Settlers Race to Build Units in West Bank

By ETHAN BRONNER
NYT

JERUSALEM — Less than four weeks since the end of Israel’s building freeze in the West Bank, hundreds of units are under construction in dozens of settlements there, settler leaders and anti-settlement advocates said Thursday.

Foundations have been dug for 300 units and work is under way on a couple of hundred more, they report, many of the units in smaller settlements that would be most unlikely to remain as part of Israel in any future two-state deal with the Palestinians.

Hagit Ofran, who monitors settlement construction for Peace Now, a group that opposes it, said she was preparing a report showing that in at least 36 settlements, especially in smaller ones, intensive building was under way.

“They suspect another freeze is coming, and they are running to build,” she said in a telephone interview. “This is also about selling and money, not only ideology. There is less government building and much more private building in areas that received approval a long time ago and where there is demand.”

(More here.)