JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel gave the final go-ahead Thursday
to build nearly 1,500 homes in Jewish settlements, saying the
construction was a response to the formation of the Palestinian unity
government backed by the Islamic militant group Hamas.
The move
triggered international criticism and deepened a rift between Israel and
its Western allies. With Israel outraged at the world’s embrace of the
unity government, Israel’s housing minister said the new construction
was "just the beginning."
Israel has been sparring with its allies
in Washington and Europe since Western-backed Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas swore in the unity government Monday.
Israel has
asked the world to shun the new government because it is backed by
Hamas, which has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings and
other attacks in the past two decades. The European Union and the United
States, along with Israel, consider Hamas a terrorist group.
Abbas
says Hamas plays no formal role in the government. His new Cabinet
consists of technocrats who have accepted international demands to
renounce violence and accept Israel’s right to exist. None of the men
have any affiliation with Hamas.
Israeli officials say any
government that is backed by Hamas is unacceptable as long as the group
remains sworn to Israel’s destruction. But for now, both the U.S. and EU
have said they will give the new government a chance — and will
continue funneling hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Abbas.
Earlier
this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was "deeply
troubled" by the U.S. stance, putting him at odds with his closest and
most important ally.
The international community considers Israeli
settlement construction illegal or illegitimate, and continued
construction was a recurring sticking point in the latest round of
U.S.-backed peace talks. The sides made little progress in nine months
of talks that collapse in April.
Netanyahu’s housing minister, Uri
Ariel, said Thursday that tenders had been issued to build about 900
homes in the West Bank and about 560 more in east Jerusalem, territories
captured in the 1967 Mideast war and which the Palestinians seek as
parts of a future state.
In a statement, Ariel said the construction was a "fitting Zionist response to the formation of a
Palestinian terror government.
He
said the plans were "just the beginning," and an Israeli official said
an additional 1,800 housing units were expected to be approved next
week. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was
not authorized to talk to the media, said the units were at various
stages of the planning process, but about 700 were slated to receive
final approvals for construction.
Another Israeli official, also
speaking on the same condition of anonymity, said Netanyahu had
authorized Ariel’s decision. He claimed all construction would take
place in areas that Israel expects to keep in any "conceivable" peace
deal.
But the outside world does not make such a distinction, and
any new settlement activity promises to escalate tensions with the
Palestinians and the international community.
More than 560,000
Israelis live in territories captured in the 1967 war, and the
Palestinians say that continued growth of settlements on the lands they
claim makes it increasingly difficult for them to achieve independence.
Chief
Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat said Thursday’s settlement
announcement is "a clear sign that Israel is moving toward a major
escalation." He said the Palestinians were formulating a response to the
move.
Israel pressed forward with construction plans for
thousands of settlement homes during the peace talks, drawing
Palestinian accusations that Israel was negotiating in bad faith. Israel
said it never committed to halting construction during the talks.
Thursday’s
move was the first settlement activity to be announced since the talks
collapsed. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro told Army Radio that
the U.S. opposes the planned settlement construction. State Department
deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf called the new housing "unhelpful" and
"illegitimate."
The EU said in a statement it was "deeply
disappointed" by the housing approvals, saying they were "unhelpful to
peace efforts." The EU urged Israel to reverse the decision.
U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was "deeply concerned" by the reports of
new settlement construction, his spokesman said in a statement, which
urged Israel to heed international calls to "freeze settlement
activity."
Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who was Israel’s chief
peace negotiator, told Army Radio the announcement was a "political
mistake … that will only distance us from the ability to recruit the
world against Hamas."
The collapse of peace talks helped push Abbas to reconcile with his Hamas rivals after a seven-year rift.

Hamas
seized the Gaza Strip from Abbas’ forces in 2007, leaving the
Palestinians with two rival governments, the Hamas regime in Gaza and
Abbas’ Palestinian Authority in autonomous areas of the West Bank.
After
concluding he could not reach a peace agreement with Netanyahu, Abbas
decided the time was ripe to repair ties with Hamas. The rift is
considered a major impediment to establishing a Palestinian state in the
West Bank and Gaza, with east Jerusalem as its capital. Hamas, facing a
financial crisis caused by an Egyptian and Israeli border blockade,
also was eager for a deal.
Despite their reconciliation deal, the
new Palestinian government faces many challenges. Among them are
blending two large bureaucracies staffed by tens of thousands of civil
servants, as well as figuring out what to do with Hamas’ militia in
Gaza. Hamas has thousands of armed fighters trained to battle Israel,
and the group remains in firm control over Gaza.
Police in Gaza
shut down banks in the coastal territory Thursday after Hamas-affiliated
public servants and security officers rioted at ATMs the previous night
because they did not receive their salaries, while loyalists of Abbas’
Fatah movement were paid.
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Associated Press writers Lara
Jakes in Washington, Cara Anna at the United Nations0 and Juergen Baetz
in Brussels contributed to this report.