Who will stop Israel's craziest settlement plan ever?
Monday, December 6, 2021 at 10:10PM A new mega-settlement would be the death sentence for a viable future Palestinian state. But with the shameful silence of the 'pro-peace,' two state supporters in Israel's coalition government, the only hope for halting the plan rests with Biden and Blinken
by Hagit Ofran 5 December 2021 Haaretz
The story of this new Israeli settlement is almost too wild and fantastical to be believed.
What is planned for the Palestinian neighborhood of Qalandiya ("Atarot" in official Israelispeak), north of Jerusalem, is a new settlement the size of an entire city. It would be an enclave surrounded by a dense Palestinian urban continuum and detached from any existing Israeli settlement. Perhaps its most delusional attribute is that it could soon be established by an Israeli government basing its decision on maintaining what it calls the "status quo" for the settlement project.
In recent years, Israel’s housing ministry has prepared a plan for 9,000 housing units in the area of the old Atarot airport, but according to reports, Netanyahu’s government didn’t push it forward due to American pressure. The plan is considered lethal for the prospect of a two-state peace agreement because it interrupts the Palestinian continuum in the central metropolis of the future Palestinian state, between Ramallah and East Jerusalem. Even according to the the Trump Plan, itself far from a model for two states, the Atarot area was supposed to be part of the Palestinian entity.
If you want to stop the plan, you have to do it now, before it starts the planning process. All that is required for this is to postpone the hearing in the district committee to an unknown date, at a paltry political cost. However, after the planning process begins, it becomes much more complicated, difficult and politically costly.
So how come the current coalition government dares to do what even Netanyahu’s "full-on" right-wing government did not dare to do?
The Bennett government was formed on the basis of a consensus that there is no consensus on the issue of settlements and the occupied territories. Its core understandings were that the government would neither make far-reaching changes that might preclude the possibility of a future peace, nor would it make far-reaching changes that would advance a future peace. This was called maintaining a "status quo" on settlements.
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Supporters of a two-state solution in the government interpret this agreement as a sweeping exemption from taking responsibility for policy in the territories: "There is no chance of reaching an agreement anyway, so there is no point talking about it." They do not even seek to hold any consultation or ministerial forum to question the policies in the occupied territories. Their standpoint is: If we do not talk about something, it won’t happen.
Right-wing ministers (and with them also supposedly centrist Defense Minister Benny Gantz) also don’t talk about it. They are doing everything in their power to deepen Israeli control of the territories, and don’t even bother to engage with pro-peace partners in government.
This was the case when settlers established the Evyatar outpost, and the defense minister, in exchange for their "consent" to evacuate, sent IDF soldiers to occupy a military post that had no security logic behind it and whose establishment had already led to the deaths of seven Palestinian civilians in daily protests against the outpost.
This was the case when an unnamed official in the Civil Administration set a date for a discussion of objections to the settlement plan in the E1 area outside Jerusalem which is considered a political red line that the world, including the Americans, strongly oppose.
And this is what happens now when the housing minister decides to drop a political bomb and promote the plan for the new settlement in Qalandiya.
Israel’s Minister of Housing has the authority to promote housing plans and issue tenders for construction, and he does not need any formal approval from the government. In all previous governments, the practice was that in matters with high political sensitivity, such as the massive promotion of settlements, or construction in acutely controversial areas, decisions were only made in coordination with the prime minister and/or a forum of senior ministers.
But the current government won’t deal with controversial political issues, which means any minister can do as s/he pleases. They have a free hand, no matter how explosive the issue.
Supporters of peace in Israel’s governing coalition have had enough time to understand that something is crooked here. It is impossible to set aside the issues of occupation and settlement under the rubric of the "status quo" and avoid dealing with it. They cannot let the right wing and Gantz alone determine the government’s policy on the most crucial issue for our future.
The fear of two-state supporters getting into an argument, inevitably blasting the government’s policies, even triggering its dissolution, is understandable. But one must at least say something, make demands, do something.
According to the committee agenda, there is one more day to stop the plan in Qalandiya/Atarot. It may be that U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken steps in to scuttle the process. If the ‘pro-peace’ parties in power continue to act like the three monkeys, not hearing, not seeing and not saying anything, the destruction of any chance for peace will be registered in the names of Meretz, Labor, Yesh Atid, Kachol Lavan and the United Arab List.
Hagit Ofran works at the Settlement Watch project of Peace Now. Twitter: @hagitofran
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Jerusalem Board Delays Plans for New Jewish Neighborhood in City's East by at Least a Year
The delay in the proposed construction in an area earmarked for the Palestinians follows a demand by government ministries that a survey on the plan's environmental impact be conducted prior to its approval
The construction of a highly controversial new Jewish neighborhood in East Jerusalem has been delayed "until further notice" on environmental grounds, the municipality announced Monday, effectively pushing it back by at least a year.
The decision follows a phone call U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made to Israel's Prime Minister Naftali Bennett last week over the plan, which officials described as "intense.
The plan includes a neighborhood of some 9,000 housing units for the ultra-Orthodox community. If established, it would be the first large Jewish neighborhood in East Jerusalem since Har Homa in the 1990s.
However, at the hearing on Sunday, the possibility of initially promoting a more limited plan was discussed. This plan would encompass 1,700 housing units in the planned neighborhood's eastern part.
The Jerusalem district committee for planning and construction accepted the position of the environmental protection and health ministries, saying that a survey on the plan's environmental impact is needed prior to approval.
This is due to the area, the defunct Atarot airfield, already suffering from air, soil and noise pollution hazards. The survey is expected to take a year to complete.
Diplomatic sources clarified that the delay of construction is purely a technical matter and that there were no covert efforts to stop the committee hearing today by the U.S.
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Regional Cooperation Minister Esawi Freige of the Meretz party spoke before the committee and requested that the plan be rejected in favor of reestablishing the defunct airport as an Israeli-Palestinian collaboration. The committee rejected this proposal.
The Israeli Planning Administration said in a statement that after examination, they believe the plan makes proper use of unused land reserves through the application of mixed-use development – an urban planning style which finds various uses for a public space. The statement added that "After hearing the representative of the Environmental Protection Ministry, the committee finds that an environmental impact survey must be prepared as is standard practice."