Erekat: Israel offered halt in settlements

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat claimed Friday that Israel offered to halt a limited amount of construction work in West Bank settlements in an effort to find a way to restart peace negotiations.

Erekat said the offer came last month through a foreign envoy who conveyed a message from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but noted that the Palestinians dismissed it because it applied only to government construction, while most settlement building is done by private contractors, said Hagit Ofran of Peace Now, an anti-settlement Israeli watchdog. "If Netanyahu wants to resume negotiations, he has to say that settlement building will stop. Either it stops or it doesn't stop," Erekat said. (AP)