Insight - In Netanyahu's fourth term,

what's next for Israeli settlements?

I
sraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a statement to the media in Jerusalem April 1, 2015.REUTERS/DEBBIE HILL/POOL

MITZPE KRAMIM, WEST BANK | BY MAAYAN LUBELL- Mon Apr 6, 2015

(Reuters) - A day before his surprise election victory last
month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood against the backdrop of a
construction site in Har Homa, a towering settlement in the occupied West Bank, and
pledged to go on building.
The next week, however, his office ordered local authorities to put the brakes on plans
to erect hundreds of new homes at Har Homa, a settlement Netanyahu authorised in
1997 during his first term in the face of fierce international opposition.
It was an example of the tightrope Netanyahu walks between his political allegiances

and the international community, whose faith in his commitment to a two-state

solution with the Palestinians - including a halt to settlement-building - is wearing
thin.
About to begin his fourth term, likely this time at the head of a heavily right-leaning
coalition, Netanyahu will be watched closely, at home and abroad, for any moves on
settlements, after he ruled out any future Palestinian state before the poll.
He backtracked on the pledge, but international suspicion remains over his
commitment to a two-state solution that was at heart of U.S.-sponsored peace talks
that collapsed last year.
"Theres an increasing distrust of him, that he might say certain things and is either
unable to make a decision to take things forward or isnt really committed," said an EU
diplomat.
Palestinians, who want to establish a state in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem
and the Gaza Strip, say the settlements - deemed illegal under international law - deny
them contiguous territory.
TEN-YEAR RECORD
According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, Netanyahus centrist predecessor
Ehud Olmert began construction of 5,120 homes in West Bank settlements between
2006 and 2008. That is 241 units more than Netanyahus governments started
building between 2011 and 2013.
But in a report published in February, Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Now said
2014 may have been a turning point, with Netanyahus government setting a 10-year
record for the number of tenders issued for settlement construction - a step before
actual building. Construction starts for 2014 increased by 40 percent over the previous
year.
The problem, according to Peace Now, is not just how much is built, but where.
Netanyahus predecessors had kept construction going mostly in settlement blocs on
the edge of the West Bank which Israel says it intends to keep in any peace deal.
Peace Nows Settlement Watch director, Hagit Ofran, said Netanyahu had significantly
increased construction deep inside the West Bank, making peace harder to achieve.
"In the past few years, the government has been building a lot, particularly in those

areas, and I expect this to continue," Ofran said.

It has slowly advanced plans for construction, but not built any homes so far, in two
particularly sensitive areas of the West Bank - the E1 corridor between Jerusalem and
the Dead Sea, and Givat Hamatos, between Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
Construction there could potentially split the West Bank and also cut Palestinians off
from East Jerusalem, which they seek for their capital.
"We have a particular view on certain red lines, Givat Hamatos and E1," the EU
diplomat said.
What, if anything, the West would do about building in such places remains a
question, but the Europeans have talked about sanctions or retaliatory measures based
around the EUs trade agreement with Israel.
Settlers say Netanyahus reticence is tantamount to a quiet freeze - and they want
that to end.
Israeli officials confirmed that overall, the planning process for new building projects
in settlements, which goes through various stages of approval, has slowed.
But settler leader Danny Dayan said Netanyahu will have to accommodate the
demands of the pro-settler Jewish Home party, a likely coalition partner, to build more
if a new government is to survive.
Jewish Home advocates annexation of most the West Bank, a policy Netanyahu has
not supported.
Another likely ally, the far-right Yisrael Beitenu party, wants to trade some Arab towns
in Israel for West Bank settlements.
More than 500,000 Israelis live on occupied land in East Jerusalem and the West
Bank, among 2.8 million Palestinians. In the West Bank alone, the number of settlers
has more than doubled since 1995 to over 350,000.
JERUSALEM GATEWAY
In his election eve speech at Har Homa, Netanyahu expanded on the traditional
arguments for settlements based on Jewish history and Israeli security needs, and in
effect confirmed Palestinian accusations the enclaves are built as a land grab.
"There was a Palestinian attempt to join Bethlehem, to break through into Jerusalem. I
thought we must protect the southern gateway to Jerusalem by building here. There
was huge objection, because this neighborhood is in a location that prevents

Palestinian contiguity," Netanyahu said.

Though the West has shown a degree of tacit consent to Israel building in blocs it
might retain, Palestinians see all settlement construction as cause for alarm.
"These deliberate and premeditated violations present a challenge to the United
Nations, European Union and United States if they are to prevent the final demise of
the global rule of law and hence the achievement of a just peace," Palestinian official
Hanan Ashrawi said.
In Mitzpe Kramim, a settlement perched on a hilltop overlooking the Jordan Valley,
men were praying at dusk while their wives sat watching children play on the grass.
"The people of Israel and Judaism began here," said Doron Leshem, 37, who lives there
with his wife and five children, along with some 40 other families.
"We are here to fulfill a destiny. This is mine. Like the vines growing here, we cannot
grow anywhere else. Judaism cannot thrive elsewhere," he said as the days last rays of
sun shone through the communitys nearby vineyard.
(Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Philippa Fletcher)
Posted by Thavam