ישראל מתכננת לבנות עוד 6,000 בתים חדשים בגדה המערבית השנה, כך דיווח ידיעות אחרונות אתמול.

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Israel plans 6,000 more settler homes in West Bank

JERUSALEM — Israel plans to build 6,000 new homes in Jewish settlements in the West Bank this year, the mass circulation daily Yediot Aharonot reported yesterday.

In a move likely to irritate chief ally Washington, Israel also plans to give retrospective authorisation to 120 wildcat outposts in the Palestinian territory which had been earmarked for removal under the US-backed roadmap peace plan, the paper said. The lion’s share of the new homes — 2,100 — are scheduled for construction in the largest West Bank settlement — Maale Adumim just east of Jerusalem, which is already home to more than 20,000 settlers, Yediot said. The building work planned there by the Israel Lands Authority would require the eviction of several bedouin families.

“Israel is preparing to pull out of the Gaza Strip but is strengthening its hold on the West Bank,” the daily crowed, in reference to promises made by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon when he pushed his controversial disengagement plan through cabinet earlier this week.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has accepted an unprecedented invitation from Tunisian President Zine El Abidin Ben Ali to visit the north African country, his office said yesterday, amid a renewed Israeli diplomatic push in the Arab world. “The prime minister received a letter inviting him to attend a conference in Tunisia on scientific cooperation and plans to make the visit,” a source in Sharon’s office said.

He said the letter came personally from Ben Ali and Tunisia officials later confirmed the invitation. A spokesman for Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, who originally hails from Tunisia, said the premier’s visit “could pave the way for a new era of relations between the two countries.” He said the matter was brought up earlier this week in a telephone conversation between Shalom and his Tunisian counterpart Abdelbaki Hermassi.

Tunisian officials later played down Sharon’s attendance at the second World Summit on the Information Society, saying it was “an international summit to which every country in the world is invited”. — AFP

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