Israel provokes Palestinians with another 900 settler homes: reports

Reports of approvals for another 900 East Jerusalem homes come just a day after the approval of 1,200 more Jewish homes on occupied land, and cast a further shadow on Palestinian peace talks that resume in Jerusalem tomorrow.

The mother (left) of Palestinian prisoner Ateya Abu Moussa (pictured in poster on the left), who has been held by Israel for 20 years, hugs her sister after hearing news on her son’s expected release.

Ramallah // Israel provoked yet more Palestinian anger yesterday by authorising 900 new settler homes in the West Bank.

The plans come a day after the approval of 1,200 more Jewish homes on occupied land and cast a further shadow on Palestinian peace talks that resume in Jerusalem tomorrow.

The homes approved yesterday will be built in East Jerusalem near the Palestinian village of Beit Jala, Israel's Channel 10 News reported last night. They were authorised as Israel published the names of 26 Palestinian prisoners to be released today as part of a US-brokered deal that led to the resumption of peace negotiations.

Israel will free 104 of the longest-held prisoners in four stages over the course of the talks, which have a nine-month deadline.

Israel's prison service posted the 26 names online yesterday to allow two days for possible court appeals.

Twenty-one in the group were convicted of killings, and others were involved in attempted murder or kidnapping.

Half the prisoners on the list had no given release date, meaning they were serving life sentences, and others would have been released in a few years without the special deal. Most have already served about 20 years, with the longest-held arrested in 1985.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians have spent time in Israeli prisons on security charges since Israel's occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem in 1967. They are jailed on charges ranging from throwing rocks to killing civilians in bombing and shooting attacks.

Most Palestinians view prisoners as heroes, regardless of their acts, and argue they made personal sacrifices in the struggle for independence.

Many Israelis view those involved in the killings as terrorists.

The Palestinians argued that the prisoners carried out their acts at a time of outright conflict, before Israel and the Palestinians struck their first interim peace agreement in 1994. They said Israel should have released the prisoners long ago, as part of previous peace talks.

Kadoura Fares, who heads a prisoners' advocacy group, said he was disappointed some of the longest-held among the 104 were not in the first group set for release.

The US expects an agreement within nine months on the terms of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, including drawing a border, agreeing on security arrangements and deciding the fate of Palestinian refugees.

The Palestinians want a state that includes the territories Israel captured in 1967.

The diplomatic paralysis of the past five years was largely because of disputes over the construction of Israeli settlements in areas the Palestinians want for a future state.

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, dropped a settlement freeze as a condition for talks in exchange for Israeli agreement to release the Palestinians.

* With Associated Press