TEL AVIV, May 20: Israel’s housing ministry has recently offered tenders for an unprecedented more than 950 houses for settlers just outside of occupied Al Quds, an opposition lawmaker revealed on Monday.

Mossi Raz of the left-wing Meretz party said “957 tenders have been launched in five months (of the year) compared with 810 in all of last year for all the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 2001”, citing an official report.

The houses will be built in five large settlements in the nearby West Bank.

“It’s obvious that there is a political intent behind the publication of these tenders last week,” Raz said.

He denounced the Israeli government’s settlement policy and took aim at Defence Minister and Labour party leader Benyamin Ben Eliezer as a strong backer of the policy.

More than 200,000 settlers live in some 160 settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip built since the areas were conquered in the 1967 war.

That number does not include a dozen settler neighbourhoods in the annexed eastern sector of the holy city which are home to an almost equal number.

The B’Tselem centre for human rights in the occupied territories said a week ago that settlers exert control over nearly half of Palestinian territories through a strategic placement of a few communities.

Recent polls suggest many Israelis want to shut settlements down as a concession to Palestinians in a broader Middle East peace deal.

But Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, whose government is divided over the issue, recently ruled out negotiating on settlements with the Palestinians until after next year’s elections.

PROTESTS: The Israeli government’s approval of the construction of houses in Jewish settlements sparked protest from left-wing and Palestinian groups on Monday, but settlers insisted the homes will be within established communities.

Law, a Palestinian rights group, said in a report that more than three quarters of greater Jerusalem would be built on Palestinian land.

Israel’s opposition MP Mossi Raz said the number of tenders announced this week by the housing ministry was more than the total for all the West Bank and Gaza Strip last year.

Despite the approval of the unprecedented number of homes, the left-wing Labour party voiced no opposition because the settlements are in an area which both it and its right-wing coalition partner Likud agree should not be affected by a final accord with the Palestinians.

The anti-settlement group Peace Now pinned the blame on Israeli Defence Minister and Labour party leader Binyamin Ben Eliezer, who has to sign the approval of every new proposed construction in the territories.

“Ben Eliezer’s conduct on this issue raises serious questions concerning his integrity,” Peace Now director Moria Shlomot said in a statement.

Slamming him as “the settlers’ lackey”, Shlomot said Ben Eliezer was acting against the wishes of the vast majority of Israelis who want the settlements dismantled.

But Ezra Rosenfeld, spokesman for the Settlers’ Council, played down the significance of the number of new homes, saying it would make little difference politically.

“Most of these units will be in areas over which there is consensus among the parties,” he said, adding that an additional 1,000 homes would make “no difference politically.”

It was crucial to continue expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank for security reasons, Rosenfeld said.

“The expansion of Jewish communities and the ability to control additional areas will bring security because no terror can get a foothold in these areas,” he said.

But the Palestinians say Israel constantly uses the “excuse” of security to expand areas of Jewish housing in order to create immovable facts on the ground.

“What they want is to annex these areas in order to make territorial continuity (between these settlements and Al Quds). By using the argument of security, they want to make more facts on the ground for political reasons,” charged Khalil Tafakji, director of the Palestinian mapping department.

He said the holy city now covered 1.2 per cent of the West Bank, but through settlement activity that could rise to 10 per cent.

Last week the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem said Israeli settlers exerted control over nearly half of Palestinian territories through a strategic placement of a few communities.

The development was further splintering the West Bank and isolating major Palestinian towns, it said.

Jewish settlements on occupied land are one of the main causes of Palestinian anger and widely considered to be against international law.

Last month, the UN Human Rights Commission (UNHCR) adopted a resolution expressing grave concern at continuing Israeli settlement activities, including the expansion of existing settlements.

“All these actions are illegal, constitute a violation of the Geneva Convention relative to the protection of civilians in time of war and are a major obstacle to peace,” the resolution said.—AFP