BICOM

Key Points

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced today a 10 month moratorium on settlement construction in the West Bank. He called on the Palestinians and the Arab world to ‘seize the opportunity’ to ‘move forward towards peace’. This is the most extensive and public declaration on restraining settlements ever made by an Israeli government.
• This move reflects a desire in Israel to move beyond the current impasse and return to negotiations with the Palestinians.
• The sense of urgency has been heightened by concerns that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas may resign from his position. Netanyahu’s announcement is linked to intense negotiations with the US to neutralise the impact of a possible deal between Israel and Hamas for the release of Gilad Shalit, on Abbas and the chances of restarting the peace process.
• The intention is that this will not be an isolated gesture but part of a series of confidence building measures by the Israeli government to establish its positive intentions on the peace process.

What has been announced?

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secured approval from the security cabinet for a ten-month suspension of new residential construction permits and new residential construction starts in the West Bank.
• He called on the Palestinians and the Arab world to ‘seize the opportunity’ to ‘move forward towards peace’. This is the most extensive and public declaration on restraining settlements ever made by an Israeli government.
• Netanyahu pointed to other gestures Israel has already made, including removing hundreds of West Bank checkpoints, lengthening hours of operation at the Allenby Bridge crossing to Jordan, and removing bureaucratic obstacles to economic development in the Palestinian territories.
• Netanyahu said in a statement earlier in the day that this step, ‘allows us to place a simple fact before the world: The Government of Israel wants to enter into negotiations with the Palestinians, is taking practical steps in order to do so and is very serious in its intentions to promote peace.’
• Netanyahu’s gesture comes despite a lack of reciprocal gestures on normalisation that the US requested from Arab states.
• The step will not include East Jerusalem and applies to private homes, not public buildings such as schools or other communal facilities, which Netanyahu considers essential for residents to continue their day to day lives.
• Israel’s policy until now has been to build no new settlements and to expropriate no new land for existing settlements. The new moratorium applies to construction within existing settlements.

What has brought this announcement about?

• Israel has been in negotiation with the United States for several months over a settlement freeze to lay the ground for resumed peace talks with the Palestinians. Though the US has demanded a complete freeze, at the beginning of November, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton welcomed Israeli proposals on a moratorium as ‘unprecedented’ and a ‘positive step’. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been insisting on a complete settlement freeze as a precondition to starting peace talks.
• In recent weeks Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has been working hard to convince international and domestic audiences that he is serious about entering into peace negotiations with moderate Palestinians in order to resolve the conflict.
• There have been growing concerns in Israel recently about the need to generate momentum on the peace process in the wake of Mahmoud Abbas’s threatened resignation. The development also comes against the backdrop of advanced negotiations between Israel and Hamas on a prisoner exchange deal to bring about the release of captured soldier Gilad Shalit. Such a deal would be exploited by Hamas in the internal Palestinian arena, making gestures towards Palestinian moderates all the more important.

Further reading

BICOM Analysis: Netanyahu’s interest in breaking the deadlock – 25 November 2009

BICOM Analysis: Palestinian politics and the peace process – 17 November 2009

BICOM Spotlight: Settlements Q and A