Palestinians protest settler activity

JERUSALEM —  Jewish settlers have established a new West Bank community and expanded an existing one, drawing a protest Wednesday from Palestinian leaders who say the activity is hindering peace talks with Israel.

Israeli officials said both initiatives were illegal and undermined Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s pledge to President Bush and the Palestinians for a freeze on most settlement activity. But it was unclear whether Olmert’s government would evict the 37 Jewish families involved.

In one case, 27 prefabricated homes have been assembled in Eli, a previously existing settlement about 10 miles north of Ramallah, and are being connected to the community’s water and power lines.

The activity began last month and was first reported Wednesday in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Jews have occupied 10 additional homes in Maskiot in the Jordan Valley, Israel’s Channel One television reported last week. More than a year ago Israel had approved, and then revoked, plans to build 30 homes there, but construction went ahead in recent weeks without government approval.

Palestinians seek the entire West Bank as part of an independent state and are demanding the removal of all Jewish settlements, whose existence most countries consider a violation of international law.

The new settler activity is far from Jerusalem. Olmert is permitting housing construction in East Jerusalem and nearby West Bank settlements that Israel expects to keep under a final peace accord.

With the exception of those sites, the Israeli leader “clearly reiterates his principles: no new settlements, no outward expansion of existing settlements,” his spokesman, Mark Regev, said Wednesday.

Capt. Tzidki Maman, a spokesman for the Israeli military’s civil administration in the West Bank, said it was examining ways to deal with the unauthorized construction in Eli and had issued orders to tear down the illegally built homes in Maskiot.

But he added that any move to evict settlers would depend on a decision from the Israeli political leadership.

Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian negotiator, denounced the settlement activity at a news conference Wednesday in Ramallah.

“To continue with settlements in this way will destroy the credibility of the peace process,” he said. While the two sides have been discussing the central issues of the conflict for the last two months, he added, “the situation on the ground is deteriorating.”

The talks were launched at a U.S.-sponsored peace conference in Annapolis, Md., in November, with the goal of reaching an accord before Bush leaves office in January. Under pledges made at Annapolis, Israel is supposed to halt settlement building and the Palestinians are supposed to rein in militants who attack Israel.

Erekat said the Palestinians “are doing everything we can to end lawlessness.” He said Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was asking Israel and the United States to begin three-way meetings with an American mediator who, under an agreement at Annapolis, is in charge of investigating complaints about noncompliance with these pledges.

Regev, the Israeli spokesman, said Israel was open to such meetings.

Olmert and Abbas met Tuesday and agreed to intensify the work of their negotiating teams, amid rising frustration among Palestinians over the results so far.

Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian Authority prime minister appointed by Abbas, said in a speech Tuesday that “not enough has happened” since the Annapolis meeting to suggest that “a treaty per se is going to be possible by the end of 2008.”

On Wednesday, a member of Abbas’ negotiating team, Yasser Abed-Rabbo, said Palestinians should unilaterally declare an independent state unless Israel curbs settlement activity and moves “in the direction of continuous and serious negotiations.”

Noting Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia this week, he added, “Kosovo is not better than Palestine. If the whole world, the United States, the European Union, the majority of its states, have embraced Kosovo, why shouldn’t this happen with Palestine as well?”

Abbas dismissed the proposal as premature and pledged to keep negotiating till the end of the year.

Erekat told reporters, “We are not Kosovo. We do not have an international force. We are under Israeli occupation, and independence will come only through Israeli withdrawal. We are trying to achieve this through negotiations.”

But he added, “The Palestinian leadership is studying all ideas.”

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boudreaux@latimes.com

Special correspondent Maher Abukhater in Ramallah contributed to this report.