UN envoy notes drop in settlement building, but more approvals expected
Nikolay Mladenov tells Security Council that last three months saw 'lowest number of quarterly advancements' in past two years, but numbers don't include retroactive legalizations
The last three months have seen the lowest number of housing units advanced for construction by Israel beyond the Green Line in the last two years, the UN’s Middle East envoy said Tuesday, though the reason may be more technical than political.
Between September and December, plans for roughly 2,200 homes were advanced or approved by the Israeli authorities in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, Nikolay Mladenov said in his quarterly update to the UN Security Council. — a report that was instituted in December 2016 with the passing of UNSCR 2334.
“This is the lowest number of quarterly advancements and approvals recorded since the resolution was adopted,” the envoy said.
However, this was largely due to the fact that the quarterly meeting of the Defense Ministry body that advances housing units in the West Bank is only slated to take place in the coming weeks.
A defense ministry official said dozens of plans are up for approval at that meeting, bringing the number closer to the 2,400 permits reported by Mladenov in December last year.
Most of the quarterly tallies documented in the UN envoy’s eight reports since the adoption of UNSCR 2334 have hovered between 2,500 and 3,500.
The period with the most settlement home approvals came in the first three months after UNSCR 2334, leading Mladenov to report that 5,500 units had been advanced in his March 2017 update to the Security Council.
While he noted the drop in construction advancements, Mladenov highlighted Israel’s green-lighting of a plan for 31 homes in Hebron, which would be the first new construction in the flashpoint West Bank city in 16 years.
“All settlement activities are a violation under international law and a major obstacle to peace,” Mladenov said.
While the government has voiced no intention to limit Israeli building in the West Bank, settler leaders along with their supporters in the coalition have placed a growing emphasis as of late on legalizing already existing homes beyond the Green Line that were built without the state’s approval.
Last Thursday, Netanyahu directed authorities — through Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit — to legalize some 2,000 homes built illegally on private Palestinian land throughout the West Bank.
On Wednesday, the Knesset in a preliminary hearing advances the so-called Regulation Law 2, which directs the Knesset-appointed outpost legalization committee to regulate 66 illegal hilltop communities in the next two years.
In the meantime, the bill will prevent those outposts from being demolished and ensures that they receive full government services.
While the international community considers all settlement activity illegal, Israel differentiates between legal settlement homes built and permitted by the Defense Ministry on land owned by the state, and illegal outposts built without necessary permits, often on private Palestinian land.
Mladenov also did not include in his report the 82 homes that Netanyahu ordered be advanced for construction in the Ofra settlement as well as plans for industrial zones in Avnei Hefetz and Beitar Illit, which have yet to be brought before the Defense Ministry.