The 10-month freeze on West Bank settlement construction sunsetted last night, and the settlers are ready to get to work on a backlog of new homes and structures.
Construction is expected to begin on Tuesday at a number of sites including Shavei Shomron, Adam, Oranit, Sha’arei Tikva, Yakir, Revava, Kokhav Hashahar, Kedumim and Karmei Tzur. A cornerstone is to be laid for a new neighborhood in the southern West Bank settlement of Beit Hagai, with construction set to start soon.
After the Sukkot holiday, the Yesha Council of settlements and local West Bank councils are expected to pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into approving new construction.
Netanyahu had called for restraint from the settlers, but they did not listen.
The end of the freeze was expected to be marked by a flurry of events, with busloads of Likud activists scheduled to tour different settlements in support of the settlers, and hear stories of the damage incurred by the freeze. At 3 P.M., a cornerstone for a new daycare center was to be laid in Kiryat Netafim, and at 4 P.M. thousands of settlers were expected at a rally in Revava, to be attended by MKs and municipality heads.
MK Danny Danon (Likud) said that construction was likely to begin on some 2,000 housing units across the West Bank.
This is all is spite of continued warnings from the Palestinians that they would walk away from negotiations if the settlement freeze was lifted. To make matters worse, Netanyahu has adopted the new talking point that a precondition of peace talks is that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish State, meaning that they give up the right-of-return of refugees before negotiations even begin. By refusing the Palestinians’ one precondition at the same time that he imposes his own, he makes it almost impossible for the talks to get going.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is trying to keep things alive, and he’s arranged a meeting of the Arab League next Monday. Meanwhile, French President Nicholas Sarkozy is calling for a summit in Paris in October, which would include Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
Abbas said the construction of settlements should be frozen for another 3-4 months, a position Sarkozy backed as crucial.
“The settlements must stop,” the French president said.
But there is no sign that they will stop.
