Haaretz
Av 22, 5765
After completing the
evacuation of settlers from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank, the
government rushed to implement the second half of Ariel Sharon's
disengagement plan: strengthening Israel's hold on the West Bank
settlement blocs. Almost simultaneously with the evacuation of Gush Katif,
the army began issuing expropriation orders for Palestinian lands around
Ma'aleh Adumim on which the separation fence is slated to be built. At the
same time, the government decided to build a police station in the area
known as E-1, between Ma'aleh Adumim and Jerusalem.
Both decisions
have major diplomatic significance, and they will influence the nature of
any future agreement with the Palestinians. Sharon promised that Ma'aleh
Adumim would in the future be part of Israel "and be territorially
contiguous with Jerusalem." But the route of the fence, which the cabinet
approved in February, at about the same time as it decided toevacuate the
Gaza settlements, encompasses a much larger area than the built-up area of
the largest settlement in the West Bank. The fence is also slated to
surround the Mishor Adumim industrial zone and a few small satellite
settlements, as well as a large amount of open space between these
settlements. Its eastern extremity will bite off a sizable portion of the
area between Jerusalem and Jericho.
Moving the headquarters of the
Samaria and Judea District Police to E-1 may perhaps not be problematic in
and of itself, but it represents an attempt to create facts on the ground
in a disputed area. The American administration vehemently opposes
construction in E-1 for fear that it would sever the territorial
contiguity of the northern and southern West Bank and impede the future
establishment of a viable Palestinian state.
Under American
pressure, Sharon froze a plan to build 3,500 housing units in E-1. But
Washington does not buy his explanation that ià is possible to create
"transportational contiguity" for the Palestinians via overpasses and
tunnels that would connect the northern and southern West Bank. Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice is more attentive to the Palestinians' fear that
Israel seeks to divide the West Bank into isolated cantons.
It is
hard not to view the decisions about the fence and the new construction
near Ma'aleh Adumim as a poorly timed provocation. They damage the efforts
to rebuild trust with the Palestinian Authority and to strengthen its
leader, Mahmoud Abbas, as a partner for future negotiations. They lend
credence to the Palestinian claim that the withdrawal from Gaza was merely
an Israeli trick designed to obtain international support and to divert
attention from its tightening occupation of the West Bank and East
Jerusalem. They erode the contribution that the successful disengagement
made to reviving the diplomatic process and show that Sharon has returned
to his old ways in the settlements.
There is widespread agreement
within Israel about keeping the settlement blocs, including Ma'aleh
Adumim, under any final-status arrangement. But this must be done through
an agreement with the Palestinians that takes their needs into account as
well, not by creating facts on the ground unilaterally, which will only
make the tangle created by the spread of settlements in the West Bank even
more complicated. Israel's top priority right now should be resuming a
dialogue with the PA, not provocative construction ventures.