MIDDLE EAST:CONTROVERSIAL PLANS for the first new settlement to be built in the occupied West Bank in almost a decade have been revived by Israel's defence ministry, despite calls by the international community for a freeze on construction, which is illegal under international law.
A key planning committee at the ministry has approved a plan to build 20 homes in a new settlement in the Jordan valley to be called Maskiot.
The defence minister, Ehud Barak, has not yet given his approval, although Israeli reports yesterday suggested the plan would go ahead soon.
The decision comes in the same week as two high-profile visits to Israel by Gordon Brown and Barack Obama, who both talked about the importance of a two-state solution to end the Middle East conflict.
All settlements in occupied territory are illegal under international law and Palestinian officials were quick to criticise the proposal.
"This is destroying the process of a two-state solution," said Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian negotiator. "I hope the Americans will make the Israelis revoke the decision. I think they can make the Israelis do this."
The US road map, which is the basis of the current peace talks, calls for a freeze on all settlement activity, but Israel has defended its recent decisions to press ahead with construction in East Jerusalem and in West Bank settlements that it believes will become part of Israel in any peace deal.
However, the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, has promised not to build new settlements.
Yesterday his spokesman, Mark Regev, said: "Israel will continue to honour our commitments. There will be no new settlements, there will be no expansion of existing settlements and there will be no expropriation of land for settlement construction."
The spokesman added that neither Mr Barak nor the prime minister had approved the plan.
It is not the first plan for a Maskiot settlement. Israel said two years ago that it planned to build Maskiot but the plan was frozen under the then defence minister, Amir Peretz, after international disapproval.
Maskiot began as a military position. Then a religious school was established and this year several families arrived in mobile homes at the site. The families are mostly religious Jewish settlers who were withdrawn from settlements in Gaza in 2005.
Yariv Oppenheimer, head of the Israeli group Peace Now, said the growing pressure on the government from the settler movement often appeared to outweigh international pressure against the expansion of settlements.
"I think it is very disappointing," he said. "It is paving the way to a one-state solution.
"We are afraid eventually that if there will be a peace treaty, there will be so many settlements it will not be possible to implement it."
- (Guardian service)