Israel issues tenders for 450 West Bank settlement units
Saturday, January 31, 2015 at 09:51PM http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.639879
By Chaim Levinson, Nir Hasson, Barak Ravid and Haaretz 30 January 2015
New tenders issued after several months of quiet 'freeze' due to Netantahu's fear of American backlash
Israel published tenders for 450 new settlement units on Friday, including a new neighborhood known as East Migron.
The move ends an extended period when there was a quiet freeze on new construction over the Green Line.
The tenders include 102 units in the Hebron suburb of Kiryat Arba, 78 single-family homes in Alfei Menashe and 156 units in Elkana. The plans also call for 114 units in East Migron, a new neighborhood born out of an agreement by which settlers would evacuate an outpost built on private Palestinian land and move to a new residential area east of the settlement of Adam. Residents violated the deal, and in the end were given an area closer to Migron.
Besides the settlement tenders issued Friday, the Jerusalem Building and Planning Committee submitted a plan to establish 93 housing units in the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo, also located over the Green Line. The plan was previously approved but held up for several years because of ownership issues.
In response to the tenders, PLO Executive Committee member Saeb Erekat called for a ban all settlement products and divestment "from companies and institutions linked directly or indirectly with the Israeli occupation and apartheid policies."
Israel had not issued any tenders for months because Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu feared a harsh American response. Last week, tenders were issued for commercial and tourist-oriented facilities in Emanuel and Maale Adumim.
Michael Oren, the former Israeli ambassador to the United States, said on Friday that he opposed the tenders. He said in light of events this week, a more Zionist answer would be to build in the Golan Heights and in northern Israel, not in Kiryat Arba.
Oren, a candidate on Moshe Kahlon's Kulanu list, noted that the latest tenders for building in the territories are not constructive for Israel's relations with the United States and do not enhance Israel's ability to defend itself and amass international support.
Zahava Gal-On, chairwoman of the left-wing Meretz party, blasted the timing of the announcement.
"Continued building in the settlements is taking advantage of the election season and is sabotaging any chance of a diplomatic settlement," she said Friday. "The extremist Bibi-Bennett government knows that the American government and the European Union view settlement building as contrary to international law, yet it continues to create facts on the ground in contrast to Israel's existential interest."
"The tenders are an example of pre-election underhanded opportunism by the housing minister and the prime minister, who are trying every minute to create facts on the ground and prevent a diplomatic solution," commented Yariv Oppenheimer, director of Peace Now.
“It’s the opening of the settlement floodgates,” said Daniel Seidemann, head of the Terrestrial Jerusalem group, according to AFP. Seidemann added the announcements were the first of their kind since October, and that he expected more before the March 17 general election.
The Housing and Construction Ministry responded to Peace Now's attack. "The marketing in Judea and Samaria is a relaunch of the marketing of tenders that were issued last year and failed," the ministry said in a statement on Friday. "Failed tenders are automatically reissued by officials in the Israel Lands Authority."
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http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.639443
IDF to probe illegal transfer of pricey West Bank land to settler body
Handover made against explicit order from head of army Central Command.
by Chaim Levinson 29 January 2015
The 2,400 dunams, which are slated to become an industrial park, are just across the Green Line from Rosh Ha’ayin. The combination of its location in the West Bank, which enables companies to employ cheap Palestinian labor, and its proximity to central Israel makes the site very attractive.
The industrial park’s establishment has been delayed for years by a three-way dispute between the Samaria Regional Council and the settlements Elkana and Oranit over control of the lucrative property. Whichever locality controls it will get tens of millions of shekels in development fees and municipal taxes.
Eventually, Oranit and the Samaria Regional Council decided to split control of the site evenly while excluding Elkana – a decision to which Elkana vehemently objected. But because jurisdiction over land in the West Bank is formally assigned by the head of Central Command, the decision needed Alon’s approval.
In November, he met with the heads of all three local authorities and told them he had no intention of getting involved in the dispute; they had to settle it among themselves. And in the minutes of the meeting which were then sent to the Civil Administration, Alon’s aide wrote, “Until the negotiations are completed, [Alon] ordered that all progress in the plans on the ground be halted in order not to create irreversible facts prior to his final decision on the matter.”
Nevertheless, in December, it became clear that someone in the Custodian’s Office of the Civil Administration had signed documents transferring responsibility for planning the land to the Samaria Development Company. Essentially, this means land worth millions of shekels was allocated without a tender, and behind Alon’s back.
The company is jointly owned by the Samaria Regional Council and the settlements under its jurisdiction. It is headed by Gershon Mesika, who is also chairman of the Samaria Regional Council and a Likud party activist.
Currently, the company is embroiled in a major fraud investigation that led to both Mesika and the company’s former director general, Haim Ben-Shushan, being arrested and interrogated on suspicion of bribing Yisrael Beiteinu MK Faina Kirshenbaum. In exchange, she was supposed to get the company’s debts to the government erased.
Alon discovered the land allocation by chance and decided to appoint Col. Uri Mendes to investigate how it happened. The investigation is still in progress, but Haaretz has learned that Defense Ministry officials were apparently involved in the allocation. Yesterday, Elkana Mayor Asaf Mintzer sent a letter to all the settlement’s residents welcoming Alon’s decision to cancel the land allocation.
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by Barak David 30 January 2015 Haaretz
The U.S. criticized Israel's publication of tenders for 450 new settlement housing units on Friday, with State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki saying the move was deeply concerning and would further isolate Israel.
Israel published the tenders on Friday. They included units in a new neighborhood known as East Migron. The move ends an extended period when there was a quiet freeze on new construction over the Green Line.
Speaking at a daily press briefing, Psaki said that although many of the tenders announced Friday are old, the Obama Administration believes this will "inflame tensions, further isolate Israel internationally and will not help Israel's security."
The tenders include 102 units in the Hebron suburb of Kiryat Arba, 78 single-family homes in Alfei Menashe and 156 units in Elkana. The plans also call for 114 units in East Migron, a new neighborhood born out of an agreement by which settlers would evacuate an outpost built on private Palestinian land and move to a new residential area east of the settlement of Adam. Residents violated the deal, and in the end were given an area closer to Migron.
The U.K. also criticized the move. “The U.K. condemns the Government of Israel’s decision of 30 January to publish new tenders for 450 settlement units in the West Bank of the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The UK’s position on Israeli settlements is clear: they are illegal under international law. We urge the Government of Israel to reverse this decision. It is important to focus on steps that are conducive to peace," Minister for the Middle East Tobias Ellwood said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the spokesperson for European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini called for a reversal of "these decisions, thereby putting an end to settlement expansion."
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