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Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has approved the renewed construction of hundreds of an estimated 750 new homes in the West Bank settlement of Givat Ze’ev near Jerusalem, the Housing Ministry said.
The project approved for the Agan Ayelot neighborhood of Givat Ze’ev drew criticism from the Palestinian Authority over Israel’s commitment to the peace process.
Construction in the Agan Ayelot neighborhood of Givat Zee'v.
The prime minister’s spokesman said the project was in line with the state’s current policy on construction in existing settlements.
“It is consistent with our long-standing position that building within the large settlement blocs, which will stay a part of Israel in any final status agreement, will continue,” Regev said. “Construction outside the settlement blocs has been frozen.”
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the decision to build new housing in Givat Zeev raised doubts about Israel’s commitment to peace talks. “It seems to me the Israelis are determined to put a stick in the wheel of negotiations,” he said. “It will undermine the U.S. effort to revive the negotiations.”
He noted the decision came just days before a U.S. envoy, Lt. Gen. William Fraser III, arrives in the region for his first joint meeting with Israelis and Palestinians.
The U.S. delegation had hoped the 15-nation council would unanimously support the text but Libya, backed by several other council members, prevented its adoption.
“We were not able to come to an agreement because the Libyan delegation with the support of one or two others did not want to condemn this act by itself but wanted to link it to other issues,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, told reporters after the council meeting.
Khalilzad rejected that the yeshiva attack was related to the IDF’s actions in Gaza. He said killing students in a school was different from the unintentional killing of civilians during fighting with Hamas militants in the strip.
Dan Gillerman, the ambassador of Israel, which is not on the council, had harsh words for Libya. He referred to it as the country responsible for the 1988 bombing of Pam Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed some 270 people.
“Unfortunately, this is what happens when the Security Council is infiltrated by terrorists,” he said, referring to the council’s failure to adopt the U.S. statement.
Libya’s deputy ambassador, Ibrahim al-Dabbashi, dismissed Gillerman’s attack. “We don’t need a certificate of good conduct from the Israeli terrorist regime,” he said.
He also said the council should not speak about the Jerusalem attack while ignoring the Gaza situation.
“If the council should take any action, it should be a balanced action and should condemn the killing in Gaza as well as the killing in Jerusalem,” al-Dabbashi said.
The right-wing Women in Green group condemned the attack and called to establish eight settlements in the West Bank- in memory of the eight yeshiva students killed in Thursday’s attack.
“The Jewish Zionist revenge must be an immediate revenge by establishing eight new communities throughout Judea and Samaria in memory of the those murdered, especially in light of the fact that the Mercaz Harav yeshiva symbolizes the settlement in the Yesha region,” a statement from the organization read.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."