Givat Ze'ev expansion highlights Barak's dilemma amid US talks
Tovah Lazaroff and Herb Keinon , THE JERUSALEM POST Jun. 29, 2009
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As Defense Minister Ehud Barak heads to the US to hammer out a deal on
settlement construction, the Givat Ze'ev settlement, located just northwest
of Jerusalem, is about to experience its largest population boom in at least
10 years, and possibly since its founding in 1983.

Located along Route 443, Givat Ze'ev, which in 2008 had 11,000 residents,
has grown by just 700 people in the previous eight years. The growth was
fueled mostly by births, as more people left than moved in.

But this year, work is nearing completion on more than 300 homes, authorized
under prime minister Ehud Olmert, and the town is waiting for signatures on
380 more, which Olmert had also said would be approved.

The town should grow by about 1,000 people in 2009 - the kind of growth
previously seen only in the largest settlement cities of Modi'in Illit, with
a population of 41,700, Betar Illit with 34,700 and Ma'aleh Adumim with
33,800.

A "settlement freeze" that would suspend all construction would heavily
impact Givat Ze'ev and these other large settlements that routinely build
several hundred apartments a year. In Modi'in Illit in 2008, for example,
work was begun on 600 apartments.

On Sunday, Givat Ze'ev Council head Yossi Avrahami said he feared "we will
have to fight for the 380" apartment units that need final approval, even as
he expressed confidence that the remainder of the construction authorized in
his settlement would continue, no matter what happened in the US.

Barak is scheduled to meet in New York on Monday with US Mideast envoy
George Mitchell to hammer out an agreement on the issue.

Barak on Sunday denied reports that Israel had decided to freeze all Jewish
building in the West Bank for three months, including for natural growth,
saying there had been no agreement on this yet in Jerusalem.

"The relations and understandings with the US are very important to Israel,"
Barak said prior to Sunday's cabinet meeting, adding that Israel supported
regional peace initiatives which include negotiations with the Palestinians.

But the Palestinian Authority has conditioned negotiations with Israel on a
total settlement freeze, something that has never happened since the first
settlement, Kibbutz Kfar Etzion, was founded 42 yeas ago.

Barak said that this issue, which he called "the issue in the headlines,"
had not been fully agreed upon in Israel.

"As I already said, the issue in the headlines has not been agreed upon, and
it is clear that among the range of issues with the Americans regarding the
regional situation - the agreement with the Palestinians, the chances of an
agreement with the Syrians, the hope that this will yield an agreement also
with Lebanon - all these things are still in the early stages and are very
important to us, and will all be discussed," he said. "But the issue itself
as was presented in the headlines is an issue that has not been agreed
upon."

Yediot Aharonot reported on Sunday that Barak would recommend a settlement
freeze for three months to restart the negotiations with the PA.

Barak - according to the paper - will also tell the Americans that Israel
does plan to continue finishing building some 2,000 housing units that are
in advanced stages of construction.

Among the items expected to be on the agenda in the discussions with the
Americans are how to define a settlement freeze, at what stage construction
would be stopped, and beyond what stage of construction would houses be
allowed to be completed.

The report struck a nerve in both Givat Ze'ev and Ma'aleh Adumim, both
places where the Likud garnered more votes than any other party in
February's national election.

It's not the first time in the current government's short history that it
and settler leaders have been at odds.

Since Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's return from Washington last month,
settler leaders have said they fear he would not authorize any new
construction permits in Judea and Samaria, including in the large settlement
cities situated close to the Green Line where the bulk of settlement growth
has occurred in the past decade.

No building permits have been authorized anywhere in the West Bank since
November.

On Sunday, settler leaders scrambled to verify reports of a freeze on
ongoing construction, even as they said they did not believe such a step was
possible.

"There is a strong majority within the coalition and within the government,
Defense Ministry and the Prime Minister's Office that opposes even a
temporary freeze," said Dani Dayan, who heads the Council of Jewish
Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip.

In Ma'aleh Adumim, where workers are building some 400 apartments, Mayor
Benny Kashriel, who is a member of the Likud Central Committee, said he had
tried with no success to verify the media reports.

"It would go against promises Netanyahu made both before and right after the
elections," Kashriel said.

He promised that if the reports were true, Netanyahu could expect vigorous
opposition both from within the Likud and on the part of settler leaders.

He added that there were technical difficulties with freezing ongoing
construction that involved breaking contracts with contractors and buyers
who had already purchased apartments. Kashriel warned that court cases would
quickly be opened in response to any deal to freeze construction that Barak
might work out.

When one drives through Givat Ze'ev one can see that work is almost
completed on some 250 apartments in a new haredi neighborhood, in a
settlement that has a broad population mix, from secular to modern Orthodox
and haredi. Another 80 units are expected to be completed soon after in the
project, which is known as Agan Ha'ayalot.

At issue for Givat Ze'ev is the remaining 380 apartments, which Olmert
promised would be authorized, but for which final signatures are pending,
according to Avrahami.

The project, which was initially authorized in 1999, was frozen in 2000, at
the start of the second intifada, when violence along Route 443 that leads
to Givat Ze'ev made it hard to attract investors and buyers. Olmert allowed
the project to move forward in 2008, after contractors who had found new
investors and buyers by targeting the haredi market sued the state.

Also under construction in Givat Ze'ev are several hundred additional
apartments authorized under Olmert, of which at least 100 are expected to be
finished this year.

Following Sunday's cabinet meeting, Netanyahu met together with Barak,
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Likud Ministers Dan Meridor and
Bennie Begin to discuss the upcoming Barak-Mitchell meeting.

Netanyahu, who postponed a meeting with Mitchell last Thursday in Paris, is
expected to meet with the envoy once the settlements issue is ironed out.

One diplomatic official noted that it was telling that Barak, not Lieberman,
who was leading the negotiations with the US on this matter, a stark
contrast to when Tzipi Livni was foreign minister and was closely involved
in the discussions with the US.

The official said it was not clear whether the US preferred dealing with
Barak rather than Lieberman; whether Netanyahu was keen on distancing
Lieberman from this issue because of the foreign minister's uncompromising
position on the matter; or whether the Israel Beiteinu chairman himself did
not want to get involved in the settlement issue so he would not eventually
be seen as one of the architects of a policy opposed by most of his party's
constituents.