Report on Israeli Settlement in the Occupied Territories

"The disengagement plan will go ahead without any postponements according to the dates that have been set, without a single day's delay from what the government decided."

The Bush Administration has retreated from engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Democratic challenger John Kerry has not offered an alternative. While predictable in an election year, this default increases the risks this bitter and unresolved conflict poses to U.S. national security.

"The Ministers took note of the immediate negative response by Israel to the Advisory Opinion [issued by the International Court of Justice at The Hague] and its defiant declarations to continue constructing the wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. The Ministers thus called for the following specific actions:

On August 17, State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli was asked if the U.S. considered Israeli plans for additional housing in Israeli settlements in the occupied territories to be inconsistent with Israeli pledges to freeze settlements.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is presiding over a wide-ranging program of settlement expansion in most areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as ground is broken on the thousands of units approved by Sharon and his immediate predecessor Ehud Barak.