Announcing new plans to build thousands of settler units, Israel continues to undermine efforts to see direct peace talks resume with the Palestinian Authority, writes Khaled Amayreh in occupied Jerusalem Seemingly hell-bent on thwarting renewed efforts by the International Quartet to encourage the resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), the Israeli government has announced fresh plans to build a large settlement south of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank. The new colony, slated to include thousands of settler units, is designed to create an irreversible demographic barrier between occupied Arab East Jerusalem and the Bethlehem region, which includes the Palestinian towns of Bethlehem, Beit Jala and Beit Sahur as well as dozens of smaller towns and villages. Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced the appointment of a panel that would look for ways to "legalise" colonies and outposts illegally built on private Palestinian lands. According to international law, all Jewish settlements established on land occupied since 1967 are illegal. The new settlement northwest of Bethlehem will see the construction of 2610 settler units. According to Israeli sources, the new "neighbourhood" will tightly cordon East Jerusalem by cutting it off, demographically speaking, from the rest of West Bank. In other words, the new settlement will further scuttle Palestinian hopes of making East Jerusalem the capital of a prospective -- and increasingly improbable -- Palestinian state. Palestinian cartographer Khalil Tufakji said Israel was likely to build as many as 5000 settler units on confiscated Arab land, thus cutting off Bethlehem and its surroundings from the villages and towns of Jerusalem, namely Beit Safafa, Shofat, Sur Baher and Ain Tuba. According to the Israeli media, the decision to establish the new Jewish settlement was taken during the height of efforts by the International Quartet (US, EU, Russia and UN) to restart the stalled peace process. The Quartet proposal stipulated that both sides would refrain from taking any measures that would prejudge a final status agreement. Quartet members have denounced the Israeli decision. However, Israel pays little heed to these verbal rebukes. Earlier in the week, Quartet diplomats said they were planning separate meetings with Palestinian and Israeli officials in the hope of reviving stalled talks between the two sides. Mark Toner, a US State Department spokesman, said Quartet diplomats were trying to develop an agenda for proceeding in negotiations. Among other things, the Quartet proposals for resuming peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) stipulate that renewed talks would be based on the "roadmap" prepared by the former Bush administration. The document, which was only reluctantly accepted by Israel, called on both sides to refrain form unilateral acts that would prejudge the outcome of peace talks. It is also called on Israel to refrain from expanding Jewish settlements, including so-called "natural growth". However, Israel never really abided by the document as it continued to build settlements all over the occupied territories, particularly in East Jerusalem. Duplicitously, the Netanyahu government said it would accept the latest Quartet proposals. However, the latest Israeli decision to build more settlements in the West Bank shows its acceptance might only be a ruse to derail Palestinian efforts to gain UN recognition of a prospective Palestinian state. The PA has so far failed to take a final and clear stance on the Quartet proposals. PA officials responded positively, saying the proposals contained some encouraging elements. But no further commitment was offered. For his part, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said his authority would only accept the Quartet proposals if Israel agreed to freeze all settlement construction and recognise 1967 lines as the basis of negotiations. Speaking during a welcoming ceremony for dozens of Palestinian prisoners freed by Israel as part of the prisoner exchange deal between Tel Aviv and Hamas held in Ramallah on Tuesday, 18 October, Abbas said "the next round of talks will be over a state based on the 1967 borders." Abbas also revealed that, "There will be soon another prisoner deal.�--ê�I won't be disclosing a secret if I say there will be another deal like this. We demand that the Israelis honour their undertakings if, indeed, they take their undertakings seriously." Observers in the occupied Palestinian territories contend that Abbas is under immense pressure to produce tangible political results for the Palestinian people, especially in light of the huge publicity boost Hamas gained from the conclusion of the Gilad Shalit prisoner swap deal with Israel. Indeed, with Abbas unable to snatch virtually anything from Israel's hands, neither in terms of getting the latter to release veteran Fatah prisoners, such as Marwan Barghouti, nor in terms of getting the current Israeli government to freeze unceasing Jewish settlement expansion, Palestinians are unlikely to grant Abbas any grace period to prove the validity of his political line, namely more negotiations. The grim forecast comes at a time when most pundits in Israel and the occupied territories near unanimously agree that regardless of the Quartet's success or failure in resuming peace talks, on-the-ground realities have already made moot the peace process, as the establishment of a viable and territorially contiguous Palestinian state on the West Bank has been rendered virtually impossible. The main reason is the proliferation of Jewish settlements and the unlikelihood that any Israeli government, now or in the future, would be willing or able to dismantle the settlements and remove hundreds of thousands of Jewish settlers from such colonies in the West Bank. This forecast is further underlined by the inability of US politics to withstand the pressure -- even stranglehold grip -- of Israeli lobbies in Washington, guaranteeing that Israel can act with the backing of the world's foremost, if declining, superpower.
