Israel Matzav

Is there a building freeze in Jerusalem?

Two weeks ago, when the whole uproar over building 300 apartments at Har Homa started, I asked whether at Annapolis Prime Minister Ehud K. Olmert had agreed to a building freeze in Jerusalem neighborhoods that are beyond the pre-1967 border. If you believe him, Pensioners' Party Minister of Jerusalem Affairs Rafi Eitan says today that the answer is no.

Israel is planning to allocate funds to build over one thousand apartments in east Jerusalem and the West Bank as part of its 2008 budget, despite previous statements that it would not expand West Bank construction, Army Radio reported Sunday.

500 apartments are planned to be built in Har Homa and another 240 in Ma'aleh Adumim. This is in addition to the 340 Har Homa apartments announced earlier this month.

"No promise was ever given to anyone that we wouldn't continue to build in Har Homa, because it's within the municipal borders of Jerusalem," Minister of Jerusalem Affairs Rafi Eitan told Army Radio, calling both the neighborhood and Ma'aleh Adumim an integral part of Jerusalem.

The radio station quoted sources in the Ministry of Housing as saying Israel would wait for "a convenient timing, which will not raise a wave of international protest."

Allocating funds doesn't mean they will be used or that anything will be built. "No promise was ever given to anyone" sounds pretty definitive, except that it doesn't talk about NOW. And when it comes to Jerusalem, there is no such thing as "a convenient timing, which will not raise a wave of international protest." Given how quickly the government retreated on Atarot last week, and how they tried to excuse the previous 300 apartments in Har Homa as having been the 'legacy of past governments', I'll be amazed if they build anywhere over the green line in the foreseeable future.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:31 PM