Israel built 9,000 homes on occupied land

[LRE]

* Israeli groups urge US pressure on Tel Aviv to stop settlement expansion
* Israel says it shares water fairly with Palestinians

RAMALLAH: Israel’s previous government built or issued bids for some 9,000 homes for Israelis in Jerusalem and the West Bank, despite its promise to pursue a peace deal with the Palestinians, settlement monitors said Monday, summarising Ehud Olmert’s three years as prime minister.

The Israeli watchdog groups Peace Now and Ir Amim urged President Barack Obama to step in quickly and pressure Israel’s new prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to halt further settlement expansion, particularly in the areas of Jerusalem which the Palestinians want for their future capital. “The more time the international community and the Obama administration will require to generate a political process, the more adamant they need to be to save Israel from itself, because we are losing the two-state solution,” said Daniel Seidemann of Ir Amim, a group that promotes coexistence in Jerusalem.

Netanyahu supports continued construction in settlements, opposes a division of Jerusalem and has not accepted the notion of a Palestinian state. His positions could lead to growing friction with the international community, though he has said he is reviewing policy. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas insisted Monday that a settlement freeze is a prerequisite for resuming peace talks with Israel. Abbas’ year of negotiations with Olmert ended inconclusively.

Abbas also rejected Israeli demands that Palestinians not only recognise the state of Israel - as Abbas and others have – but recognise Israel as a Jewish state. Since capturing the West Bank and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast War, Israel has built homes for about 470,000 Israelis there, including some 190,000 who moved to east Jerusalem.

Water sharing: Israel insisted on Tuesday that it shares water resources with Palestinians in a fair manner, rejecting World Bank claims that it draws more than its quota from the common aquifer. The foreign ministry said that Palestinians have access to twice as much water as the 23.6 million cubic metres they are allocated annually under an agreement with Israel. “Israel has fulfilled all its obligations regarding the supply of water to the Palestinians, and has even extensively surpassed the obligatory quantity,” it said in a statement. “The Palestinians, on the other hand, have significantly violated their commitments under the water agreement,” it said, adding that Palestinians had drilled 250 wells without authorisation and allowed raw sewage to flow into streams. In a report on April 20, the World Bank noted the “highly disparate availability of water resources.” It said the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the blockaded Gaza Strip were totally dependent “on scarce water resources shared and largely controlled by Israel.” agencies

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