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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas: ”We’re absolutely determined to press on”
The US state department has said it is “disappointed” by Israel’s decision not to extend its ban on settlement building in the West Bank.
The 10-month moratorium came to an end at midnight (2200 GMT on Sunday).
The UN, the EU and France all expressed disappointment at what Ban Ki-moon called Israel’s “provocative” actions.
Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas said he would respond to the decision after a meeting of Arab leaders in Cairo next Monday.
On Sunday, he had warned that direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks – renewed earlier this month – would be a “waste of time” unless the ban continued.
With peace negotiations in the balance, Mr Abbas is in a difficult position and he may be forced to compromise, says the BBC’s Jon Donnison in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
Under pressure from the United States, there are signs Palestinian negotiators may accept that the moratorium on building is not officially going to be extended, as long as no major construction takes place in the coming weeks and months, our correspondent adds.
On Monday, bulldozers started levelling ground for 50 homes in the settlement of Ariel in the northern West Bank, and similar activity was also reported in the settlements of Adam and Oranit. But construction work was reportedly slow because of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.
The state department praised what it called Mr Abbas’s restraint, adding that the US remained focused on the peace process’s long-term objectives.
No-one really knows if the peace talks are on the verge of collapse or if the intense pressure of American mediators can find a way of allowing them to continue.
That a formal or tacit compromise over the vexed issue of building in the settlements wasn’t reached before Sunday night’s deadline speaks volumes for the gulf between Israel and the Palestinians on some major issues.
If they get past this, other issues – such as security, Palestinian refugees and borders – await.
Just as Benjamin Netanyahu was under intense pressure from his own right wing not to extend the settlement freeze, Mahmoud Abbas is coming under almost intolerable strain from his constituents who feel the Palestinians have, quite literally, given too much ground without getting anything in return.
In the coming days a meeting of the PLO’s executive committee may make it clear to Mr Abbas that he can no longer remain in the talks, as building (however symbolic) resumes in Jewish settlements.
The US Middle East envoy, former Senator George Mitchell, would return to the region in an attempt to break the negotiations deadlock, a state department spokesman said.
“We will have further conversations with key countries in the coming days and we hope that the Arab League meeting will continue to affirm its support for the process,” said the spokesman, PJ Crowley.
Speaking at a Paris press conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Mr Abbas said he would discuss the settlement issue with Palestinian negotiators in Ramallah on Wednesday, and the 22-member Arab League in Cairo next Monday.
“After all these meetings we may be able to issue a position to clarify what is the Palestinian and Arab opinion on this matter, after Israel has refused to freeze settlements,” he said.
Mr Sarkozy said he deplored Israel’s failure to extend the freeze, adding he would tell Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu in a scheduled telephone conversation that he had to do more.
As the moratorium expired, Mr Netanyahu called on the Palestinians to continue peace talks, which recently resumed after a 20-month pause and have the strong backing of US President Barack Obama.
He made no direct mention of the issue of the settlement freeze, but maintained that it was possible “to achieve a historic framework accord within a year”.
“Israel is ready to pursue continuous contacts in the coming days to find a way to continue peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority,” he said.
He had earlier urged settlers “to display restraint and responsibility”.
Some Jewish settlers celebrated the end of the construction ban. At the settlement of Revava, near the Palestinian town of Deir Itsia, they released balloons and broke ground for a new nursery school before the moratorium expired.
With peace negotiations in the balance, Mr Abbas is in a difficult position and he may be forced to compromise, says the BBC’s Jon Donnison in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
Under pressure from the United States, there are signs Palestinian negotiators may accept the moratorium on building is not officially going to be extended, as long as no major construction takes place in the coming weeks and months, our correspondent adds.
On Monday, bulldozers started levelling ground for 50 homes in the settlement of Ariel in the northern West Bank, and similar activity was also reported in the settlements of Adam and Oranit. But construction work was reportedly slow because of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.
It is estimated that about 2,000 housing units in the West Bank already have approval and settler leaders said they planned to resume construction as soon as possible.
The partial moratorium on new construction was agreed by Israel in November 2009 under pressure from Washington.
It banned construction in the West Bank, but never extended the ban to settlements in East Jerusalem.
US President Barack Obama has urged Israel to extend the moratorium, saying it “made a difference on the ground, and improved the atmosphere for talks”.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the Middle East war of 1967, settling some 500,000 Jews in more than 100 settlements which are held to be illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this. About 2.5 million Palestinians live in the West Bank.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.