Settlers count down to freeze’s end

In the hours before the West Bank building freeze expired, a settlers’ group laid the cornerstone of a new neighborhood.

Meanwhile, with the settlement construction freeze scheduled to end at midnight Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked settler leaders to keep a low profile.

A rally including a countdown to the end of the freeze sponsored by World Likud began Sunday afternoon in the northern West Bank settlement of Revava.

The event included the laying of the cornerstone for a new neighborhood in the settlement, as well as the foundation for a new preschool. Cement trucks, bulldozers and other earth-moving equipment were in place Sunday in Revava.

“We have decided that the best way to end the freeze is to begin building,” Danny Danon, deputy speaker of the Knesset and chair of the World Likud, said in a statement.

The Prime Minister’s Office approached Danon and other settler leaders asking them to avoid provocations and keep a low media profile as the moratorium on construction reached its final hours, Haaretz reported Sunday.

Israel, the United States and the Palestinian Authority have maintained ongoing contacts in the hours before the freeze’s expiration, according to reports.

Also Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told the BBC that there is a “50-50 chance” that Israel and the Palestinian Authority would reach a compromise on renewed settlement construction, and a better chance that the recently revived direct peace negotiations would succeed.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has said that he would walk away from the talks if Israel allows renewed construction in the West Bank.

Abbas on Sunday told the London-based Arabic newspaper Al Hayat that if the talks break down, his people would not resort to violence.

“We tried the intifada and it caused us a lot of damage,” he said.