This will help the Peace Process no end(From the ABC)Olmert...

This will help the Peace Process no end
(From the ABC)

Olmert approves homes for West Bank settlement

Posted 6 hours 0 minutes ago

Israel has announced plans to build up to 750 new homes in a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, near Jerusalem, in a move likely to complicate its US-brokered peace talks with the Palestinians.

Government officials said the housing units would be erected in the settlement of Givat Ze'ev.

The announcement was made three days after a Palestinian gunman killed eight students at a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem associated with the settler movement.

Israel Radio said the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, a key partner in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's coalition, had threatened to bolt the Government unless the construction was approved.

Eran Sidis, a spokesman for Israeli Housing Minister Ze'ev Boim, said the decision was taken after consultations with Mr Olmert, who has barred ministries from ordering new Israeli construction in the West Bank without his approval.

Mr Sidis said a plan to build 750 housing units in Givat Ze'ev, some 8 kilometres from central Jerusalem, was approved in 1999 but suspended two years later after the start of a Palestinian uprising led to a shortage of construction workers.

The current plan calls for building 200 units initially and another 550 in the future, Mr Sidis said.

"The renewal of the (project) is important news," Mr Boim said in a statement issued by his office.

"The addition of hundreds of housing units is part of a policy aimed at meeting demand and keeping prices level, while addressing the demographic needs of Jerusalem."

Israel has said it intends to keep Givat Ze'ev, home to about 10,000 Israelis, in any future peace agreement with the Palestinians.

It also wants to retain several other major settlement enclaves in the West Bank, which Palestinians hope to make part of a future state.

Restrictions
Mr Olmert's restrictions on building in West Bank settlements did not apply to areas Israel defines as part of Jerusalem, whose municipal boundaries it widened after capturing Arab East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war.

Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem has not been recognised internationally.

The issue of settlement building is particularly sensitive. Palestinians suspended peace talks with Israel in December after it announced plans to build hundreds of homes on occupied land at Har Homa, near Jerusalem.

Palestinians refer to the site as Jabal Abu Ghneim.

The negotiations were again suspended by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas last week, after an Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip killed more than 120 Palestinians, about half of whom were identified as civilians.

Israel said the aim of the five-day assault that ended last Monday was to curb rocket fire from the territory.

Mr Abbas agreed to resumed the talks following a visit by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The negotiations were expected to get under way later this week.

- Reuters