JERUSALEM: Jewish settlers were gearing up for a burst of West Bank construction as last-minute efforts to salvage the Mideast peace talks focused Sunday on finding a compromise over a settlement freeze which expires at the end of the day.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has vowed to walk out of the talks should the construction of Jewish homes on occupied Palestinian land restart after the moratorium ends.
"Israel must choose between peace and the continuation of settlements," he told the United Nations in New York on Saturday, denouncing "the mentality of expansion and domination" that drives Israel’s policies in the West Bank.
Despite Abbas’ threats, Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu insists that the moratorium on new construction in the West Bank, will end as planned, and has shrugged off a wave of international pressure to convince him otherwise.
As the clock ticked, the settlers planned a high-profile ceremony to lay the cornerstone for a new neighborhood at Kiryat Netafim in the Ariel settlement bloc in the northern West Bank.
Thousands of rightwing activists from Netanyahu’s Likud party were to attend, before heading to the nearby settlement of Revava for a countdown to the end of the ban.
Bulldozers and cement trucks are already in place in both settlements, ready to begin work on Sunday evening.
"In the same way that the freeze was total, the restart of construction must be total," Danny Dayan, head of the Yesha settlers’ organization, told army radio.
The cornerstone-laying event was a clear message to Netanyahu, said Likud parliamentarian Danny Danon.
"The message…on Sunday will be aimed directly at the prime minister: stay true to the way of the Likud, resist the pressure of (US) President (Barack) Obama and continue building throughout the state of Israel," he said.
Figures quoted by settlement watchdog group Peace Now show that once the freeze ends, the settlers can begin work on 13,000 new housing units, all of which have already received government approval.
Peace Now activists are to hold a demonstration of support for extending the moratorium outside Netanyahu’s Jerusalem residence.
As diplomats scurried to find a last-minute compromise, Human Rights Watch urged Israel to make "permanent and total" the freeze, stressing that all settlement on Palestinian land is illegal under international law.
The settlement issue is one of the most intractable disputes between the two sides. There are some 500,000 Israelis living in more than 120 settlements across the West Bank and east Jerusalem — territories the Palestinians want for their promised state.
While Israeli officials say Netanyahu may accept a quiet compromise, it was unlikely to be approved by his largely nationalist coalition government.
The deadline for the end of the freeze is widely accepted as midnight on September 26, although Jewish settlers regard the moratorium as ending at sundown, which is officially 5:29 pm (1529 GMT). A military order, however, sets the date at September 30.
As the freeze entered its remaining hours, top US officials made last-minute efforts to salvage the peace talks, launched barely three weeks ago in Washington.
"We are doing everything we can to keep the parties in direct talks," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said late on Saturday.
Over the weekend, Abbas met Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and peace envoy George Mitchell, but left without any sign of a deal being reached. Early on Sunday, he flew to Paris to meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Abbas was to meet with local Jewish leaders later on Sunday before holding talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Prime Minister Francois Fillon on Monday to "explore developments in the peace process," his spokesman said.
"Abbas will update Sarkozy on the latest results of the international and American efforts to press Israel to continue the freeze of settlements as a necessity for continuing the negotiations," Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.
Abbas has repeatedly threatened to walk out of peace talks relaunched in Washington earlier this month if Israel resumes construction of new settler homes in the occupied West Bank when the moratorium expires later on Sunday.
Abbas will meanwhile continue efforts to reach out to the Jewish community after similar meetings with Jewish leaders in the United States.
Abu Rudeina said the Palestinian president would encourage French Jews to "play a positive role in the peace process in the region."
Israel’s President Shimon Peres and lawyer Yitzhak Molcho, Netanyahu’s point man on the talks, remained in New York to help compromise efforts.
On Friday, a senior Israeli official said there could not be "zero construction" in the West Bank, and indicated that Israel was willing to cut a compromise deal.
But Abbas has rejected any compromise that does not guarantee a "complete halt" to settlement activity.
US officials have reportedly suggested a three-month extension to the freeze to allow the two sides could agree on the future borders of a Palestinian state, which could neutralize the settlements dispute.
A previous round of direct talks collapsed in December 2008 when Israel launched a 22-day offensive on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip aimed at halting rocket and mortar attacks.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Sunday Israel should make "permanent and total" the partial freeze on West Bank settlement construction which has been in force for the past 10 months.
"Israel’s construction of settlements … violates its obligations as an occupying power and the rights of Palestinians in the West Bank, including unjustly limiting their ability to build homes and access their lands," the US-based watchdog said in a statement.
