[R-G] Israel plans new settler homes

[shniad at sfu.ca]

Globe and Mail	 August 1, 2003 

Israel plans new settler homes

Bids for 22 family-size units in Gaza Strip call into question commitment to
peace

By Timothy Appleby

In a move sure to stir fresh doubts about its real commitment to the
U.S.-backed Middle East peace plan, Israel yesterday announced plans for 22
new homes for Jews in the occupied Gaza Strip.

The peace plan, reluctantly agreed to by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, is
intended to stem almost three years of Israeli-Palestinian violence and
culminate in a Palestinian state by the end of 2005.

As part of a reciprocal process, the so-called road map calls on Israel to
halt construction of settlements and dismantle the dozens built since Mr.
Sharon took office in March of 2001.

And after Mr. Sharon's visit this week to the White House -- his eighth --
U.S. President George W. Bush said he was pleased at how events were
unfolding.

Yesterday, however, the Israel Lands Authority said it was seeking bids for
construction of 22 new family-size units, to be built in the Neveh Dekalim
settlement in the western Gaza Strip.

The Israeli government draws a distinction between new settlements and what
it terms the "natural growth" of existing ones. In Washington on Tuesday,
Mr. Sharon told Mr. Bush he would continue to dismantle unauthorized
"settler outposts" in the West Bank and Gaza.

More than 10 such outposts -- mostly small clusters of caravans on hilltops
-- have been taken down in recent weeks. But zealous settlers have been
allowed to set up just as many new ones, according to a count by Peace Now.

And yesterday's announcement reinforced suspicion that Mr. Sharon's
long-time enthusiasm for settlement expansion is unchanged.

"This shows the way the settlement enterprise has been institutionalized as
an integral part of the Israeli government," said Philip Wilcox of the
Washington-based Foundation for Middle East Peace, which also tracks Israeli
expansion within the Palestinian territories.

"It has its own momentum, it's not an initiative that they turn on and off.
I think Sharon's objective is to pursue and strengthen the settlements to
the point that the whole venture is irreversible."

Aided by generous government incentives, the number of Jewish settlers in
the Palestinian territories more than doubled in the years since the 1993
Oslo accords.

Along with about 180,000 settlers in East Jerusalem, there are now about
225,000 settlers in the West Bank dotted across roughly 150 heavily
fortified settlements, and about 7,000 in crowded Gaza. The Palestinian
population in the two territories numbers about 3.5 million.

Long one of the settlers' most ardent advocates, Mr. Sharon astonished
critics and supporters alike on May 25 when he declared that the Jewish
presence in the territories constituted an occupation that was "bad for
Israel and bad for the Palestinians."

One day later, however, Israel's Housing Ministry revealed plans for more
than 11,800 new housing units in settlements.

Despite the three-month lull in violence since the main Palestinian
resistance groups declared a tenuous truce, the mood is bleak.

"I have instructed the military to be ready for another outbreak of terror,"
Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said recently. "This is inevitable and will be
worse than what came before, if the terror infrastructures are not
dismantled."

Closely linked to the settlements' future is the huge security fence being
built in the West Bank.

Israel says the barrier is to thwart suicide bombers, while Palestinians
protest that it amounts to a land grab.

When Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas visited the White House Rose
Garden last week, Mr. Bush criticized the fence as "a problem" and called
for an end to settlements. In the Rose Garden on Tuesday, he had to listen
as Mr. Sharon announced that construction of the fence would continue.

With a report from Reuters