Brushing aside PM’s denial, US raps Israel for new settlement homes
'All settlement activity is counterproductive,' says State Department, after Netanyahu claimed most of 229 purported new West Bank homes are 'upgrades only'
The State Department condemned Israel for approving fresh building at West Bank settlements, shrugging off the Netanyahu’s government argument that most of the “new” construction is actually the upgrading of existing homes.
“We have seen reports that settlement plans were advanced for units,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said Friday. “We have also seen the prime minister’s statement that acknowledges that at least some units were advanced.”
The US position on settlement activity “remains very clear and consistent,” he said. “We strongly oppose all settlement activity, which we believe is counterproductive to the cause of peace.”
The US was commenting in the wake of reports that Israel this week approved plans for more than 200 new settler homes in the West Bank — figures that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon disputed on Thursday.
Israel is worried, and the Palestinians are hopeful, that the US may not veto a planned UN Security Council resolution on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict condemning settlements, set to be advanced by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas later this month. Nearly 400 members of The House have urged President Barack Obama to reject “counterproductive efforts” in the international body to impose a resolution to the conflict.
Hagit Ofran, a spokeswoman for settlement watchdog group Peace Now, said the government had given the green light for at least 229 homes, which are at various stages in the process of approval.
Peace Now said the new plans call for additional homes in a range of settlements, including Har Bracha (54 homes) near Nablus in the northern West Bank; Revava (17), also in the northern West Bank; Ganei Modiin (48), northwest of Jerusalem; Tekoa (34), south of Jerusalem; and Givat Ze’ev (76), north of Jerusalem.
The bulk of the report was refuted in a government statement. “The prime minister and defense minister did not approve new building as was publicized,” the Prime Minister’s Office said.
“Nearly all the approvals are for upgrading of existing buildings,” it added.
“The few that relate to new building are in the Ganei Modiin community, which is right next to the (West Bank security) fence and will be part of Israel in any future settlement,” it said.
Peace Now says that the number of West Bank settlement homes Israel plans to build more than tripled in the first quarter of 2016 compared to the same period last year.
Between January and March, projects for 674 housing units passed at least one of the steps in the planning approval process, up from 194 in the first quarter of 2015, it said. The new plans bring the total to at least 903.