"We live here because this is our land," the 40-year-old Jewish settler and father of five said. "How can it be that the only place in the world where a Jew cannot build a house is Judaea, the birthplace of the Jewish people?"

Sunday's expected end of a moratorium on new West Bank settler homes has been the subject of intense negotiations in recent weeks and threatens to upend peace talks relaunched on September 2 after a 20-month hiatus.

The Palestinians view the presence of 500,000 Israelis in more than 120 settlements across the occupied West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem as a major threat to their establishment of a viable state in the territories occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.

They have threatened to walk out of the talks if building resumes, and US President Barack Obama has led a chorus of international calls for Israel to extend the partial ban.

But on this hilltop settlement in the southern West Bank, where some 1,500 Israelis live in neat rows of red-roofed homes, settlers are preparing the ground for construction and hoping Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds firm in his vow to let the moratorium expire.

"I hope that construction will finally resume," Haskin said, adding that his community hopes to one day build an additional 800 homes, including 180 in the next few years.

"The building of houses in Judaea and Samaria is not the problem," he said, using the biblical name for the occupied West Bank. Tekoa is believed to be the birthplace of the Jewish prophet Amos in the 8th century BC.

"The real question is whether the Palestinians are ready to recognise the existence of a Jewish state," he said. "Netanyahu is determined to resume construction as he promised."

Netanyahu's own rightwing Likud and other pro-settler parties in the coalition have demanded he resist pressure to extend the moratorium, warning that such a move could threaten his political future.

"In what other country would a political leader be prevented from building his home by his own government," said Zeev Elkin, a Likud member of parliament who bought land in Kfar Eldad, a cluster of mobile homes near Tekoa.

Elkin is living on the site, waiting for the building restrictions to expire.

"This is not a personal problem, but a problem for the state of Israel, which cannot continue to deprive its citizens of the basic right to build on their own land."

Many settlers have meanwhile ignored the ban, continuing to erect structures that are sometimes dismantled by the military.

"Whatever happens, we will continue to build, with or without authorisation," said Danny Halamish, one of the founders of Maale Rehavam, an outpost near Tekoa built in violation of Israeli law.

The international community considers all settlements illegal.

Having lived in the West Bank since 2001, Halamish insists he is not worried about one day being asked to leave as part of a peace agreement.

"For the past 10 years they have been asking how I would respond if I were expelled. It doesn't prevent me from building," the father of three said with a smile.

Since the moratorium began on November 25, 2009 hundreds of families who had obtained permits to build have had to wait 10 months to commence work.

Others who managed to break ground before the ban came into effect were allowed to proceed under a loophole in the moratorium that permits the construction of public buildings and housing projects already under way.

"We have hundreds of families who are waiting for authorisation to finally build, and it is time that this farce, which did not contribute anything to anybody, comes to an end," said Shaul Goldstein, the head of the regional council for the Gush Etzion settlement bloc south of Jerusalem.

"Netanyahu is my prime minister, not the Americans, and we voted for his programme, not for Obama," adds Goldstein, who also serves on the Likud's central committee.

For Elkin, who serves as the majority whip in the government, "construction will resume on September 26 as the government decided by a strong majority."

"In any case, Netanyahu will not survive politically if he is not capable of resisting American pressure," he adds.

earlier related report
Israeli settlements: 'Facts on the ground' since 1967
Jerusalem (AFP) Sept 23, 2010 - The building of Israeli settlements, which threatens to derail US-backed peace talks, has infuriated Palestinians and the wider Arab world since it began more than 40 years ago.

The Palestinians view the presence of a half million Israelis in more than 120 settlements scattered across the occupied West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem as a threat to the establishment of their future state.

The international community, including Israel's closest ally the United States, considers the settlements illegal, but they have expanded under every Israeli government since the occupation began in June 1967.

Within months after Israel seized during the Six Day War the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem -- lands now expected to form a Palestinian state -- work began on the first settlement of Gush Etzion near Jerusalem.

Leaders of the settler movement view the West Bank and east Jerusalem as an integral part of the "Land of Israel" which God gave to the Jews and see the settlements as "facts on the ground" to prevent any withdrawal.

The settler population has nearly tripled since the launch of the Oslo peace process in 1993, with encouragement from right-wing leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In 2005 former premier Ariel Sharon, widely known as the "father of the settler movement," championed a new strategy of limited, unilateral withdrawal and evacuated all 8,000 settlers from Gaza.

Netanyahu, whose Likud party and governing coalition are dominated by settler supporters, has said he is willing to discuss settlements as a final status issue.

But last November Netanyahu imposed, under US pressure, a partial 10-month moratorium on West Bank settlement building.

The restrictions are due to expire Sunday.

The Palestinians have warned they will quit the talks if construction resumes. Netanyahu has hinted he will let the moratorium expire but curb major projects.

The settlements range from clusters of mobile homes on remote hilltops to modern suburbs with shopping malls, apartment blocks and swimming pools. The largest, Maale Adumim outside Jerusalem, has more than 30,000 residents.

Most of the settler population lives was attracted by the quality of life more than ideological considerations.

A hardline minority frequently clashes with Palestinians and have vowed to resist any effort by Israel to evacuate settlers from the West Bank.

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