Updated data on construction starts in the settlements for the end of September 2009, as taken from the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), confirm Peace Now reports that there has been a rise in the number of private construction projects that were launched during that past 6-months period, as opposed to a slowdown in public building commencements.  Despite the fact that the Netanyahu government rarely promoted new construction plans in the settlements and hardly launched any significant public projects, construction in the territories maintained past years' numbers.  This was mainly due to private initiatives that intensified and to using old construction permits.  According to an official study done in the Ministry of Defense (the Spiegel report), there are some 40,000 potential housing units that can theoretically be built, according to already approved plans in the settlements.  According to Netanyahu's construction-freeze declaration, the freeze in the settlements is supposed to apply to private construction projects, including those based on old permits.

Main data:
1.  Total Construction: Numbers similar to 2006 and 2007
According to CBS data, during the first 6 months of the Netanyahu government (April-September 2009), the construction of 859 new housing units started in the territories.  The construction of a similar number of units started in 2007 (859) and in 2006 (773).  In 2008, however, soon after the Annapolis summit, there was a sharp rise in the pace of construction commencements, as the construction of 1,107 housing units started between April and September. 

2.  Sharp Decline in Public Construction and a Steep Rise in Private Construction
According to the CBS, "public construction" means projects initiated by the government, local authorities, or national institutions, while "private construction" is defined as non-public projects.  Between April and September 2009, works started on 132 housing units of public construction, as compared with 335 in 2008 and 373 in 2007 (a 60% decline).  At the same time, privately initiated construction projects included 727 housing units, as compared with 486 in 2007 and 473 in 2006 (the rise started in 2008, when the construction of 772 housing units started with private initiatives during the same period). 

3.  Sharp Change in July - September: 3 months of unprecedented low in construction starts of public construction
CBS data show that the construction of only 4 housing units started through public initiatives between July and September 2009.  At the same time, the pace of private construction has doubled, as the number of new housing units rose from 193 between April and June to 534 between July and September.  This is the highest quarterly figure since the beginning of 2006. 

4.  2,895 Units Currently Under Construction
In the end of September 2009, 2,895 housing units were under active construction stages.  If indeed all new construction works in the settlements should stop, after work on those 2,985 housing units ends, within a year or two, there should be no construction in the settlements.

Quarter	Total Construction	Public Construction	Private Construction
I 2006	425	213	212
II 2006	460	238	222
III 2006	313	62	251
IV 2006	318	60	258
I 2007	268	68	200
II 2007	441	230	211
III 2007	418	143	275
IV 2007	346	163	183
I 2008	559	314	245
II 2008	454	196	258
III 2008	653	139	514
IV 2008	450	149	301
I 2009	339	94	245
II 2009	321	128	193
III 2009	538	4	534