ISRAELI DEFENCE minister Ehud Barak yesterday signed permits for the construction of 455 new housing units in West Bank settlements, in a move condemned by the Palestinians as undermining Israel’s credibility as a peace partner.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat warned that the Israeli move “nullifies any effect that a settlement freeze, when and if announced, will have.” The new homes will be built in six settlements, mostly near Jerusalem, and all in the larger settlement blocs which Israel hopes to keep under the terms of a future peace agreement. Following yesterday’s move, Israel is expected to agree to a limited moratorium on future settlement building in talks with US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, due in Israel on Saturday.
However, the construction freeze will not include the building of some 2,500 units already under way at West Bank settlements.
The approval of the 455 new units has taken the steam out of right-wing opposition to a construction freeze, including from within prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party.
However, the announcement was criticised by both settlers and opposition parties.
Settlers’ leaders condemned the small amount of housing units approved, noting that most were for permits granted in the past and then frozen.
Danny Dayan, the head of the settlers’ council, indicated that activists will find ways to circumvent any moratorium. “You can’t freeze a living body. What will happen now is an increase in activity on the ground. The settlements will not sustain a freeze.”
Tzipi Livni, head of the opposition, criticised the attempt to combine construction with a building freeze as duplicitous and an attempt by the government to buy time.
Ms Livni likened the move to building an igloo in the summer.