Barak to augment inspection teams to enforce West Bank settlement freeze

Defense Minister Ehud Barak has told his staff to hire and train inspectors as soon as possible to determine whether the government's 10-month construction freeze in the settlements is being implemented.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told cabinet ministers from his Likud party yesterday that the construction moratorium was an achievement compared to the original American demand.

'The issue is hot'

"The Americans wanted us to freeze all construction completely for two years. In the end we got what we got and we set a date for the end of the freeze," Netanyahu said. "The issue is hot, and I understand that, but we don't have to heat it up further."

Fourteen construction inspectors are currently at work in the West Bank. Following Barak's directive, another 40 are to be hired and trained within two weeks, and dozens more thereafter. Police, Border Police and the Civil Administration will see that the orders are implemented, under the aegis of the Israel Defense Forces.

Likud ministers were harshly critical of the construction freeze both during a cabinet meeting yesterday and the meeting of Likud ministers beforehand. Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau, who voted against the freeze, said he would appeal the decision so it could be brought up for another debate and voted on in the full cabinet.

Vice Premier Silvan Shalom told the cabinet that the decision "would not lead to the renewal of negotiations and, like the Bar-Ilan speech, it would only lead to the Palestinians hardening their position and making more demands on Israel."

Shalom, who was not present when the inner cabinet voted on the freeze, said Likud had always supported the settlement project and that "if there is an ideological change, it should be done by means of public debate in Likud institutions, not as it was done."

At the Likud ministers meeting, Information and Diaspora Minister Yuli Edelstein asked Netanyahu to meet as soon as possible with the mayors of the West Bank settlements and ensure that the 300,000 settlers be compensated if they are harmed by the freeze. "What am I supposed to do if a pipe bursts in my home?" said Edelstein, who lives in a settlement.

Netanyahu told cabinet secretary Zvi Hauser to arrange a meeting for him with the settlements' mayors as soon as he returned from a scheduled trip to Germany. But the Prime Minister's Bureau said yesterday that Netanyahu had postponed his trip to Germany because of illness.

Ministers' obligation

Before yesterday's cabinet meeting, Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan criticized Barak on the orders to freeze construction, which were issued Friday.

"The orders Barak issued are extreme and could seriously harm human rights," Erdan said. He said Barak had a political agenda, so the ministers' obligation to support the settlement project in the West Bank had to be stressed.

Erdan said he regretted that the cabinet had not discussed the decision to freeze construction in the settlements. But he said he assumed that Netanyahu would allow the ministers to express their opinions on the matter.