MIDDLE EAST: Releasing statistics that underlined the distance between rhetoric and reality, the Israeli government yesterday stated that it began building 35 per cent more homes at Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza in 2003 than in 2002, writes David Horovitz in Jerusalem
The upsurge in housing starts in the territories, moreover, came as overall construction in Israel slowed to a 14-year low, with 8 per cent fewer homes started nationwide in 2003 compared to 2002. Work was begun on some 1,850 homes at settlements in 2003, compared to 1,370 in 2002. An estimated 250,000 Jews live in the settlements, among some three million Palestinians.
The increase in building at the settlements conflicts starkly with recent declarations of intent by Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has indicated that he will dismantle most of the settlements in the Gaza Strip and sees no long-term future for any Jewish residents there, and has also said he will remove some settlements in the West Bank, to enable Israel to deploy behind more efficient security lines.
Left-wing Knesset members claimed yesterday that the 2003 figures proved that Housing Minister Effie Eitam, who heads the pro-settlement National Religious Party in the governing coalition, was stubbornly channelling funds to settlement expansion, even though such money was "going down the drain," as one member of the left-wing Meretz opposition party put it.
A spokesman for Mr Eitam countered that the ministry approved building wherever there was demand.