Sharon vows to continue West Bank expansion

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed to continue the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Sharon's remarks came after Israel completed its historic withdrawal from all 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip as well as four other enclaves in the northern West Bank.

"There will be building in the settlement blocs," The Jerusalem Post cited Sharon as saying.

The Post said Sharon was referring to the expansion of large West Bank settlements such as the Ma'aleh Adumim in east Jerusalem.

He also said that the Ariel settlement, at the heart of the West Bank will "remain a part of Israel forever, connected territorially to Israel."

"Each government since 1967, right, left and national unity, has seen strategic importance in specific areas [in the occupied territories] I will build," Sharon said.

Referring to Israel's "E-1" plan that would link Ma'ale Adumim to Jerusalem, and which the Palestinians say would split the West Bank in two, Sharon said, “this will not cause the cutting-off of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank). Solutions can be found.”

"Road map"

The Post also said that "Sharon was obviously aware that the road map called for a freeze of all settlement construction, and was cognizant that this construction could put Israel on a collision course with both the U.S. and Europe.”

The roadmap peace plan demands Israel to stop the expansion of West Bank settlements and calls for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

But the new expansion plan will kill the territorial and political contiguity of the West Bank by isolating Jerusalem from the West Bank as well as separating the West Bank southern and northern parts from each other.

"No further withdrawals"

The Prime Minister also pledged that there will be no further unilateral withdrawals from the occupied territories, stressing that the he would never agree to evacuate more West Bank settlements.

"This is something you will be able to see in a short time, that there will be no second disengagement," he said.

Sharon's comments come as he faces serious challenge to his leadership of the main governing Likud party from former finance minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who opposes the Gaza withdrawal, in the run-up to next year's general election.

However, a recent poll showed that Sharon regained significant levels of support since the start of the disengagement plan. It found that 36% of Likud members back Sharon to remain as a leader while 28% supported Netanyahu.

An earlier poll gave Netanyahu 42% rating to Sharon's 27%.

"Largest settlement expansion"

Meanwhile, Palestinian sources confirmed that Israel has already started its largest ever settlement expansion in the West Bank and seized an area larger than the Gaza Strip to enlarge the settlement of Ma'ale Adumim.

"Under the smokescreen of withdrawing from the Gaza (Strip) settlements, Sharon is undertaking the largest ever settlement expansion in the West Bank on an area of land larger than the Gaza Strip,” Palestinian lawyer Mohammad Dahlah said.

Dahlah also said that Israeli occupation authorities already delivered new military orders to Palestinian residents in the West Bank to confiscate 62 thousand dunums of their land in addition to 1585 dunums of the privately-owned Palestinian land in the villages of AtTour, Aza’yyem, Eastern Sawahira and east Jerusalem, which were seized to construct Israel's separation barrier in the same area.

Dahlah, who represents the Palestinians whose land were confiscated, said he will challenge the Israeli military orders before the Israeli courts.

“It is not a coincidence to begin this settlement plan at a time Sharon is completing the pullout from the Gaza Strip,” he said.