Not an impossible demand

Israel is still trying its very best to wriggle out of its obligation to enforce a complete freeze of settlement activity in the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem.

Tuesday, Israel’s housing minister, Ariel Atias, of the ultra-conservative Shas Party, announced that Israel would institute a “temporary” freeze on issuing new housing tenders for settlements. This is clearly an attempt at appeasing Washington, which has been pushing for Israel to abide by its obligations under the roadmap.

However, judged by the standard of the roadmap, this latest Israeli move falls far short of what is required. Not issuing tenders for new housing may sound like a freeze. What it actually means is that Israel will continue to construct existing tenders, over 2,000 of which were issued under the previous Israeli government (and at the time of the Annapolis process).

Nor is East Jerusalem included in this “waiting period”, as Atias phrased it, and there is no mention of dismantling settlement outposts, another requirement Israel has to comply with under the roadmap.

In all, it is simply another, rather desperate, attempt at throwing sand in everyone’s eyes. Yet while no one is fooled, international pressure on Israel is simply not strong enough yet.

Israel continues its settlement expansion at pace, thus consolidating its illegal occupation of Palestinian land.

The consequence is that a negotiated peace will become a more distant possibility. It is impossible for the Palestinians to accept to negotiate a final settlement to their conflict with Israel if the land that is being negotiated is at the same time being unilaterally appropriated.

It is a simple equation, but one that has apparently baffled the world ever since the PLO accepted to negotiate with Israel on the basis of the Oslo Accords.

The US wants Arab countries to engage in a process of mutual confidence-building measures with Israel. But Israel needs to start acting towards seeing this crucial issue settled. There must be a complete and unambiguous freeze of settlement construction, one that starts now, knows no restriction, includes East Jerusalem and can be independently verified.

This is the minimum acceptable opening gesture that must be expected from Israel. If that means the Israeli coalition government, made up in large part of unrepentant supporters of the illegal settlement project, falls, so be it.

This is not an impossible demand. Indeed, to drive home the point, the international community could start by refusing to meet any minister or government official who lives in a settlement.