Brussels, 04/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton said she was “pleased” to have been visiting the Middle East at this critical time when the possibility of the breakdown of the face-to-face negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians looms large. Ashton travelled to the Middle East directly from the United States where she called for the EU to have more of a role in current diplomatic efforts in discussions specifically on this issue with her US counterpart Hillary Clinton in New York on 29 September. She highlighted the new European approach which will link diplomatic action, development and humanitarian aid more closely under a “conflict prevention” policy already operating in Africa and also the Middle East.
On 2 October, Ashton once again called on Israel to extend the moratorium of settlement building, a key Palestinian demand. “The position of the president of the Palestinian Authority is clear: no negotiations under the shadow of settlement construction.” Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, said: “The whole world is calling on Netanyahu to stop the settlement building, and his reply to the world is that Israel is above the law. … If things continue like this and, before beginning negotiations on a definitive status, the United States says it cannot put pressure on Israel and if no one can stand up to Israel and tell it to stop the settlements, then what is the point of the negotiations?”
Ashton said that the EU would “continue to offer whatever support we can so the talks continue and a comprehensive and sustainable solution is found, with the state of Israel and the state of Palestine living side by side in peace and security”. She said no more on what had been achieved by her visit, the exact purpose of which is perhaps not clear. She said that she had had “a positive and constructive dialogue with President Abbas, Prime Minister Netanyahu, Prime Minister Fayyad and Senator Mitchell”. It would seem, however, that the main reason for her visit was to reassure the Palestinians that EU financial and technical support for the Palestinian Authority and its prime minister Salem Fayyad, to who she gave the warmest praise, would continue. She repeated that the EU was ready to provide aid and expertise in building a future Palestinian state: “We wish Prime Minister Fayyad every success in his work. Palestinian statehood is critical for any peaceful, workable and lasting solution. Political and financial support from the international community is essential. I urge those who have made financial commitments to deliver on their promises”. The Palestinian Authority needs half a billion dollars to balance this year's budget, Fayyad said in New York last Monday, prior to the donor countries meeting.
Ashton repeated, too, that Gaza was never far from her mind and she called for the crossings to be opened to enable trade. “My discussions with the Palestinian Authority have also focused on how we can support exports to allow the people of Gaza to gain a greater stake in their economy and their future,” she added.
The same day, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), which brings together all Palestinian factions (with the present exception of Hamas), called to a meeting in Ramallah by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, decided not to return to the negotiating table with Israel until Israeli settlement construction is halted. This stance remains, however, to be confirmed. Abbas intends to put the final decision to his Arab peers. A meeting of the Arab League foreign ministers has been announced for 6 October in Cairo, but the latest information would suggest that the meeting will be postponed and reconvened in Sirt, Libya on 8 October. Egypt has already come out against the suspension of talks.
Unbridled settlement building: between figures and reality - Israeli Organisation “Peace Now” published an update on settlement building on which negotiations and appreciation of the situation on the ground are concentrated. Its main findings: with the end of the moratorium on the construction of settlements, some 13,000 homes could be built without further government permission, including 2,000 immediately.
The report states that at least 2,066 homes are ready to be built in settlements as soon as the freeze ends. These are projects where work to put in services has begun and building permits already delivered. It would appear that there are around 100 homes ready to be built as soon as the freeze ends but on which work has yet to begin and for which no information is available. Future construction of at least 11,000 additional homes is possible without further government permission. Settlers can already begin building according to the report. This means that, if the government decided on a de facto freeze, 13,000 homes could still be built, including 5,000 in isolated, distant settlement east to the security fence.
Other types of construction are possible in the future, but require a further government decision: the construction of around 25,000 homes is in plans already passed, but needing a government decision to be completed, the report says. For its report, Peace Now used direct counting and also counting of building permits approved by local authorities, though this latter type of information may only be partial. Most settlements, Peace Now says, do not publish information on issued or approved building permits. In Ariel, building permits were recently approved for 136 new homes. There is nothing, however, to be seen on the ground as the work has yet to begin. Peace Now believes that several hundred building permits have recently been approved by local authorities (which do not publish these permits). In some cases, the information is published in the form of notification for construction sector professionals. (F.B./transl.rt)