Israel freezes new colony projects

Occupied Jerusalem: Israel has frozen nearly all housing starts in colonies in the West Bank and Occupied East Jerusalem, Housing Minister Uri Ariel said on Tuesday, in an apparent bid to help US efforts to revive peace talks with the Palestinians.

The step, confirmed several weeks ago by the Israel’s anti-colony Peace Now movement, has had no impact on construction already under way in colonies - projects that have raised Palestinian concern and drawn international condemnation.

Colony construction on Palestinian land was the main reason for the breakdown of US-sponsored negotiations in 2010 and has been cited as a stumbling block to Secretary of State John Kerry’s latest bid to restart talks.

“I’ll give you the facts: in Jerusalem, since the beginning of the year, there have been no tenders except for one and the same goes for Judea and Samaria,” Ariel, using the Biblical names for the Israeli-occupied West Bank, told Army Radio. Ariel, a member of the pro-colonist Jewish Home party, said he believed the step was temporary and that he was working to end it.

The Palestinians rejected Ariel’s remarks. “While such statements are made to placate Secretary Kerry, the fact remains that colony activity has continued unabated under successive Netanyahu governments,” the Palestine Liberation Organisation said in a statement.

Last week, officials said Israel was pressing on with plans for the construction of more than 1,000 illegal new homes in two West Bank colonies. Those proposals have not reached the stage where bids are sought from contractors, a process entailing public announcements that could clash with Kerry’s diplomatic drive.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not publicly confirmed housing starts have been suspended. But he said last week Israel had to be “smart about” where it built and hinted it was ready to limit expansion to colony clusters it intends to keep in any future land-for-peace deal.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has so far linked a resumption of peace talks to a complete freeze of colony building, which Palestinians see as establishing facts on the ground that deny them land they need for a viable state. Most countries consider colonies illegal under international law.

About 500,000 Israelis have colonised the two areas, which Israel occupied along with the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war. About 2.5 million Palestinians live there. Since taking office in February, Kerry has visited Israel and the Palestinian territories four times to try to get both sides to renew negotiations, so far with little success.