Settlement issue hinders talks

Construction puts Palestinians, Israelis at odds

An Israeli army bulldozer destroyed a Palestinian house in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Atur last week. (AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP/Getty Images)

GIVAT ZEEV, West Bank - Under a scorching May sun, workers chip away at a cliff that will soon yield to a settlement for ultra-Orthodox Jews.

A few miles away, Jewish families prepare to move into new homes with sweeping views of a verdant West Bank valley. And in an East Jerusalem neighborhood that has long been a heart of Palestinian life, settlers are figuring out how to transform a former police station into a new community.

Despite Israeli commitments to end settlement expansion, both planning and construction are moving forward every day across the West Bank and East Jerusalem. In the six months since negotiations resumed between Israel and the Palestinians, settlements have remained a sore point.

To Palestinians, the expansion of settlements represents proof that Israel is not serious about wanting a deal. Palestinian Authority leaders say settlement construction undermines their position of talking with Israel, rather than fighting it, and gives ammunition to extremists.

"We're becoming the joke of the town because of these settlement activities," said Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian negotiator.

But to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel and his allies, the construction is simply a matter of the Jewish state putting to good use land it will inevitably control under a future agreement.

Olmert's spokesman, Mark Regev, said that since the Annapolis, Md., conference in November that relaunched the peace talks, Olmert has not allowed any new construction in the West Bank without his personal authorization, and he has been judicious in what he has approved.

"This government has done more than any previous Israeli government to bring under control unchecked growth in the settlements," Regev said.

In trying to strike a balance, however, Olmert has won few friends. Palestinian leaders and international observers criticize Israel for allowing the construction to continue, despite an Israeli pledge in the 2003 "road map" to peace to halt all settlement activity.

The settlers themselves, meanwhile, have cursed the prime minister for making it harder for them to build.

In Givat Zeev, a settlement just northwest of Jerusalem, 750 new apartments are rising on a hillside enclave that sits a mile from the existing settlement. Standing on the construction site, Givat Zeev's current houses appear as little more than a collection of tiny red roofs on a distant horizon.

A sign at the entrance to the site welcomes visitors to the "New Upper" Givat Zeev and promises "exclusive apartments with high building standards." It also guarantees that the company doing the work is one that "observes the Sabbath."

That's important, because unlike Givat Zeev's current residents, many of whom are secular, the new community is reserved for the ultra-Orthodox - the fastest growing segment of Israel's population.

In Betar Illit, an ultra-Orthodox settlement on Jerusalem's outskirts, Mayor Meir Rubinstein said he can hardly keep up with his city's growth.

"The last time I counted, we have 39,000 people here. Maybe now it's 40,000 or 41,000," he said.

"Every day in Betar, a few more are born." Several new apartment buildings are going up on the city's outskirts, and there are more to come: Olmert has promised one of his coalition partners, the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, that there will soon be 800 more housing units in Betar Illit. Final approval was being withheld until after President Bush's recent visit to Israel.

Miriam and Chaim Levi, along with their four children, are among those moving into the new development. "It's expensive to live in Jerusalem," said Chaim Levi.

"In Betar Illit you can find an apartment at a reasonable price. And there's no reason why we shouldn't live here."