By Xinhua,
Ramallah : The expansion of Israeli settlements in West Bank harms the peace process and its goal of reaching a peace treaty this year, a Palestinian peace negotiator said on Saturday.
“The Israeli government’s policy of keeping on settlement expansions means destruction of the peace process and all the possibilities of making the year 2008 as a year of peace,” said negotiator Saeb Erekat.
On Friday, an Israeli ministerial committee approved the building of 20 houses in an Israeli settlement in West Bank to house a number of Israeli settlers who were evacuated from Gaza Strip three years ago.
Erekat said that the international community must force Israel to cancel these decisions and freeze all the settlement activities, including the natural growth of the settlement blocks, as part of the U.S.-backed Road Map peace plan.
The United States, which mediated to resume Israeli-Palestinian peace talks last November, condemned the intended expansion.
The peace negotiations have achieved no breakthrough due to the continuation of the settlements on the land that would be part of the future Palestinian statehood.