Settlers race to build in West Bank

By Ethan Bonner / New York Times

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JERUSALEM – Less than four weeks since the end of Israel’s building freeze in the West Bank, hundreds of units are under construction in dozens of settlements there, settler leaders and anti-settlement advocates said Thursday. Foundations have been dug for 300 units, and work is under way on a couple of hundred more, they report.

Many of the units in smaller settlements that would be most unlikely to remain as part of Israel in any future two-state deal with the Palestinians.

Hagit Ofran, who monitors settlement construction for Peace Now, a group that opposes construction, said she was preparing a report showing that in at least 36 settlements, especially in smaller ones, intensive building was under way. “They suspect another freeze is coming, and they are running to build,” she said in a telephone interview.

“This is also about selling and money, not only ideology. There is less government building and much more private building in areas that received approval a long time ago and where there is demand.” In the largest settlements, where government approval is required to break ground, building has resumed at a slower pace, she said.

Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority ended late last month when the 10-month settlement construction freeze ended. The Palestinians say they cannot negotiate while the land they seek as their future state is being covered in new Jewish housing. The United States has been trying to persuade Israel to impose a second freeze to keep the talks going.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is considering it. Robert H. Serry, the U.N. special envoy for Middle East peace, issued a statement condemning the new West Bank building.

“Renewed settlement construction, which is illegal under international law, runs contrary to the international community’s repeated appeals to the parties to create conditions conducive to negotiations and will only further undermine trust,” he said. Settler leaders confirmed Ofran’s numbers and said they wished they had been able to build still more.

“Why should there be any place in Israel where we are barred from building?” asked Naftali Bennett, director of the Yesha Council, the settler group.

How this transcription was made

Date confirmed on the page (masthead). Filed under the archive’s spelling; the page prints “The News and Observer”. masthead reads THE NEWS & OBSERVER / FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2010

Context added by this archive

The sharpest language in this clipping - 'illegal under international law' - is quoted, not stated. The paper's own nouns are 'settlements', 'settler leaders', 'settler group', 'new Jewish housing', 'building freeze'. 'Occupied' does not appear anywhere.

The headline verb 'race' belongs to the settlers; the Palestinians appear once, in a subordinate clause, as people who 'say they cannot negotiate'.

Cite this clipping

"Settlers race to build in West Bank," The News & Observer, 22 October 2010. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2010-033. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2010-033