Israel Levels Land for Construction of 20 New West Bank Homes

By Gwen Ackerman

Sept. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Israeli building contractors have begun leveling land in the West Bank settlement of Maskiyot ahead of the construction of 20 new homes intended for Israelis evacuated from the Gaza Strip in 2005, the council head said.

“Bulldozers have been at work there for a period of time,” said David Elhayani, head of the Jordan Valley Regional Council. The infrastructure work follows the approval of a May tender to prepare for the construction in Maskiyot, a settlement approved in July 2008.

Israel and the U.S. are in talks to bridge differences over Washington’s demand for a total freeze of construction in the West Bank that would clear the way for a resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he won’t build new settlements, while continuing construction in existing communities.

“The work going on in Maskiyot is further evidence that all this talk of freezing settlements is virtual and in reality the settlers have nothing to worry about,” Yariv Oppenheimer, spokesman for the settlement monitoring group Peace Now, said in a phone interview. “Not one day will pass where there will be no construction work in the West Bank.”

A senior government official, speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to speak on the record, said Netanyahu has plans to approve hundreds of new housing starts in the West Bank that would precede agreement on a freeze in settlement construction. The U.S. is trying to broker a deal in an effort to renew peace talks, which includes steps by Arab states to normalize relations with Israel.

The daily Haaretz reported last week that the new construction would be added to 2,500 homes already being built in the West Bank.

EU Criticism

The European Union criticized the plans for a final burst of settlement construction ahead of a freeze and warned yesterday against throwing away a “window of opportunity” to restart the Middle East peace talks.

Talks with President Barack Obama’s Middle East envoy George Mitchell over a formula on the settlement issue are scheduled for later this week in Israel. Washington does not accept the legitimacy of continued settlement expansion, Obama’s press secretary Robert Gibbs said in a statement on Sept. 4.

Netanyahu told ministers from his Likud party in a meeting today that he expected to reach an agreement with Mitchell on the settlement freeze this week, the Ynet news Web site said, without saying where it got the information.

Netanyahu told the ministers, some of whom strongly oppose a freeze, that construction of public buildings in West Bank communities would continue despite the moratorium on other building, Ynet said.