Israel will continue with settlements
Pastor Dale Morgan
Israel will continue with settlements
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By correspondents in Jerusalem
Agence France-Presse
May 31, 2009 04:35pm
ISRAEL will not agree to US demands to freeze all settlement activity in
the occupied West Bank, a minister close to Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu said today.
"I want to say in a crystal clear manner that the current Israeli
government will not accept in any fashion that legal settlement activity
in Judea and Samaria be frozen," said Transport Minister Yisrael Katz,
using the Israeli term for the West Bank.
"The government will defend the vital interests of the state of Israel,"
he told army radio.
It was the first high-level reaction to a call by President Barack Obama
on Thursday during a meeting with Palestinian counterpart Mahmud Abbas
that Israel stop settlement activity, a key obstacle in the hobbled
Middle East peace talks.
Although the international community considers all Israeli settlements
illegal, Israel makes a distinction between those the government
authorised and so-called wildcat outposts, set up by zealous settlers
without state approval.
Netanyahu has said his government would dismantle the outposts, but has
argued that expansion of existing blocks should be allowed to continue.