Ariel to Continue Building Regardless of US Pressure
by Sagit Levi
Housing Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) said Monday that Israeli construction in the Samaria and Judea regions will continue, even if the United States doesn’t approve.
Speaking to Kol Yisrael radio, Ariel said that the publication of the latest tenders for new homes were coordinated with US Secretary of State John Kerry and that he approved of them.
“Even if the United States does not approve of the construction, it will continue,” he added. “They also sometimes take actions we do not approve of.”
Last week, the Israel Land Authority and Ministry of Construction and Housing announced the publication of tenders marketing land in Jerusalem, Samaria and Judea for construction.
The planned property set aside for construction in Israel’s disputed heartland includes a total of 801 new housing units.
The announcement was condemned by the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, whose spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said the decision to build new homes “reflects Israel’s insistence on sabotaging US efforts to reach peace based on the two-state formula.”
These tenders are ones that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had planned to publish parallel to Israel’s recent release of 26 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails as a gesture to Kerry and the PA.
Netanyahu later agreed to postpone the announcement until after Kerry concluded his latest visit to the region.
The PA has repeatedly slammed Israel’s planned construction in the territories, despite the fact that it was informed in advance that Israel will continue to build as negotiations continue.
The areas in which Israel plans to build are areas that even the PA has previously accepted will be part of Israel following an American-imposed Israeli withdrawal from lands won from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War.
On Monday, German’s Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, used his visit to Israel for Ariel Sharon’s funeral to warn Israel against continuing to build homes for Jews in the disputed territories.
He warned Israel that a Jewish presence in Samaria and Judea, and ongoing building efforts there, are damaging the direct talks which began in July.
“It is clear that the continued building of ‘settlements’ really hurts the process,” Steinmeier claimed.
Kerry has in the past said that Israeli announcements of new construction were expected and said that they should not affect the resumption of talks.
At the same time Kerry has declared that the United States has “always considered the ‘settlements’ to be illegitimate.”
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