By Jennifer Thompson
Following a November 14 European parliament resolution condemning recent Israeli conduct in the occupied territories, a December 1 Arab League extraordinary meeting has warned that the peace process between the PLO and the Israeli government is being destroyed.
Even Israel's closest ally, the US, criticised Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu on November 27, when a State Department spokesperson said his policy of expanding Israeli settlements in the occupied territories was jeopardising peace.
Israel plans to drastically increase settlements in the West Bank. Its aim, says Palestinian geographer Khalil Tufakji, is to redraw the Green Line (the pre-1967 armistice line) to swallow a large chunk of the West Bank.
Tufakji said Israeli infrastructure minister Ariel Sharon's plan to settle thousands of religious Israeli Jews between Jerusalem and Ramallah was developed in 1990, when Sharon was housing minister. "It was called the 'Seven Stars' plan, and meant to build a group of very large settlements, starting at the Latroun area in the south, and moving northwards towards Umm al-Fahm [inside Israel].
"We are speaking of two main lines of settlement: the first runs near the Green Line, and the second is only seven km from Ramallah — from Talmond one can see Bir Zeit University." The aim of the plan, he said, is to annex another 11% of West Bank land. "The two lines of settlement protect the Green Line, and secure Israeli control over the water resources in the area."
Israeli interior minister Eli Suissa in early November approved 100 structural plans, authorising the building of more than 10,000 new housing units in 100 of the 140 settlements in the West Bank, and increasing the number of settlers in the area from 145,000 to 500,000 by the year 2000.
Prior to the Arab League summit, the Palestinian Authority had attacked the settlement plans, listing them among 34 breaches outlined in a report prepared by the Palestinian delegation to the peace talks in late November.
The report called for an end to "all settlement activities in the West Bank including East Jerusalem and in the Gaza Strip". It referred to Article 31, Provision 7, of the agreement, which says: "Neither side shall initiate or take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip pending the outcome of the permanent status negotiations".
According to the December 5 Palestine Report, Netanyahu directed a blunt response to the Arab League with a December 1 statement issued by his office: "The Prime Minister met with [Israeli] representatives of the Jordan Valley [sic] ... and said that the government considers the Jordan Valley inseparable from the State of Israel within the context of any final agreement". The heads of settlement councils in the area said after meeting with Netanyahu that he promised to build 700 new housing units in the region that separates the West Bank from Jordan.
According to Palestine Report's Salwa Kanaana, the Arab League has warned Israel that settlement expansion on occupied Palestinian land may "destroy the peace process in its entirety", but stopped short of ordering a freeze on normalisation of relations with Israel which the PLO and Syria had asked for.
The European parliament's November 14 resolution also criticised Netanyahu's decision to build new Israeli settlements on Palestinian land and described the opening of the tunnel under Islamic Waqf land in the Old City of Jerusalem as "inciteful and dangerous".
The Israeli army's failure to withdraw from Hebron, the restrictions Israel has placed over PLO headquarters in Jerusalem and the Israeli closure of Palestinian lands also "dangerously harm Israeli-Palestinian relations", said the EU, and could lead to a "complete collapse of the situation". The resolution called for peace agreements which would "satisfy the Palestinian aspirations for a real state".
By contrast, the November 16 Economist reported that Netanyahu favours skipping the three further Israeli redeployments due in the interim phase, which were to evacuate Israeli troops from the West Bank, except the settlements and "specified military locations". He suggested moving straight to final status talks and taking the examples of Puerto Rico and Andorra as limited sovereignty models for the final Palestinian political entity.
An independent Palestinian state is the only future contemplated by the PLO, and "any other suggestion does not serve the peace process", responded Arafat's media adviser, Nabil Abu Rdeineh.
In the November 15 Palestine Report, Tufakji wrote that even under the former Labour prime minister, Shimon Peres, it became clear that Israel envisaged the West Bank with a political future different from that of the Gaza Strip. "The Gaza Strip will eventually gain a state-like status, while the West Bank will evolve into a self-rule political entity, including both Palestinians and Israeli settlers."
Conflict between settlers, troops and Palestinians protesting land confiscations and house demolitions gives an indication of the sort of future Palestinians face. According to Palestine Report, Israeli defence minister Yitzhak Mordechai approved the construction of 1200 housing units in the settlement of Emmanuel, west of Nablus, on November 19. They will be built on 40 hectares belonging to the village of Deir Isitya. Mordechai also gave permission for the sale of hundreds of already built houses to settlers; the sales were frozen by the Labour government.
Construction has also begun on the second phase of Har Haradar settlement, built on lands belonging to Biddo, Beit Surik and Qattana villages north-west of Jerusalem.
Settlers from Efrat, near Bethlehem, pumped sewage on to agricultural land belonging to Palestinians in Al-Khader village on November 11, damaging dozens of villagers' trees. The same day, the settlers uprooted vines from lands surrounding the settlement and three days later seized 50 hectares of land belonging to Al-Khader and Artas villages. A road is being put through land belonging to people from the village of Artas where Efrat wishes to expand.
On November 10, one Palestinian was killed and 12 others were injured when Israeli soldiers opened fire on demonstrators protesting land confiscations in Deir Qiddis village outside Ramallah for the expanding settlement of Kiryat Sefer, planned to house 4000 religious settlers. The demonstration had been approved by the Israeli authorities in the area and was proceeding peacefully when Israeli soldiers suddenly opened fire. n