Israel still building settlements

2008-03-31 12:01

Jerusalem - Some 500 buildings that will provide thousands of new housing units are going up in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank despite the relaunch of peace talks, a settlement watchdog said on Monday.

Building is under way in 101 settlements, with construction recently started on 275 buildings and almost completed on 220, Peace Now said in a report.

An internationally drafted Middle East peace blueprint, revived at a peace conference in the United States in November, calls on Israel to freeze settlement construction.

"Not a single project was frozen," Peace Now said.

"Since the Annapolis summit, there was a leap in the number of tenders and construction plans in east Jerusalem," the group said.

Over the past two months, Defence Minister Ehud Barak has given the green light for at least 1 710 new housing units in the West Bank, 750 of them in annexed Arab east Jerusalem.

The latter figure compares with just 46 housing units approved in east Jerusalem in the whole of last year.

Israel annexed east Jerusalem after its capture with the rest of the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war and considers it part of its "eternal, undivided capital".

The international community does not recognise the annexation and regards all Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land as illegal.

Settlers have also installed at least 184 mobile homes in West Bank settlements without Israeli government approval, Peace Now said.

Building work is also under way in 58 wildcat settlement outposts established without government okay, it added.

The Palestinians say continued Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank is the biggest obstacle to the success of the relaunched peace talks.

But last week Prime Minister Ehud Olmert insisted construction would go on in both east Jerusalem and major settlement blocs elsewhere in the West Bank.

- AFP