JERUSALEM/AMMAN: Israel’s prime minister declared Sunday that his country would retain parts of the West Bank forever — a statement that infuriated Palestinians and could complicate the year-old peace mission of a visiting US envoy.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid claim to disputed territory just hours after meeting with George Mitchell, the Obama administration’s Middle East envoy. Mitchell has been shuttling between Israeli and Palestinian leaders since late last week in hopes of breaking a deadlock over construction in Israeli settlements.
“Our message is clear: We are planting here, we will stay here, we will build here, this place will be an inseparable part of the state of Israel for eternity,” Netanyahu proclaimed at a tree-planting ceremony celebrating the Jewish arbor day at a settlement just south of Jerusalem.
Netanyahu’s participation Sunday in tree-planting ceremonies in two West Bank settlements near Jerusalem were an apparent attempt to soothe Jewish occupiers who vehemently oppose his decision — taken under intense US pressure — to slow West Bank construction. Both settlements lie within areas Israel wants to keep in any final agreement with the Palestinians.
Nabil Abu Rudainah, aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said Netanyahu’s tree-planting undermined peace prospects. “This is an unacceptable act that destroys all the efforts being exerted by Sen. Mitchell in order to bring the parties back to the negotiating table,” he said. Contacts with the Americans would continue, he said, but a return to negotiations with Israel appeared unlikely anytime soon. The Palestinians claim all of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, for a future independent state and say settlements undermine this goal. They have refused to resume peacemaking until all settlement construction stops, something Netanyahu has refused to do.
Following his meeting with Mitchell, Netanyahu told his Cabinet he had heard “a few interesting ideas” on renewing peace talks.
Mitchell later flew to Amman and held talks with Jordan’s King Abdallah.
“The monarch stressed the need for continuing US efforts to ensure a resumption of effective negotiations with a view to accomplishing the two-state solution and ensuring that the needed progress is made in the peace process,” a royal court statement said.
Mitchell will hold a second meeting with Abbas in Amman, according to Palestinian sources.
— With input from agencies
