JERUSALEM, 10 March 2008 — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has approved the construction of hundreds of new housing units at a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, the Housing Ministry said yesterday.

“After a series of consultations with the prime minister, Housing Minister Zeev Boim has approved the relaunching of construction in Givat Zeev,” the ministry said in a statement. The move was swiftly denounced as hampering efforts to advance faltering peace talks that Israelis and Palestinians revived to much fanfare under US stewardship in late November, but that have been stagnant since.

“We condemn in the harshest terms this decision,” senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said. “We consider that with this decision, Israel wants to demolish the peace process and demolish the international efforts to advance the peace process,” he said. “We ask the American administration to... pressure Israel to reverse this decision.”

The head of Israel’s main anti-settlement group Peace Now, Yariv Oppenheimer, echoed the sentiment. “This is a scandalous decision that will affect the negotiations with the Palestinians,” he said. “This government, which has pledged to dismantle settlements, has done nothing but reinforce them.”

Ongoing Israeli settlement activity has been one of the major reasons why the peace talks that the two sides relaunched at a US conference more than three months ago have made little progress. The Palestinians have demanded that Israel halt all settlement activity in the occupied West Bank — the larger half of their promised state — and the annexed East Jerusalem, which they hope to make their nation’s capital.

Olmert has pledged to not construct any new settlements and to dismantle unauthorized outposts, but has repeatedly emphasized that Israel did not intend to halt expansion of settlements in East Jerusalem or those blocs in the West Bank that it intends to keep under any peace deal. The expansion project discussed by Boim and Olmert foresees the eventual building of 750 new housing units in Givat Zeev, but yesterday’s decision gives the green light for the immediate construction of some 200 new units, Israeli media said.

A senior Israeli official yesterday confirmed to AFP last week’s reports that Defense Minister Ehud Barak has struck a deal with settler groups to dismantle up to 26 wildcat outposts in the West Bank in return for expanding main settlement blocs, including Givat Zeev. “Barak authorized construction in settlement blocs in a secret meeting two weeks ago as part of a comprehensive deal with the settlers on the evacuation of illegal outposts,” the official said.

Grim Picture for Israel

Intelligence agencies painted a bleak picture of threats facing Israel in an annual assessment yesterday that comes on the heels of the deadliest Palestinian attack in Jerusalem in four years. A senior Israeli official said that the report was presented at the weekly Cabinet meeting by the Aman military intelligence, domestic security service Shin Beth and the Mossad spy agency.

A Defense Ministry official said the report said that arch foe Iran is operating through the Hezbollah group in Lebanon and the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.

“Iran’s presence and threat is felt both in Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank” through its proxies, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. “We’ll also hear about Hezbollah’s rearmament and the threat it poses along Israel’s northern border,” he said, referring to Israeli claims that the Shiite group has been smuggling in weaponry.

Olmert said Israel was capable of confronting any menace. “Israel can respond to all threats and can answer all the dangers and has the knowledge, courage and strength to face anything that might threaten its citizens and security,” he told the Cabinet.