Barak calls for inspectors to police settlements freeze (Roundup)

Nov 29, 2009, 13:28 GMT

Jerusalem - Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak ordered his officials Sunday to recruit and train inspectors to oversee a 10- month freeze on residential construction in West Bank settlements, as decided by the Israeli inner cabinet last week.

The 40 additional inspectors will supplement the 14 currently at work in the West Bank.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the freeze last week, after receiving the backing of 11 ministers in the 15-minister inner, security-diplomatic cabinet.

He said Israel would build no new settlements, nor expropriate more land for the expansion of existing settlements, and would not allow any new constructions to start within existing Jewish settlements for a period of 10 months.

However 'public buildings that are essential for the continuation of a normal life' were excluded from the freeze.

The freeze announced by Netanyahu also did not include East Jerusalem, which Palestinians see as the capital of their future state, or public buildings in the West Bank, and the construction of 3,000 that had already begun within existing settlements would also be allowed to be completed.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has made a total halt to construction in Israeli settlements a condition for resuming peace talks, rejected Netanyahu's move, saying it was insufficient to get the negotiations going again.

Netanyahu also faced criticism over the freeze from some ministers in his cabinet and lawmakers in his own Likud Party, who oppose any limitations on Israeli settlement activity.

Vice Premier Silvan Shalom, a former Likud moderate who in recent months has positioned himself to the political right of Netanyahu, said the freeze was 'unnecessary' since it would not bring Abbas back to the negotiating table.

He added that 'harming the (West Bank) settlements will have implications on the country's future.'

Another Likud official, Environment Minister Gilad Erdan told a forum of Likud ministers Sunday morning that orders issued by Barak Friday to stop construction in the West Bank were 'extreme' and could even 'pose a threat to settler's human rights.'

The Jerusalem Post daily said Sunday that 11 out of 30 cabinet ministers, including at least four from the Likud, oppose the freeze.

Opposition to the freeze has also percolated down to rank-and-file Likud lawmakers. Back-bench legislator Danny Danon organized a meeting Saturday night to express opposition to the freeze.

Speakers at the meeting, Avi Naim, head of the Beit Ariyeh settlement, said the Obama Adminstration was 'an enemy of the Jews' and 'the worst regime there ever was for the State of Israel.'

On Thursday night, Sport and Culture Minister Limor Livnat, called the US administration 'terrible.'

Netanyahu's office was quick to distance itself from Livnat's remarks, saying her comments did not in any way reflect the view of the prime minister.

Religious and nationalist Israelis regard the West Bank, which Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 war, as part of the Biblical Jewish homeland and refer to the territory by its Biblical names of Judea and Samaria.

Some 300,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements. Israel hopes to retain the large settlements blocks,as part of any peace agreement with the Palestinians.