Israel Accelerates West Bank Settlements Despite Peace Talks

Israel has nearly doubled the number of homes under construction in Jewish settlements in the West Bank this year despite continuing negotiations with the Palestinians for a peace agreement, according to a new report published yesterday.

Peace Now, an Israeli organization, said the housing ministry had begun work on 433 new housing units between January and May this year, compared with 240 in the same period last year. Its findings were based on figures from Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics.

In total, the group said more than 1,000 new buildings, representing 2,600 housing units, were under construction in settlements, with 55% of them east of the vast concrete and steel barrier Israel has built in and along the West Bank.

The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, who arrived in Israel on Monday for another round of talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, again criticized settlement activity. Under the Washington-backed road map, Israel is to freeze all construction in the settlements. Settlements on occupied land are illegal under international law. "I have said it to my Israeli counterparts, that I don't think that settlement activity is helpful," Rice said.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders have so far failed to reach any agreement despite regular talks, which began with the newly relaunched peace process in Annapolis, US, last November.

Tzipi Livni, the Israeli foreign minister, said, at a joint press conference with Rice yesterday, that the peace process would "not be affected" by settlement activity.

"The role of the leaders is to try to find a way to live in peace in the future and not to let any kind of noises that relate to the situation on the ground these days to enter the negotiation room," said Livni.

"But at the end of the day the Israeli government's policy is not to expand settlements, not to build new settlements and not to confiscate Palestinian land."

She added that settlement activity had "reduced in the most dramatic way", particularly east of the barrier.