UK condemns Jerusalem's Givat Hamatos project after contract awarded

He also took issue with Israeli settlement activity in Judea and Samari, stating, "The UK has repeatedly urged Israel to end illegal settlement expansion in the West Bank."

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
SHOWING NATIONAL pride in the Givat Hamatos neighborhood on November 16. (photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH 90)
SHOWING NATIONAL pride in the Givat Hamatos neighborhood on November 16.
(photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH 90)
The United Kingdom condemned Israel’s issuance of contracts for the controversial east Jerusalem Givat Hamatos project, just hours before US President Joe Biden took office.
“The decision to proceed with new settlements in Givat HaMatos separates Palestinians in East Jerusalem from Bethlehem, and threatens the viability of a two-state solution,” British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab tweeted on Thursday.
The issuance of the contracts essentially launches the project to build a new neighborhood of 1,257 homes.
Givat Hamatos is of particular concern because its location on the edge of Jerusalem, near Bethlehem, helps sever the contiguous Palestinian connection between the two cities.
Raab also took issue with Israeli settlement activity in Judea and Samaria, stating, “The UK has repeatedly urged Israel to end illegal settlement expansion in the West Bank.”
France issued a similar statement on Wednesday. “France condemns the recent decisions related to the construction of more than 2,500 new homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem settlements and nearly 1,300 homes in the settlement of Givat Hamatos in East Jerusalem.”
Norway, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the EU and the UN have also spoken out on the issue. Some 17 officials from European countries met with the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem this week to discuss their concerns.
The international community is particularly concerned because it believes Jewish building over the pre-1967 lines in Jerusalem and the West Bank will make it more difficult for Biden to relaunch a peace process with the Israelis and Palestinians, should he choose to do so.
Israel believes the project will help preserve a united Jerusalem, and rejects any charge that building in east Jerusalem or West Bank settlements is harmful to the peace process.
But while Netanyahu was able to launch the Givat Hamatos project, advance plans for 800 settler homes, and issue tenders for 2,112 West Bank settler homes and 460 Jewish east Jerusalem units, he was not able to advance the overall issue of the outposts.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz was able to prevent Netanyahu from putting the issue on the government’s agenda so that the ministers could issue a declaration of intent to legalize the outposts.
Netanyahu was not even able to put forward a compromise declaration to transform five or six of those outposts into settlements.
The Young Settlements Forum, which represents the outposts, announced on Thursday that their campaign to legalize the fledgling communities had failed. It had pushed for a legalization declaration in advance of Biden’s inauguration on the understanding that the US president’s opposition to the outposts would make such a move impossible after he was in the White House.
“The current struggle ...has unfortunately failed,” the Forum said. “This is a sad day for the State of Israel when its leaders turn their backs on the settlements in Judea and Samaria. The encampment has been taken down, but we are not going away. We will continue our stubborn and uncompromising battle until the communities are legalized.”
It called on all Zionist parties to ensure that an agreement to legalize the outposts is part of the next government’s guidelines.
Religious Zionist Party head Bezalel Smotrich promised to place legalization of the outposts into the text of any coalition agreement his party would sign should it enter the government.
“Netanyahu and Gantz chose politics over humanity and justice,” he said. “Religious Zionism will not give up on regulation [legalization]. We have a path and we are committed to it.”
The Land of Israel Caucus, which he co-chairs along with MK Haim Katz (Likud), promised to seek authorization of the outposts through parliamentary legislation once a government was formed.
Prior to the Knesset’s dispersal, it had given initial approval to a bill to grant de facto legal status to the outpost during the authorization process. Smotrich, New Hope Party head Gideon Sa’ar and Yamina Party head Naftali Bennett all voted for the bill. Netanyahu and Gantz were absent.
Despite the loss of the overall drive to legalize outposts en masse, the Right celebrated a small victory on Thursday when the first public bus entered the Nofei Nehemia outpost, which is located in the Samaria Region of the West Bank.
On Sunday, the Higher Planning Council advanced a building plan for the outpost, thereby putting it on the path to legalization as a new neighborhood of the Rehelim settlement.
As a sign of its new status, it was added to the public transportation route.
“This is what normal life should look like,” said Dagan, who came to the outpost to witness the historic moment. “We expect this to be the case with all the young communities [outposts].”
Smotrich and Transportation Minister Miri Regev were also present.


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