PM approves marketing housing units beyond Green Line

Bayit Yahudi (Bennett) threatened to not vote for the budget if Netanyahu wouldn’t authorize the construction. There is no commitment to build more unit in Jerusalem or any units in Judea and Samaria. So the freeze continues.

By Yael Freidson and Itamar Eichner, YNET

Fresh from a successful trip to Washington, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday approved the marketing of 436 housing units in the settlement of Ramat Shlomo, next to Shuafat in the north of East Jerusalem.

The building of the units had already been approved in 2012, but had been frozen ever since, with Israel loath to create a diplomatic incident. A discussion on the matter was supposed to take place last week but was postponed due to Netanyahu’s trip to the US.

The ground to be marketed covers around a third of the settlement. Ramat Shlomo was previously the subject of a diplomatic dispute between the US and Israel, when building plans were announced during US Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel five years ago.

Meanwhile, the Jerusalem municipality requested marketing of a further 1,000 housing units. A further 18 housing units in the Ramot neighborhood, also over the Green Line, will also be marketed.

Chairman of the local council for building and planning in Jerusalem, Meir Turgeman, has contacted the Prime Minister, requesting that he push for approval of land development for the other 1,000 housing units in Ramat Shlomo, whose building plans have already been approved, but not yet their marketing.

Last July, following the demolition of the Dreinof houses in Beir El, Netanyahu approved the immediate construction of 300 housing units in the settlement, whose constriction was promised three years ago by Israel’s government following the moving of the structures from Ulpana Hill. In addition, marketing and building has been approved for housing units in several Jerusalem Neighborhoods: Marketing 91 units in Pisgat Ze’ev, and planning 300 units in Ramot, 70 in Gilo, 24 in Pisgat Ze’ev, and 19 in Har Homa.

While PM Netanyahu was visiting the United States last week, the Jerusalem Local Council debated a large 900-unit construction plan in Gilo, which is beyond the Green Line. The council approved the partition plans and gave the green light to go on with construction.

The plan in question is the Mordot Gilo South plan, and includes 891 units on empty ground between Gilo and the Palestinian village of Beit Jala. The land on which the houses are set to be built is owned by several different people and bodies, among them Keren Kayemet Leyisrael and the Israel Land Authority, and thus a construction permit would require the unification of the separate land pieces and their redistribution.

A similar case occurred in 2010, when Netanyahu went to the US and the local council approved building 32 housing units in eastern Pisgat Ze’ev, outside the Green Line. A memorably controversial moment occurred eight months before the approval of construction in Pisgat Ze’ev, when a 1,600 unit addition in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood of Jerusalem was approved during a visit to Israel by American Vice President Joe Biden.