Nazir Majally, Asharq Al-Awsat

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 3 October 2003 — Israel will build over 600 new homes in Jewish settlements. The announcement came a day after the Jewish state approved an expansion of a fence in the West Bank.

The government published tenders for a series of building projects planned for three West Bank settlements on occupied land in defiance of the US-backed road map that calls for a halt to construction at settlements.

The plan calls for 604 new units — 50 in Maale Adumim, 530 in Beitar Illit and 24 in Ariel, a sprawling enclave of 18,000 near the West Bank city of Nablus.

Housing Ministry spokesman Koby Bleich said the plan was part of “a government policy by which we are to advance and develop communities in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) in accordance with needs and natural growth.”

The international community views all Jewish settlements on occupied territory as illegal.

American reaction to Tel Aviv’s latest moves was mild.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States has “concerns” about Israeli settlement activities.

“The president continues to believe that the fence presents a problem,” Powell told reporters in Washington. “We also have concerns about continuing settlement activity on the part of the Israelis.”

France said it would “without delay” hold talks with its EU partners, Russia, the United Nations and the United States on the consequences of Israel’s decision to build new fences.

“France will coordinate without delay with its European partners and the members of the Quartet to examine the consequences that can be surmised from the decisions announced yesterday about the dividing wall,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Herve Ladsous told reporters in Paris.

He noted that “the inadmissible character of acquiring land by force is a fundamental principle in Resolution 242 of the Security Council upon which the peace process is based.”

Palestinians were outraged.

“This is evidence that the road map has been fully assassinated by an Israeli policy of settlement expansion, to which the United States is a witness,” Palestinian Cabinet member Yasser Abed Rabbo said

Palestinian anger had already been stoked by the Israeli plans for the next phase in a 350-km (210-mile) network of electric fences and concrete walls that cuts deep into the West Bank.

“Israel is pursuing its crimes by expanding this racist and Nazi wall that expropriates our land,” Palestinian President Yasser Arafat told reporters in Ramallah.

He accused Israel of “sabotaging and destroying the peace process” and appealed to the Quartet to stop Israel from going ahead with the project. Palestinians were alarmed at Israel’s estimate that new sections of the barrier would leave towns and villages with 60,000 inhabitants on the Israeli side, making it difficult for them to reach other parts of the West Bank.