Haaretz
Washington rejects Israel's list of illegal outposts
Date: 10-31-04
By Aluf Benn
The United States administration rejected on Sunday the list of unauthorized outposts in the West Bank presented by the Defense Ministry four months ago, calling it unsatisfactory.
Israel had listed 23 outposts established since Sharon's government assumed office in March 2001. The Americans believe the number of outposts built during that period is much higher.
Israel and the U.S. are now waiting for the report by Attorney Talia Sasson and the defense minister's advisor, Baruch Spiegel, on the ways outposts were set up and the legal means to get rid of them. The report, which will be presented to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in the next few weeks, is expected to cause Israel a great deal of embarrassment, as it exposes the ways in which cabinet ministries and local authorities helped large-scale activities of illegal construction.
The Sasson report is also expected to present a clearer picture of the number of outposts as a basis for continued negotiations with the U.S. Evacuating unauthorized outposts that popped up during the Sharon period is one of the four commitments Sharon made to U.S. President George Bush in the letter of his former bureau chief Dov Weisglass to the White House's National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice on April 14.
Israel has also undertaken to mark the boundaries of each settlement, beyond which construction would be prohibited, to remove roadblocks and movement obstructions from the roads in the territories and to revoke seizures on Palestinian Authority funds that were confiscated by Israeli courts.
Since April the White House has demanded and received more than 20 follow-up reports from the American embassy in Tel Aviv. According to Washington, Israel has totally failed to keep its promises to demarcate the settlements and evacuate the outposts, but has removed roadblocks and obstructions and made efforts to intervene to release PA funds.
Israel promised the U.S. in May 2003 that the building in the settlements would continue only within their existing construction lines. The promise followed the Americans' demand not to take over any more lands in the West Bank for building purposes in order to leave land reserves for a future Palestinian state.
Limiting construction to the existing built areas was intended to enable expansion upward to accommodate the settlements' natural growth, but not widthwise in a way that could encroach on Palestinian land. Advisor Spiegel started talks with U.S. Ambassador in Israel Dan Kurtzer to demarcate the building in each settlement.
Israel suggested putting off dealing with the large settlement blocs and concentrating solely on the isolated settlements.
Israeli sources said an understanding was reached, but the Americans strongly deny this. A few weeks ago the Spiegel-Kurtzer talks stalemated, and the administration postponed sending to Israel a team of technical experts to work with the Defense Ministry on demarcating the settlements' boundaries.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said in an interview to Egyptian television, which was quoted in the Washington Post on Sunday, "we're working with the Israelis to define what a settlement is and what the difference is between natural growth and expansion, and is natural growth something that is consistent with the Israelis' commitments to us."
The Washington Post said Powell's statement appears to be the first official American acknowledgment that the U.S. is prepared to allow construction in the settlements in certain conditions.
SOURCE
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