The United States challenged Israel on Tuesday to explain why it planned to allocate hundreds of millions of dollars extra to support Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza in defiance of US criticism, reported Reuters.
The US statement came as Palestinian gunmen killed a Jewish settler on Tuesday and at least 19 Palestinians were hurt in new violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a day after a four-month-old baby was killed by Israeli gunfire.
A 17-year-old Palestinian died of wounds sustained on Friday, when Israeli soldiers fired at rock-throwers in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials said.
The Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz said on Sunday that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wanted to increase state support for the settlements by 1.5 billion shekels ($360 million).
"The Israeli government is allocating resources for a wide range of settlement activities, including construction of additional housing units and infrastructure," State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said.
"We question why Israel would be allocating more money for settlements at this time," he added.
"This activity risks further inflaming the already volatile situation in the region and is provocative."
Construction of settlements is one of the Palestinians' main grievances, and the United States has repeatedly criticized the settlement activity as provocative.
A fact-finding commission chaired by former US Sen. George Mitchell, in a report published this month, recommended that Israel stop work on settlements as part of a move back toward peace talks with the Palestinians, said the agency.
Diplomatic sources were quoted by Reuters as saying Israel's settlement activities were emerging as an issue of increasing importance in relations between Israel and the United States, its main ally.
DEFIANTLY, SHARON VISITS MAALE ADUMIM
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon followed up his rejection of the US-led committee's call for a freeze in Jewish settlement construction by visiting the largest one on Tuesday, said Reuters.
"You not only live in the prettiest place, you live in a place of the highest importance to the security and the future of the state of Israel," the right-wing leader told flag-waving children in the Maale Adumim settlement near Jerusalem.
"I had the honor...of initiating the building of this city," Sharon said of Maale Adumim, home to 25,000 Israelis and the largest Jewish settlement in the West Bank or Gaza Strip.
"(It is) located in one of the most important places in the State of Israel as a bridge between the capital of Israel, Jerusalem...and our eastern security zone, the Jordan Valley," said Sharon, a long-time champion of settlement-building.
Later, outside Sharon's Jerusalem residence, hundreds of West Bank settlers held a demonstration to demand he make good on a campaign promise to restore security to Israelis in the face of a Palestinian uprising that began in September, added the agency.
It was the largest protest against Sharon by fellow right-wingers since his election in February.
"You didn't keep your promise," read one banner.
Prior to his visit to Maale Adumim, Sharon reaffirmed his objection to a settlement freeze in remarks to the Foreign Press Association.
"We don't have to pay in order not to be killed. We will not pay protection money," Sharon said in his remarks to the foreign correspondents.
He said Israel had no intention of building new settlements, but would allow existing ones to expand in accordance with the natural growth of their population -- a distinction Palestinians reject.
Some 200,000 Jews live in 145 settlements scattered among three million Palestinians on lands occupied in the 1967 Middle East war. The settlements are illegal under international law, but settlers say they have a Divine right to live anywhere in the biblical Land of Israel, according to the agency.
"(We) are crossing our fingers for you in your difficult mission assigned to you...We trust you," a small girl told Sharon in Maale Adumim.
SHARON PREPARES PLAN TO ALLOW ISRAELIS IN AL AQSA MOSQUE
Al Jazeera reported that Sharon has given the green light for Israelis to enter Al Aqsa Mosque, the site for the first scene of the Intifada when Sharon’s visit to the holy place provoked the mass uprising last September.
The station quoted Israeli sources as saying the hawkish leader was responding to pressures from Orthodox Jews who urge him to declare a state of war against the Palestinians.
Islamic awqaf officials warned that such a decision will mean more unrest.
“It is not a simple issue,” director of Jerusalem awqaf (religious endowmnt) Adnan Husseini told the station, warning that the Palestinians will not stand helpless while their third holiest shrine is being defiled.
IMAN’S FUNERAL
During the funeral of the four-month-old Iman Hijjo, thousands of mourners demonstrated against the crime. Shots were fired in the air.
In Lebanon, hundreds of Palestinian children also demonstrated against Iman’s death, said Al Jazeera TV.
"The killing of my baby will remain as a stigma on the face of Israel and the international community," said her father Mohammed, a policeman wounded in clashes five months ago. He collapsed to the ground during the funeral proceedings, said Reuters.
The father said the murder was not Sharon’s only crime, and will not be the last.
Iman was the youngest victim of the conflict so far.
AHMAD JIBRIL SAYS WEAPONS SHIPMENT WAS HIS GROUP’S BUSINESS
After Israel announced the seizure of a weapons-laden boat heading to Gaza, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC) Ahamd Jibril admitted in a statement to Al Jazeera that the shipment was part of his Damascus-based group operations “to support Palestinians with all the weapons they need in their struggle against Israel.”
The Israeli navy had said the dissident pro-Syrian Palestinian group had intended to step up attacks on Israel by smuggling Katyusha rockets, rocket-propelled grenades, mines and anti-aircraft missiles by ship into Gaza.
Explosive materials, mortars and Kalashnikov assault rifles were also found on the ship when it was seized off northern Israel's Mediterranean coast, it said.
"The sender, as far as we can tell... is the Jebril organization," Navy Commander Major General Yadidiah Ya'ari said.
But Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo denied the Palestinian Authority or the Palestine Liberation Organization were involved in the arms shipment, Haaretz quoted him as saying.
"We are not responsible for his actions and anyway, (Ahmed) Jibril is hostile and a rival to the Palestinian Authority and the PLO," Abed Rabbo said
Sharon had told reporters the same day that the ship, Santorini, had succeeded three times in bringing weapon shipments to the Gaza Strip.
According to him, there are already Katyushas in Gaza.
The Israeli media quoted defense sources as confirming there are already Katyushas in the West Bank.
Sharon added this is a dangerous development and severe violation to the accords on the part of the PNA.
Sharon announced that information on the fourth trip of Santorini are based on interrogation with one of its arrested crew member
His Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer pointed an accusing finger at what he called Palestinian preparations for war, said the Israeli paper.
"This matter makes a laughing stock of all the agreements and all the promises and everything (the Palestinians) have committed to. As we say every day, 'Come back to the negotiating table', they are organizing for war.
"That is escalation... (It) doesn't leave room for doubt where they are heading," he told the paper.
Al Jazeera, meanwhile, cited Lebanese officials as denying the shipment was launched from their territories.
'HASAN QADI BRIGADES' CLAIM RESPONSIBILITY FOR SETTLER'S KILLING IN WEST BANK
A previously unknown group called the 'Hassan Qadi Brigades' claimed responsibility Tuesday for killing the Jewish settler overnight near the settlement of Itamar in the West Bank, reported the Jerusalem Post newspaper.
The paper said that the group was a faction of Fateh movement.
The group said the killing was in revenge for "Israel's assassination of Hassan Qadi last week in Ramallah."
Settler Aryeh Orlando was shot dead while he was guarding empty caravans near Itamar.
Israeli security forces said they found footprints leading to a nearby Palestinian village, according to the paper.
The Itamar outpost was one of dozens set up by settlers in the West Bank in the months after the government of Benjamin Netanyahu signed the Wye agreement in October 1998 with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
PERES: MITCHELL’S REPORT CAN BE BASIS FOR PEACE TALKS
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Tuesday that a four-step plan for resuming peace talks in the Middle East proposed by former US senator George Mitchell could be a basis for ending 'violence' in the region, reported Reuters.
Sounding more positive on the report by Mitchell's committee than Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Peres told a news conference in Berlin that Israel would try to implement its findings.
"There is the Mitchell report, which suggests a sequence, how to do it in four steps," Peres said, describing these as ending the violence, taking confidence-building measures, allowing a cooling-off period, and returning to negotiations.
"We accept it. We are trying to realize it," Peres said.
"We are trying to bring an end to the shooting because under fire it is difficult to conduct negotiations.
"Maybe we can really reach an understanding based on the Mitchell report, on most of its consequences, and even many of the items in the Jordanian-Egyptian proposal," he added, referring to recommendations made by the two Arab nations.
"It's very complicated," Peres said, speaking in English.
"The psychological mistrust is deep and growing, but in spite of it, we did not lose hope and we shall continue to work for peace."
Peres, who was attending a conference of European Socialist Democrats in Berlin, said the government was seeking a solution to the problem of the growth of existing settlements after its decision to stop the building of new settlements, said Reuters – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
