Israel to Add to West Bank Settlement
JERUSALEM — Brushing aside an explicit U.S. call to refrain from expanding Jewish settlements, Israel on Monday disclosed plans to build 50 new homes in the northern West Bank.
Although the planned addition to the community of Elkana is relatively small, the disclosure came only one week after President Bush met at his Texas ranch with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and publicly urged Israel to avoid any new settlement activity.
Expansion of settlements is banned under the peace plan supported by the United States and known as the "road map," though the two countries differ on what constitutes improper activity on Israel's part.
The Sharon government argues that Jewish settlements are entitled to what it calls "natural growth" -- populations that increase due to factors such as births or denser buildup that takes place within established settlement boundaries.
The White House said it would seek clarification from the Israeli government about the latest expansion plans.
"I think the president made his views very clear last week
McClellan noted that Sharon "reiterated his commitment to the road map" during his meeting with the president last week.
"The road map has obligations for both parties," McClellan said. "Israel should not be expanding settlements, and the Palestinian leaders need to act to dismantle terrorists' organizations."
Last week's meeting was preceded by an Israeli disclosure of a much larger development planned outside the West Bank's largest Jewish settlement, Maale Adumim. That blueprint calls for the construction of more than 3,500 housing units in a sensitive location, wedged in rocky hills between traditionally Arab East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank.
Continued settlement activity by the Sharon government has left the Bush administration in a quandary.
U.S. strategy calls for propping up Sharon against raging opposition from Jewish settlers to the planned Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip this summer. Residents in the 21 settlements in the seaside territory and four small communities in the northern West Bank are to be uprooted.
But even as the Bush administration applauds the withdrawal, U.S. officials do not want to give Sharon carte blanche to lay claim to additional territory in the West Bank. The Israeli leader has clearly signaled that it is his intention to retain large, established settlement blocs that lie close to the "Green Line," the de facto border that separated Israel from the West Bank before the 1967 Middle East War.
