The Associated Press has prepared a detailed report on new Jewish construction starts that have begun since the end of the freeze nearly a month ago.
The report lists a total of at least 544 new housing units throughout Judea and Samaria – a small number in light of the total area population of 330,000 Jews.
AP reporters phoned a number of Jewish communities to find out the housing situation. In two cases, Oranit and Itamar, AP assumed there were “at least three” housing starts underway, based on having been told that there were “a few” going on.
Land of Israel supporters would be heartened to learn that four towns were found to have 45 or more units underway: Barkan (62), Karmei Tzur (56), Emanuel (46), and Ariel (45). Conversations with town officials, or in one case, with a land surveyor on the site, produced the information that 25 apartments are being built in Beit Aryeh, 22 or more in Kiryat Arba, 20 in Har Adar, and at least 12 in Kedumim.
The AP people had an easy time in the Binyamin and Southern Mt. Hevon regions, speaking to one official in each to find out the construction plans for all the districts' towns. The news agency found that there are “at least 200 housing starts in the Binyamin region” – an average of fewer than five for each of the region's towns.
Similarly, a total of 50 apartments are being built in the 15 towns of the Drom Har Hevron region.
Peace Now, an Israeli group whose goal it is to erase all Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria, estimates the number of housing starts in the past month as over 600. It plans to release its own detailed report next week.
MK Ben-Ari: What, Only 13,000?
Peace Now announced last month that 2,066 homes were ready to be built the moment the freeze ends, and that thousands more were only one step away.
MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) says this is far from enough, and that if only 13,000 units are built in Judea and Samaria, it will be a catastrophe.
“13,000 housing units would be the Netanyahu edition of the British White Paper [which sorely restricted Jewish immigration to the Holy Land in the 1930’s and 40’s – ed.], and would be a continuation of the policy of strangulation,” Ben-Ari said. “The Jewish settlement enterprise requires at least 50,000 units this year.”