ISRAEL 'TO INCREASE SETTLEMENTS'
Herald Sun, 12/4/02
heraldsun.news.com.au
The Israeli housing ministry and the Settlers Council have drawn up a plan for increased settlement activity in the West Bank over the next three months, the Israeli daily Maariv has reported.
The plan reportedly provides for dozens of new houses to be built in 14 different settlements.
The newspaper says the plan was drawn up during a meeting between Settlers Council chairman Bentzi Lieberman and Avi Moz, the director general of the housing ministry.
But a spokeswoman for Housing Minister Nathan Sharansky denied that such a scheme had been agreed.
"The ministry does not plan any stepped up development ahead of the elections (in January)," she said.
However, she confirmed a tender for the construction of 150 new houses in the large settlements of Ariel and Efrat, northeast of Tel Aviv and south of Jerusalem respectively, had been issued two months ago.
According to Maariv, the housing ministry has initiated the construction of a record 1,894 new housing units in the West Bank, more than twice the 2001 figure.
Some 210,000 Jewish settlers live in 160 settlements across the West Bank and Gaza Strip, while another 200,000 live in the 12 settlements in occupied and annexed east Jerusalem.
A "roadmap" for peace in the Middle East currently being drawn up by the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia, demands a freeze of settlement activity and the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005.
The Labour party has said it wants to dismantle isolated settlements if it wins the January 28 legislative elections. |
