Report on Israeli Settlement in the Occupied Territories

The streets of East Jerusalem's commercial center begin to empty in mid-afternoon, as the workday ends and people return to their homes. By evening, when Ramallah, Nablus, and Gaza are teeming with people strolling the sidewalks, chatting on street corners, and dining in restaurants, Jerusalem's main thoroughfare, Salaheddin Street, is as quiet as a graveyard. Hardly a soul can be seen along the road's shuttered shops. The coffeehouses are all but empty, the few restaurants filled with foreigners. Apart from an occasional Israeli patrol, the alleys of the Old City nearby are deserted.

Some weeks ago Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat exclaimed in frustration, "I don't know what Netanyahu wants."

Well, now he does. Publication of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's "secret" map for the division of the West Bank between Israel and the Palestinians clearly establishes Netanyahu's preferences as he pushes the Oslo process into addressing the core problems of Jerusalem, settlements, water, and refugees. The map says nothing about the hapless Gaza Strip, where Israel remains in control of 30 percent of the territory.

U.S. legislation enacted in 1992 for the provision of loan guarantees to Israel instructs the president to report annually to Congress on issues related to Israel's settlement policies and economic conditions. This reporting requirement continues despite the completion of the disbursement of loan guarantees in the current fiscal year. The information below is excerpted from annual reports on the loan guarantee to Israel program and is current for the month of August in the indicated years.

On April 27, 1997, the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharanot published interviews conducted by correspondent Rami Tal with former minister of defense Moshe Dayan in 1976. The following are excerpts from these interviews, which Dayan had requested not be published without his permission.

The headline in the Israeli mass market daily Yediot Aharanot on May 1 exclaimed: "In the Territories: Lots of Building--The Construction Craze in Judea and Samaria Once Again Begins a Stepped-Up Pace."

A new twist was added to U.S. settlement policy during the May round of negotiations conducted by U.S. Special Middle East Coordinator Dennis Ross...