Washington, November 25: The United States hopes hardline Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal for a 10-month settlement halt in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian West Bank can help revive Middle East talks, a US official said Wednesday.
“We’re hopeful this will lead to a resumption” of peace negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians, the official said.
Israel’s hadline prime minister on Wednesday pushed for a temporary ease in settlement building amid US pressure.
The Palestinians rejected the offer as insufficient.
“As part of the efforts to kickstart peace efforts … the prime minister will today ask the security cabinet to approve the temporary suspension of new construction permits for houses and new building starts” in the occupied West Bank, Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
The statement by Netanyahu’s office proposing a 10-month suspension came as the security cabinet began a meeting to discuss the issue.
Before the announcement, the Palestinians warned they would reject the measure, as it fell short of their demand for a complete freeze on illegal settlements in the West Bank.
“This sort of announcement is not a halt to settlements, because Israel will continue to build 3,000 settlement units and government buildings in the West Bank and will exclude Jerusalem,” chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said.
Israel must also restart negotiations from the point where they left off under centrist former prime minister Ehud Olmert, Erakat added.
The United States has struggled for months to get Israel and the Palestinians to resume their peace negotiations that were suspended during the Israeli war on Gaza at the turn of the year.
On Wednesday, Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad said mostly Palestinian East Jerusalem would have to be included in any settlement moratorium. “The exclusion of Jerusalem is a very, very serious problem for us,” he told reporters.
Without a total settlement freeze, Israel is not living up to the obligations it undertook as part of the 2003 international roadmap for peace plan.
All Jewish settlements are illegal under international law because they are built on Arab land (mainly Palestinian), illegally occupied by Israel since 1967.
Around 200,000 illegal Jewish settlers are estimated to have moved into the dozen or so Israeli settlements in Palestinian East Jerusalem.
There are about 300,000 more illegal Jewish settlers currently living in settlements the Palestinian West Bank.
The settlers adhere to radical ideologies and are extremely violent to almost-defenceless Palestinians.
Under international law, neither East nor West Jerusalem is considered Israel’s capital. Tel Aviv is recognised as Israel’s capital, pending a negotiated settlement with the Palestinians.
East Jerusalem is considered by the international community to be illegally occupied by Israel, in contravention of several binding UN Security Council Resolutions.
In these resolutions, the United Nations Security Council has also called for no measures to be taken to change the status of Jerusalem until a final settlement is reached between the sides.
Declaring Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is an attempt to change this status, and is thus a violation of these Security Council resolutions.
Gaza is still considered under Israeli occupation as Israel controls air, sea and land access to the Strip.
Fatah has little administrative say in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and has no power in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, both of which are Palestinian territories illegally occupied by Israel in 1967.
Israel also currently occupies the Lebanese Shabaa Farms and the Syrian Golan Heights.
—Agencies