The Arab League is meeting Friday to discuss direct talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. League members are expected to back PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in his refusal to meet Israeli leaders as long as they allow Jews to build homes in Judea and Samaria.
Abbas and the Arab League agreed to negotiate with previous Prime Minister Ehud Olmert while construction in Judea and Samaria continued. However, ever since Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu froze building in the area for 10 months, Abbas has insisted that the freeze must continue or talks will end.
Abbas demands that construction for Jews end even in cities considered to be “within the consensus,” that is, large Israeli towns in Judea and Samaria that have been included as part of Israel in every previous peace proposal. He has also demanded that construction stop in parts of Jerusalem, claiming that the parts of the city occupied by Jordan from 1948 to 1967 should be given to the PA as the capital of a future Arab state.
Most Israelis opposed the construction freeze and support renewed building in Judea and Samaria. Construction is allowed for Jews only within the city limits of existing Jewish communities.
Minister Silvan Shalom (Likud) expressed regret over the construction freeze on Thursday at a mass rally for Israel in Rome. Israel declared a freeze in order to encourage peace talks, but instead, the freeze undermined negotiation efforts, he said.
No Israeli government declared a construction freeze in the past, he said, and yet negotiations were held and agreements such as the Wye accords and Hebron accords were reached. The construction freeze made talks harder by drawing attention away from more central issues and giving PA leaders an excuse to drop out of talks while blaming Israel, he said.
PA leaders have faced opposition from within over negotiations with Israel. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and PFLP, large terrorist groups with a significant presence in Judea and Samaria, all oppose the talks.
A recent poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found that 66% of PA Arabs want Abbas to pull out of direct talks. Only 30% said they support negotiations with Israel. Opposition to talks was strongest in Judea and Samaria, where 68% of Arabs hoped to see an end to negotiations.