Tenders published for 2,190 east J'lem, W. Bank homes

Hagit Ofran of Peace Now accuses the government of “ensuring the absence of peace both now and in the future.”

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
Ariel 521 (photo credit: Joanna Paraszczuk)
Ariel 521
(photo credit: Joanna Paraszczuk)
The Construction and Housing Ministry this week published tenders for 2,190 new homes in Jewish neighborhoods of east Jerusalem and in three West Bank settlements.
These homes were authorized after the murder of the Fogel family in Itamar last March and after the October vote by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to accept Palestine as its 195th member.
Out of the 1,557 new east Jerusalem homes, 65 will be in Pisgat Ze’ev, 749 in Har Homa and 743 in Ramot.
Out of the 633 new homes in settlements, 40 are in Ma’aleh Adumim, 277 in Ariel and 277 in Efrat.
The ministry published news of the tenders on Tuesday, that included 5,000 new homes throughout the country.
But it pleased neither the left nor the right in Israel.
Hagit Ofran of Peace Now accused the government of “ensuring the absence of peace both now and in the future.”
Dani Dayan, who heads the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, said, “it is a very small step in the right direction.”
But, he added, much more construction is needed.
“We would expect a much larger list of tenders including in places like Kiryat Arba which are not part of the settlement blocs,” he said.
On Tuesday, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz (Likud) visited Ma’aleh Adumim and called on the government to authorize an new construction in an undeveloped neighborhood in that city, called E1, or Mevaseret Adumim.