ISSUE:  Disregarding the obligations of the Road Map peace plan and requests from the Bush Administration, the Israeli Housing Ministry announced on October 23 that it is going to build 323 new homes in Jewish settlements in the West Bank.  Later in the day, the State Department spokesman responded: "Under the road map, Israel has made a commitment to stop settlement activity, and sticking to that commitment is important."  But on October 26, there was news that recently erected outposts would soon receive government services -- electricity and phone lines. Both the construction in settlements and the failure to dismantle outposts are violations of the Road Map peace plan.

Israel's settlement building was the topic of a recent Congressional hearing, for maybe the first time ever. On October 15, Senator Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) assembled a panel that included Dror Etkes, the director of Peace Now's Settlement Watch Project.  Chafee chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs subcommittee. Etkes urged the Senate to help stop Jewish settlement activity in the occupied territories and prevent Israel's "security fence" from cutting through the West Bank.

URGENT ACTION: Call the offices of your two Senators and speak to or leave a voice mail for the Senator's foreign policy aide with the message:

"Israel must stop settlement-building and must prevent the wall or security fence from taking West Bank land and destroying the chance for a viable Palestinian state. Before adjournment, the Senate should take action that furthers the chances for peace by asking Israel to cease settlement-building and construction of the security fence."

Call the Senate switchboard at 202-224-3121 to be connected to any Senate office. Be polite, succinct and close with "thank you," your name and city. 

BACKGROUND: The forecast is grim for either Congressional or Administrative action to press forward with the Road Map peace plan as the President and members of Congress are increasingly focused on reelection and the turmoil over postwar Iraq and the policies that led to the war. Nevertheless, the Road Map likely will be the framework for discussing the issues and policies until and unless a fresh initiative or catastrophic event compels the reengagement of the Administration. Some people hold hope that the soon-to-be-released Geneva Accords, negotiated by prominent Israelis and Palestinians acting in an unofficial capacity, will provide a new approach.  If so, that will take considerable time, during which the "facts-on-the-ground" will change for the worse.

The testimony of Mr. Dror Etkes informed the Senate with both opinion and fact. Excerpts follow; the full testimony can be read on www.peacenow.org

 October 15, 2003 before the Near East and South Asian Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by Mr. Dror Etkes, Director of Peace Now's Settlement Watch Project.

 "Let me be very clear: it is in Israel's own best interests to separate itself from settlements and the occupied territories that the settlers would have us bind to the state... Here are the basic facts: according to Israeli government sources, there are approximately 230,000 settlers today living in 145 settlements in the West Bank and Gaza considered official under Israeli law and over 120 settlement outposts established since 1996 without proper Israeli authorization (although not all of these outposts are still in existence since around 20 of them--mostly uninhabited--have been dismantled).  Roughly 7,000 settlers live in the Gaza Strip in 17 settlements, with the rest of the settler population living in West Bank communities. 

Although settlement construction covers only a tiny fraction of the occupied territories, Israel has expropriated approximately 50 percent of West Bank land, which has been taken over as 'state land,' seized for 'military purposes,' declared to be 'abandoned property,' or expropriated for 'public use.'  Further, settlements and the territory they control are often placed near Palestinian communities to deny them the opportunity to expand or among Palestinian population centers to break up their contiguity...

Therefore, President Bush is right to object to the route of the fence that Sharon is proposing.  As currently planned, this fence would clearly violate another Israeli obligation -- not to take actions that undermine trust, including confiscation and/or demolition of Palestinian homes and property.  Routing the fence so that it cuts off Palestinians from around half of their territory is certainly a confiscation of property, and it precludes a negotiated settlement, thereby undermining President Bush's vision of ending the occupation of 1967.  Official Israeli sources say that 85 percent of the land confiscated for the fence in just its first stage of construction was expropriated from Palestinians."
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The members of the Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee:

Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) Chair                Barbara Boxer (D-CA) Ranking
Chuck Hagel (R-NE)                          Jon S. Corzine (D-NJ)
Sam Brownback (R-KS)                     Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)
George Voinovich (R-OH)                   Paul Sarbanes (D-MD)
Norm Coleman (R-MN