Israeli Government tenders have been issued for the construction of 957 family housing units in the Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The Ministry of housing issued tenders for 76 land plots in Geva-Binyamin, 24 land plots and 315 apartments in the Givat Hazait neighborhood in Efrat, 244 apartments in Beitar Illit and 224 in Maale Edumim. Furthermore, the "Arim" governmental urban development corporation issued a tender for 74 land plots in Har Adar.
The original tenders can be viewed at: Housing Ministry, ( see original image).
Defense Minister Ben-Eliezer is directly responsible for this latest wave of settlement expansion. Every approval of construction in the settlements must have the personal signature of the DM to be rendered valid. These tenders are only the latest example of the immense amount of settlement construction underway with Ben-Eliezer's approval:
* Tenders for 810 housing units were issued in 2001, all of them under the Sharon - Ben-Eliezer administration.
* A Peace Now aerial survey recently revealed that between the February 2001 elections and February 2002, 34 new settlement sites were established throughout the West Bank. Nothing has been done to remove any of the sites and the process is continuing unabated.
* On April 23 of this year, a tender was published for the construction of 31 new housing units in Maale Edumim.
* In late April, for the first time, a permit was issued for the construction of 16 housing units in the extremely problematic settlement of Tel-Rumeida in Hebron.
* Also in late April, work began on a new project totaling 480 housing units spread over 400 dunams in the settlement of Elkana.
Moria Shlomot, Director of Peace Now: "Ben-Eliezer's conduct on this issue raises serious questions concerning his integrity. He recently presented his 'peace plan'. The plan is exceedingly dovish and envisions a two-state solution based on the 1967 border. Apparently, it is not worth the paper it is written on. Not only is Ben-Eliezer continuing to serve in a government whose policies contradict the fundamental grain of the plan, he is also approving construction in settlements which supposedly would be part of the Palestinian State.
By sponsoring massive settlement construction, Ben Eliezer, who would like to present himself as an alternative to Sharon, is once again proving that he is no better than the PM's and the settlers lackey. He is acting against the wishes of the vast majority of Israelis who support the dismantling of the settlements."
YellowTimes.org cannot claim that the preceding information is accurate. We have only printed information received from those who are on the front lines of this particular conflict. Copyright for this item belongs to the original author. YellowTimes.org encourages this material to be reproduced, reprinted, or broadcast provided that any such reproduction identifies the original source, along with a web link to YellowTimes.org.