Israel set to expand by 2,700 housing units in West Bank

Ma'an - Israeli settlements across the West Bank are set to expand by up to 2,700 housing units when Israel's partial moratorium on building expires on 27 September, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported Monday.

According to the daily, the units were authorized before the temporary construction freeze was enforced, but several settlement networks are reportedly preparing for further expansion.

Gershon Mesika, council head of a northern West Bank settlement network in the Nablus district, called on planners to prepare to "grant building permits, to wrap up project planning and to transfer them to the engineering department for inspection," Haaretz reported.

"Time is short and there is much to be done," Mesika wrote in a letter obtained by the daily. "We want to welcome September prepared for final committee permits in order to immediately issue those permits as soon as the [freeze] period lapses, and to allow the commencement of construction."

Council deputy Ehud Stondia told Haaretz that the settlement network was "preparing for construction on the scale that existed before the freeze or even more."

Settlement expansion in East Jerusalem, Nablus

A survey compiled by the newspaper on settlement expansion following the moratorium's end reveals that East Jerusalem and the northern West Bank districts will be the most affected by the growth.

In the Nablus district, 800 Israeli-only homes are expected to built once the freeze ends. The settlement network set for the largest expansion includes the illegal residential areas of Yitzhar and Har Bracha.

Both settlements were named on a list put together by watchdog organizations in the West Bank for having skirted the limited construction ban and ramped up construction during the first months of the freeze.

In Qalqiliya, the Oranit settlement network is likely to expand by 600 homes with its local leader telling the daily that the bloc has "upgraded its engineering manpower ahead of the freeze's end" to make the construction process post-freeze "more efficient."

An expected, 1,200 homes will be built across illegal settlements in Nablus, Ramallah, and East Jerusalem.

In the southern West Bank, the illegal Efrata settlement in Bethlehem is set to build more homes as well as Gush Etzion, Eshkolot, and Suseya in the Hebron district.

A 12,000-housing-unit complex was reportedly in the works in the Gush Etzion area, according to a June report from the Islamic Christian Commission, which said the homes would be built on lands near Walaja, where wall construction began at the start of the summer.

Partial, temporary freeze

In November 2009, Israel announced a partial freeze that affected some settlements but excluded others in Jerusalem as well as construction of municipal or community buildings, expansions of existing structures, and improvements to road and transport networks.

The move was a unilateral response to the Palestinian demand for a halt to settlement construction entirely, including the West Bank and Jerusalem. Palestinian officials had insisted that as long as Israel continued to build illegal settlements on Palestinian land, the state could not be considered a serious peace partner, since the settlement homes are in what would be the area of an eventual state.

The United States, which is sponsoring mediation efforts between Israeli and Palestinian officials, welcomed "with hesitation" the freeze, but called on Israel to expand the freeze to an indefinable period and to include Jerusalem. US Middle East envoy George Mitchell also called on Israel to halt its policy of home demolitions in Jerusalem.

The freeze was ultimately labeled insufficient by Palestinians, with both government and media groups reporting dozens of infractions on the freeze, as well as ramped up construction on municipal and Jerusalem projects.