Israeli settlers protest construction holdup

Contend silent freeze imposed | 4,300 units await approval

By Amy Teibel / ASSOCIATED PRESS

Israeli settlers protest construction holdup — The Boston Globe, 28 October 2010 — The Boston Globe · Boston, MA · 28 October 2010

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Transcribed from the clipping

JERUSALEM — Jewish settlers accused their government yesterday of holding up construction of more than 4,000 apartments in large West Bank settlements, suggesting that Israel is quietly complying with US demands to reinstate a building moratorium that expired in late September.

The settlers, releasing their first concrete figures on what projects are being blocked, say Defense Minister Ehud Barak is imposing a silent freeze by withholding his final approval of building plans. Barak’s office responded that with the end of the slowdown, the government decides about further construction, and “every request is considered on its merits.”

The issue of Israeli settlement construction has become a key sticking point in US-backed peace talks, just weeks after their launch at a White House ceremony. Israel has been under heavy pressure to renew its moratorium, which limited new construction in West Bank settlements.

Some 300,000 Israelis already live in West Bank settlements, and the Palestinians say there is no point in negotiating if Israel continues to build homes on land they claim for a future state. Netanyahu has refused to extend the slowdown, though officials say they are in talks with Washington on reaching a compromise.

The Palestinians, backed by the Arab world, have given the United States until early next month to work out a deal. Naftali Bennett, director of the Yesha Council settler umbrella group, insisted in an interview that a silent moratorium was in fact underway in large, urban settlements.

Some 4,300 apartments have all the necessary construction permits, but Barak hasn’t authorized the state to put these projects up for bid, in effect freezing them, Bennett said. He provided a list of projects he said were being held up.

Palestinian spokesman Ghassan Khatib called any drag on construction irrelevant because construction continues elsewhere at a pace that outstrips that of recent years. “That’s why it doesn’t make any sense to consider that there is any kind of freeze or any kind of slowdown. We can say the opposite,” Khatib said.

As previously reported by the Associated Press, Israel has begun work on some 600 apartments across the West Bank since the 10-month moratorium expired — at least double the pace of the previous two years.

How this transcription was made

Date confirmed on the page (folio).

Context added by this archive

The headline frames settlers as the aggrieved party ('protest construction holdup'). Nouns: 'Jewish settlers', 'West Bank settlements', 'settler umbrella group', 'silent freeze', 'slowdown', 'moratorium'. 'Occupied' does not appear.

Bennett is the story's source and the supplier of its central number - he 'provided a list of projects he said were being held up' - and the AP prints 4,300 in the dek on his say-so. Khatib's rebuttal is placed late but is the only claim in the piece the AP independently confirms.

Cite this clipping

"Israeli settlers protest construction holdup," The Boston Globe, 28 October 2010, p. A3. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2010-039. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2010-039