New Neighborhood Launched in Disputed Area E1

Hundreds of people, including ministers, MKs and Yesha Council heads attend symbolic groundbreaking ceremony for 'Mevaseret Adumim' neighborhood in disputed area outside Jerusalem. 'We won't be the world's sucker anymore,' Deputy Minister Porush says, 'This is our answer to international pressure on settlements'

Efrat Weiss

Published:

09.07.09, 18:56 / Israel News

"This is our answer to the international community's demand that Israel halt construction in the West Bank," Deputy Education Minister Meir Porush (United Torah Judaism) said Monday during a groundbreaking ceremony for a new residential neighborhood in E1, a sprawl of land connecting Jerusalem to Maaleh Adumim

The US is opposed to any construction in the area, claiming that it hinders peace negotiations with the Palestinians. The international community and the Palestinian Authority are closely monitoring developments in E1, as the PA claims Israel's real intention behind the plan is to expropriate Palestinian land, annex Jerusalem and divide the West Bank into Samaria and Judea.

Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin also spoke out against the government's planned settlement freeze, saying "anyone who thinks that Jerusalem will rise from the ashes of Hebron has learned nothing."

"This symbolic cornerstone laying will eventually become a reality," he said, "I call on the public to keep building and believing."

Among the hundreds of people who attended the ceremony for the "Mevaseret Adumim" neighborhood were Ministers Daniel Hershkowitz (Habayit Hayehudi) and Uzi Landau (Yisrael Beitenu), as well as Knesset Members Danny Danon (Likud), Zeev Elkin (Likud) and Uri Orbach (Habayit Hayehudi).

Also in attendance were Maaleh Adumim Mayor Benny Kashriel and heads of the Yesha Council.

Maaleh Adumim is currently home to 37,000 people, while some 3,000 housing units are expected to be built in the new neighborhood.

"The State of Israel cannot find itself in an inferior position again amid the disgraceful and unjust calls to freeze settlement construction," Porush continued to say. "After Israel made all those foolish concessions on the heels of the Oslo Accords, we mustn't make any more unilateral sacrifices and continue to be the world's sucker amid Hamas' terror.

"It cannot be that the US will pressure Israel in order to improve its relations with the Arabs. This will jeopardize our security," he said.

A group of Peace Now activists arrived at the E1 sector while the ceremony was being held.

Peace Now activists protest against new neighborhood (Photo: Dudi Vaaknin)

The demonstrators carried signs reading "Bibi and Barak, this is not a game," and "bi-national state under construction." Police forces kept the demonstrators away from the site.

Zviki Bar-Hai, head of the South Mount. Hebron Regional Council criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying, "It is unprecedented for a prime minister to agree to a settlement freeze. The settlement enterprise is a living thing, and, God willing, we will overcome the obstacles and continue to build."

Prior to the ceremony Bar-Hai told Ynet, "This is the first time in Israeli history that a prime minister agrees to the establishment of a Palestinian state. Netanyahu agreed to what (Yitzhak) Rabin and Shimon Peres refused to agree to."

Yesha Council Chairman Danny Dayan said most of the West Bank construction approved by Defense Minister Ehud Barak had already been authorized by former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's cabinet.

"The only thing Likud has done is bring upon us the coming settlement freeze," he said.

Rivlin was speaking at a memorial service marking the 80th anniversary of the 1929 Palestine riots.

Addressing the US' pressure on the settlement freeze, Rivlin added that, "Our friends in the international arena should know that not all is fair in diplomacy."

Also on Monday, the Labor Party backed Barak's decision to approve the construction of hundreds of housing units in the West Bank, saying it was "within the framework of the Zionist consensus."

Attila Somfalvi contributed to this article.

Baruch atem b'Shem, Yeshua

The Settlement War

Israel Ministry Wages Settlement War Against U.S.
06.08.2009

Interior Minister Eli Yishai has begun to make good on a pledge to exploit all the resources of his ministry, "its branches and its influences over local government" to expand settlements in the territories.

Yishai, who is also chairman of Shas, made the promise last Thursday to the heads of the Yesha Council of settlements. His party is concerned by the freeze on construction that has been in effect since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office, which Yishai said is "drying out" the settlements.

Haaretz has learned that Yishai has instructed officials at the Interior Ministry to come up with ways to help the settlers, by allowing continued construction within the major West Bank settlement blocs where building has stopped as a result of American pressure.

“The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will bring my people Israel and Judah back from captivity and restore them to the land I gave their forefathers to possess, says the Lord”.
— Jeremiah 30:3

Yishai wants to include additional built-up areas within the city limits of towns in the major settlement blocs, effectively expanding those cities' boundaries. Adjustment of the city limits, which is within the purview of the Interior Ministry, can mean the addition of several square kilometers to a locale's jurisdiction - or the subtraction of said amount of land.

Yishai thus plans to ensure that city limits will be calculated in as liberal a way as possible, so that construction can eventually take place in the few additional square kilometers, to accommodate the "natural increase" of the population.

In addition, Yishai is hoping to allocate funding from the "interior minister's reserves" to benefit settlements in the West Bank. These funds, amounting to several tens of millions of shekels, are distributed at the discretion of the minister without having to meet certain usual criteria.

The heads of the Yesha Council said they had the impression from their meeting with Yishai that the minister intended to allocate funding to the settlements from the ministerial reserves to "correct the existing distortion."

Yishai also plans to change the law mandating special funding for outlying communities, which at present discriminates against the West Bank settlements, in his view. He said he wants to ensure that the law will help the peripheral areas, but will also be altered so as not to be biased.

Settlement discrimination

"Settlements in Judea and Samaria have suffered for many years from various forms of discrimination and distortion. I do not intend to examine the reason or figure out who was responsible for this. I intend to correct the situation. I believe that we do not have to be on a collision course with the Americans," said Yishai. "There were understandings with previous administrations in the United States that allowed us to build in keeping with the natural increase and certainly within the limits of the settlements."

He added that, "any steps the United States intends to take in the Middle East will have to be equitable. It is not right to start to enforce the issue of construction and not to make it equitable."

Yishai was careful not to criticize Netanyahu directly. Rather, he aimed his barbs at the U.S. administration while promoting an independent ministerial policy that benefits West Bank settlement.
Haaretz