New settlements rile Israeli peace group

JERUSALEM, April 18 (UPI) -- Opponents of Israel's plan to build 100 new housing units in a West Bank settlement charge the project will deliver a deadly blow to the peace process.

Peace Now director Yaariv Oppenheimer says that, in order to appease settlers, the government is "torpedoing any chance of reaching a peace agreement," ynetnews.com reported Friday.

Oppenheimer was responding to the issuance of bids by the Housing and Construction Ministry for the construction of new housing units in the West Bank settlements of Ariel and Elkana.

Housing Minister Ze'ev Boim said the structures in Elkana are intended to replace units that were constructed when the settlement was first established some 25 years ago, the Haaretz newspaper reported.

"Peace Now's ideology is not new, and from their point of view construction in Jerusalem, in its municipal boundaries, is also 'settlement building,'" the minister said.

Peace Now is Israel's largest anti-settlement group that promotes a platform of land-for-peace.