美国国家公共电台 NPR Palestinians Eye Israeli Settlements With Unease, Hoping For Foreign Support

SCOTT SIMON, HOST: 

We're going to hear now about what some Palestinians thought of the debate this week over Israeli settlements. The U.S. decided 1 not to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning 2 settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Secretary of State Kerry said that territory is up for negotiation 3 and that settlements jeopardize 4 chances for peace. Israeli leaders responded angrily. NPR's Daniel Estrin spoke 5 to some Palestinians with a close-up view of the issue.

DANIEL ESTRIN, BYLINE 6: I met Jad Isaac in the Palestinian city of Bethlehem. He runs a research institute for sustainable development. His office faces a hill covered in rows of homes - a Jewish settlement. It's one of the reasons Isaac listened closely to what John Kerry said in his speech this week.

JAD ISAAC: Frankly 7, I was very happy hearing it.

ESTRIN: Kerry warned in his speech that continued Israeli settlement construction would make it impossible for Palestinians to ever have a sovereign state. Isaac sees this possibility unfolding before his eyes every day through his window.

ISAAC: Look, look, here, here, here. This is Har Homa.

ESTRIN: Har Homa is an Israeli settlement on land captured in 1967, now home to nearly 20,000 Israelis. Israel considers it a neighborhood of Jerusalem, but it looks close enough to be a neighborhood of Bethlehem. Isaac pointed 8 out construction cranes and showed me a map of new areas being built.

ISAAC: There is another one here, another one here. You can see it's not done haphazardly 9. The intention is to form a wall of settlements to totally segregate 10 Jerusalem from Bethlehem.

ESTRIN: Meaning, it would stand between Bethlehem and the city Palestinians claim as their future capital. President-elect Donald Trump 11 is expected to be supportive of Jewish settlements. Isaac hopes other world powers will get involved to restart peace talks.

ISAAC: The United States cannot be the only broker 12 for the negotiations 13, and we want a well-defined timeline.

ESTRIN: He echoes what Palestinian officials have been saying in recent days. They'd like to bypass the Trump administration and have the international community lead peace talks. Next month, some 70 countries are expected to meet in Paris. They could use the U.N. resolution that deems Israeli settlements illegal to help define the terms of the talks. For its part, Israel says settlements are not the root of the conflict. Israel blames Palestinian violence and rejection 14 of a Jewish state, and it stresses Jewish ties to the land, going back to the Bible. Meanwhile, some Palestinians think it's already too late to create a Palestinian state.

RANA SALMAN: Because it's too complicated now with the facts on the ground, with the Israeli settlements within the West Bank. Geographically 15, it doesn't make any sense.

ESTRIN: Rana Salman is a travel agent who lives around the corner from Isaac's institute. She also has a front-row seat overlooking the Har Homa settlement. She looks at Israeli roads, checkpoints and buildings throughout the West Bank and doesn't believe the two sides can be separated. She'd like Israelis and Palestinians to live together in one state.

And what would that one state be called?

SALMAN: I don't care now about the name, more about human rights for everyone, equal rights and living in dignity for everyone.

ESTRIN: John Kerry spoke about this in his speech, too. He said if Israel becomes one state for Jews and Arabs, it can either be Jewish or Democratic. It cannot be both. Daniel Estrin, NPR News, Bethlehem.