Israel’s ongoing settlement program in the administered territories should have no bearing on progress in the Middle East peace process, a senior government official asserted here Wednesday.
Yosef Ben-Aharon, director-general of the Prime Minister’s Office, made the comment on army radio as U.S. and Israeli teams of negotiators began drafting a joint memorandum of agreement on terms for convening the proposed Middle East peace conference.
Sources said the Israeli team, which includes Cabinet Secretary Elyakim Rubinstein, Foreign Ministry aide Salai Meridor and Ben-Aharon, has already submitted a draft summing up the understandings reached between Secretary of State James Baker and the Israeli government during his recent trips here.
The American team is led by Dan Kurtzer, deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern and South Asian affairs, and Aaron Miller of the State Department’s policy planning staff.
The Americans also propose holding talks with Baker’s Palestinian interlocutors, with a view to formulating a separate U.S.-Palestinian paper.
But Israeli officials say they have been assured that Washington will not make separate agreements with the Palestinians or any other Middle East party behind Israel’s back.
Ben-Aharon’s statement on Israel’s settlement policy came in response to two actions taken in the West Bank by the Defense Ministry.
The ministry gave the Gush Emunim settlement movement Amana permission to convert a paramilitary outpost in Eshkolot into a civilian settlement. And it allowed the Shavei Hebron yeshiva in Hebron to take over an army facility housed in the predominantly Arab city’s former bus station, pending repairs at the yeshiva’s premises nearby.
Foreign Minister David Levy denied that the actions were in any way an infringement of Israeli commitments made to Washington.
Opponents of the moves fear this is only the beginning. Amana is now reportedly pressing for permission to move into other army posts, including Ginat, near the town of Jenin, and Har Manoach, near Hebron.
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