Construction in settlements hits seven-year high

/ June 11, 2013

Official Israeli figures show new housing constructions in settlements rose significantly in the first three months of 2013 compared to the same period last year. A report on new housing constructions released by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics showed that housing development in the occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank jumped from 313 new constructions between January and March in the previous year, to 865 in the same period this year.

The statistics bureau’s report detailed new housing developments country-wide. The West Bank housing represents the highest relative spike since last year compared to other regions in Israel. According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, new construction projects in West Bank settlements have grown by 176 percent (!) compared to the same period last year (January-March 2012). This is a 355 percent increase, when compared to the final quarter of 2012 (October-December).


New houses at the settlement of Halamish near the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, April 19, 2013. (Photo: Activestills)
The numbers refer only to legal projects and not to unregulated projects in the so-called “outposts.” Furthermore, construction projects in occupied East Jerusalem are also counted separately. Despite the real estate crisis and the social protests, new construction projects in Israel actually decreased by 8.9 percent during the same period.  According to “Peace Now”, which does the most extensive work on monitoring settlement growth; “these findings provide further evidence of a continuing government policy to prioritize settlement expansion, at the behest of settler interests and at the expense of the majority of Israeli citizens. Settler populations comprise of a mere 4% of the population, yet received a 176% increase in construction starts, while the other 96% of Israeli citizens received an 8.9% decrease in construction starts”.

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