BUSH GOES TO ISRAEL IN JANUARY

Palestinian 'settlement' protests Israeli expansion by Gali Tibbon DEC 08,07

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Activists built a mock Palestinian settlement in the West Bank on Saturday to protest a potential Israeli expansion there as Israel's housing minister vowed to proceed with a similar project in occupied east Jerusalem. The Palestinian Authority, the United States and the United Nations have warned that the expansion of settlements could derail the Middle East peace process, revived just last month at a US-sponsored international conference.Around 40 activists gathered in the hotly contested E-1 corridor early Saturday morning to erect a small shanty-style house near the massive Maale Adumim settlement in the West Bank outside Jerusalem.The Israeli government has plans for a vast project there aimed at linking Jerusalem to Maale Adumim, home to 30,000 Jewish settlers.We have built the first house of a Palestinian town. This land is Palestinian and should be dedicated to a Palestinian expansion and not an Israeli expansion, said Jonathan Polak, an Israeli pacifist.The construction of this house is an answer to the Israeli settlements who intend to separate Jerusalem from the Palestinian territories, Abdullah Abu Rahmeh, a Palestinian pacifist said.Police broke up the demonstration and removed the house hours later.

The E-1 corridor, stretching from the eastern edge of Jerusalem to the barbed wire-topped walls of Maale Adumim, is mostly uninhabited but part of the West Bank.The Palestinians have heavily criticised the project because it would effectively split the West Bank in half and separate the territory from east Jerusalem, which they want as the capital of their future state.
Israel captured mainly Arab east Jerusalem in 1967 and annexed it without international approval. It considers all of Jerusalem to be the eternal and undivided capital of the Jewish state.In 2005, Israel shelved the E-1 project in the face of US pressure. In September of this year, however, it ordered the seizure of Arab lands in the area, reviving fears that it would proceed with the project.In another hotly contested case, Israel's housing minister vowed on Saturday to press ahead ahead with plans to expand the Har Homa settlement in east Jerusalem.Har Homa is within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem and under Israeli law, so nothing forbids us from building houses to answer the needs of the population, Zeev Boim told public radio.On Friday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice criticised the decision, echoing Palestinian complaints that it undermined the Middle East peace process relaunched last month in the US city of Annapolis.

I made it clear that we are in a time when the goal is to build maximum confidence with the parties, Rice told a news conference in Brussels. This is not going to build that confidence.In Annapolis, the United States, Israel and the Palestinians relaunched peace talks based on the 2003 roadmap agreement, which calls for a freeze on settlement growth and a halt to violence.But Israel insists that the Har Homa plans predate the new round of negotiations and do not constitute settlement activity.The decision to build Har Homa was taken more than 10 years ago and the present construction is part of a plan that was approved in 2000, Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev told AFP. The government and its chief (Prime Minister Ehud Olmert) do not intervene in this kind of issue because the buildings are inside an Israeli territory under Israeli sovereignty, he added. But the Israeli settler watchdog Peace Now on Saturday again criticised the expansion, insisting it did not constitute a natural expansion of the city. Har Homa is not an integral part of urban structure of the city. It is an isolated quarter in the middle of Palestinian villages and is an obstacle to achieving a peace agreement on the issue of Jerusalem, it said in a statement.

The neighbourhood, known to Arabs as Jebel Abu Ghneim, lies on the southeastern edge of Jerusalem on the road to Bethlehem, and is included in the boundaries of the so-called Greater Jerusalem. Its construction from the late 1980s on a hill overlooking the town in the West Bank incensed the Palestinian Authority and also provoked criticism in the United States.

Bush to visit Middle East January 9 to 11: Abbas aide DEC 08,07

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush will visit Israel and the Palestinian territories from January 9 to 11, a senior Palestinian official said Saturday. After Bush hosted Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at talks in the United States last week, the White House said he would travel to the Middle East in early January. No venues or dates were given.Senior Abbas aide Saeb Erekat told Voice of Palestine radio that Bush's visit would take place between January 9 and January 11, following a trip to the region by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on December 19.In Washington, a White House spokesman would not confirm the dates.

Rice was the chief architect of last week's conference at Annapolis, near Washington, at which Olmert and Abbas pledged to revive peace talks in the hope of reaching an accord in 2008. She has said the Bush administration will press for a peace deal before its term ends in early 2009.The visit would be Bush's first to the region since he became U.S. president in 2001.Israeli news media said that, during his visit, he would try to reassure the Jewish state that Washington stood firm against Iran's nuclear program despite a U.S. intelligence report this week -- disputed by Israel -- that Tehran had halted its nuclear weapons program. The U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv declined to comment on Erekat's remarks. Israeli officials could not immediately be reached.Bush previously visited Israel in 1988 while he was governor of Texas.
(Reporting by Wafa Amr; additional reporting by Deborah Charles in Washington; writing by Dan Williams in Jerusalem; editing by Andrew Dobbie and Jackie Frank)

Jordan king to address European parliament on Mideast Fri Dec 7, 1:21 PM ET

AMMAN (AFP) - King Abdullah II of Jordan will meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris on Tuesday and address the European Parliament on Wednesday, the palace said on Friday. The monarch and Sarkozy will discuss developments in the Middle East, boosting ties between Amman and Paris and France's role in relaunching the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, a statement added.On Wednesday the king will address European deputies before talks with European Parliament President Hans-Gert Pottering.In his speech, he will stress Europe's key role in helping to find a fair and lasting peace in the Middle East based on the creation of a Palestinian state, the statement said.The king's trip comes two weeks after the much-publicised US-backed international peace talks in Annapolis in which Israel and the Palestinians agreed to try to negotiate a deal before the end of 2008.