'PM ordered removal of all illegal W. Bank structures'
By JPOST.COM STAFF
LAST UPDATED: 03/07/2011 17:27
High Court reveals that Netanyahu has called for the removal of all illegal structures on private land in settlements by end of 2011.
Israeli flag over settlements (illustrative). Photo: Laszlo Balogh / Reuters
Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu ordered all illegal structures
in settlements and outposts built on private land removed by the end of the year, the High
Court of Justice revealed on Monday in response to a petition from Peace
Now, Israel Radio reported. The Peace Now petition called for the
removal of six outposts in the West Bank.
In addition, the government will work to legalize structures built on State land.
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The State told the High Court that more demolitions of illegal
structures were carried out against Israelis in the West Bank than among
Palestinians and that in the period since 2005, multiple attempts to
establish new outposts have been blocked by the State.
On Thursday, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported that there had actually been a 72-percent drop in the number of housing starts in the settlements in 2010, compared to 2009.
The CBS figure of 541 settler housing starts last year, the lowest such
annual number in more than two decades, is the first official data to be
published on the rate of Jewish West Bank building after the 10-month
moratorium ended last September 26.
The report also noted a 28% drop in the number of finished homes, from 2,071 in 2009 to 1,492 in 2010.
Tovah Lazaroff contributed to this report.