Netanyahu stakes territorial claim

ISRAEL’S prime minister declared yesterday that his country would retain parts of the West Bank forever – a statement that infuriated Palestinians and could complicate the year-old peace mission of a visiting US envoy.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid claim to disputed territory just hours after meeting with George Mitchell, the Obama administration’s Middle East envoy. Mitchell has been shuttling between Israeli and Palestinian leaders since late last week in hopes of breaking a deadlock over construction in Israeli settlements.

“Our message is clear: We are planting here, we will stay here, we will build here, this place will be an inseparable part of the state of Israel for eternity,” Netanyahu proclaimed at a tree-planting ceremony celebrating the Jewish arbor day at a settlement south of Jerusalem.

Netanyahu’s participation yesterday in tree-planting ceremonies in two West Bank settlements was an apparent attempt to soothe Jewish settlers who oppose his decision, taken under intense US pressure, to slow West Bank construction.

Both settlements lie within areas Israel wants to keep in any final agreement with the Palestinians.

“We are here and we will stay here and build here as part of sovereign Jerusalem,” he said.

On the eve of Mitchell’s arrival last week, Netanyahu said Israel would want to retain a presence in the West Bank even if a peace deal is reached.

The Palestinians claim all of the West Bank and east Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, for a future independent state and say settlements undermine this goal.