UN chief: West Bank construction harms peace process

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday expressed concern over Israel’s West Bank settlement expansion, a move which he said threatens to undermine a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Plans to build more than 1,000 homes in two settlements deep in the West Bank also drew sharp condemnation from the US and others Thursday.

According to a UN spokesperson, plans for hundreds of housing units in the settlement of Itamar, near the West Bank city of Nablus, and at the outpost of Bruchin, were points of particular concern for the UN leader.

“The Secretary-General also remains concerned about reports of plans for around 1,000 settlement units in East Jerusalem and steps to authorize four illegal settlement outposts deep in the West Bank,” the spokesperson said.

“These are unhelpful decisions that undermine progress towards the two-state solution. They constitute a deeply worrisome trend at a moment of ongoing efforts to relaunch peace negotiations,” Ban’s spokesperson added.

“Certainly we find this unhelpful,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said of the building plans on Thursday, which will see the recently authorized settlement of Bruchin expanded to 500 homes and Itamar grow to 675 units.

Sweden, meanwhile, announced that it would reduce its aid to the Palestinians by 28 percent unless progress is made in peace talks with Israel, according to a Swedish minister.

In an interview Thursday for Sveriges Radio, Development Aid Minister Gunilla Carlsson said that unless talks on a two-state solution move forward, her country would slash 28% of its annual aid package of $107 million to the West Bank and Gaza.

“Is there any merit in pursuing the prerequisites for a two-state solution when Israel and the Palestinians themselves do not want to sit down at the negotiating table?” Carlsson demanded during the interview.

The Palestinians have refused to engage in peace talks with Israel unless it halts construction in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem. Israel has declined to meet any preconditions and has expressed its readiness to discuss the issue in the framework of talks.

“I don’t want to haggle using aid money, but I can only take the perspective of the Swedish taxpayers,” Carlsson said, “one wants results.”

Jerusalem’s approval of construction plans came as US Secretary of State John Kerry is engaged in an intense push to coax the Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table.

Ramallah says it needs a settlement building freeze in place before it will talk and on Thursday Nabil Shaath, an Abbas adviser, said Israel’s latest move was a new sign of bad faith.

Bruchin, which currently has 52 apartments, started out as an unauthorized settlement outpost, one of dozens settlers put up since the 1990s with the declared aim of preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state. A year ago, the government began the process of retroactively legalizing Bruchin.

In Itamar, the planners retroactively legalized 137 homes built without permits and decided to add another 538, for a total of 675.

AP and JTA contributed to this report.