NGO: Israel to build 450 new West Bank settler homes
Tenders released in first announcement since October; Construction Ministry: Tenders are not new, being marketed again after failing last year.
The Terrestrial Jerusalem group said that 430 new homes were to be built in four existing settlements across the West Bank - 112 in Adam, 156 in Elkana, 78 in Alfei Menashe and 84 in Kiryat Arba. Peace Now, another NGO, said on Friday that 450 tenders have been issued.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat denounced the announcement, but instead of placing the blame solely on Israel, he also aimed his criticism at the international community.
"The Israeli decision is not surprising when you look at it in the context of the culture of impunity Israel enjoys from the international community," Erekat said. "One of the latest examples of that is the American Congress' invitation to the Israeli prime minister to speak there even though Israel continues freezing the transfer of Palestinian tax money."
He called on the international community "to stop treating Israel as a state above the law" and to "support the diplomatic initiatives meant to preserve the two-state solution."
Erekat also called on the world to recognize Palestine and boycott settlement products and "companies connected directly or indirectly to the Israeli occupation and its apartheid policies."
'Opening settlement floodgates'
"It's the opening of the settlement floodgates," said Daniel Seidemann, head of the Terrestrial Jerusalem group, adding that the announcements were the first since October 2014 and unlikely to be the last before the March 17 general election.
Seidemann, whose group particularly monitors settlement in East Jerusalem, predicted that building plans there were likely to be announced soon.
"I don't think it's over," he said. "I would be very concerned."
He linked the new tenders to the election in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud is competing with other rightwing parties for the settler vote.
"This could hardly be an accident," he said. "It could not have taken place without Netanyahu's knowledge and consent."
Hagit Ofran of Peace Now accused the Israeli government of "trying to create facts on the ground ahead of the election."
"This is a war crime that should push the International Criminal Court to take up the issue of settlements," Wassel Abu Yusuf, a leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), told AFP.
The Construction Ministry said the tenders are not new, but rather ones marketed again after failing last year.
"Tenders that failed are automatically marketed again by professionals at the Israel Land Authority," the Ministry said.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Six-Day war. Building settlements there is illegal under international law and opposed by the United States and the international community as an obstacle to an eventual peace deal with the Palestinians.
The Associated Press and Elior Levy contributed to this report.
