“In our estimation, building has started on between 600 and 700 new housing units in less than one month, which is four times the pace of construction since before the freeze,” Peace Now’s Hagit Ofran said, referring to the moratorium that began at the end of November 2009.
Direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians are facing imminent collapse in a bitter row over settlement building on occupied West Bank land that resumed after the end of the 10-month ban.
Israel has refused to reimpose the moratorium, while the Palestinians say they will not hold talk while occupiers are building on Palestinian land, prompting a flurry of US diplomatic efforts to resolve the deadlock.
And Thursday’s revelation, details of which are to be fleshed out in a Peace Now report to be published next week, looked set to put a knife in the back of diplomatic efforts to salvage the talks.
“This flagrant act of defiance toward the Palestinians, the Arabs and the US administration demands an Arab and an international response — particularly from the Americans,” said Nabil Abu Rudainah, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Faced with Israel’s insistence on continued settlement building, the Palestinians are going to demand Washington recognize a Palestinian state, said Nimr Hammad, another adviser of the Palestinian president.
Peace Now said the surge in construction was to meet immediate demand for some 2,000 housing units, as part of a longer-term plan to build about 13,000 new homes, all of which had already been approved.
After the moratorium expired just over three weeks ago, occupiers across the West Bank began building in earnest, although they were advised by the Israeli leadership to keep a low profile so as not to inflame international condemnation.
A Joint Palestinian-Israeli poll has meanwhile found that 78 percent of the Israelis support the continuation of peace talks while only 30 percent among Palestinians back it. The poll, released by the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah, found that only 41 percent of Palestinians support the resumption of an armed intifada if direct talks fail.
According to the poll, 64 percent of Palestinians surveyed believe they need success in direct talks more than Israelis, while 51 percent of Israelis think both sides need success equally.
Both groups are skeptical that negotiations will succeed with only five percent of Israelis and six percent of Palestinians thinking they will lead to an agreement.
