Today (10.10.17), the Prime Minister’s Office issued a press release according to which 3,736 housing units will be promoted in the settlements in the coming days. Peace Now has obtain information regarding the following:
Promotion of at least 2,413 plans in different stages, including 31 housing units in the heart of Hebron at the Higher Planning Council.
Publication of approximately 700 housing units (publication for depositing or for validation).
A tender for 296 housing units in Beit El.
The list of plans that will be promoted includes, among others, the final approval of the new settlements of Amihai and Migron, and a new site for 30 temporary structures on the lands of Al-Khadr village, as a new settlement for the settlers of Nativ Ha’avot.
Peace Now: “The government has gone wild with settlement plans deep in the West Bank for thousands of new settlers, whom Israel will have to evacuate in a two state solution agreement. Faced with the growing pressures and investigations, Netanyahu goes out of his way to prove how radical he is, without considering the consequences of massive settlement expansion on the future of the two state solution. The plans for Hebron and Nativ Ha’avot are particularly enraging, as they indicate to settlers that the rule of law does not apply to them and illustrate the government’s deteriorating legal standards when it comes to settlement expansion.”
Details:
Next Tuesday and Wednesday (17-18.10.17), the Civil Administration’s High Planning Council will discuss 40 plans for depositing and for validation of housing units in the settlements. These plans include at least 2,413 housing units, approximately 40% of which (1,451 housing units) located east of the Geneva Initiative proposed border and will have to be evacuated in the framework of an agreement. 1,269 housing units will be discussed for depositing, and 1,113 housing units will be discussed for validation. Additionally, 31 housing units will be promoted in Hebron on Monday (16.10.17). See details here.
For a full list of plans click here.
Here you will find the agenda of the planning committee for Tuesday the 17th and Wednesday the 18th – in Hebrew.
Based on information obtained by Peace Now, it is probable that plans for another ~700 housing units will be published either for depositing or for validation. We do not have exact information regarding these plans but it is likely that they will include the following:
Tkoa – ~200 housing units
Enav – ~50 housing units
Bracha – 54 housing units
Givat Ze’ev – ~200 housing units
Ma’ale Adumim – ~200 housing units
Furthermore, a tender is expected to be published, for the construction of 296 housing units in Beit El.
According to Peace Now’s count, all of the above sum up to the promotion of a little over 3,400 housing units. It is possible that the gap between this number and the number provided by the PMO (3,736) results from the way in which units in each plan are counted. For example, the Kfar Etzion plan includes 158 housing units. However, 120 of these have already been approved in the past and thus we only counted the remaining 38 while it is possible that the PMO counted the entire plan.
Counting these developments, the number of housing units promoted through plans during 2017 will reach 6,500, compared to 2,629 in 2016, and 1,982 in 2015. It is important to note that this number does not include the plans which are expected to be published for depositing or for validation as we do not have sufficient information regarding these plans at this stage. It is also important to note that plans promoted more than once during the year are counted only once.
The number of housing units promoted through tenders since the beginning of the year is 2,858 and with the Beit El tender will reach 3,154, together with the tender in Beit El. in comparison, tenders for 42 housing units were issued in 2016, and in 2015, the number stood to 560. Again, these numbers do not include tenders for East Jerusalem housing units.