http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/938/re04.htm Building on bold-faced lies Leaked Israeli settlement expansion plans prove that interminable peace talks are but cover for the material destruction of Palestinian horizons, writes Khaled Amayreh in occupied While The plans, it is generally agreed, would put an end to Palestinian dreams of establishing a viable and territorially contiguous state that they could call their own. According to a detailed document by the Israeli Peace Now group, which monitors the proliferation of Jewish colonies in the If implemented, the plan means that existing settlements would more than double, both in the sheer number of apartments and in terms of the settler population. That population now stands at more than half a million in the In 2008, less than 18,000 immigrants arrived in Predictably, the Peace Now revelations drew furious reactions from Palestinian leaders who labelled the plan "peace killer". "If this is true, then it will be futile to even think about peace, let alone the continued relevance of the two- state solution," said Palestinian Authority (PA) official Saeb Erekat. "I believe that if the international community is sincere about peace in this part of the world then it must force Erekat said the PA would be closely watching how the Obama administration deals with the issue of settlements. The Palestinian official tacitly admitted that the Bush administration's approach towards the "settlement issue" was scandalous, adding that the next Israeli government, led by Benyamin Netanyahu, would have to accept the principle of land-for-peace or otherwise there will be no peace process left. Embarrassed by the leaking of the plan, which was applauded by members of the religious and right-wing parties, Israeli government reactions ranged from silence to half-hearted denials. Israeli Housing Minister Zeev Boim, a former deputy defence minister and a notorious hawk advocating an accelerated pace of settlement expansion, described the Peace Now document as "baseless and inaccurate". However, Boim did admit that at least 11,000 settler units were approved for construction in 2009 and that hundreds of other tenders had been issued for construction in colonies in the central and northern parts of the Boim's defences were flatly rejected both by Peace Now and Palestinian experts on Jewish settlement activities as "sly and dishonest manipulation of statistics". Abdel-Hadi Hantash, a veteran cartographer and noted expert on Jewish settlement expansion, described Boim's pronouncements as "prevarications and outright lies". "These people are pathological liars. They claim they want peace, but everything they do on the ground shows beyond any doubt that true peace is the last thing on their minds," he told Al-Ahram Weekly. Hantash said "We have to differentiate between official Israeli pronouncements on the one hand, and activities on the ground, on the other. In terms of activities on the ground, it is manifestly obvious that Hantash described Israeli claims that most of the new building occurs within existing settlements themselves and is aimed at meeting immediate housing needs for the settlers as a "pack of lies". "First of all, the settlements themselves are illegal according to international law, because the Israeli plans -- both long-standing and new -- to swallow up " The EU report also speaks of a systematic Israeli policy aimed at narrowing Palestinian horizons in "Israeli 'facts on the ground' including new settlements, construction of the barriers, discriminatory housing policies, house demolitions, restrictive permit regimes and continued closure of Palestinian institutions, increase Jewish Israeli presence in East Jerusalem, weaken the Palestinian community in the city, impede Palestinian urban development and separate East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank," the report added. Palestinian officials have welcomed the report, calling it "a belated but welcomed recognition of the anti-peace measures | · |
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