Jerusalem Post
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
26/04/2010 15:02
The government has imposed a de facto freeze on new Jewish construction in east Jerusalem despite Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's public insistence it would not be stopped in the face of US pressure, Jerusalem municipal officials said Monday.
The apparent freeze would likely reflect Netanyahu's need to mend a serious rift with the US over Israeli construction on lands the Palestinians claim for a future state, and to bring the Palestinians back to the negotiating table.
However, it remained unclear if the slowdown actually constituted a moratorium or how long it would last.
A government official claimed a weeks-long delay in reviewing plans for new construction was a bureaucratic issue and not evidence of a freeze. But the fact that new plans are not going ahead dovetails with signs that the Palestinians might ease their demand that the contentious construction stop before they resume peace talks.
In Washington, US officials said they were aware of news of the freeze but were seeking clarification from the Israeli government and had no immediate comment.
Jerusalem councilman Meir Margalit of Meretz said top Jerusalem officials intimately involved with construction projects told him Netanyahu's office ordered a freeze after Israel infuriated Washington last month by announcing plans for more housing ineast Jerusalem's Ramat Shlomo during a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden.
After word of the project got out, Palestinians called off indirect peace talks that the US was about to start brokering. Palestinian leaders will seek backing this week from the Arab League to participate in those talks.
"The government ordered the Interior Ministry immediately after the Biden incident to not even talk about new construction for Jewish homes in east Jerusalem," Margalit said. "It's not just that building has stopped: The committees that deal with this are not even meeting anymore."
He asked not to identify the officials who informed him of the order because they had not approved the disclosure of their names. A Jerusalem municipal spokesman did not immediately return a call seeking interviews with the officials.
'Planning committee has not met since Biden visit'
Another councilman, Meir Turgeman, who sits on the Interior Ministry committee that approves building plans, said his panel has not met since the Biden visit, after previously meeting once weekly.
"I wrote a letter about three weeks or a month ago asking Interior Minister Eli Yishai why the committee isn't convening," he said. "To this day I haven't received an answer.
Turgeman added that the last time his committee met was to approve the 1,600-apartment Ramat Shlomo project that riled the Americans.
He said he received no official word of a de facto freeze order, "but based on the situation, those are the facts. We used to meet once a week, and now for several months we haven't met. It's clear there's an order."
A separate municipal planning committee, which answers to the city, has only met once — last week, giving preliminary approval to a synagogue and kindergarten in a Jewish neighborhood ineast Jerusalem, he said.
An engineer who oversees residential construction in a Jewish neighborhood in east Jerusalem said requests for proposals to build hundreds of apartments haven't gone out. "I think it's related to the political situation," he said, adding that he knew of no official order to blockconstruction.
The engineer spoke on condition of anonymity because he does business with the city and speaking out on this issue might risk putting that in jeopardy.
Netanyahu has said that he was taken by surprise by the approval of the Ramat Shlomo project while Biden was here, and aides announced that he would make sure he would be kept in the loop in the future before any decisions were taken on controversialconstruction.
It was not clear how a freeze would affect the Ramat Shlomo project, which has received final approval. However, Netanyahu told Biden during the vice president's visit that the project would take years to build.
Asked about Margalit's claim that a freeze order was in effect, government spokesman Mark Regev replied: "Following the Biden visit and the mishap, the prime minister asked that a mechanism be put in place to prevent a recurrence of this kind of debacle."
He would not elaborate, and stopped short of saying Netanyahu had ordered a freeze.
Efrat Orbach, a spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry, said this mechanism explained why planning committee meetings were being delayed, because now multiple ministries had to be involved in the coordination.
The apparent freeze would likely reflect Netanyahu's need to mend a serious rift with the US over Israeli construction on lands the Palestinians claim for a future state, and to bring the Palestinians back to the negotiating table.
However, it remained unclear if the slowdown actually constituted a moratorium or how long it would last.
A government official claimed a weeks-long delay in reviewing plans for new construction was a bureaucratic issue and not evidence of a freeze. But the fact that new plans are not going ahead dovetails with signs that the Palestinians might ease their demand that the contentious construction stop before they resume peace talks.
In Washington, US officials said they were aware of news of the freeze but were seeking clarification from the Israeli government and had no immediate comment.
Jerusalem councilman Meir Margalit of Meretz said top Jerusalem officials intimately involved with construction projects told him Netanyahu's office ordered a freeze after Israel infuriated Washington last month by announcing plans for more housing ineast Jerusalem's Ramat Shlomo during a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden.
After word of the project got out, Palestinians called off indirect peace talks that the US was about to start brokering. Palestinian leaders will seek backing this week from the Arab League to participate in those talks.
"The government ordered the Interior Ministry immediately after the Biden incident to not even talk about new construction for Jewish homes in east Jerusalem," Margalit said. "It's not just that building has stopped: The committees that deal with this are not even meeting anymore."
He asked not to identify the officials who informed him of the order because they had not approved the disclosure of their names. A Jerusalem municipal spokesman did not immediately return a call seeking interviews with the officials.
'Planning committee has not met since Biden visit'
Another councilman, Meir Turgeman, who sits on the Interior Ministry committee that approves building plans, said his panel has not met since the Biden visit, after previously meeting once weekly.
"I wrote a letter about three weeks or a month ago asking Interior Minister Eli Yishai why the committee isn't convening," he said. "To this day I haven't received an answer.
Turgeman added that the last time his committee met was to approve the 1,600-apartment Ramat Shlomo project that riled the Americans.
He said he received no official word of a de facto freeze order, "but based on the situation, those are the facts. We used to meet once a week, and now for several months we haven't met. It's clear there's an order."
A separate municipal planning committee, which answers to the city, has only met once — last week, giving preliminary approval to a synagogue and kindergarten in a Jewish neighborhood ineast Jerusalem, he said.
An engineer who oversees residential construction in a Jewish neighborhood in east Jerusalem said requests for proposals to build hundreds of apartments haven't gone out. "I think it's related to the political situation," he said, adding that he knew of no official order to blockconstruction.
The engineer spoke on condition of anonymity because he does business with the city and speaking out on this issue might risk putting that in jeopardy.
Netanyahu has said that he was taken by surprise by the approval of the Ramat Shlomo project while Biden was here, and aides announced that he would make sure he would be kept in the loop in the future before any decisions were taken on controversialconstruction.
It was not clear how a freeze would affect the Ramat Shlomo project, which has received final approval. However, Netanyahu told Biden during the vice president's visit that the project would take years to build.
Asked about Margalit's claim that a freeze order was in effect, government spokesman Mark Regev replied: "Following the Biden visit and the mishap, the prime minister asked that a mechanism be put in place to prevent a recurrence of this kind of debacle."
He would not elaborate, and stopped short of saying Netanyahu had ordered a freeze.
Efrat Orbach, a spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry, said this mechanism explained why planning committee meetings were being delayed, because now multiple ministries had to be involved in the coordination.
"There is no freeze, there is bureaucracy," Orbach said.
Note: The eternal City of David, Capital of Israel has been defended since Biden's visit to Israel, in spite of Biden, Clinton and the White House condemnation of Israel. PM Netanyahu, speaking in Washington, DC informed AIPAC's 7,000 members attending that conference "there would be no freeze of building in East Jerusalem" (quote by PM Netanyahu). Jews throughout the world have been looking to Israel for strength and courage from the leaders of Israel, praying that Jerusalem would be safe-guarded from any and all demands by Obama and his administration.
We have pleaded Israel's cause; we have warned Israel that Obama's evident anti-Israel stance cannot be accepted, for he speaks on behalf of the very enemies of Israel who wish her total elimination. Netanyahu cannot give in to any more Arab appeasements by way of the White House administration. No more land for peace, we have begged Israel, as peace has not arrived in the back door (Gaza-Hamas Islamic terrorists); not in the side door (Palestinians - Abbas, formerly the PLO/Arafat); nor, can it be welcomed through the front door (Jerusalem).
So, this news of delaying construction of homes for Israeli's, on Israeli's land - is very very discouraging. We have blamed Obama for speaking double-talk. Please tell me that this is not also speech that comes from leaders in Israel. If so, then who on earth can the Jews trust, if not those entrusted with the only Jewsih country in the entire world? Bee Sting
