ad info




CNN.com
 MAIN PAGE
*  WORLD
   africa
   americas
   asia pacific
   europe
   middle east
 U.S.
 LOCAL
 POLITICS
 WEATHER
 BUSINESS
 SPORTS
 TECHNOLOGY
 SPACE
 HEALTH
 ENTERTAINMENT
 BOOKS
 TRAVEL
 FOOD
 ARTS & STYLE
 NATURE
 IN-DEPTH
 ANALYSIS
 myCNN

 Headline News brief
 news quiz
 daily almanac

  MULTIMEDIA:
 video
 video archive
 audio
 multimedia showcase
 more services

  E-MAIL:
Subscribe to one of our news e-mail lists.
Enter your address:
Or:
Get a free e-mail account

 DISCUSSION:
 message boards
 chat
 feedback

  CNN WEB SITES:
CNN Websites
 AsiaNow
 En Español
 Em Português
 Svenska
 Norge
 Danmark
 Italian

 FASTER ACCESS:
 europe
 japan

 TIME INC. SITES:
 CNN NETWORKS:
Networks image
 more networks
 transcripts

 SITE INFO:
 help
 contents
 search
 ad info
 jobs

 WEB SERVICES:

World - Middle East

Barak defends new construction in West Bank settlements

Construction
Palestinian officials say ongoing settlement activity violates previous agreements  

October 6, 1999
Web posted at: 7:41 p.m. EDT (2341 GMT)


In this story:

New neighborhood to double size of settlement

Activist sees little change

RELATED STORIES, SITES icon



From staff and wire reports

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Under fire from Palestinians for continuing to allow settlement activity in the West Bank, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak on Wednesday urged Palestinians to reduce their criticism of his policies and resolve their differences at the negotiating table.

He defended the granting of some 2,600 housing tenders in existing settlements since taking office in July and appeared to leave open the possibility that the projects might be overtaken by a permanent peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.

On Tuesday, the lead Palestinian negotiator of the final peace talks, Yasser Abed Rabbo, accused Barak of taking "crazy decisions" on settlement building in the West Bank and said his policies could bar the way to serious negotiations.

 VIDEO
VideoCorrespondent Jerrold Kessel reports that the issue of housing settlements on the West Bank is once again clouding Israeli-Palestinian relations.
Windows Media 28K 80K
 
  MESSAGE BOARD
Mideast peace

 

"I don't think that such talk helps in any way to promote the peace process," Barak told a joint news conference with visiting Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson.

"All disputes between us and the Palestinians should be solved around the negotiating table. We have quite a burdened schedule that should lead to agreement long before any of the projects that have just been announced are over," he said.

The ongoing settlement activity irks Palestinian leaders, who say it violates a promise made by assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

"No one single house to be added. Not any expansion to any settlement," Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat said he was told by Rabin.

New neighborhood to double size of settlement

On a hillside near the biggest Jewish settlement in the West Bank, Maale Adumim, workers have begun building infrastructure for a new neighborhood that would link it to Jerusalem and essentially double its size. The move enrages Palestinians who say the overall expansion prevents them from building their own communities.

Palestinians and a human rights group asked Israel's Supreme Court on Wednesday to halt the expansion. The court said it would announce its ruling at another date, but did not issue a restraining order to stop the expansion.

Attorneys for Maale Adumim and the state of Israel argued the future of settlements in the West Bank and Gaza is a political issue, to be decided in negotiations with the Palestinians, not in court.

However, the Israeli human rights activist who is representing the Palestinians, Avigdor Feldman, told the court Maale Adumim is a special case because its expansion is aimed at increasing Jerusalem's metropolitan area. When one of the judges remarked that he was trying to get the court to rule on the issue of expansion of all West Bank settlements, Feldman replied, "Of course."

"This is a political matter," Justice Theodore Or, the chief of the three-judge panel, said during the hour-long hearing. That's consistent with the Supreme Court refusal to rule on issues concerning Jewish settlements in the West Bank, labeling it a political issue, not a legal one.

Activist sees little change

Feldman says under the new government, little has changed regarding Jewish settlements.

"We don't see any conceptual change in the attitude towards the occupied territories," Feldman said.

construction
Palestinians claim expansion of existing Jewish settlements prevents them from building their own communities  

Israeli settlement watchdog groups claim that in its first three months in office, the new Israeli administration has authorized new construction at a rate exceeding that of the previous government led by hard-line former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But Barak said those housing tenders had been approved long before he took office and that most were around Jerusalem in large settlement blocs.

"I have made it very clear that according to my judgment and according to my plan, most of the settlers in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) will be living in blocs of settlements under our own sovereignty even in permanent status," he said.

He also repeated that he would not allow right-wing settlers to grab territory of their own accord. More than a score of settler outposts sprung up in the final months of Netanyahu's government as activists staked a claim to land.

Correspondent Jerrold Kessel and Reuters contributed to this report.



RELATED STORIES:
Israelis, Palestinians sign 'safe passage' agreement
October 5, 1999
Agreement reached on 'safe passage' linking West Bank, Gaza
October 4, 1999
Israel delays opening of Palestinian safe passage route
October 3, 1999
Opening of Palestinian safe passage route postponed
October 2, 1999
Arafat lures investment; ministers reaffirm Mideast peace
September 24, 1999
Arafat appeals for world's help in Middle East peace talks
September 23, 1999

RELATED SITES:
Israel's Institutions of Government
Office of the Israeli Prime Minister
The Middle East Network Information Center
Palestinian National Authority
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.

 LATEST HEADLINES:
SEARCH CNN.com
Enter keyword(s)   go    help

Back to the top   © 2001 Cable News Network. All Rights Reserved.
Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines.