JERUSALEM: Israeli settlers have started building at least 600 homes since the end of a building ban on September 26, a pace four times faster than before the freeze began last year, Peace Now said Thursday.
"In our estimation, building has started on between 600 and 700 new housing units in less than one month, which is four times the pace of construction since before the freeze," Peace Now’s Hagit Ofran told AFP, referring to the moratorium that began at the end of November 2009.
Direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians are facing imminent collapse in a bitter row over settlement building on occupied West Bank land, which resumed after the end of the 10-month ban.
Israel has refused to reimpose the moratorium, while the Palestinians say they will not talk while settlers build on occupied Palestinian land, prompting a flurry of US diplomatic efforts to resolve the deadlock.
Ofran said the surge in construction was to meet immediate demand for some 2,000 housing units, as part of a plan to build some 13,000 new homes, all of which had already been approved.
After the moratorium expired just over three weeks ago, Jewish settlers across the West Bank began building in earnest, although they were advised by the Israeli leadership to keep a low profile so as not to inflame international condemnation.
Although the freeze did not cover building in Arab east Jerusalem, Ofran said there had been a "certain slow-down" in construction there since a visit in March by US Vice President Joe Biden.
In an announcement which was seen as a slap in the face for the visiting Biden, Israel said it would build 1,600 new settler homes in east Jerusalem, prompting a major crisis with Washington.
The Palestinians see the settlements as a major threat to the establishment of a viable state, and they view the freezing of settlement activity as a crucial test of Israel’s intentions.
Meanwhile, Most Israelis and Palestinians, despite contrasting views on the US-brokered peace talks, are united in their pessimism over the prospects for success, a joint opinion poll showed on Thursday.
According to the poll, more than three in four Israelis questioned were in favour of pressing ahead with the troubled direct talks but only 30 percent of Palestinians came out in support.
Only six percent of Palestinians and five percent of Israelis saw the prospects of an accord as likely or very likely.
In the case of failure, 69 percent of Palestinians backed the option of seeking UN Security Council recognition of a Palestinian state and 54 percent said their people should make a unilateral declaration.
Fifty-one percent were in favour of a campaign of non-violent resistance, while 41 percent would support armed struggle.
Direct peace talks, which resumed in Washington at the start of September, have stalled over Israel’s refusal to renew restrictions on Jewish settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, demanded by the Palestinians.
The polls showed that Israelis were divided on whether to impose a new moratorium on settlement building.
Twenty-nine percent said they would accept the Palestinian demand of a total freeze, while 28 percent ruled it out and backed an unlimited expansion in settlements.
Thirty-six percent, meanwhile, voiced support for a compromise limiting construction to settlements that Israel would retain under a peace settlement or land exchange with the Palestinians.
The survey was carried out by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research and by Jerusalem’s Hebrew University.
The Palestinian poll questioned 1,270 people on September 30-October 2, with a margin of error of three percentage points, while 610 Israelis were quizzed on October 3-7, with a four-point error margin.
