Ramallah - Israel has approved the construction of several thousand more housing units in the occupied West Bank as the US considers the possibility that the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may be dead.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks with US President Barack Obama in Washington on Monday.
The meeting focused on, amongst other issues, the deadlocked peace process and the violence currently raging in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank which has claimed the lives of more than 80 Palestinians and more than 10 Israelis, most of them soldiers or settlers.
Last week Israel’s civilian planning committee for construction in the West Bank gave the green light for 2 200 new housing units to be built in the territory’s settlements, illegal under international law.
In another significant move two outposts, hitherto illegal even under Israeli law, were retrospectively legalised. The outposts comprise small prefab homes, often disconnected from water and electricity infrastructure, in the West Bank which have failed to win approval from Israeli courts.
These moves were believed to be an attempt to pre-empt legal action by Palestinians and human rights organisations to force Israeli settlers off land either privately owned by Palestinians or part of territory meant to be for a future Palestinian state.
As the Washington talks got under way Netanyahu reiterated his commitment to a two-state solution, despite previously stating the opposite, after the US responded positively to Netanyahu's request to increase foreign aid to Israel from $3 billion to $5 billion annually over the next 10 years.
However, the Americans could soon be adjusting their Israeli policy towards one state for two peoples as they acknowledge the reality that the two-state solution may no longer be feasible as Israel continues to build settlements and Netanyahu's statements on the the two-state solution vacillate.
There are nearly 400 000 settlers living in occupied East Jerusalem and approximately another 400 000 living in the West Bank.
Israel’s strategic building of the settlements in the West Bank have turned the territory into a Bantustan, divided into three cantons making the establishment of a contiguous Palestinian state virtually impossible.
Obama’s senior adviser, Robert Malley, stated publicly last week that the reality in the West Bank was becoming one of one state for two peoples.
Malley added that there was no chance of reaching an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement and the chances of renewing negotiations were slim to none.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu himself has repeatedly said that he does not want a one-state solution and a bi-national state. So the real question is: What concrete steps and policies are they prepared to take to avoid that outcome?” asked State Department spokesman John Kirby on Friday.
Netanyahu’s intransigence on the matter was outlined in remarks he made to the Israeli Knesset, or parliament, last week when he said he opposed both a bi-national state and the two-state solution.
“At this time we need to control all of the territory for the foreseeable future,” said Netanyahu adding that, “I’m asked if we will forever live by the sword - yes”.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority (PA) spokesman, Nabil Abu Rdeineh warned that the situation in the West Bank had “reached a dangerous crossroads that could have ramifications for the entire region, and it was important for all actors to take responsibility.”
Independent Foreign Service