http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53103-2001May20.html
Peace Group Says Israel Added Settlements
Government Denies Report of Outposts
By Lee Hockstader
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, May 21, 2001; Page A13
JERUSALEM, May 20 -- Israel has allowed about 15 new Jewish
settlements to be constructed since January on land it occupies in the
West Bank, despite growing international pressure to freeze such
activity, an Israeli anti-settlement group said today.
Peace Now issued a report on the new outposts as Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon brushed off international and domestic criticism
of his decision to order F-16 jet fighters to bomb Palestinian targets
Friday. He insisted that his government would use as much military
might as necessary to deter further Palestinian violence. The raids,
which killed 11 Palestinians, were in retaliation for a suicide bomb
attack by a Palestinian militant that killed five Israelis.
"We will do everything necessary and use everything we have to protect
Israeli citizens," Sharon was quoted as telling Israel's largest
newspaper, Yedioth Aharonoth.
In Washington, Vice President Cheney called on Israel today to halt
the use of the U.S.-made jets and appealed to both sides to avoid an
escalation of the violence, the Reuters news agency reported.
"Yeah, I think they should stop," Cheney said in response to a
question about Israel's use of the F-16s on NBC's "Meet the Press."
"Both sides should stop and think about where they are headed here."
The Peace Now report on new settlements is almost certain to increase
international pressure on Sharon's government, which has refused to
consider a halt to new construction of Jewish neighborhoods in the
Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Although the Israeli
government considers the hilltop outposts to be expansions of existing
settlements, they are in most cases separated by hundreds of yards of
barren land, according to Peace Now.
"Anyone who sees them and sees photos and their relation to existing
settlements understands that for all intents and purposes these are
new settlements," said Didi Remez, spokesman for Peace Now.
Sharon, who took office March 7, was for many years the driving force
behind Israel's settlement policy, and he has refused to halt the
building of new neighborhoods on army-occupied land. He has
specifically rejected a key recommendation by an international
commission led by former U.S. senator George J. Mitchell for a freeze
on all settlement expansion. Israel has insisted that some
construction must continue in existing settlements to accommodate
"natural growth."
The Mitchell commission's report, to be published Monday, also calls
for an end to the current seven-month Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
blaming the Palestinians for doing too little to contain armed groups
and the Israelis for using "excessive force" in response to the
Palestinian revolt.
In the latest violence, Israeli tanks fired three shells this evening
at the home of the top Palestinian security chief in the West Bank,
Palestinian officials said.
Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority immediately issued a statement
accusing the Israeli army of trying to assassinate Jibril Rajoub, the
West Bank security chief who is among the most powerful figures in the
area and who is well known to U.S. officials, especially CIA Director
George J. Tenet, who has met with him frequently. The army denied
trying to kill Rajoub.
[There were gun battles throughout the Israeli-occupied territories
Sunday, and at 2 a.m. Monday, the Israelis launched what Palestinians
described as a major attack in Gaza City, apparently firing
wire-guided missiles from helicopter gunships.]
More than any other issue, the construction of Jewish settlements in
Israeli-occupied territories has infuriated the Palestinians and
convinced them that Israel is not serious about a negotiated peace
deal. But in Israel, the construction has been pursued vigorously by
left- and right-leaning governments for 30 years. It is widely viewed
as an attempt to cement Israel's physical control over the West Bank,
which it has occupied since the 1967 Middle East war. Some 200,000
Israelis live in about 150 West Bank settlements.
Raanan Gissin, a spokesman for Sharon, rejected the notion that Israel
is building new settlements. He said he was unaware of the extent of
construction of new outposts in the West Bank and noted that many of
them may be within Israeli-approved master plans for settlement
expansion -- plans that often include huge swaths of West Bank land
historically farmed by Arabs.
"If they're legal and according to the approved master plan, then
they'll stay," he said. "If not they'll have to answer to the proper
authorities."
According to Peace Now, most of the new outposts consist of a
half-dozen or fewer trailer homes, a water tower and a perimeter
fence, and are linked to the main settlement by a winding dirt road.
The most recent such outpost was established on April 25, more than
1,000 yards south of the settlement Yakir, about 30 miles north of
Jerusalem, said Peace Now. So far "Yakir South" has just four
structures; other Jewish colonies that began similarly now have scores
or hundreds of houses.
"It begins with the area being flattened and a road leading to it and
a water tower, and someone guarding it," said Remez, the Peace Now
spokesman. "If there's no [objection by the Israeli authorities],
after a while there's a move into permanent structures."
© 2001 The Washington Post Company
