

WASHINGTON/OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: The prolonged stalemate in the Middle East peace process will lead to yet another war between Israel and the Palestinians, Jordan’s King Abdullah II warned in an interview broadcast Sunday.

“I just have a feeling that we’re going to be living with the status quo for 2011 … Whenever we accept the status quo, we do so until there is another war,” Abdullah told ABC television’s “This Week.”

“If you look to the past 10 years, every two to two-and-a-half years, there is either the intifada or a war or a conflict. So looking back over the past 12 years, my experience shows me that if we ignore the Israeli-Palestinian issue, something will burst,” the monarch said.

Earlier Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak approved the construction of 294 new homes in the Beitar Ilit settlement in the occupied West Bank, anti-settlement NGO Peace Now reported.

It also said that work had started on more than 2,000 settler homes since the end in September of Israel’s 10-month freeze on Jewish construction on Palestinian land.

Peace Now said Barak has also approved building of homes for the elderly and a shopping center in the settlement of Efrat.

The group could not say exactly when Barak had signed off on the projects, although it said that it had seen a letter dated April 28 from the Defense Ministry advising the Housing Ministry of its decision.

The plans still need local authority permits to build but that is considered a formality, requiring no further government action, Peace Now said.

The Defense Ministry, contacted by AFP, issued a brief statement saying that “since the end of the freeze period a few building permits have been approved for communities situated in the [settlement] blocs to meet their living needs.”

Peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians have been on hold since late September, when the partial Israeli settlement freeze expired and Netanyahu declined to renew it.

Peace Now said Sunday that since the moratorium had been lifted Israeli settlers had started construction on about 2,000 homes in 75 different settlement sites.

“This construction might create facts on the ground that will make the price of peace much higher for Israel,” it said in a statement, adding that one-third of the new construction was going on beyond Israel’s West Bank barrier, which itself regularly cuts into land the Palestinians claim for their future state.

Peace Now added that in addition the Israeli government had given planning permission to 800 new homes in 13 settlements.

Peace Now called that decision “not just miserable timing but a miserable policy” and said it sent a “clear message to the Americans.”

The Palestinians have insisted they will not talk while Israel builds on land they want for a future state, and Israel has attracted fierce international criticism for its settlement policy.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said Israel must choose “between settlements and peace.”

But in response to U.S. President Barack Obama’s speech Sunday, Netanyahu issued a blunt statement rejecting the pre-1967 lines as a basis for negotiation.

Meanwhile, Palestinian factions, including Fatah and Hamas, will seek Russian backing for a new government after their reconciliation deal at talks with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Monday, a delegate said.

“We are expecting that he will show his support for the reconciliation accord and the formation of the new Palestinian government,” Bassam Salhi, leader of the Palestinian People’s Party, told AFP on the eve of the talks in Moscow.

Salhi said that the factions had held talks among themselves over the weekend about the formation of a national unity government, without giving further details.

The factions are due to meet Lavrov Monday morning where they will try to drum up support from Moscow for the reconciliation accord.

Source: The Daily Star.
Link: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2011/May-23/Jordans-king-warns-of-new-intifada-as-Israel-approves-settlements.ashx.