Israeli on 'eternity' riles Palestinians

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres shake hands before a press conference at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, Monday , Aug.28, 2017. ( Heidi Levine, Pool via AP)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres shake hands before a press conference at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, Monday , Aug.28, 2017. ( Heidi Levine, Pool via AP)

JERUSALEM -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's vow this week to never uproot Jewish settlements from occupied land drew anger from Palestinians on Tuesday and complicated the Trump administration's efforts to restart peace talks.

The Palestinians called on the White House to intervene, and visiting U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres challenged Netanyahu's comments, reiterating the international community's opposition to Israeli settlements.

More than 100 settlements dot the West Bank, and a string of U.S.-led peace plans over the past two decades has called for vacating at least some of them to make way for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. Netanyahu's hard-line religious and nationalist base opposes such a move.

President Donald Trump, unlike a string of predecessors, has not endorsed the idea of a two-state solution. Trump also has surrounded himself with a team of advisers who are long-standing supporters of settlements. These include his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who is leading the peace efforts and was in the region last week for meetings.

Netanyahu spoke at a ceremony Monday night in Barkan, a settlement in the northern West Bank.

"There is a momentum of development in Judea and Samaria," he said, referring to the West Bank by its biblical name.

"We have returned here for eternity," Netanyahu added. "There will be no more uprooting of settlements in the land of Israel. Settlements will not be uprooted."

The Palestinians seek all of the West Bank, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, for an independent state alongside Israel. Israel captured the areas in the 1967 Mideast war, though it withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

The Palestinians say that settlements on occupied lands are illegal and undermine the goal of a two-state solution by gobbling up territory they seek -- a position that is widely backed by the international community. Over 600,000 Israeli Jews now live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

While Netanyahu has made similar pledges before, the timing -- on the heels of Kushner's visit and with the U.N. chief in town -- gave this one added significance and raised questions about his intentions for resolving the conflict with the Palestinians.

During the Barack Obama administration, Netanyahu paid lip service to the idea of a two-state solution, implying that a Palestinian state could be established in parts of the West Bank or that settlements might somehow remain behind in a future Palestine. However, in recent weeks, Netanyahu has been appealing to his base, with hard-line statements and attacks on the media as a corruption investigation against him gains steam.

With Netanyahu avoiding talk of Palestinian independence or a territorial withdrawal, the Palestinians are pushing the new U.S. administration to take a stand. In particular, they have been pressing Washington to call for a freeze on settlement construction and to endorse the two-state solution.

Nabil Abu Rdeneh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, denounced Netanyahu's comments and said they hinder U.S. peace efforts.

"This is an Israeli message to the U.S. administration," he said. "We call upon the U.S. administration to deal with these provocations," which, he said, hinder U.S. peace efforts and are "an attempt to return things to square one."

The Palestinians have expressed impatience with Kushner's slow start. Kushner held talks last week with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, as well as separate meetings with Arab allies in Egypt and the Gulf. The Americans appear to be seeking a broader, regionwide approach to peace by involving moderate Arab countries.

A senior White House official downplayed Netanyahu's comments.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue, said the Israeli position was known and that the U.S. is talking to all sides to reach a deal "that factors in all substantive issues."

The Palestinians received a boost from Guterres, who assured them the international community remains solidly behind the goal of Palestinian independence and rejects Israeli settlements, which he called illegal and a "major obstacle" to peace.

Trump's Mideast envoy, Jason Greenblatt, meanwhile, spent the day in the northern West Bank meeting with Israeli officials and discussing with them initiatives to help the Palestinian economy. These include an industrial zone, a power substation and plans for a railway track linking the West Bank to the Israeli port of Haifa.

Greenblatt later visited a hospital in northern Israel where Israeli doctors have been treating refugees from the civil war in neighboring Syria.

Information for this article was contributed by Mohammed Daraghmeh of The Associated Press.

A Section on 08/30/2017

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