TEL AVIV – Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday he won't pull out of a key part of the West Bank even if there's a peace agreement with the Palestinians. Netanyahu was referring to the Jordan River Valley along the eastern border of the West Bank. Palestinians claim all of the West Bank as part of their future state. Netanyahu's pronouncement comes as the US is pushing hard to restart peace talks. Palestinians hesitate to negotiate because of Netanyahu's hardline attitudes and Israeli settlement construction. Netanyahu told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday that the Jordan Valley's strategic importance makes it impossible for Israel to withdraw, according to a meeting participant who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was closed. In defiance of Israeli restrictions, residents mended roads yesterday in the village of Jiftlik, in the Jordan Valley. The villagers were objecting to Israeli building and planning rules that prevent construction and infrastructure improvements in most of Israeli-controlled Area C, which composes sixty per cent of the West Bank. According to the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, the residents were joined by the Palestinian Minister of Agriculture, Ismail Deiq. They repaired roughly one kilometre of roads inside the town. Jiftlik, the largest town in the Jordan Valley is home to some 5,000 people and is located entirely in Area C, which under the Oslo peace agreements, remains under full Israeli military control until a final peace agreement is negotiated. Under the Oslo accords the entire Jordan Valley was classified as Area C with the exception of the city of Jericho. According to a UN report released in December, a complex, highly restrictive Israeli planning regime makes Palestinian construction effectively impossible in about 70% of all of Area C, or about 44% of the West Bank. The report, released by the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), also stated that in 2009 alone, Israel demolished 180 Palestinian-owned structures in Area C, leaving 319 people without homes.
