Foreign Minister Sharon was queried about a statement he made on 15 November in which he urged Jewish settlers in the West Bank to expand settlements. He replied that Israel was not creating new settlements, but expanding existing ones, which was permissible under the Oslo agreements...Text:
...Question: The Wye agreement in Article 5, bans unilateral actions by either side, pending a final-status agreement. How do you define "expansion of settlements" as being "not unilateral"?
Foreign Minister Sharon: The Israeli government made it very, very clear that as long as we have not reached a permanent agreement, Israel will not build new settlements or communities in Samaria and Judea. We made this very clear. And that is what we are doing. We are not establishing any new settlements. At the same time, there was a very clear government resolution demanding the strengthening, building, developing of existing settlements - that is the line of the government, and that is exactly what we are doing. It was a very clear Cabinet decision. That's what we have done, and that's what we are doing.
As a matter of fact, not in the Oslo agreement and not in Wye agreement was even one word written about adding population to existing settlements. At the same time, because you ask what I will regard to be unilateral, I would say declaration of a Palestinian state - that is something which is all-out against the agreement. Therefore, we of course advise and recommend the Palestinians all the time not to take any unilateral steps.
Question: Could I just follow it up? Your recent statement about urging the settlers to take advantage of time to build and expand on the hilltops - does that still represent the Israeli government policies?
Foreign Minister Sharon: Look, I admit that maybe it's not exactly a diplomatic expression of a Minister of Foreign Affairs. But I want to give you an answer. I said that once I heard the Palestinian Authority Chairman calling to use guns, and I saw that in order to avoid the danger of using guns, the best thing might be just to hold in our hands those hills that control those Jewish communities. All that - and that has been said very clearly - is within the master plan of those towns and settlements; not beyond that, and without any expropriation of private land to state-owned land, and that is exactly what has been done.
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