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Facts on the Ground: Inside Israel's Settlement Slowdown

(Council on Foreign Relations) Elliott Abrams and Uri Sadot - On May 29, Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics reported that in the first quarter of 2014, the Israeli government had approved only 232 residential units for construction in the West Bank. That rate is roughly half that of the last decade, which saw an average of 1,687 units built each year, and a rate of construction that can hardly sustain even natural population growth. Under Netanyahu's current government, construction outside the major settlement blocs has steadily decreased. The 1,500 units that Israel announced plans for earlier this month were in the major blocs and in east Jerusalem. Netanyahu's government has unilaterally reduced Israeli settlement construction and largely constrained it to a narrow segment of territory....Israel is still constructing, but not in a way that will prevent a realistic peace settlement.
2014-06-27 00:00:00
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