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Ha'aretz, February 24, 1998
Peace Now study:
Gaza Settlements Glutted with 454 Empty Apartments
By Nadav Shragai, Ha'aretz Correspondent
Over 25 percent of living units in Gaza Strip
settlements stand empty, according to a survey
conducted yesterday by the Peace Now movement's
settlement-tracking team. Three teams visited Gaza
settlements yesterday to count the number of empty
units, following last week's issuing of a tender
for the building of 100 additional units in the
settlement of Nisnit, near the Jabalya refugee
camp, according to a Peace Now statement.
The data collected indicates that these settlements
contain 454 empty units out of 1800. By settlement,
the figures break down to 69 empty units in Gan Or,
57 in Bnei Atzmon, 44 in Bdolach, 43 in Pe'at
Sadeh, 29 in Neve Dekalim, 22 in Katif, 22 in Ganei
Tal, 18 in Netzer Hazani, 17 in Nisnit, 16 in Elei
Sinai, 11 in Dugit, 11 in Rafiah Yam, and 10 in
Morag.
Peace Now said that "With the peace process as it
is now, the decision to build in Nisnit exhibits
unparalleled obtuseness." According to Gaza
Regional Council spokesman Shlomo Kostiner Peace
Now's data are inaccurate, and the number of empty
units in Gaza Strip settlements is far smaller. In
particular, he said, their conclusions regarding
Nisnit are wrong, since this particular settlement
contains no empty units.
He added that eight different contractors are
competing for the tender to build the new units,
following demand from hundreds of families wishing
to join the settlement. "This is an initiative that
promotes private enterprise, which the country can
only benefit from," Kostiner argued.
He added that Gaza Strip settlements absorbed over
100 new families this year, and next year the
number would be even greater. "I don't think they
visited the settlements," he said, "because if they
had, there's no way they could have obtained such
distorted data.
(c) copyright 1998 Ha'aretz. All Rights Reserved
Ha'aretz, August 26, 1998
Ministry admits 25% of homes in settlements are empty
Reuters
The Housing Ministry said in a rare admission yesterday that almost a
quarter of the housing units built by the government in Jewish settlements
in the West Bank between 1989 and 1992 have never been occupied.
Moshe Eilat, a ministry adviser, confirmed a report in Ma'ariv that 994 of
the 3,905 units built in the three-year period, were still empty.
But he said the vacancies were in line with government policy to "have
more supply than demand" to keep prices of settlement homes - usually
far below those within the Green Line - affordable.
The ministry gave no figures for years other than 1989 to 1992.
Peace Now has said more than 3,000 of the 44,000 homes it estimates
Israel has built in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza are
empty. The vacancies mean that Israel need not construct more housing
units to cope with what the government calls "natural growth" of the
Jewish population in settlements, according to Peace Now.
Eilat said the policy of leaving government-built houses vacant to push
down prices was practiced nationwide and not exclusive to areas Israel
captured in the Six-Day War.
Settler leaders said the Housing Ministry report was not indicative of any
slowdown in moving Jews into the biblical Land of Israel. "The
communities continue to grow and people continue to move into them and
the demands for housing exceeds the number of available units," settler
spokeswoman Yehudit Tayar said.
(c) copyright 1998 Ha'aretz. All Rights Reserved
