Reports on new tenders in the West Bank – What’s it all about?

According to reports, the spokesman of the Ministry of Housing declared today that tenders for 336 new units in the West Bank settlements will be published soon: 294 of them at the settlement of Beitar Illit, West of Bethlehem, and 42 units at the Karnei Shomron settlement, East of Qalqilya.

According to Peace Now’s check, the official tenders were not issued yet, but they will probably be officially published in the next few days. When published, the new tenders will be the first tenders for residential construction in the West Bank (unlike in East Jerusalem) by the Netanyahu Government. The last tender of this kind was published in November 2008 by the Olmert Government, for 40 homes in the settlement of Efrat, while in East Jerusalem the Netanyahu Government has published many tenders, the most recent was of 238 units in November 2010.

This is added to another tender, published on July 5^th 2011, for 6 new factories in the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, and another two tenders for a commercial building and a factory in Ariel that were published on the 14^th of July.

The publication on new construction, new approvals and new tenders are sometimes confusing. For every construction project there is a long procedure of approval, from planning to tenders and marketing. In the current political context, any of these steps can create a political crisis. The intention to publish the currant tenders was published in the media already in May 20^th, where in addition to the 294 units in Beitar Illit there were supposed to by another 40 units in Efrat for the elderly. The publication today sends a clear message from the Israeli government to the Palestinians, pushing them to unilateral steps such as the declaration on a Palestinian state in the UN in September.

Tenders are only one way for the government to build in the settlement, when projects are relatively big and are initiated by the government. According to Peace Now’s count, the Netanyahu government approved at least 800 units in the settlements, most of them do not need to go though bidding process, since the end of the moratorium last September. In addition there are approx. 13,000 units that the settlers can build based on old approvals without the need for new approvals by the government.