- JERUSALEM -- Months after
Ariel Sharon announced his dramatic plan to pull Jewish settlers out of
Gaza, portraying it as a sacrifice for peace, the government is grabbing
more land for West Bank settlements.
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- Israeli peace groups and Palestinian officials say thousands
of homes are under construction in the main settlements, in addition to
an expansion of Jewish outposts that are illegal under Israeli law. Mr
Sharon has promised the US he will dismantle the outposts, which are usually
clusters of containers or trailer homes serviced by government-built roads,
but has failed to do so.
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- One Israeli group, Settlement Watch, says in the three
months to May, West Bank settlements expanded by 26 hectares (65 acres).The
government has approved construction of thousands more homes in the three
main settlement blocs on the West Bank, encouraged by an apparent endorsement
by George Bush for their eventual annexation.
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- In a letter to Mr Sharon, Mr Bush praised the Gaza pullout
and agreed that "in light of new realities on the ground, including
already existing major Israeli populations centres", it was unrealistic
to expect a full return to the 1967 borders.
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- Dror Etkes, head of Settlement Watch, said that the expansion
of Jewish outposts and continuing house building since Mr Sharon announced
his plan in December was evidence that the government was seeking more
territory.
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- "The government is trying to push the boundaries
of the settlements as much as possible before they are frozen," he
said. "The new rule of the game we have seen in past weeks is the
diameter of permitted construction area in the West Bank has grown. The
purpose is to expand as fast as possible because of negotiations with the
US to limit future construction to areas already under construction."
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- American officials have been appointed to agree limits
to settlement expansion in order, Washington says, to preserve land for
a future Palestinian state. Mr Sharon is pressing the US to allow building
to continue in areas already under construction, to cater for the "natural
growth" in families.
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- But Settlement Watch says aerial photographs reveal that
in some settlements, construction has begun on the outer limits of the
municipal boundaries, often some distance from the settlement. It believes
the government will claim the right to build on the intervening territory
or use the outposts to link settlements.
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- The pictures show new houses, roads and other infrastructure
around about 12 of the 90 or more outposts, sometimes linking them to established
colonies.
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- Last week Ephraim Sneh, an opposition Labour party MP,
presented photographs of the outposts and infrastructure expansion to his
party's caucus in parliament.
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- "In blunt violation of the promise to the US president,
the government doesn't dismantle the illegal outposts. With government
money they are expanded, asphalt roads are paved - all the necessary preparations
to turn them into permanent settlements," he told the Guardian.
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- "It casts a shadow on the real intent of Sharon's
disengagement plan. The disengagement may be just a cover for the real
intention of the prime minister to deepen and solidify the Israeli hold
in the West Bank." He added that the expansion was possible only with
official cooperation. "It can't be done without government encouragement
and financing," he said. In May, the state comptroller said Israel's
housing ministry had illegally funnelled about £3.8m to fund unauthorised
settlement expansion, half of it to the illegal outposts.
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- Incentives
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- Last month, the defence and finance ministries authorised
a £37m budget to fortify settlements outside the steel and concrete
barrier Israel is building through the West Bank. Last week, it was revealed
that dozens of prefabricated homes which the government had authorised
for established settlements were sent to the outposts.
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- "This is a well-placed deal cut between the settlers
in the area and the ministry of defence," said Mr Etkes. "If
they're dismantling at times there is the immediate intensification of
construction of another outpost in the area."
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- The government is offering additional incentives to persuade
Israelis to move to empty housing on the settlements and newly arrived
Jews frequently find themselves placed there. But concrete and asphalt
are more important than people in staking Israel's claim to the West Bank.
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- Last month, Shaul Mofaz, the defence minister, told the
civil administration in the West Bank - which is under military control
- to draw up plans for rapid expansion of the Etzion settlement block near
Bethlehem. In recent weeks, the government has approved expansion of Efrat,
part of Etzion bloc, which is also expanding into what was the Palestinian
village of Walaja.
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- "The land was taken by the Jewish National Fund,"
said Jeff Halper, a veteran Israeli campaigner against settlement expansion.
"Almost every house has a demolition order."
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- Mr Mofaz also reassured settlers' leaders of continued
expansion of the other two main blocs in the West Bank, Ariel and Ma'ale
Adumim, which already eat into Palestinian territory.
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- Mr Halper said that the government planned to more than
double the size of Ma'ale Adumim, east of Jerusalem, to provide homes for
about 70,000 people
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- Ehud Olmert, Israel's deputy prime minister, who rarely
makes policy statements without Mr Sharon's approval, recently said that
Jewish West Jerusalem must grow to Ma'ale Adumim.
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- The Israelis are also looking further east to Mitzpe
Jericho, which is home to about 1,500 people. Giant billboards picturing
clusters of blocks of flats mark the limits of the municipality several
miles from the existing housing.
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- "The government plans to link Jerusalem to Ma'ale
Adumim and Ma'ale Adumim to Mitzpe Jericho. Eventually it will all fall
under the Jerusalem municipality. Jerusalem is being transformed from a
city into a region," said Mr Halper.
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- Mr Sharon's spokesman, Raanan Gissin, denied West Bank
settlements were being expanded, saying that construction remains within
the existing boundaries.
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- "Anything that is illegal will be removed as the
prime minister has promised the Americans," he said of the outposts.
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- Critics say the argument about boundaries is part of
the deception because the government has drawn them beyond the settlements
in order to allow for considerable expansion. Settlement Watch says the
government's lack of sincerity can be seen in its failure to provide a
full list of illegal outposts to the US. The government admits to only
28 outposts. Settlement Watch says there are 91, of which 51 were established
after Mr Sharon came to power and therefore should have been removed under
an agreement with the US.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004 http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1269880,00.html
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