OCCUPIED JERUSALEM : An Israeli watchdog says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s colony policies during his four-year term show intent to make a Palestinian state impossible to create. The Peace Now group said in a report released Wednesday that nearly 40 per cent of construction starts during the Netanyahu era were in colonies deep in the West Bank, compared to 20 per cent under his predecessor. It says he approved large projects in particularly problematic areas. The report was released a week before Israel’s election, which Netanyahu appears poised to win. The Palestinians want a state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem. Since capturing these territories in 1967, Israel has moved 500,000 of its civilians there. Netanyahu says he’s willing to negotiate but wants to keep Occupied Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank.
In December, Netanyahu vowed to build in occupied Jerusalem despite criticism from the United Nations, dismissing the international body in particularly strong terms. The UN last month endorsed a de facto Palestinian state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza, areas Israel won in the 1967 war, but which the world views as occupied territory. A poll also showed two-thirds of rightwing Israelis are opposed to the establishment of a demilitarised Palestinian state in the West Bank. Published five weeks before the general election which is taking place on January 22, the Maagar Mohot survey shows that Israel’s rightwing bloc would include 51 of the 120 seats in parliament. Asked if they would support the establishment of such a state, 66 per cent of the voters for that bloc said they would not, while 11 per cent said they would. Just over half - or 51 per cent - said they would support building new colony homes in a highly sensitive area of the West Bank called E1, which lies between annexed east Jerusalem and the nearby Maaleh Adumim colony. Only nine per cent said they were against such a move. The remaining 40 per cent were undecided.
