GOVT. OF ISRAEL PLANS TO BUILD NEW HOUSING IN OCCUPIED TERRITORIES, REJECTS TALKS WITH HAMAS

Today we see another proposal by the Israel government to increase housing units in the Occupied Territories. Also Israeli Prime Minister Olmert turns down a proposal for talks with Hamas.

The Washington Post carries a report by Mark Lavie of the AP:

"Israel's prime minister pledged Sunday to continue attacking Gaza militants, ruling out truce negotiations with Hamas amid widespread skepticism about the Islamic group's ability to halt rocket attacks.

"An Israeli cabinet minister, meanwhile, angered moderate Palestinians with another plan for new Jewish housing in a disputed part of Jerusalem, complicating renewed peace talks.

"There have been almost daily reports of truce feelers from the embattled Islamic Hamas regime in Gaza, and Israeli defense officials have said they are examining the proposals.

"But at the weekly cabinet meeting Sunday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rejected negotiations with Hamas because it has rebuffed international demands that it recognize Israel, renounce violence and endorse past peace accords."

There can be no peace in Palestine if Israel does not sit down and talk with Hamas. The fact that Hamas does not "recognize Israel" is a bogus reason on the part of Israeli authorities for rejecting talks. Hamas de facto recognizes Israel by asking for negotiations, that is all that really matters.

As to renouncing violence, both sides must renounce violence. That of course means Hamas must stop the rocket attacks into Israeli towns. Hamas must also prevent suicide bombers from doing their dirty work in Israel and against Israelis. But it also means Israel must stop its tanks making incursions into Gaza, its helicopters strafing and killing Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, and its targeted assassinations of Palestinian and Hamas leaders.

And both sides must endorse past peace accords. When Israel announces new housing settlements in the Occupied Territories, i.e., land acquired by Israel from Palestine during the 1967 War, this violates Resolution 242 (1967) and Resolution 465 (1980) of the United Nations, "emphasizing the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war . . . " and being "deeply concerned over the practices of the Israeli authorities in implemeneting [their] settlement policy in the occupied Arbab territories, including Jerusalem, and its consequences for the lcoal Atab and Palestinian polulation."

Writes AP reporter Lavie:

"At Mideast conference hosted by President Bush last month in Annapolis, Md., Israel and the Palestinians resumed peace talks for the first time in seven years.

"But disputes over Israeli construction in Jerusalem have harmed the atmosphere. Just before the talks restarted, Israel announced a plan to build 307 apartments in Har Homa in east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed.

"The international community never recognized Israeli sovereignty over east Jerusalem, and Palestinians claim the area as the capital of the state they want to create.

"On Sunday Rafi Eitan, minister for Jerusalem affairs, confirmed that the Construction Ministry's proposed budget for 2008 includes 500 new apartments for Har Homa, as well as 240 new apartments in Maaleh Adumim, a major West Bank settlement just outside Jerusalem."

Israel must stop this illegal annexation by inhabitation of Occupied Territories. The Palestinians will never forget that Israel has seized their land and has brought in Israeli settlers and populated their territories with Israeli citizens.

We need a new administration in the U.S. to get involved and insist on the cessation of violence by both Hamas and Israel and in accordance with U.N resolutions 242 and 465 the return of Palestinian land and territories seized by Israel through its military victories.