Last update - 00:00 21/01/2008
Official: East J'lem construction tenders now need Olmert's okay
By Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondent
The Housing Ministry has stopped publishing tenders for state construction in Jerusalem neighborhoods beyond the Green Line without Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's approval, a Housing Ministry official told a Knesset panel on Monday.
The panel - a sub-committee of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, headed by MK Otniel Schneller (Kadima) - met at the request of MKs Reuven Rivlin (Likud) and Zeev Elkin (Kadima) to discuss "the construction suspension" in West Bank settlements.
"All construction beyond the Green Line, even in Jerusalem, requires the housing minister and prime minister's approval," said Sara Zimmerman of the Housing Ministry.
She said she no longer was issuing tenders to build in the Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem without such approval.
The MKs concluded that this includes neighborhoods such as Ramot, Gilo, Armon Hanatziv, Neve Yaakov, Pisgat Zeev and the area near Route 1, even though they are under Israeli law and within Jerusalem's jurisdiction.
"The damned truth has been revealed. Olmert's new position wipes out [former prime minister Ariel] Sharon's achievements," Rivlin said. He said Sharon had received a letter from U.S. President George W. Bush recognizing the settlement blocs.
Schneller said that the "scandal caused by issuing the Har Homa building tenders two days before Bush's visit" brought about the present situation. Even worse, he said, the panel found that even construction for "humanitarian needs" like kindergartens and schools in West Bank settlements had been suspended.
Ma'aleh Adumim mayor Benny Kashriel and other West Bank settlement heads reported an acute housing and school shortage, and said that the Defense Minister would not allow construction.
The prime minister's media adviser denied that the construction in Jerusalem had been suspended. He said the prime minister had voiced his position on this issue in the news conference with Bush and that it had been passed on to the ministers.
Haaretz correspondent Barak Ravid reported a few weeks ago that the prime minister instructed Housing Minister Ze'ev Boim to report any building in the capital beyond the Green Line, due to the issue's sensitivity.
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