Netanyahu: Settlement Freeze in West Bank Due to American Pressure
Image by Getty Images
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he suspended construction in West Bank settlements because of American pressure, an Israeli news site reported.
Netanyahu told a group of settler leaders that the activity of the planning council of Israel’s Civil Administration, the body responsible for authorizing construction in the West Bank, had been partially suspended because the United States demanded it, the news site nrg.co.il reported.
Netanyahu, who met Thursday night during a meeting with 20 mayors from West Bank settlements, said the United States recently demanded that the Civil Administration not only refrain from issuing tenders for construction, but also freeze the activity of its planning committee altogether and not approve new projects that would later require tenders.
At the meeting, which took place at the Prime Minister’s Bureau, Netanyahu reportedly told the mayors he was “the defender of settlements,” adding that the he had resisted earlier Obama administration demands that “not a single brick be laid, not a single house be built.”
One of the visiting mayors told Netanyahu that not allowing the planning council to convene meant a de-facto freeze on construction because “without its approval, the smallest actions cannot be completed, even not placing a lamp post above the guard post, much less preparing for the coming school year,” Nrg reported.
The issue of construction in settlements and in eastern Jerusalem has plagued peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, which collapsed in April, nine months after their resumption as part of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s efforts to promote a comprehensive peace deal between the parties.
The Palestinian Authority has accused Israel of sabotaging talks by constructing beyond the Green Line, which marked Israel’s 1967 borders. Israel has argued that construction was limited to existing settlements, affecting two percent of the territory being negotiated and that Israeli and Palestinian construction are permissible under the 1993 Oslo Accords.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
