Netanyahu: Israel will still build on Jewish settlements

Israeli prime minister ignores Obama's calls and says 'natural growth' on West Bank and in Jerusalem will continue

The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, said today that his country would continue to build in Jewish settlements in Jerusalem and the West Bank, despite calls from the US administration for a halt.

Netanyahu's comments came less than a week after he met President Barack Obama in Washington, where he was told that the US wanted to see a stop to settlement expansion.

"We do not intend to build any new settlements, but it wouldn't be fair to ban construction to meet the needs of natural growth or for there to be an outright construction ban," Netanyahu said.

"Natural growth" is the term Israel uses for expansion to accommodate population growth inside the boundaries of existing settlements. However, the 2003 US road map for peace explicitly calls for a freeze to all settlement activity, including natural growth.

Nearly 500,000 Jewish settlers live in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Settlements on occupied land are widely regarded as illegal under international law.

The issue of settlement outposts – the most remote settlements that are not even authorised by Israel – was debated in the Israeli cabinet today. Ehud Barak, the defence minister, said 22 settlement outposts, out of a total of about 100, would be taken down either by dialogue or by force. However, after police tried to demolish one outpost near Ramallah last week, settlers simply returned within hours and began rebuilding.

"The 22 … have to be dealt with now in a responsible, appropriate manner, first of all exhausting all efforts at dialogue, and if that proves impossible, then unilaterally, using force if necessary," Barak said before the cabinet meeting. He and other Israeli officials have made similar promises in recent years but the outposts remain.

Many in Netanyahu's government are deeply opposed to any steps against the settlers. "Outposts do not have to be dismantled now," said the interior minister, Eli Yishai. "There is rampant illegal construction on the part of Palestinians and Israeli Arabs. If we go for enforcement, then enforcement has to be unified, just and equitable."

What did I tell you? Israelis have no real interest in any reasonable solution to their conflict with Palestinians. They want as much land as they can grab away and 78% of Palestine isn't enough so they want to be able to include themselves within the 22% left to Palestinians. Of course, "security" is always the rationale given but one can see that by "security" Israelis mean giving no resistance to their continuing provocation of Palestinians with Israeli settlement incursions into Palestinian lands.