Comments on Jewish settlements by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the World Economic Forum (WEF) prove once again that he is not at all keen for a peace deal with the Palestinians. At the WEF gathering in Davos, Netanyahu insisted Israel would not evacuate Jewish settlements built on occupied land the Palestinians want for their future state. Reacting to Netanyahu’s comments, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said yesterday that it was clear that Netanyahu was against the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Israel’s settlements, which are illegal under international law, are a key sticking point that is preventing peace talks from making any visible progress.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has cautioned that a breakdown in the talks he has tirelessly promoted for the past six months might lead to a third Palestinian uprising.

The Palestinians say they are ready to shift their battle for an independent state on land Israel occupied  in the 1967 Middle East war to the International Criminal Court if the negotiations prove fruitless.

A handful of diplomats still remain hopeful Kerry will defy the pessimists and secure at least a framework deal in the coming weeks to allow detailed talks to continue beyond the original nine-month deadline, which expires on April 29.

But, still far apart on so many core issues including borders, security, the right of return for Palestinian refugees and the future status of Jerusalem, many Palestinians and Israelis share the view that the talks are not going anywhere.

Since talks started last July, Israel has unveiled plans to build some 5,349 new homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem - land the Palestinians want for their future state.

The European Union’s ambassador to Israel, Lars Faaborg-Andersen, has warned over the settlement expansion.

A Dutch pension fund said this month it was divesting from five Israeli banks because of their work in the settlements, while a large Dutch utility severed ties with Israel’s national water company because of its West Bank activities.

Tawfiq Tirawi, a senior member of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement, said in a TV interview last week that Palestinians would not win independence even in 20 years and called for “resistance in all of its forms”.  Asked to explain, he said: “Steadfastness is also resistance, negotiations are also a form of resistance, but there must be something on the ground as well ... weapons, popular resistance, there are hundreds of ways to resist.”

Once unleashed, violence will be hard to contain.

The breakdown of previous, US-brokered peace talks in July 2000 is seen as a major factor behind the outbreak of the second Palestinian Intifada (uprising) just two months later. The revolt lasted more than four years, killing more than 4,000 Palestinians and 1,000 Israelis.