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Israel's Peace Group Raps Barak's Policy on Settlement
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak is continuing his settlement construction policy and plans to allocate millions of $US for settlements in the 2001 budget, a statement issued by Peace Now, Israel's biggest pro-peace group, said November 7.
The influential left-wing group stated that approximately 1.2 billion shekels (about 300 million $US) was slated for Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the budget proposal submitted by the Barak government to the Knesset (parliament) recently.
The moneys will be transferred to the settlers primarily through the Transportation Ministry, the Housing and Construction Ministry, the Settlement Department of the Agriculture Ministry, the Israel Land Authority, and the Trade and Industry Ministry, the statement revealed.
Galia Golan, leader of the Peace Now organization, said in the statement, "It is becoming increasingly clear that regarding the settlements, the present government is continuing the priorities of the (previous Benjamin) Netanyahu government."
Golan further pointed out that in his opinion, Barak failed to carry out "the basic steps essential for an agreement with the Palestinians," although the prime minister claimed that he is determined to reach a peace deal with them.
"There is no question that the expansion of settlement activity was one of the central elements in Israel's failure to create minimum credibility in the eyes of the Palestinians and, as such, a central reason for the grassroots frustration with the peace process that is fueling the current conflagration," he added.
Golan was referring to the bloody violence between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian demonstrators in the past five weeks, which killed over 170 and wounded thousands, most of them Palestinians.
The disturbance also severely damaged the hope for peace and mutual-trust between the two sides.
"It is a sorry state of affairs when the government continues to subsidize and develop the settlements at the very time that they constitute a central obstacle to extricating the country from a tragic political and military quagmire," Peace Now's statement concluded.
Over 140 Jewish settlements are dotting the West Bank and Gaza Strip, occupied by Israel since the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians had repeatedly urged Israel to evacuate all those settlements in the final peace deal, or at least stop new construction at the current phase.
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