EU: Israeli settlement boom hurts peace

BRUSSELS, Jan. 12 (UPI) -- An Israeli West Bank settlement boom is closing the window on a two-state solution to Middle East peace and must be stopped, a European Union report said.

The internal report, cited by the British newspaper The Independent, said because of the settlement boom in a West Bank sector known as Area C, which includes all 124 Jewish settlements, the EU must protect the rights of "ever more isolated" Palestinians.

Israel, the Palestinian National Authority and the EU had no immediate comment on the report, which The Independent said was approved by top Brussels officials.

Area C -- created by the 1993 Oslo Accords as the largest of three West Bank and Gaza Strip administrative divisions -- was envisioned as temporary until a final status accord was established.

Area C, comprising some 59 percent of the West Bank, is under Israeli civil and security control, except over Palestinian civilians. It includes the territory's "most fertile and resource rich land," the EU report said.

Area A, representing about 17 percent of the West Bank, is under Palestinian civil and security control. Area B, occupying 24 percent of the territory, is under Palestinian civil control and joint Israeli-Palestinian security control. It includes many Palestinian towns and villages with no Israeli settlements.

But "if current trends [in Area C] are not stopped and reversed, the establishment of a viable Palestinian state within pre-1967 borders seems more remote than ever," the report said.

Area C's Israeli settler population has risen to 310,000, while the number of Palestinians has dropped to 150,000, the report said. In 1967, the number of Palestinians living in just the low-lying, agriculture-rich Jordan Valley part of the sector was 200,000 to 320,000, the report said.

Many of the Israeli settlements are not likely to be part of Israel after any two-state peace deal is reached, The New York Times reported.

U.S. President Barack Obama called last May for a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the creation of a non-militarized Palestinian state based on Israel's borders before the June 1967 war that led to Israel's West Bank and Gaza occupation, modified by land swaps.

"The window for a two-state solution is rapidly closing with the continued expansion of Israeli settlements and access restrictions for Palestinians in Area C, [which] compromises crucial natural resources and land for the future demographic and economic growth of a viable Palestinian state," the report said.

It called on the EU to be more vocal in raising objections to "involuntary [Palestinian] population movements, displacements, evictions and internal migration."

It also urged the EU to call on Israel to halt the building boom -- much of it done without permits, the report said -- and to stop Israeli developers from demolishing existing buildings to make room for new construction.

In addition, the report advised the EU to support the building of schools, clinics and vital public infrastructure, such as water supplies.