OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 16 June 2004 — Israel is considering a massive program of construction work in major West Bank settlement blocs in order to house settlers who are to be forced to leave the Gaza Strip, the Maariv daily reported yesterday.
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz had ordered the Israeli military authorities administering the occupied territories to submit within three months plans to expand the Gush Etzion settlement bloc in the south of the West Bank, the paper said.
Gush Etzion settlers showed Mofaz detailed plans to build some 5,300 housing units when he toured the area on Monday.
“I told the settlers that they should submit their plans and that every plan would be examined independently. I did not give sweeping approval for the construction of all the new neighborhoods,” Mofaz told the daily.The paper added that Mofaz was expected to tour two other settlement blocs, Maale Adumim and Ariel, in the next few weeks and examine the possibility of building more housing units there.
It also quoted officials in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s bureau who said that the premier welcomed the idea of expanding the Gush Etzion bloc in the framework of his Gaza pullout plan.
All 7,500 of the Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip are to be forced from their homes as part of Sharon’s so-called disengagement plan. But the premier has also made clear that, in turn for the withdrawal, Israeli control over other settlement blocs would be strengthened.
No Indictment
Sharon will not be indicted on corruption charges over a property deal, private Channel 10 television reported yesterday.
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz had earlier telephoned the prime minister to inform him that the dossier in the so-called Greek Island affair had been closed. At the end of March, chief Israeli prosecutor Edna Arbel recommended Mazuz indict Sharon for allegedly receiving bribes from contractor David Appel.
