Building like there's no tomorrow

A building site of new housing units in the Jewish settlement of Neve Yaakov, near Israel’s separation wall in the northern area of east Jerusalem. Photo by Ahmad Gharabli / AFP

40% Increase in construction in 2014

By Peace Now
February 23, 2015

For full report click here pdf file

Summary of the third Netanyahu government: A substantial increase in construction starts, planning and tenders – specifically in isolated settlements and the most disputed areas in terms of the chance for two states.

A. Construction Starts – 40% increase in construction starts. 68% of the new construction is in settlements east of the outline proposed by the Geneva Initiative, the areas most challenging for the two-state solution.

B. Tenders– A decade’s (at least) record of tenders in the settlements and East Jerusalem. Tenders for 4,485 residential units were published in 2014 alone.

C. Plans – The third Netanyahu government promoted an average of 460 residential units per month, mainly in isolated settlements, double the number promoted by the previous government.

A. Construction Starts

According to Peace Now count:

In 2014 construction of 3,100 residential units began in the settlements; 2,671 permanent structures and 429 caravans and light construction structures.
In addition, 165 public buildings (kindergartens, educational institutions, synagogues, etc.) and 92 industrial and agricultural structures were built.
9% of the construction – 287 residential units – occurred in the illegal outposts, while the number of settlers therein, according to Peace Now estimates, comprise only 4% of all settlers.

This demonstrates an increase of 40% compared to the respective period last year.

Massive Construction in the Most Difficult Settlements in terms of the Two-State Negotiations

68% of the construction starts (2,115 housing units) occurred east of the outline proposed by the Geneva Initiative, on an area intended, according to the Initiative, for the Palestinian state and only 32% (985 residential units) were started to the west of the said outline, in an area intended for land swapping.
Over the years, the main border dispute between Israel and the Palestinians related to the settlements that Israel wanted to consider part of the “blocks” to be annexed to Israel, but due to their geographical location within the West Bank, preventing Palestinian continuity, the Palestinians objected.

42% of the construction starts in 2014 (1,308 residential units) were carried out in these settlements, between the Geneva Initiative outline and the planned outline for the barrier (mainly in the Ariel, Karnei Shomron and Efrat region).

B. Tenders

2014 was a record year in tender publication, for at least a decade. Tender publication (some repeated tenders) eventually halted the negotiations and led Secretary of State John Kerry to withdraw his efforts.
The current Netanyahu government nearly tripled the average number of tenders as compared to the previous Netanyahu government.
In addition to the above tenders, on January 30th, 2015, tenders for another 450 units in the West Bank were issued (114 in Adam, 102 in Kiryat Arba, 156 in Elkana and 78 in Alfei Menashe). Those units were already proposed in tenders in the past but were not sold and were never built.

C. Plans – 100% increase compared to the previous government

The Netanyahu government continued the previous government’s trend of promoting plans throughout the West Bank. During its 22 months in office thus far (18 March 2013 – January 2015), at least 66 plans were promoted for 10,113 different residential units in 41 settlements (monthly average of 460 residential units).
Comparatively, during the 47.5 months of the previous Netanyahu government (31 March 2009 – 17 March 2013), at least 89 plans were promoted for 11,193 different residential units in 50 settlements (monthly average of 235 residential units).
In all, both Netanyahu governments, 31 March 2009 – January 2015, promoted at least 106 construction plans for 13,077 different residential units in 57 settlements.

Some of the most intense illegal construction has been in Beit El settlement, above. Photo by Lior Mizrahi/Getty Images

Israel set 10-year record for settlement tenders, says Peace Now report

Israeli watchdog blamed settlement plans for collapse of U.S.-brokered peace talks last April.

By Allyn Fisher-Ilan, Reuters / Haaretz
Feb. 23, 2015

Israel set a 10-year record last year for the number of tenders it issued for construction in settlements on occupied land in the Palestinian territories, the anti-settlement watchdog group Peace Now said on Monday.

In a report published as Benjamin Netanyahu is running a close race for re-election on March 17, Peace Now blamed Israel’s settlement housing plans for scuttling U.S.-brokered peace talks that collapsed in April.

The report said the invitations to bid for building contracts in the settlements had tripled since 2013 on average compared to the 2009-2013 period of Netanyahu’s previous administration.

It said Israel issued 4,485 tenders in 2014, up from 3,710 in 2013, and 858 in 2007, and that 68 percent of construction starts were in enclaves not necessarily part of blocs that Israel has vowed to keep as part of any peace deal.

The Israeli government had no immediate response to the report.

When Israel last issued tenders for settlement construction, a month ago, the U.S. State Department criticized the plan as “illegitimate and counterproductive to achieving a two-state outcome.”

Israel, citing historical and Biblical links to the territory, has created homes for more than 500,000 Israelis on land it seized in a 1967 war, including the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

NGO: 40 percent rise in new West Bank settlement homes

Peace Now says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is making a two-state solution impossible.

By Al Jazeera / AFP
February 24, 2015

The number of new homes under construction in Jewish settlements on the Israeli-occupied West Bank rose last year by 40 percent, an anti-settlements watchdog has reported.

On Monday, the Israeli NGO Peace Now said the construction of 3,100 “residential units” began last year in West Bank settlements, while 4,485 tenders for construction there and in east Jerusalem settlement districts were launched in 2014 – “a record high for at least a decade”.

Of the 3,100 units, 287 were in so-called wildcat settlements without official authorisation from Israeli authorities, Peace Now said.

The international community draws no distinction between “legal” and “illegal” settlements, considering all to be illegitimate on occupied Palestinian territory.
Peace Now said the monthly average for new homes in settlements was 460 during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s third government which took office on March 18, 2013. It said that over the same period 66 construction projects were launched to build 10,113 homes in 41 settlements.

“All these figures prove that Netanyahu is doing everything to increase faits accomplis on the ground and make a two-state solution impossible,” Peace Now’s Hagit Ofran said.

“We hope Israeli voters will take this essential fact into account” when they go back to the polls on March 17, she said.

Last month, Israel also announced plans to build 450 new settler homes in the West Bank, drawing the ire of Washington which denounced this as “illegitimate and counterproductive” to achieving peace with the Palestinians.

The announcement, coming just weeks before early elections, further strained relations between the United States and its main Middle Eastern ally.

The Palestinians denounced the plan for the 450 new homes as a “war crime”.