JERUSALEM — The Israeli government rejected the recommendation of an international report that it freeze Jewish settlement construction as a step toward ending more than seven months of violence with the Palestinians, an official said Tuesday.
Israeli embassy officials in Washington presented the U.S. government a seven-page, official response to the report, said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Yaffa Ben-Ari. She said Israel accepted the plan by an international commission headed by former U.S. Senator George Mitchell for a cessation of violence to be followed by peace talks.
Ben-Ari said the Israeli response argues that the issue of settlement building should remain a matter for the negotiating table. In the meantime, Israeli policy is not to build new settlements or expropriate more land but to expand existing ones according to population demands.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said that agreeing to a freeze in settlement construction now would be a “reward” for Palestinian violence.
The Palestinians have told the U.S. administration that they accept the report as a package. Palestinian officials said neither party has the right to pick and choose what they approve and disapprove of in the report.
Initially, the Palestinians had expressed regret the report did not address the issue of an international observation force, which they have twice tried to push through the U.N. Security Council.
The Palestinian U.N. envoy said in New York Tuesday that the Palestinians will probably make a third attempt to get the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution calling for protection for Palestinians and a cessation of violence.
The Palestinians view the presence of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, where they hope to establish a state, as a major obstacle to making peace with Israel.
The international commission was set up during a summit meeting directed by then-President Clinton in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, last Oct. 17. A draft of the commission report was presented to Israel and the Palestinians earlier this month for their comments.
The commission did not fix blame for the violence, but called for both sides to end it and resume peace negotiations.
In December, a Palestinian call for a U.N. observer force to protect its civilians failed to get the minimum nine votes required for adoption by the council. Three months later, a watered-down European draft resolution that did not mention U.N. observers but talked about a “mechanism” to help protect Palestinians got the minimum nine votes — but was vetoed by the United States.
