The ground that was broken on 2,630 new settler homes last year, is the second highest amount of new Jewish construction that has occurred in the West Bank since the year 2,000.
The number of housing starts in West Bank settlements rose by 40% from 2015 to 2016, according to data released by the Central Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday.
The ground that was broken on 2,630 new settler homes last year, is the second highest amount of new Jewish construction that has occurred in the West Bank since the year 2,000 when there were 4,965 starts.
The largest spate of new settlement activity since that time was in 2013 during the US lead peace process, when there were 2,874 housing starts.
The 2013 numbers were high because under the peace process new construction permits were linked to the Israeli release of Palestinian prisoners.
The 2016 settler building boom occurred in the last year of the Obama Administration. It attacked such activity with increasingly harsh rhetoric and in December gave its de-facto support for UN Security Council Resolution 2334 that condemned it.
US President Donald Trump has asked Israel to constrain such activity. Netanyahu’s chief of staff, Yoav Horowitz, is in Washington to come to a mutual understanding with the Trump Administration with regard to settlement activity.
Settler housing starts amounted to only 5% of the overall work that was begun on 52,400 homes nationwide in 2016. That number represented a 7% drop when compared to the 52,800 starts in 2015. No other region came close to showing the same rate of growth.
When it came to housing finishes in 2016, the numbers rose nation wide by 4 percent over 2015, but dropped in Judea and Samaria by 14 percent.
The 1,760 settler homes that were completed in 2016 represented only 3.8% of the overall 45,400 finished units nation wide.
How many Arab homes were built in the same time? Can we compare by %?
These numbers, based on a very biased report are of little use.
It not possible to compare a ‘housing start’ in the countryside of the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council to a multifamily high rise in say Tel-Aviv or even an apartment building in small town Ashdod.
The ‘housing starts’ in Samaria over which the Jerusalem Post is agitating so heavily, very likely resemble the rural Mateh Binyamin variety and don’t amount to anything.
Family units are typically built for young families, sometimes starting out with a couple and their first baby. The red-roofed cottages of the Judean hills neighborhoods may shelter somewhat larger families. But the average Israeli couple still only has 3 children.
Obtaining real reliable figures would be of high interest. Jerusalem Post however, is not in the business of proper research or reporting. Rather, theirs is a propaganda outfit. Mrs. Lazaroff’s alleged “housing boom” is contrived to stoke an atmosphere of hate against the rural communities in Judea and Samaria. The article is also manufactured for the consumption of anti-Semites in foreign countries.
One ought to better highlight the fact that completed homes were down 14% last year. Or that 2’000 homes only house 6’000 people. Even at 7 people per house, and a total of 14’000 in a country of 8’500’000 – it works out for 0.16% for the total population.
That don’t amount to much.
Israel and the US are talking nuhjmbers now. If you review what has been built in the last 10 years, you will see that the average is less than 2000/year. Let’s say they agree to 4000 per year. Those houses will accommodate about 7 people per house or 28000 per year.
With 400,000 settlers living in Judea and Samaria now, give or take, this represents about 7% population increase per year. This is not a large number. It will not affect the ultimate deal if one is to be agreed upon. But it will be enough to pressure the PA to make a deal. If they fail to do so then Israel succeeds in the long run. A freeze robs us of this tool.
I am happy to see that Israel is resisting the freeze and that MK Arial will leave the coalition if there is such a freeze.
The construction of homes is not settler housing or expansion it is simply development. Something that needs to be done when people need homes and not as a trade for releasing murderous terrorists or obtaining favour from foreigners, even if they are supposedly allies.
I’d like to see the agreed-upon formula for how many anti-semitic serial killers should be released for each new Jewish home that can be built. I mean, it’s important to get the best deal, value for value. Right? How much are Jewish lives going for on today’s market? Anybody have those figures?
A Central Bureau of Statistics
Really.
Consumers want homes, not costly, tax feeding government bureaucrats to count the number of building/occupancy permits issued.