FRESH AIR

UPDATES

Settlement housing construction plummets to five-year low

Sep 15, 2017 | Ahron Shapiro

Settlement housing construction plummets to five-year low
news_item/Screen_Shot_2017-09-15_at_2.51.42_pm_.png

In January, coinciding with the inauguration of US President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s government advanced plans for thousands of new homes in Jewish neighbourhoods of east Jerusalem as well as the West Bank (the vast majority within settlement blocs Israel is expected to keep as part of any peace agreement via land swaps.)

Yet since then – according to the latest figures released by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, actual housing starts have dropped to its lowest point in five years.

Strangely, the media has been silent about this glaring disparity between Israeli government announcements regarding settlements and the situation on the ground.

In June, I blogged about how the drop in construction at that time had been spun into a “surge” by playing around with timelines.

Now, housing statistics show the plunge in starts has continued. This time, however – with the exception of the Jerusalem Post – the media has greeted the news with complete silence.

The Jerusalem Post reported:

From April to June ground was broken on only 278 settler homes, a 75% drop, compared with 1,121 such starts during the same period in 2016. The last time the number was that low for any three month period was in the fourth quarter of 2012.
In contrast, the second quarter of 2016 was unusually high, so the drop is lower and stands at 60%, when comparing the 646 housing starts from January to June of this year with the 1,575 starts from the first half of last year.
The CBS spoke of an overall 18% drop when comparing the last 12 months, with its 2005 starts, to the period of July 2015 to June 2016 were there were 2449 starts.
It was the largest such drop nationwide, where the number of starts fell by 4.6%. Among the region that were below that average was Tel Aviv, which fell by 16.5% and in the South, which dropped by 15%.
The statistics bureau published its data precisely as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted about his dedication to building throughout the country, including in Judea and Samaria.
“We are building the land and settling it, on the mountain, in the valley, the Galilee, the Negev and also in Judea and Samaria,” Netanyahu said. “Because this is our land! This is our home and the birthplace of the Jewish nation. It is the only land that was promised to our forefathers. We were given the right to settle it. We must safeguard it from every vantage point.”

In my June blog, I noted that settler leaders

“attack… Netanyahu for promising much to the settlement movement over the years and delivering little. This is something that is repeatedly expressed by many in the settlement movement. And the evidence indicates that this is not just an ambit claim by settlers for more. Despite the appearance given in the media, the Netanyahu governments since his taking office in 2009, have been more restrained in slowing settlement growth than their predecessors.”

Three months and another quarterly construction report later, the observations made in the blog continue to hold true.

The question that everyone should be asking is why most Israel-based foreign correspondents often report on those quarterly reports that ostensibly show a rise in settlement housing starts, but never seem to find drops in settlement housing starts to be newsworthy.

With such selective reporting, no wonder so many Australians have bought into the fallacy of “massive settlement expansion” under Netanyahu.

Ahron Shapiro

 

Tags:

RELATED ARTICLES


Syrians celebrate the demise of Hassan Nasrallah (Image: X/ Hamdi Rifai)

The Syrian town that Hezbollah almost starved to death

Oct 16, 2024 | Featured, Fresh AIR
October 7 Commemoration, Jewish Care Melbourne 7.10.2024

October 7 commemoration in Melbourne

Oct 8, 2024 | Featured, Fresh AIR
An IDF bulldozer checks for explosive charges beneath roads approaching the Nur Shams camp near Tulkarem (Screenshot)

IDF, Shin Bet launch major operation in northern West Bank

Aug 28, 2024 | Featured, Fresh AIR
Image: United Nations/ X

The UN continues to ignore Israeli victims of terrorism

Aug 28, 2024 | Featured, Fresh AIR
The aftermath of the violent settler attack upon the West Bank town of Jit (Image: X/ Twitter)

Jewish community condemnation of settler violence is not new

Aug 27, 2024 | Featured, Fresh AIR
Iran Hackers

Iran steps up election interference in the US

Aug 23, 2024 | Featured, Fresh AIR
Image: Shutterstock

Nine months after Oct. 7: Where Israel stands now

Jul 10, 2024 | Update
Palestinian Red Crescent workers from Al-Najjar Hospital in the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip (Image: Shutterstock)

Hamas’ impossible casualty figures

Mar 28, 2024 | Update
455daec3 C2a8 8752 C215 B7bd062c6bbc

After the Israel-Hamas ceasefire for hostages deal

Nov 29, 2023 | Update
Screenshot of Hamas bodycam footage as terrorists approach an Israeli vehicle during the terror organisation's October 7, 2023 attack in southern Israel, released by the IDF and GPO (Screenshot)

Horror on Video / International Law and the Hamas War

Oct 31, 2023 | Update
Sderot, Israel. 7th Oct, 2023. Bodies of dead Israelis lie on the ground following the attacks of Hamas (Image: Ilia Yefimovich/dpa/Alamy Live News)

Israel’s Sept. 11, only worse

Oct 11, 2023 | Update
Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu (r) gets his long-awaited face-to-face meeting with US President Joe Biden in New York (Photo: Avi Ohayon, Israeli Government Press Office)

Netanyahu meets Biden, other world leaders, in New York

Sep 27, 2023 | Update

RECENT POSTS

Syrians celebrate the demise of Hassan Nasrallah (Image: X/ Hamdi Rifai)

The Syrian town that Hezbollah almost starved to death

Prayer ceremony for Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year) on the Tel Aviv Promenade (Image: Shutterstock)

The Last Word: Lessons of a year of war

Nova

Cine File: The day the music died

Sheik Youssef Nabha of Sydney’s Arrahman Mosque (Image: YouTube screenshot)

Sydney Sheikh holds hateful vigil mourning Nasrallah

Graphic showing Hamas use of a school as a base – an increasingly common pattern in northern Gaza (Image: IDF)

Hamas’ command centres in schools 

Syrians celebrate the demise of Hassan Nasrallah (Image: X/ Hamdi Rifai)

The Syrian town that Hezbollah almost starved to death

Prayer ceremony for Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year) on the Tel Aviv Promenade (Image: Shutterstock)

The Last Word: Lessons of a year of war

Nova

Cine File: The day the music died

Sheik Youssef Nabha of Sydney’s Arrahman Mosque (Image: YouTube screenshot)

Sydney Sheikh holds hateful vigil mourning Nasrallah

Graphic showing Hamas use of a school as a base – an increasingly common pattern in northern Gaza (Image: IDF)

Hamas’ command centres in schools 

SORT BY TOPICS