According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics - from the first quarter of 2010 (January-March):
• According to the CBS there were no new building starts in the settlements (this means no new building permits were issued).
• Construction of 415 housing units in settlements was completed.
• As of the end of March 2010, amid the freeze, 2,361 housing units were under construction in the settlements.
• In the last quarter of 2010, on the eve of the freeze, there was a 33% rise in building starts compared to the three previous months.
• Peace Now documented dozens of new structures whose construction began since the freeze was announced.

The meaning of these figures is that if the declared freeze in the settlements does not continue past September, beyond the 10 months allocated for it, the freeze will have no significance on the ground.

The meaning of the CBS data: "Zero building starts" really means "zero building permits"

The Central Bureau of Statistics counts the construction starts by the number of construction permits issued by the authorities and does not conduct surveys on the ground. In the settlements there is a widespread phenomenon of building without permits and, furthermore, the data conveyed by the local authorities is sometimes not accurate. According to CBS definitions, "the building data does not include erecting caravans, mobile homes... outposts in Judea and Samaria, buildings for which no report of building permits was given to the CBS, or illegal building for housing that was not registered in an Interior Ministry report." Furthermore, "the building data for the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria whose population is up to 10,000 residents is presented as a summary because of the low level of the quality of the data in some of the settlements."

Which is to say, because of the large amount of building without permits in the territories, of building mobile homes and underreporting by some of the settlements, the CBS data for the settlements is only partial. The freeze order forbids issuing new building permits and CBS data indicate that indeed no new permits were issued. But in fact Peace Now has documented dozens of buildings whose construction began after the freeze order.

The settlement of Shilo. April 20 2010

Continued construction during the freeze

The freeze order does not forbid the continued construction of buildings whose construction began before the freeze, and indeed, the construction of thousands of housing units in the settlements continues today. According to CBS data, in the last quarter of 2009 there was a 33% rise in the number of building starts in the settlements compared to the third quarter (from 447 new building starts in the months July-September to 593 building starts in the months October-December). The construction issued by governmental bodies (the public construction) actually rose 300% in the last quarter of 2009, from a low of only 10 new building starts in the third quarter of 2009 to 341 new apartments in the fourth quarter of 2009, and that is the highest number of government-backed building starts per quarter since the beginning of 2007, which constitutes a change from the continuous decline in government-backed building starts for six quarters (a year and a half).

The data confirms the phenomenon we have indicated before of the settlers' rush to begin as many building starts as possible before the freeze, and the decision by Netanyahu and Barak to issue very many building permits, even for public building, before the freeze.

Unless the freeze continues beyond the month of September, the freeze will remain meaningless on the ground. According to CBS data, at the end of 2009 there were 2,776 housing units under construction, of which the construction of 415 housing units ended by the end of March (not including illegal construction), so that today there are at least 2,361 housing units under construction.

CBS figure – Construction Starts in the Settlements:

Violations of the freeze order:

According to the freeze order no new building permits may be issued, and no construction may begin on the basis of old permits (the continuation of construction that has already begun is allowed). Even though the CBS data indicates zero new starts (which actually means zero building permits) -- Peace Now has documented dozens of new building starts. The Defense Ministry also admits that in about one quarter of the settlements (in 29 settlements) new buildings are under construction, in violation of the freeze order.

The main construction sites during the freeze:

At the eve of the freeze, we saw many new construction starts which continue to be built today. A rise in construction was evident in the isolated settlements east of the separation barrier, compared to the settlements west of the fence. Among the isolated settlements that have the largest building sites, according to Peace Now's account:

Neriya (Talmon B) - 39 buildings
T'koa - 34 buildings
Tapuach - 25 buildings
Tene - 23 buildings
Shilo - 20 buildings
Ma'ale Michmash - 20 buildings
Yitzhar - 20 buildings
Kedumim - 19 buildings
Itamar - 19 buildings
Har Bracha - 18 buildings
Eli - 18 buildings
Kochav Ha'shachar - 16 buildings
Avnei Hefetz - 12 buildings
Dolev - 11 buildings

The settlement of Elazar. May 26 2010