UPDATE: Israel Supposedly to Open Settlement Freeze

By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

 
JERUSALEM, Israel/West Bank – Israeli officials have signaled they would be open to a three- to six-month halt to settlement expansion as part of a U.S.-backed peace deal with the Palestinians.

While such a sentiment has widely been hailed as progress, it falls short of what the U.S. Obama Administration had called for. Such a freeze would not include any construction already underway, nor expansion in East Jerusalem, according to Israeli officials speaking in advance of the meeting between Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and U.S. envoy George Mitchell at the end of June. Ehud Barak refused to publically address the possibility of a temporary freeze ahead of his meeting, but said that the issue of settlements is merely one among many to be addressed in the peace process.

Members of the international community continue to call for a complete halt to settlement expansion in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. On July 6, the executive arm of the European Union (EU) renewed its condemnation of Israeli settlements, saying that continued Israeli expansion is strangling the fledgling Palestinian economy, stunting Palestinian independence and forcing the Palestinian Authority to rely on foreign aid. In addition to the cost to Palestinians, the EU said that European taxpayers had paid approximately 280 million U.S. dollars so far this year in aid to the Palestinian Authority.

For more information, please see:

Ma’an News Agency – European Commission: Settlements Strangling Palestinian Economy– 6 July 2009

Ha’aretz – Barak: Progress in Talks with U.S. Over Settlements, But Still a Way to Go– 30 June 2009

New York Times – Israel Said to be Open to Settlement Freeze– 28 June 2009

Author: Impunity Watch Archive