Israel will continue to expand largest West Bank settlements
AFP
Date: 03-21-05
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel will continue to build homes in the three largest Jewish settlements in the West Bank, a high-ranking official said on condition of anonymity.
"We will continue to build Maale Adumin, Gush Etzion and Ariel, because these areas will never be transferred to the Palestinian Authority," the official from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office told AFP.
Late Sunday, public radio said Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz has given the green light for the construction of more than 3,500 new homes in Maale Adumim, east of Jerusalem.
Gush Etzion lies south of Jerusalem and the town of Ariel in the northern West Bank.
"We're not talking about rogue outposts, but perfectly legal settlements where we will continue to build homes, administrative offices and industrial areas in keeping with our needs," added the official.
The Israeli authorities are preparing to revive plans to link Maale Adumim to Jewish settlements in Arab east-Jerusalem, occupied since 1967, as the government presses plans to withdraw from the Gaza Strip over settler opposition.
Maale Adumin, a commuter town of some 28,000 residents, is the most populous Jewish settlement in the West Bank.
Sharon has several times stressed his intention to continue settlement activity in the West Bank and Jerusalem despite his intentions to evacuate all Jewish communities in the occupied Gaza Strip by the end of this year.
Earlier this month, a damaging government report commissioned by Sharon found that Israeli authorities have methodically helped to build scores of unauthorised Jewish outposts in the West Bank.
At the time US President George W. Bush, who is set to host Sharon at his private ranch in Crawford, Texas, next month, rebuked Israel.
"Israel must freeze settlement activity, help the Palestinians build a thriving economy and ensure that a new Palestinian state is truly viable with contiguous territory on the West Bank," he said.
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