October 24, 2003	Friday	Sha’aban 27, 1424

TEL AVIV, Oct 23: Israel was accused on Thursday of trying to kill off the US-backed roadmap with plans for hundreds of new homes for Jewish settlers in the West Bank, as backers of an alternative blueprint lobbied President Moshe Katzav for his support.

Housing ministry spokesman Kobi Bleich confirmed that tenders had been invited to build 323 apartments — 143 at Karnei Shomron, in the northern West Bank, and 180 apartments in Givat Zeev, to the north of occupied Al Quds.

The decision prompted a furious reaction from the Palestinians, with the Israeli government obliged under the terms of the roadmap to freeze settlement activity in the Palestinian territories.

“This Israeli decision shows yet again that the Israeli government chooses the road of settlements instead of peace and negotiations,” Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat said.

“This shows that not only are they refusing to implement the roadmap but they are working to bury the roadmap completely.”

Yariv Oppenheimer, of Israel’s anti-settlement organisation Peace Now, said it was proof that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s government was flouting its commitments under the roadmap, which targets the creation of a “viable” Palestinian state by 2005.

“Even as Sharon continues to pay lip service to the adoption of the roadmap, on the ground the government continues to build in the territories and disregards all their commitments on the issue,” Mr Oppenheimer said.

Since the beginning of the year, Israel has invited tenders for a total of 1,627 apartments in the settlements, Peace Now said.

Mr Erakat said the United States and the roadmap’s other three international sponsors _ the European Union, Russia and the United Nations _ must persuade Israel to reverse the decision.

“The American administration and quartet must work to stop this Israeli policy,” he said.

The settlement activity and continuing violence on the ground has stalled any progress on the roadmap which was launched amid great fanfare in June.

GENEVA INITIATIVE: Attention has recently shifted to an alternative plan, known as the Geneva Initiative, despite Mr Sharon’s insistence that the roadmap is the only hope of finding peace.

An Israeli delegation, including former parliament speaker Avraham Burg and MP Haim Oron, failed during 45 minutes of talks on Thursday to win clear endorsement for the project from President Katzav, who instead indicated his support for the roadmap.

One member of the delegation, reserve General Gideon Sheffer, told reporters it was important that the people of Israel “understand all the details of the plan”.

But the Israeli president was non-committal. “I am not in a position to express my rejection or support to the Initiative,” he said.

“The roadmap is on the agenda now and (its) acceptance by the Israeli government was dramatic,” he said. “At this stage, the best way is to continue with the roadmap.”

French Foreign Minister Dominique De Villepin said after talks in Paris with two of the Initiative’s principal architects — former Palestinian information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo and former Israeli justice minister Yossi Beilin — that the project “complemented” the roadmap.

But in a speech on Wednesday, Mr Sharon said the blueprint was “more dangerous” than the Oslo Accords, the 1993 autonomy agreement negotiated by the late Israeli premier Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Under the now-defunct agreement, the Palestinians were granted limited self-rule in preparation for statehood in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Although unofficial, the Initiative calls for shared sovereignty over disputed areas of occupied Al Quds and proposes granting the Palestinians 97.5 per cent of the West Bank.

In exchange, Palestinian refugees would waive their right of return to areas now incorporated in the state of Israel as it was founded in 1948.

The proposal is expected to be signed in Geneva in around three weeks.

The lack of progress and the US role in the roadmap topped the agenda at talks in Jordan on Thursday between King Abdullah and Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei.

“King Abdullah asked Mr Qorei to present him with Palestinian ideas that he will submit to US President George Bush, when they meet in two months” to help implement the roadmap, a court official said. —AFP