the cost of political near-sightedness
The 10 month settlement freeze instituted by Israeli government hasn’t been smooth sailing. Not only has the Palestinian leadership not been induced to enter into negotiations with the the Israelis but Israeli opposition to the freeze continues to build. This was simply the protests at yesterday’s events and reports of opposition to surface today. Ynet News:
Residents of the West Bank settlement Sha’arei Tikva are blocking entry to Civil Administration inspectors to the settlement. The inspectors arrived to distribute building freeze orders in accordance with the cabinet’s decision to impose a temporary moratorium on settlement building in the West Bank.
Residents of the West Bank settlement of Kedumim are blocking the entrance to the community after spotting Civil Administration building inspectors approaching the area. The inspectors arrived to distribute construction freeze orders in accordance with a cabinet decision on the matter.
And even after the Yassim managed to clear the road into the Kedumim settlement; the Inspectors are not free from civilian disobedience. While the ‘building order freeze’ in not just on new construction efforts like the construction of a new home or an addition to a current home but also affects common things like structure repairs to a building or paving of a driveway. The widespread opposition to the freeze has no doubt prompted this statement from Netanyahu. Ynet News
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called upon government ministers, members of Knesset, and settlement leaders to obey the decisions of the cabinet and to honor the West Bank settlement building freeze.
However, Netanyahu emphasized that building in the settlements will resume again: “Even if Abu Mazen (PA President Mahmoud Abbas) will come in another eight months with the message ‘Peace Now,’ we will start building as before. The cabinet’s decision has a deadline,” said Netanyahu in the weekly cabinet meeting
And as if the Gush Katif refugees had not paid a high enough price after the disastrous disengagement from the Gaza Strip; it appears the Netanyahu policy of a settlement freeze requires another pound of flesh from the Gush Katif refugees. Arutz Sheva:
(IsraelNN.com) The government’s construction freeze has frozen the construction of permanent homes for some 30 families thrown out of Netzarim and other Gush Katif towns in 2005. The families have written a plea to Prime Minister Netanyahu, asking him to allow them to complete the long and difficult process of rehabilitation that they have undergone in the last 4.5 years.
Arik Yefet, chairman of the group, wrote, “I turn to you in the name of some 30 families that were uprooted from Netzarim and other Gush Katif towns in the Disengagement. We have been living in the temporary site in the [Samaria] city of Ariel, in old caravans [mobile homes without wheels] and large containers.“We were astonished to hear of the diplomatic-security mini-Cabinet’s decision” – an allusion to the fact that the decision was never ratified by the full Cabinet – “to decree a blanket and immediate construction freeze on the entire settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria. This decision has immediate ramifications on all of Judea and Samaria, and particularly on those who were thrown out of Gaza. We have invested our money – close to 20 million shekels in total – on various aspects of the project, including buying the plots, architectural and engineering planning, fees and levies, a project manager, and more.”
Not only with the freeze cost the Gush Katif refugees in the Ariel settlement money it also continues to play havoc with their lives as they will be forced to live another year in temporary housing before construction actually takes place. In the end, will there even be enough money for them to actually build if they have to continue to pay for temporary housing? The most astonishing fact of the self-induced settlement freeze of the Netanyahu government is that in the end – the Israelis gain nothing by taking such unilateral actions.
