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International News
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Written by Samuel Sokol
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Thursday, 29 April 2010 12:39 |
 New construction in Jerusalem has been frozen, according to city councilmen. Councilman Meir Turgeman, who is also a member of the Interior Ministry’s District Planning Committee, explained that the committee, whose approval is required for building projects in the city, has been stood down since Vice President Joseph Biden’s visit in March. The committee normally meets on a weekly basis. The local municipal committee has continued meeting, but without gaining the approval of the regional committee, new construction is essentially frozen. It has also been reported that American officials claim that Israel has stated its “willingness to end construction in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo for two years.â€
One of the demands that President Obama is said to have made of Prime Minister Netanyahu during their recent White House meeting was a cessation of building in Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and the Prime Minister’s Office both denied that there is a building freeze in Jerusalem.
Speaking to reporters during his trip this week to the United States, Barkat denied that there is an unstated policy of denying permits for Jewish construction in East Jerusalem. “Do you freeze building for Arabs in the western part of the city?†he asked rhetorically. “It’s illegal. It’s an illegal demand.†When asked why there have been no permits issued for “significant Jewish housing projects in East Jerusalem,†the mayor said, “You don’t approve on a daily basis… It’s a long, cumbersome process to build in Jerusalem.â€
The Prime Minister’s spokesman, Mark Regev, was emphatic that Benjamin Netanyahu’s policy is that “building in Jerusalem will continue.†Netanyahu told Israel’s Channel 2, “There will be no freeze in Jerusalem.†However, he did stress that since the “mishap†with Biden, the administration has decided that it “can’t have important areas of Israel’s foreign relations and national security policy being dictated by low level government officials.†As a result, Netanyahu instructed his cabinet secretary to place a personal representative on the regional committee to ensure “greater transparency and oversight.â€
Since there now is a representative of the “Prime Minister’s office that will check every detail that will be on the agenda of the regional committee of Jerusalem, there is a delay of meeting in that schedule,†said Interior Ministry spokeswoman Efrat Orbach. Orbach stated that she did not know when the committee would convene again, due to the new “bureaucracy.†She also stressed that there is “no freeze.â€
However, Councilman Turgeman disagrees, calling Netanyahu’s protestations regarding the right of Jews to build in East Jerusalem “false†and intended only to keep the hawks in his center-right Likud party at bay. “The committee was meeting for years, once a week at least, and the last two months has not met at all,†he stated. “Building that has already started is continuing, but there are no new building plans.†Turgeman explained that the decision to convene the committee is a joint one, made by Netanyahu’s office in coordination with the Interior Ministry and the Jerusalem Municipality. The committee deals with issues of construction in both east and west Jerusalem and without its continued operation, new permits will cease to be issued for Jews and Arabs throughout the city.
Dr. Meir Margalit of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions told the Five Towns Jewish Times that “This is not exactly a building freeze.†“Plans that have been approved in the past, they are ongoing,†he said. “They continue to be built. There are 11,000 units in different stages that have been approved and the process continues. I don’t know why the Minister of Interior decided to cancel all of the meetings of the committee and the local committee of the municipality continues to meet every week. “The local committee continues to operate as usual and only “plans regarding Jewish construction in East Jerusalem have been cancelled.â€
According to chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, the PA has not “heard anything officially about [a freeze] and we hope that the Israeli government, if given the choice between settlements and peace, will choose peace.†He called reports of an unofficial freeze policy “media speculation†and stated that “deeds, not words†are important.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas announced during an interview with Channel 2 on Monday that he is ready to enter into indirect “proximity talks†with Israel. According to a PA official in Ramallah who spoke with the Jerusalem Post, Abbas’s willingness to enter these talks is due to assurances from American envoy George Mitchell that the Israelis would freeze construction in the disputed neighborhoods. An unnamed Palestinian official was quoted by the Post as saying that “Netanyahu has promised the Americans that the Ramat Shlomo housing project won’t take place, at least not in the near future.†The Arab League, whose approval is being sought by Abbas, has said that it will only support talks if the United States guarantees a freeze. “We will wait for U.S. guarantees before deciding to support the talks,†said Hisham Youseef, an Arab League spokesman, in an interview with Business Week.
The American embassy in Tel Aviv refused to comment if the current moratorium on the district committee’s activities constitutes a freeze. “The American position on this issue is pretty clear,†said Spokesman Kurt Hoyer. “The Secretary has mentioned, Senator Mitchell has mentioned it. We only would like to see a freeze in construction and whether or not that’s happening, that’s something to take up with the municipal authorities.†When asked if the Obama administration would be satisfied with a de facto freeze that is denied publically by Israel, Hoyer replied that he does “not want to speculate.â€
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