GAZA CITY, 24 August 2004 — Encouraged by an apparent US policy shift, Israel yesterday announced plans for more than 530 new housing units in the West Bank for Jewish settlers.
Israeli political sources said the construction, together with tenders for 1,000 other homes approved last week by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, would mainly affect settlements near Jerusalem and be in full swing by the end of 2004.
Six earthmovers were already hard at work yesterday carving up a rocky hill crest beyond the last line of houses in Har Gilo settlement, sandwiched between two Palestinian villages south of Jerusalem. Officials said about 200 homes would be built there.
Some in the construction crews were local Palestinians desperate for work almost four years into an economically disastrous revolt against Israel waged by hard-line factions.
“No one in the world listens to our grievances anyway,” bulldozer operator Jirie Sarras, from the adjacent village of Beit Jala, said of the decades-old Jewish settlement drive. “If I don’t work here, someone else will. I need the money. In the end the result will be the same anyway. I have to go back to work now,” he added, returning to his earthmover on the baking hot, dusty hillside.
“Get out of here! You want to take our jobs away?” an Israeli bulldozer operator shouted angrily at journalists.
Palestinians condemned the settlement growth plan, saying Washington’s relaxation of its policy against settlement construction would wreck chances of reviving a Middle East peace process promising them a viable independent state.
“If Israel does not stop this expansionist policy, we will not be able to find enough space to establish our state on,” Palestinian Negotiations Minister Saeb Erekat said.
Washington signaled Saturday it could accept building within existing construction lines of settlements that have spread on territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
It had earlier insisted on a construction freeze under the peace road map.
Sharon has since drawn up a unilateral plan to withdraw from Gaza and Washington is apparently trying to help him face down internal far-right opposition.
— Additional input from agencies
