MIDDLE EAST: The Israeli government yesterday published tenders for the construction of 323 homes in two settlements in the West Bank, in another blow to the ailing road map plan for Mideast peace. The move was met with immediate Palestinian condemnation.
The Housing Ministry said tenders had been issued for the building of 143 apartments in the settlement of Karnei Shomron, deep in the northern West Bank, and 180 units in Givat Zeev, just north of Jerusalem.
"The Housing Ministry builds all over Israel, including the West Bank," said ministry spokesman Mr Kobi Bleich. "This tender is in line with a decision taken by the government of Israel."
The right-wing government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has continued to build in the territories, despite a clause in the first phase of the road map that requires Israel to freeze all settlement construction, including that meant to meet the needs of natural growth.
But Israeli leaders, who often justify continued settlement building on the grounds of natural growth, have said that the Palestinian Authority must first crack down on militants - also a stipulation in the first phase of the road map, which the Palestinians have not fulfilled - before they are prepared to continue implementing the US-backed plan.
Some members of Mr Sharon's government, such as Housing Minister Mr Effie Eitam, believe settlement construction is not just a security imperative but also a religious one - that the West Bank is part of Biblical Israel, promised by God to the Jews.
But Interior Minister Mr Avraham Poraz of the centrist Shinui party called the publication of the tenders an "absolute mistake" that would propel Israel into a "confrontation with the Americans and the entire world".
The extra-parliamentary Israeli group Peace Now, which monitors settlement construction and views it a major impediment to a peace agreement, said that, since the beginning of the year, the government had published tenders for the building of 1,627 homes in the settlements.
"Even as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon continues to pay lip service to the adoption of the road map, on the ground the government continues to build in the territories and disregards all their commitments on this issue," the group said.
The Palestinians, who view settlements as gobbling up the land on which they hope to create a future state, called for US intervention. Senior Palestinian Authority official Mr Saeb Erekat said the tenders were "a reflection that this Israeli government has chosen the path of settlements and dictation rather than peace and negotiation."
He urged the Bush administration "to stop this policy, because this is obstacle number one to peace."
In the Tul Karm refugee camp in the West Bank, meanwhile, masked militants belonging to the radical Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades yesterday executed two Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel and then displayed their bodies in the camp's central square.