Colonies announced after prisoner release

Occupied Jerusalem: Israel announced plans on Wednesday to build hundreds of new colony homes on land that the Palestinians want for a future state, hours after it released a group of Palestinian prisoners from its jails.

Israel’s Interior Ministry said 1,500 housing units will be built in Ramat Shlomo, a colony for mainly Ultra-Orthodox Jews established in Occupied East Jerusalem in 1995.

In a bid to appease right-wing coalition members angered by the amnesty for 26 Palestinian inmates, government officials had said that housing projects would be unveiled this week in colonies that Israel plans to keep in any peace deal.

Palestinians see the colonies as obstacles to achieving a viable state in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Occupied East Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war. Most countries deem Israeli colonies there as illegal. US-brokered peace talks between the two sides restarted in July after a three-year hiatus. Palestinians have warned that continued colony expansion could put the negotiations at risk.

The release of Palestinian prisoners, all of whom were convicted of killing Israelis at least 20 years ago, was part of the package worked out by Washington to revive the long-dormant negotiations. In Gaza, the five detainees were met by hundreds of relatives and well-wishers as they emerged through the Erez crossing and entered the strip, sparking energetic celebrations late into the night. Earlier this year, Netanyahu agreed to release 104 prisoners in stages in a move which facilitated a return to direct talks in late July, ending a three-year hiatus. The first batch of prisoners were freed on August 13, and a third release of another 26 inmates is planned for December, Palestinian officials said. The final group is to be freed in March 2014. The ongoing talks are being conducted under a US-imposed media blackout but a senior Palestinian official said on Tuesday that Israel had adopted hardline positions and negotiations had so far produced “no tangible progress”.

“The current Israeli negotiating position is the worst in more than 20 years,” said Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.