Israel PM says he did not tell the US he would freeze settlements
Ahead of the resumption of Middle East peace talks in Washington on Thursday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday he never told the US administration a settlement freeze would be renewed, according to an official.
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“The future of settlements would be taken up with other questions in discussions on a final accord,” Netanyahu said, according to a Likud party official cited by the AFP news agency. “We have not presented any proposal to the Americans on an extension of the freeze.”
This comes following a partial 10-month suspension on new settlement construction in the West Bank after pressure from the US.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday warned that renewed settlement activity would undermine the outcome of the talks.
Q & A with Ziad Abu Zayad
Former Israeli ambassador to the US Zalman Shoval told RFI “everything can be on the table including settlements and including refugees and including our demand that they [Palestine] recognise Israel as the state of the Jewish people.”
But added that Israel is concerned whether Abbas has “the authority and the actual capacity to come to compromises with Israel, for instance on the matter of refugees.”
Ziad Abu Zayad is with the Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics and Culture in East Jerusalem. He said Netanyahu’s statements do not bode well for negotiations.
“From the signals that are coming from the Israeli government no one can be hopeful and no one can be optimistic, and when we hear Mr. Netanyahu saying that he will not freeze the settlement activities and building – we ask what are we going to be negotiating about?"
Zayad added “Palestinians cannot consider a partial freeze of building in the settlements, because the moment you say that it is a partial freeze no one can say how much that is going to be – that could be ninety nine percent and still the Israelis would say that this is a partial freeze.”
The first direct negotiations between the Israeli and Palestinians in 20 months begin later this week.
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