GAZA, 28 March 2005 — Palestinians yesterday denounced American support for Israel’s attempt at land grab. Any suggestion that major Jewish settlement blocs in the West Bank should be taken into account in a final peace settlement between Israel and Palestinians is “unacceptable”, they said.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said more settlement building would affect the final status talks as chief negotiator Saeb Erekat accused Washington of usurping his position by meddling to the detriment of the peace process.
They spoke just hours after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that any negotiated deal between the Israelis and Palestinians will have to take major population centers into account.
Last week, Israel announced it would push ahead with the expansion of the largest West Bank settlement — Maale Adumim, east of Jerusalem — through the construction of more than 3,500 new homes.
“Any talk about settlements other than about stopping the activity is unacceptable. This will affect the final status issue,” Abbas said here after a meeting of the revolutionary council of the mainstream Fatah party.
“Settlements are illegal from start to finish. We have said that repeatedly and we will not backtrack from our positions,” Abbas added.
Contradicting reports that Israeli-US relations had been bruised by continued settlement activity, Rice reiterated US policy that any peace deal will have to take the biggest outposts into account. “The existing major Israeli population centers will have to be taken into account in any final negotiation,” she told Israeli public radio, nonetheless adding that “American policy remains unchanged in accordance with the road map”.
That peace plan calls for the freezing of all settlement activity, but has made no progress since its launch in 2003.
In another development, Israel said it would delay a promised handover of a third West Bank town to the Palestinians that had been expected this week. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz ordered the Israeli Army to put off a transfer of security control of Qalqilya, saying Palestinians had failed to fulfill a pledge to confiscate weapons from militants in two towns relinquished earlier, Israeli sources said.
— Additional input from agencies
