Ravivi: Freeze continues on ground
Photo: Gershon Elinson
Eliezer. Favors extension
Photo: Tomeriko
Settlers call on ministers not to extend freeze
Ahead of meeting of seven ministers' forum on US demand to prolong construction moratorium by two months, heads of Judea and Samaria local authorities call freeze 'injury to basic human rights of Jews living in country'
Local authority heads in Judea and Samaria called on the government Tuesday morning to reject a US demand for an additional two-month freeze on construction in settlements.
Negotiations
London-based Arabic paper al-Sharq al-Awsat says prime minister has given consent in principle to two-month renewal of settlement building moratorium on condition it will be the last
"I hope and pray that the government will not capitulate and the ministers honor their promises that the freeze will come to an end after 10 months," the head of Beit El's local council, Moshe Rosenbaum, told Ynet.
"It is a shameful and humiliating injury to basic human rights, my rights as a man and a Jew living in his country. Now they doubt our rights to parts of Israel and on a day like this I feel humiliated that this is even being discussed."
Head of the Binyamin Regional Council, Avi Roeh, spoke of the harm to settlers. "The government of Israel is imposing orders that harm the basic human rights of those living in Israel, despite the fact that it is supposed to protect Jewish settlement," he said. "The freeze, like the Gaza withdrawal, is an incident that will be judged by history."
But there are some who see the debate as irrelevant, as construction plans are not being approved in any case. "Though the freeze has expired, as long as the prime minister and the defense minister don't sign off on the sale of lots the freeze in actuality continues, in Jerusalem as well as the settlement blocs outside it," said the head of Efrat's council, Oded Ravivi.
Oddly, these construction plans have caused Alfei Menashe Council head Hasdai Eliezer to speak out in favor of the extension. "It would have been best if the freeze had not begun at all," he said.
"The freeze was a bad decision, but the decision not to continue the freeze is even worse… I am in favor of two additional months, at the end of which all plans and tenders in the hands of the Defense Ministry be approved – we are talking about thousands of homes," he said.
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