Meretz USA Criticizes Israeli Government Decision to Build New Settlement

12/28/06

On December 28, 2006, Meretz USA President Lilly Rivlin criticized the government of Israel for yesterday's announcement that the country intends to build a new settlement in the Jordan Valley.

“Coming so swiftly on the heels of the positive measures announced after the meeting of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), Israel’s initiation of new settlement construction – however it tries to legitimize it – is a retrogressive and deeply disturbing action.

"Israel’s act flies in the face of its own commitments – at Oslo, and to the Quartet’s roadmap – not to engage in new settlement activity; and disregards its own best interests, undermining the positive gestures it made just days ago to buttress Abu Mazen. In simple terms, the settlement enterprise has been proven bankrupt, and the majority of Israelis and American Jews concur that Israel must end the occupation and negotiate an equitable and permanent border between itself and an independent and peaceful Palestinian state. We take note that the Bush administration has spoken out against the announced settlement activity, and we urge our government to get serious about its efforts to restore a peace process that will end the cycle of Palestinian-Israeli violence and mistrust.”