Laying Bare The Facts About Netanyahu And The Settlements

[Purveyor]

by Lara Friedman Jan 18, 2013 1:30 PM EST

On December 31, 2012, Time Magazine published an article entitled, “The West Bank’s 2012: The Year of the Israeli Settlement.” Earlier this week, the Israeli Peace Now movement released a new report that makes a case for a different title: 2009-2013: the Years of the Israeli Settlements. The new report (which I co-authored) details the Netanyahu government’s record on settlements over the course of its past 4 years in office. The results are incontrovertible: by every objective measure, the Netanyahu government has demonstrated that it is determined to use settlements to destroy the very possibility of the two-state solution.

Peace Now documents how, under the Netanyahu government, construction started on 6867 new units in settlements. More than one-third of these starts were in settlements located east of the planned route of Israel’s separation barrier—areas that it cannot plausibly be argued will remain under Israeli control after a Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. In the years preceding the Netanyahu government, only 20 percent of new construction was in settlements in these areas. Much of this new construction was triggered by the Netanyahu government, which tacitly encouraged settlers to begin new construction in the period leading up the 10-month settlement “moratorium” and then insisted that such construction must be allowed to continue during the moratorium.

Peace Now also documents the record number of tenders for new construction in settlements issued under the Netanyahu government, following the expiration of the settlement “moratorium.” We’re talking about tenders for 5302 new units in settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem—a number that erases the impact of the moratorium. Many of the tenders are for construction in settlements, like Efrat and Ariel, whose location is especially problematic for the two-state solution. Peace Now also documented the explosion in approvals of planning for new settlement construction (and as everyone should have learned by now, such planning almost always, eventually, equals construction). The Netanyahu government advanced plans for the construction of at least 8730 housing units in settlements (not including East Jerusalem), nearly a third of which are in isolated settlements located east of the barrier.

All of these tenders and approvals lay the groundwork for an explosion of settlement construction in the coming months and years.

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/01/18/laying-bare-the-facts-about-netanyahu-and-the-settlements.html

[oberliner]

1. Lara Friedman is Director of Policy and Government Relations for Americans for Peace Now

Lara Friedman is Director of Policy and Government Relations for Americans for Peace Now. As a leading authority on US foreign policy in the Middle East, Israeli settlements policy, and Jerusalem, Ms. Friedman frequently meets and briefs Members of Congress, US Administration officials, foreign diplomats, and other members of the foreign policy community. She is a frequent resource for journalists and policymakers, and regularly publishes opinion and analysis pieces in the US and Israeli press. A former Foreign Service Officer, she served in Jerusalem, Washington, Tunis and Beirut, and is fluent in French, Spanish, and Arabic. Originally from Tucson, Arizona, Ms. Friedman is a life-long Wildcats basketball fan and is generally happier when the sun is shining.

http://peacenow.org/people/lara-friedman.html

[Purveyor]

2. +1 Thanks for posting... eom

[Scurrilous]

3. K & R