Jerusalem – Israel on Tuesday said remarks by the U.N. Mideast envoy “distort history” after he declared that Israel’s settlement-building is a main obstacle to peace with the Palestinians.
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The spat drew new attention to Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, which has continued to move forward during a more than two-year freeze in Mideast peace efforts. The Palestinians seek both areas as part of a future independent state and say that the construction undermines hopes for a peace deal.
In a briefing to the Security Council on Monday, U.N. Mideast envoy Nicolay Mladenov said that settlement expansion by the Israelis is among the biggest obstacles to peace with the Palestinians.
Mladenov listed Israeli plans to build hundreds of new houses in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, as well as steps Israel is taking to legalize outposts that were built without permission by settlers.
“It is difficult to read in these actions a genuine intention to work toward a viable two-state solution,” Mladenov said. “This appears to reinforce a policy, carried out over decades, that has enabled over half a million Israelis to settle in territory that was occupied militarily in 1967.”
David Keyes, spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said the comments “distort history.”
“Jews have been in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria for thousands of years and their presence there is not an obstacle to peace,” Keyes said in a statement, using the biblical names for the West Bank.
“The obstacle to peace is the unending attempt to deny the Jewish People’s connection to parts of their historic land,” Keyes added.
Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem, home to holy sites sacred to Jews, Muslims and Christians, from Jordan in the 1967 war. In a position that has wide international backing, Palestinians want the territory for their future state, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem as their capital.
Israel annexed east Jerusalem — a move that is not recognized internationally — and maintains a nearly 50-year military occupation of the West Bank.
Since that time, some 120 settlements have been erected in the West Bank, now home to about 400,000 people. Some 200,000 Israelis live in east Jerusalem. Israel considers both sides of the city part of its eternal, undivided capital.
The Palestinians, along with most of the international community, view Israel’s settlements in the West Bank as illegal or illegitimate. They say the increasing number of settlers make it increasingly difficult to establish their own state in these territories and raise questions about Israel’s seriousness about ending its occupation.
Netanyahu has endorsed the idea of a two-state solution, but has given no details on his vision of a final border arrangement while continuing to build. He says settlements and other core issues at the heart of the conflict, like security arrangements, should be resolved in negotiations.
U.S.-negotiated peace talks collapsed over two years ago, in part over the issue of settlements.
When I read histories on occupation it is a sovereign country controlling ano th er one against its will. There had never been a Palestinian sovereign entity. Name one president or parry before the “occupatuon”
Even the Jordanians who controlled Judea and samaria, the west bank of Jordan, did not recognize and ny sovereign Palestinian nation or help set one up while under “Jordanian occupation”
when will the Russians leave Koningsberg now known as Kaliningrad, NEVER ! bec. they relocated the Germans to Siberia, while the Jews let the so called Palestinians breed.
The world is completely misguided because Jordan, originally Palestine with about 75% of its population of Palestinian descent, is Palestine, period!
The Jordanians don’t like it but that’s the truth, pure and simple.
The Palestinians can’t expect two countries, now!
Israel must build at least 100,000 housing units per year in Judea and Samaria for the next 10 years and more. It also needs to build 3 secure superhighway connecting Judea and Samaria to Israel.
Construct extensive military bases in Judea and Samaria to protect the people and the country.
Israel also needs to build at least 50,000 housing units per year in greater Jerusalem. Open Atarot airport and a high tech center and more industry, and build many additional roads and secure highways in and from Jerusalem with expanded rail system.
Israel must also build a minimum of 10,000 housing units in the Galil and 10,000 housing units in the Negev every year for the next ten years and expand the infrastructure, roads and highways. They have to expand industry and commerce to enhance the desire of people to live in the Galil and the Negev.
Construct military bases and local agencies in Judea and Samaria to protect and help the people and the country.
YJ Draiman
P.S. The Arabs have already an Arab Palestinian state which is on Jewish land over three times the size of Israel, east of the Jordan River; it is called Jordan where 80% of the population are Arab Palestinians and the Arabs
The Arabs have already an Arab Palestinian state which is on Jewish land over three times the size of Israel, east of the Jordan River; it is called Jordan where 80% of the population are Arab Palestinians and the Arabs in Judea and Samaria have a Jordanian passport.
Oslo accords are null and void. Israel must dismantle the Arab PA and include Judea and Samaria as a continuous part of Israel. Transfer Arab population to Jordan, Gaza and to the homes and the over 120,000 sq. km. the Arab countries confiscated from the Million Jewish families they expelled who now reside in Israel.