TITLE: Gov't Still Promoting Building in Territories

AUTHOR: Nadav Shragai

PUB: Ha'aretz

DATE: January 16, 2001

The government granted building permits for 1,184 housing units in the territories during the first 10 months of 2000, MK Mussi Raz (Meretz) said yesterday. Raz, who prepared a report based on data from the Central Bureau of Statistics and the Housing Ministry, said that 529 of these units were in the greater Jerusalem area. However, he said, many permits were also granted in settlements far from the Green Line, and are likely to be evacuated under any agreement with the Palestinians. These included permits for 59 units in Kedumim, 13 in Talmon and 18 in Psagot. During the first 11 months of last year, Raz added, the Housing Ministry began building 1,626 housing units in the territories, up from 1,367 in all of 1999. This does not however include private construction, which represents some 13 percent of all building. In addition, he said, the population of the settlements rose by 7 percent during the first nine months of the year, to 196,800 people. This compares to a 1.7 percent increase in the population inside the Green Line during this period. Raz also said that the Israel Lands Administration (ILA) sold 2,804 lots for building in the territories in 2000, or 12.5 percent of the total number of lots it sold that year. Raz said that such data was incompatible with the government's stated efforts to reach a peace agreement and therefore demanded that the government put an immediate halt to all construction in the settlements. In response, the Yesha Council of Settlements said that Raz's data merely proves that many people are still interested in living in the territories, despite the diplomatic and security risks. END top