Israel/Palestine
Related: About this forumIsrael Renews Building Plans in Hot-button E1 Near Ma'aleh Adumim Settlement
Move comes a year after Netanyahu canceled similar plan for the neighborhood, whose construction would more closely link Jerusalem and West Bank settlement.Chaim Levinson and Barak Ravid Dec 28, 2015
The Housing and Construction Ministry hired an urban planner in November 2014 to work on the controversial E1 neighborhood of Maaleh Adumim, whose construction would more closely link Jerusalem and Maaleh Adumim, in the West Bank.
The move came a year after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a similar plan for the neighborhood. The ministry said Netanyahu has agreed to planning the new project. According to the ministry, the move meets criteria given by government order.
Over the years, including under former President George W. Bush, the United States has considered the construction of E1 to be a red flag because of claims the new neighborhood would cut off the northern part of the West Bank from its southern half, making it very difficult for a prospective Palestinian state to have territorial contiguity.
For their part, Israeli governments since Yitzhak Rabins have sought to build in E1 to secure Maaleh Adumims contiguity with Israel proper if and when a Palestinian state arises. The Israeli fear is that without facts on the ground in E1, the giant settlement, which has some 40,000 residents, could end up an unviable Israeli enclave in a Palestinian state.
The ministry hired the urban planner at a cost of 3.6 million shekels ($925,000) to plan the construction of 3,200 housing units in the new neighborhood. The information comes from documents given to Peace Now based on a Freedom of Information Act request the organization made. E1 (E stands for East) is a 12-square-kilometer site on the western side of Maaleh Adumim, a suburb of Jerusalem in the West Bank, east of the capital.
Source: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.694162
Israeli
(4,159 posts)Previous plans to build the neighborhood have stirred up major international criticism. Since the days of Rabins government, various Israeli governments have advanced major plans to build in E1, including thousands of housing units, commercial space and hotels. A master plan and detailed planning for the area exist, but all of these plans have been delayed for political and diplomatic reasons since 2005.
The Housing Ministry built infrastructure for 1,500 housing units in the area a decade ago, without proper approval. The new headquarters of the Judea and Samaria police district are located at the top of the neighborhood, but construction of the housing was never started. Before the election in 2013, the IDFs Civil Administration held a hearing on promoting the plan in its supreme planning committee, at Netanyahus orders, but the plan was frozen after the election.
In November 2013, the Housing Ministry, then headed by Uri Ariel, published a tender to hire an architect to work on planning E1. Even though the neighborhood already had an existing plan, with construction plans of this scale, it is necessary to hire an architect to work closely on the plan, and update it according to changes in regulations and building codes, as well as shepherding the plans through the various committees and planning processes and procedures as well as making any changes required in the plans throughout the approval process. At the time, after Haaretz reported the publication of the tender, Netanyahu ordered to freeze the construction plans.
The hiring of the architect/urban planner does not mean the approval of the plan, only the completion of the bureaucratic procedures in order to advance it. If the government decides not to promote the plan for political and diplomatic reasons, then it is not clear what justification there is to spend millions of shekels on it now.
Now it turns out that the Housing Ministry paid the city of Maaleh Adumim 3.6 million shekels ($930,000) in November 2014, without a tender, for the planning. This allowed the ministry to quietly bypass the public tender process that in the past stirred up so much controversy, both in Israel and internationally.
According to the documents received by Peace Now, the ministry payed 1.8 million shekels ($465,000) to complete the construction plans for 2,000 housing units in the eastern side of the neighborhood, 1.8 million shekels ($465,000) to complete the detailed construction plans 1,200 housing units in its south, and 300,000 shekels ($77,000) to test the potentiality of constructing 1,000 housing units in the northern parts of the neighborhood. In addition, 700,000 shekels were paid to identify further construction sites in the West Bank east of Jerusalem, which according to the Housing Ministry's classification are located in "Non-specific site."
Furthermore, the documents show that from 2012 to 2015 the ministry funded plans for 55,000 housing units, which were intended to turn small settlements into urban centers. These are long term plans which could take decades to implement. Some 3,500 units are planned for Maaleh Adumim, in addition to the expansion in E1. And nearby Adam, north of Jerusalem, is planned to grow into a city with 5,000 housing units. In Givat Eitam, a settlement near Efrat, on the eastern side of the security barrier, 800 housing units are planned, in the settlement Bnei Adam, 1,500 housing units are planned, and another 700 housing units are planned in Zait Raanan and Kerem Reim, two satellite settlements outside of Talmon. In Givat Ze'ev, 800 housing units are slated to go up over vineyards given to Ofra settlers, thus connecting Givat Ze'ev to Jerusalem and cutting off the Palestinian towns in the area from Ramallah, the regional administrative center.
The documents show that the ministry funded a series of illegal construction projects to the tune of several millions of shekels, despite the state attorney's explicit instructions not to fund unauthorized projects. In the settlement of Geva'ot, 530,000 shekels ($136,000) were given for the construction of a multi-purpose building, despite the fact that the plans for the building were not approved. In Shvut Rachel, the ministry funded 1.7 million shekels ($440,000) in development works, despite the fact that the development plans for that settlement were only approved last month. In Itamar, the building of a 2 million shekel ($520,000) public building back in 2013, despite the fact that the construction plans there too were only approved last month. In Eli, a settlement that has no approved development plan at all, public works totaling 3.7 million shekels ($950,000) were funded by the ministry. Similar projects were also funded in the settlements Kochav Ya'acov, Halamish, Shilo, and Tal Menashe.
Yariv Oppenheimer, director general of Peace Now, told Haaretz that the documents show that Netanyahu has not kept his word and his government is continuing to secretly promote massive construction in the settlements, including in E1. The government of Israel is not wasting a single day and is investing tens of millions of shekels in expanding and establishing new settlements. Behind the scenes they are secretly planning the establishment of a binational state, said Oppenheimer.
The Housing and Construction Ministry said it acts only according to approved plans and based on the decisions of the government and prime minister. It stated that no work was done in the area of E1 during 2015. During 2014, funds were paid to planners who worked on planning in 2012 and 2013. But in any case these plans were not advanced and no statutory processes were completed to build housing units in E1, adding all moves meet criteria given by government order.
Chaim Levinson
Haaretz Correspondent
Source: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.694162
BlueMTexpat
(15,372 posts)kindest description of this behavior.
azurnoir
(45,850 posts)well one might mumble "that's unhelpful" if memory serves but that's about all
Israeli
(4,159 posts)While Israeli society has been busy with incitement against human rights workers, a baby-killing celebration, and legislation attacking civil society, the Knesset quietly approved a new law last week formalizing the status of the notorious Settlement Division of World Zionist Organization (WZO).
The law authorizes the Israeli government to delegate its policies in the settlements to this outside, private body. Despite an opposition filibuster, the law for legalized policy outsourcing passed in the middle of the night between Wednesday and Thursday.
In February 2015, a damning report by Israels deputy attorney general on the shadowy body ordered the state to stop financing the Settlement Division through the national budget, arguing that it was not being held to any normal government standards of operation. Now that the law has passed, the government can fund the Settlement Division freely.
The new law stipulates the Settlement Division will be bound by practices of public bodies such as financial reporting and tender processes, and that it is subject to Israels freedom of information laws but it cannot become a government body.
If that sounds boring and technical, it is meant to be. The Settlement Division has become Israels strongest symbol of the impenetrable bureaucracy that entrenches and expands settlements while making its work practically invisible.
It was established in 1971 within the WZO itself a sprawling, antiquated nominally private but in fact quasi-governmental body that houses other major Zionist organizations. The Settlement Division is the vehicle for Israeli government funding and development of rural settlement in the West Bank, Golan Heights, and until 2005, Gaza. It is effectively the executive arm for all infrastructure and resource distribution for Jewish-only communities beyond the urban settlement blocs. Its website cheerfully describes its goals as establishing and strengthening Jewish settlement, and encouraging their demographic, economic and social sustainability.
Continued @
http://972mag.com/knesset-passes-dangerous-settlement-funding-law-without-a-hitch/115318/
Israeli
(4,159 posts)Itamar Eichner
Published: 12.30.15, 11:44 / Israel News
The Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday released a statement to foreign media insisting it was former construction minister Uri Ariel (Bayit Yehudi) who transferred millions of shekels to the planning of over 8,300 new settler homes in the contentious E1 area in the West Bank, between Ma'ale Adumim and Jerusalem.
Ariel, who currently serves as the minister of agriculture, did so of his own initiative and without the required authorization," the statement said. "The construction minister has no authority either to plan or build beyond the Green Line. These plans therefore have no standing and are not binding.
The statement comes in the wake of a report by the left-leaning NGO Peace Now, which claims that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government continues to secretly promote massive construction in the settlements, half of them far beyond the separation fence, which seriously endangers the two-state solution.
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http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4746255,00.html
6chars
(3,967 posts)Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not advancing the construction of E1 at this time and plans by former construction minister Uri Ariel to do so are irrelevant, government officials said on Tuesday evening.
While he was serving as minister of housing in the previous government, Uri Ariel commissioned some theoretical plans for development in E1, the PMO officials said. He did so of his own initiative and without the required authorization. The Ministry of Housing has no authority either to plan or build beyond the Green Line. These plans therefore have no standing and are not binding on anyone.