Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: A poorly timed provocation

A poorly timed provocation 
 
By Haaretz Editorial 
 
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 evil 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.
(da 
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/617346.html
 ) 
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