International Panel Calls for Freeze in Israeli Settlements

Issuing a report on Israeli-Palestinian fighting, a commission led by former U.S. Sen. George J. Mitchell of Maine said Friday that Israel should freeze settlement construction, but it did not recommend sending an international force to the region.

Diplomatic sources in Washington said the panel blamed neither Israelis nor Palestinians directly for igniting confrontations more than seven months ago.

One section of the document called for a complete freeze on Jewish settlement construction. In Washington, diplomatic sources said the commission also was calling for a halt to new Jewish settlements.

U.S. officials handed the draft to both sides in brief meetings in Tel Aviv and the West Bank city of Ramallah. Israel and the Palestinians have until May 15 to respond before final publication.

The report was drawn up by an international commission led by Mitchell and formed under an Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire pact brokered by the United States in October but never implemented.

Israeli Cabinet Minister Danny Naveh declined to discuss the contents. But Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed-Rabbo said it included “a firm and clear rejection of all settlement activity, including what [the Israelis] call natural growth.”

Israel has said it will not build new settlements but will permit more construction to accommodate population growth--a position that critics of the settlement policy say amounts to continued settlement expansion.

A Palestinian official who saw the document said the commission urged both sides to implement the U.S.-brokered truce and resume peace talks.