U.S. on Gaza tender: settlement 'freeze is a freeze'
By Haaretz Service and Agencies
Following Israel's decision to issue a tender to build 22 housing units in a Gaza Strip settlement, the United States said Thursday it was still discussing with Jerusalem the meaning of an end to settlement activity in the territories, as called for in the U.S.-backed road map to Middle East peace.
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Discussions were under way "to make sure that we have a common understanding that a freeze is a freeze," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. "And it's not a freeze that results in continued expansion or growth."
The Israel Lands Authority issued the tender for the units in the Neve Dekalim settlement on Thursday morning, just days after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told U.S. President George W. Bush that Israel would remove unauthorized settlement outposts in the territories.
The peace plan says that by the end of May 2003 the Israeli government should have frozen "all settlement activity (including the natural growth of settlements)."
"There are very involved aspects to this, of funding, of so-called natural growth, so-called questions of children, questions of cousins, questions of schools, questions of perimeters, questions of land," Boucher told a briefing.
"It remains a stated U.S. policy that a settlements freeze is part of the road map and we expect the parties to abide by the commitments in the road map.
"We are talking with them about how they should do that. We haven't accepted one formula, one phrase, one word, one characterization or not," he added.
A senior aide to Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat on Thursday called the decision to issue the tender "a very dangerous step."
Peace Now representatives said the increased settlement activity is more evidence that Israel is not fulfilling its commitments on the road map and is causing the peace process to fail, the report said.
But the Prime Minister's Office dismissed the accusation, saying the tender doesn't violate any agreement because the new homes will be built within the bounds of an existing settlement, Army Radio reported.
Israel and the U.S. have agreed that construction in the West Bank and Gaza is permitted as long as it remains within the bounds of existing settlements, the radio quoted a senior member of Sharon's Washington delegation as saying.
"This is a very dangerous step taken by the Israeli government," said Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a senior Arafat aide.
The ILA said it had received permission from all the relevant authorities, including Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz. This tender is the first issuing for a Gaza Strip settlement in more than a year
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