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| By Associated Press March 24, 2005 |
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| Maaleh Adumim: a city not a "settlement" (AP) |
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A senior Palestinian official said Thursday he will ask visiting U.S. envoys to help block the expansion of the largest Jewish settlement in the West Bank, warning that the planned construction would cut off east Jerusalem -- the Palestinians' intended capital -- from territory they seek for a future state.
The envoys, National Security Council official Elliott Abrams and David Welch, assistant secretary of state for the Near East, asked Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Wednesday about the planned expansion of the Maaleh Adumim settlement, located five kilometers (three miles) east of Jerusalem. Israel plans to build 3,500 more homes in Maaleh Adumim, driving a wedge between east Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said the Maaleh Adumim expansion would top his agenda talks later Thursday with Abrams and Welch. "The most important thing at this stage is to ... stop settlement activities," Erekat said.
U.S. State Department officials have said the envoys were seeking clarifications from Israel on the expansion plans -- language that implies criticism.
Israeli lawmakers said Wednesday that Sharon's government has revived an old plan to build 3,500 new housing units around Maaleh Adumim to encircle traditionally Arab east Jerusalem with Jewish neighborhoods.
Palestinians object to any Israeli construction in the West Bank and warn that this could kill chances for peace by preventing creation of a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital. Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital.
The U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan requires Israel to halt all construction in the settlements, while demanding that the Palestinians dismantle violent groups responsible for attacks against Israelis.
Neither side has fulfilled these initial obligations, and the plan has foundered since it was presented in 2003. The plan is also supported by the United Nations, European Union and Russia.
The U.S. envoys met earlier Wednesday with Vice Premier Shimon Peres, leader of the moderate Labor Party, but an official in Peres' office said the envoys did not bring up the issue of the planned Maale Adumim expansion.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Peres opposes implementation of the construction plan now, when there is a chance to resume negotiations with the Palestinians.Peres said the plan originated with the Labor Party a decade ago, but that this is not the time to carry it out.
Menachem Klein, an expert on Jerusalem affairs and adviser to the Israeli negotiating team at the failed Camp David peace talks in 2000, said the plan, known as E-1, calls for building houses on the last stretch of empty land between east Jerusalem and the West Bank, completing the ring of Jewish neighborhoods around east Jerusalem.
This would be enhanced by a barrier Israel is building around the city, isolating the Arab areas, he said. Israel says the barrier is necessary to keep out Palestinian attackers. Israel has said that the barrier would include Maale Adumim on the "Israeli" side.
Erekat criticized the plan as an attempt to "seal off" east Jerusalem.
"They want to determine the fate of Jerusalem before the negotiations on Jerusalem begin. I hope they (the Americans) will continue opposing it," he said.
Khalil Tofakji, head of the Palestinian Cartography Center, said that in 1997, the Israeli military confiscated more than 3,000 acres (1,200 hectares) of land from Palestinian villages for the construction. "The Israelis are expanding Jerusalem in a way that annexes more territory in the east," he said.
Labor lawmaker Yuli Tamir said she first began hearing of the revival of the E-1 plan a few weeks ago. "There is a feeling in the government that while the world is focused on Gaza, it is possible to build in the West Bank," she said.
Sharon plans to evacuate all 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and four in the West Bank over the summer.
Last year during talks with U.S. President George W. Bush, Sharon won support for keeping some large West Bank settlement blocs in an eventual peace deal.
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