TÁNAISTE AND Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore has condemned Israel’s recent announcement of plans for a new settlement in a strategic district of east Jerusalem.
The proposed Givat Hamatos development of 2,600 apartments would complete a Jewish band around a part of Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, serving to complicate any future partition of the city, which Palestinians wish to become the capital of a future state.
Givat Hamatos would be the first new Jewish settlement to be built in east Jerusalem since work on the Har Homa enclave was started in 1997.
Mr Gilmore, echoing criticism by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, said he was “deeply disturbed” by the plan and called for Israel to reverse what he described as a “harmful” decision.
“At a time when international efforts are focused on trying to restart peace talks, and the Quartet has specifically called for a halt to provocative actions, Israel has made a series of announcements of settlement construction in sensitive areas. The effect of these decisions is to undermine international efforts to secure the resumption of negotiations,” he said.
“Settlements are illegal under international law. They are also a major factor blocking the prospects for a negotiated peace based on a two-state solution, an outcome which is in the interests of both Israelis and Palestinians.”
Mr Gilmore added he was also concerned by reports the Israeli government had established a taskforce to examine means to legalise settlement outposts which have been constructed on Palestinian land.
“These are outposts which are illegal under Israeli law and which Israel has many times pledged to remove,” he said.