NOVANEWS
Palestinian official blames US silence for Israel’s settlement construction push; Israel says it will build on
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told his US counterpart over the weekend that he planned to push through the difficulties posed by Israel’s announcement that it would expand settlement construction and carry on holding peace negotiations as he had promised the Americans.
According to a report by Haaretz, both Israeli and US officials confirmed that Abbas had told US Secretary of State John Kerry and US envoy to the negotiations, Martin Indyk that though the Palestinians severely condemn the new construction, they would not pull out of the talks. Abbas reportedly said the Palestinians promised the United States to carry on negotiations for nine months and that they intended to keep that promise.
Kerry is scheduled to meet with Abbas in the West Bank on Tuesday, a meeting that a Palestinian official described as an effort to keep peace talks alive.
“The aim of the visit (to the town of Bethlehem) is to contain the huge crisis in peace talks, prompted by Israel’s announcement in the last few days of new settlement tenders,” the senior Palestinian official told AFP.
The planned meeting comes as negotiations, restarted in July after a three years hiatus, seem to be facing their most difficult challenge to date. Over the weekend, reports circulated that the Palestinian negotiators, Saeb Erekat and Mohamed Shtayyeh, had handed Abbas letters of resignation, objecting to Israel’s plans to build thousands of new housing units in the West Bank and East Jerusalem — a plan that was revealed shortly after Israel freed 26 longtime Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture to the other side. Later, Palestinian officials denied the reports and Haaretz reported that though resignation letters had been submitted, Abbas refused to accept them.
Abbas’s decision to remain on the table, however, is no sign that the Palestinians are happy.
Senior Palestinian officials involved with the peace talks told Haaretz that the Palestinian leadership is deeply disappointed with the way the US was promoting the talks, describing their sponsorship as “passive,” and insufficiently critical of Israel’s actions.
“Everyone remembers the active involvement of the secretary of state [John Kerry] on the eve of the renewing of the negotiations,” a senior Palestinian official said. “The prevailing opinion among the leadership now is that Israel is acting freely and that the Americans weren’t lifting a finger.”
The official added that “the expectation is that that which sponsors the negotiations should act as intermediary and mediator, which takes positions and acts on this matter, otherwise there is no way to move forward and everyone will reach a dead end.”
Though the US joined the Palestinians as well as the UN, the EU and regional countries in denouncing the Israeli government’s announcement about the new settlement push last week, the PA felt that its condemnation was not sharp enough and would not deter Israel from its plans.
“The US administration has not taken any concrete measures against Israel’s settlement moves, and maybe this American silence on the issue is what has caused” the step-up in settlement plans, a second official told AFP
Palestine Liberation Organization leaders convened in Ramallah on Thursday followed by an announcement that “The Palestinian leadership will take a number of steps in the next few days to face the settlement offensive.”
Israel has maintained that it notified both the US and the Palestinians of its plans to continue building in the settlements, before announcing it publicly. On Sunday, Israeli Minister of Energy and Water Silvan Shalom told Israel’s Army Radio that the move should have come as no surprise and that it would continue building everywhere in the West Bank. He noted that the demand to halt building in the West Bank was a new one, which had never been posed in previous rounds of negotiations.
Kerry begins on Sunday a 10-day visit to the region with stops in Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank, Jordan and Morocco on the itinerary. Egyptian media reports said Kwerry would also visit in Cairo.
