| Israel issues tender for 1,000 new housing units in east Jerusalem, settlement blocs |
Housing and Construction Ministry announcement comes hours before Israel set to approve release of 26 Palestinian prisoners, and days after the U.S. State Department explicitly declares it will not accept Israeli construction beyond the 1967 borders.
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The settlement of Maaleh Adumim, located on the outskirts of Jerusalem
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Photo credit: AP
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In a dramatic announcement ahead of the scheduled resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians in Jerusalem this week, the Housing and Construction Ministry issued tenders on Sunday for the construction of more than 1,000 new housing units in east Jerusalem and the large settlement blocs, despite vocal U.S. opposition to continued construction beyond the 1967 borders.
The announcement comes as a ministerial committee began meeting to authorize the release of 26 pre-Oslo Palestinian prisoners, and was seen by some as „sweetening the pill” of such a painful prisoner release.
According to reports in Haaretz and Walla! News, American officials as well as the Palestinian Authority knew about the planned construction announcements, which Israel informed them would happen in tandem with the release of Palestinian prisoners.
The tenders published on Sunday, applying to housing units already in advanced planning stages, were posted on the Israel Land Authority website.
Four hundred apartments will be marketed in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo, an additional 210 apartments in the nearby Homat Shmuel neighborhood and another 183 in Pisgat Zeev, for a total of 793 new housing units in Jerusalem.
A further 117 housing units are to be built in Ariel, as are 149 in Efrat, 92 in Maaleh Adumim and 36 in Beitar. In total, 394 housing units are in the works for the large settlement blocs.
Following the announcement, Housing and Construction Minister Uri Ariel said, „The government of Israel is working to lower the cost of living in all parts of Israel. No other country in the world is told where it can and cannot build. We will continue to market new housing and building apartments all across the country, in the Negev and the Galilee and in central Israel, to satisfy the needs of all the residents of Israel. This is the right thing to do right now, both from a Zionist and an economic perspective.”
Ariel’s staff rejected claims that the tenders are meant as a direct response to the government’s decision to release Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture ahead of negotiations. According to the ministry, the plan is to issue tenders for hundreds of additional housing units in the coming year.
Shortly after the announcement, Finance Minister Yair Lapid issued a response, saying that „issuing tenders for the construction of 1,200 housing units in east Jerusalem and in settlement blocs at this particular time is a twofold mistake.”
„The solution to the housing crisis should be implemented in the regions where there is high demand, and that is what the housing cabinet is for. In addition, using resources earmarked for resolving middle class housing issues to make an unnecessarily defiant statement to the Americans and put spokes in the wheels of the peace talks is not right or helpful to the peace process,” Lapid said.
On Thursday, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki criticized continued Israeli settlement construction, saying „We do not accept the legitimacy of continued settlement activity and oppose any efforts to legitimize settlement outposts.”
In a meeting of the Settlement Subcommittee of the Interior Ministry’s Supreme Planning Council held at the Civil Administration’s offices in Beit El on Wednesday, expansion plans were approved for the communities of Etz Efraim, Shilo, Talmon, Kfar Adumim, Alon Shvut, Almog, Gilgal, Kochav Yaakov and Beitar Illit.
Guy Inbar, spokesman for the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria, said initial plans to build 800 new homes were approved on Wednesday, though actual construction would require a green light from the government.
„This is a lengthy process,” said Inbar, who did not immediately provide further details on the plans.
