RAMALLAH, West Bank: Hours before Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak leaves for the United States, the Defense Ministry yesterday notified the High Court of Justice that in accordance with a 1996 government master plan for the construction of 1,450 housing units in a new neighborhood in the West Bank settlement of Adam, the ministry has at this stage approved 190 units, of which 50 have received final approval.
The government informed the court that the 50 housing units in Adam, a settlement located near Jerusalem, are intended to house the Jewish occupiers expected to be evacuated from the unauthorized Migron settlement outpost, near Ramallah. This number does not include public buildings and roads.
“The understandings were approved by senior government officials, Council of Settlements representatives and West Bank settler leaders,” the ministry wrote in the statement submitted to the court.
The timing of the notification could complicate the defense minister’s goal to reach an understanding on the issue of settlement construction with US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, whom he is expected to meet in New York.
Six Israeli Cabinet ministers met yesterday morning to discuss US and European demands to freeze the settlements. Israeli sources said that the government is leaning toward saying any move to freeze construction can only be part of renewed dialogue with the Palestinians.
Barak on Sunday denied reports that Israel had decided to freeze all construction in the West Bank for three months, including for natural growth, saying there had been no agreement on this yet.
The Palestinian Authority has made peace negotiations conditional on Israel enforcing a total settlement freeze, something that has never happened since the first Jewish settlement, Kibbutz Kfar Etzion, was founded 42 years ago.
Palestinian Minister of Jerusalem Affairs Hatim Abdulqader said that the Israeli decision was like “throwing a spanner in the wheels of the peace process.”
