To return to the new Peace Now website click here.

Yedioth Ahronoth : "Over 1,800 New Apartments Over the Green Line"

"...the plan has met with severe criticism by Peace Now."

7/10/08

by Ofer Petersburg

   Over 1,800 new housing units will soon be built over the Green Line.  This is part of a new and unprecedented construction boom that is supported by the government.

   Yesterday, the Interior Ministry approved a plan passed by the local committee of the Jerusalem municipality for building the Homat Shmuel Gimmel neighborhood on Har Homa.  As part of the approved plan, 920 housing units will be built in the Har Homa neighborhood, as well as hundreds of additional housing units in Pisgat Zeev.  The plan has been praised by right wing figures and by the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, unlike the opposition of the latter to construction in the western part of the city.  Conversely, the plan has met with severe criticism by Peace Now.

   It should be noted that in addition, the housing minister approved about two months ago a tender for building 884 housing units in Har Homa and Pisgat Zeev.  During a visit by the US secretary of state to Israel she expressed the opposition of the United States to the construction, but the decision was made nonetheless.

   The construction boom is evident not only in greater Jerusalem: The Defense Ministry authorized this week to double the area of the industrial zone in Ariel, after the governmental "blue line team," the job of which is to examine the lands in Judea and Samaria and determine the boundaries of the state lands, determined that there was no cause not to build in the areas allocated to the new factories.  This means that within about a year and a half, the Ariel West industrial zone will be doubled in size, and about 25 new factories will be built there, which will cover hundreds of dunams.  Large-scale infrastructure work is already being done in the industrial zone at present.

   The Ariel municipality and its economic company greeted the cancellation of the [construction] freeze with great satisfaction, in light of the fact that the delays in construction caused severe economic damage both to the developers and to the economic company.  The Ariel municipality, headed by Ron Nahman, waged a persistent battle against the government for canceling the freeze, and threatened to petition the High Court of Justice.

   In addition, the Housing Ministry recorded another achievement yesterday: The largest contractors' tour in Jerusalem since 1967 was held yesterday.  The tour was held in Givat Zeev, on land that was stuck without demand, with the participation of no less than 50 representatives of construction firms that wish to participate in building 600 housing units over the Green Line.