REVAVA SETTLEMENT, Palestinian Territories: Jewish settlers in the West Bank signalled their determination to renew building on Sunday as a settlement freeze expired, despite diplomatic efforts to defuse a crisis facing renewed peace talks.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fended off intense international pressure, allowing a settlement freeze to expire at midnight, but urged Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas not to abandon peace talks in protest.
"I call on president Abbas to continue with the good and honest talks we have just embarked upon, in an attempt to reach a historic peace agreement between our two peoples," Netanyahu said in a statement early Monday, minutes after allowing the 10-month partial moratorium on settlement construction to lapse.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, who until now had vowed to abandon peace talks if Israel resumes building, stepped back from the brink, telling AFP in Paris he would meet top Arab diplomats on October 4 before deciding his next move.
According to Abbas' spokeman, the president wants to continue the negotiations on the account that Netanyahu must take a decision to freeze the settlements in order to create an appropriate atmosphere to proceed with the peace talks.
"If Israel does not continue the settlement freeze, the peace process will be a waste of time," Abbas told Jewish leaders in Paris, hours before the Israeli 10-month partial moratorium was set to end.
The statement from Netanyahu did not directly mention the settlement freeze, but acknowledged a flurry of diplomatic activity aimed at saving the fledgling peace process.
The Israeli Prime Minister also sought to calm tensions, urging settlers to display "restraint and responsibility" once the moratorium expires.
US President Barack Obama's top policy adviser said that Washington was still hopeful of brokering some kind of compromise over the end of the ban on new building in the occupied West Bank.
"We are going to urge and urge, and push throughout this day to get some kind of resolution," David Axelrod told ABC News. "These talks themselves are absolutely crucial -- we're at a critical juncture in that region.
"We think it's essential that they keep on moving forward... and we're hopeful that they will."
Meanwhile on the ground, around 2,000 people, including hundreds from Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party and a large contingent of flag-waving evangelical Christians, flooded into Revava settlement in the northern West Bank for a rally marking the end of the freeze.
Standing in front of a stage draped with a huge banner emblazoned with the slogan "We salute the pioneers of Judaea and Samaria," the crowds counted down from 10 to zero as the sun set over the rugged hills.
"The freeze is over," shouted Likud hardliner Danny Danon to roars of approval.
"And I say to Netanyahu: we support your decision to end the freeze," he added.
Earlier, settlers laid the cornerstone for a new nursery school in the nearby settlement of Kiryat Netafim in an event organised by Danon, a political hardliner but not a settler himself.
Settler officials had earlier told AFP the aim was to return to business as usual -- quietly.
"The key is to return to normality -- to continue construction across all of Judaea and Samaria," said Danny Dayan, head of the Yesha settler council.
"We don't want demonstrations, we don't want to make noise, we just want to get back to normal."
Before the rally, Netanyahu's office issued a statement calling on "the residents of Judaea and Samaria and all political players to display restraint and responsibility today and further along the way."
Although construction of a new neighbourhood in Revava was expected to begin during the evening, officials were cagey about the specifics.
"We are getting back to business as usual and building but we will respect the prime minister's request," said David Ha'ivri, head of the Samaria regional council.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, settler sources told AFP they had been given the nod from the premier's office to start building -- but on condition they "don't make a big deal of it."
The freeze is generally accepted to end at midnight, when the settlers will be able to begin work on 13,000 new housing units, settlement watchdog Peace Now said.
Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian land is one of the most bitter aspects of the conflict. Currently, around 500,000 Israelis live in more than 120 settlements across the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories the Palestinians want for their promised state.
Although there was little to indicate a compromise was in the offing, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak told the BBC he was optimistic the direct talks that resumed at the beginning of the month would survive.
"I think that the chance of achieving a mutually-agreed understanding about moratorium is 50-50. I think that the chances of having a peace process is much higher," he said.
As the freeze entered its remaining hours, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat and his Israeli counterpart Yitzhak Molcho remained in the United States where they are believed to be working to secure a compromise deal.
A previous round of direct talks collapsed in December 2008 when Israel launched a war on the Gaza Strip aimed at halting rocket attacks.
AFP/fa
