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Israel offers incentives to expand Jewish settlements

netanyahu

Palestinians react with anger

December 13, 1996
Web posted at: 8:30 p.m. EST (0130 GMT)

From Correspondent Walter Rodgers

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Ever since the slayings Wednesday of a Jewish woman and her 12-year-old son by a radical Palestinian faction, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been defiant about expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, much to the chagrin of most Palestinians.

On Friday, Netanyahu's Cabinet decided to give tax breaks and generous grants to the settlements. The decision -- made at a time when Israel's relations with the Palestinians are tense -- means Israel could pump hundreds of millions of dollars into the areas.

Among the incentives are grants for Jewish students and government-built day care centers.

The Cabinet move came despite Palestinian warnings that increased Jewish settlement of the area will lead to more violence. Relations between the Palestinian Authority and Israeli government are already under serious strains.

Reaction from Palestinians to the Cabinet's decision came quickly and with anger. Dr. Ahmed Tibi, an adviser to Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, said the settlements are illegal and that the announcement would put the peace process in jeopardy.

Strained relations

Talks over an Israeli troop pullout in the West Bank town of Hebron are deadlocked. Palestinians are angry over Israeli plans to build 132 Jewish homes in an Arab neighborhood in Jerusalem. And Israel is demanding that Palestinian police do more to catch gunmen who killed the Jewish West Bank settler and her young son in Wednesday's drive-by shooting.

westbank

All those issues notwithstanding, Israel should not be discouraged from settling the West Bank, said David Bar-Illan, Netanyahu's senior adviser.

"It is unthinkable that Jews should not be allowed to live anywhere in the world, and certainly not in the area that is the cradle of our civilization, of our religion, of our culture," he said.

Peace process in trouble?

There are 144 Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and, under the Cabinet plan, all of them will become more financially attractive for Israelis. Settlers will pay less income tax, and business people will receive grants equal to at least 20 percent of their investments.

According to some estimates, the package could cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Israeli radio said Cabinet ministers argued over where the money should come from, but decided to rule on that issue later.

The West Bank of the Jordan River is where Palestinians had hoped to develop a state of their own under the Oslo peace process negotiated during Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's tenure. And now?

"The peace process doesn't seem to be in such good shape anyway. It's teetering on the brink of collapse, even before today's decision. This will bring it one step closer to final collapse," said Israeli political analyst Chemi Shalev.

arafat

In Gaza, Arafat was furious with Netanyahu's bid to move more settlers to the West Bank. "This is another serious escalation, and breaching what had been agreed upon according to the agreement -- not one single house to be added to any settlement," he said.

Palestinian radicals vow retaliation

Wednesday night's shooting may have been responsible for the timing of the Israeli action. But Palestinians say the Israeli reaction is unreasonable and unbalanced.

"If they believe it is a kind of punishment for the Palestinians, to build more settlements because an Israeli was killed, what can we do to punish those because of all the Palestinians who are killed?", one Palestinian said.

In this land of "an eye for an eye," militant Muslim groups like Hamas have one answer. The military branch of the Hamas, Izzedine al Qassam, distributed a leaflet Friday saying the group would carry out new attacks to mark the anniversary of the death of chief bomb maker Yehia Ayash.

Hamas was responsible for four suicide bombings in February and March which killed 63 people.

On Friday in the Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis, 25,000 supporters of the Muslim militant group rallied, chanting "Qassam, Qassam," the name of the Hamas military wing involved in previous suicide bombings.

And another group, the Damascus-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, urged Palestinians to launch a fresh uprising against the Jewish state. The PFLP has claimed responsibility for Wednesday's killings, and a number of other attacks against Israelis in Israel and south Lebanon in recent years

"We pledge to our martyrs that we will continue our operations and military struggle against Israel until we succeed in establishing an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital," the group's leader, George Habash, said.

Some 145,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank and Gaza, compared to 2 million Palestinian residents.

 
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