TEL AVIV, January 7, 2010 (WAFA)- Disagreements between Israeli Security Minister Ehud Barak (Labor) and Minister Benny Begin (Likud) are delaying the establishment of a committee to discuss appeals regarding the freeze on construction in the Jewish settlements, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.
Barak wants the freeze order to be amended to allow construction of elements in developed areas, such as metal shade structures. However, Begin wants the amendment to be more comprehensive and allow authorization for infrastructure repairs.
Immediately after the order to freeze construction for 10 months in Jewish West Bank settlements was issued in November last year, Barak told the settler leaders that he would order a change to the original order, which deprived the heads of local government in the settlements of all their authority with regard to construction. However, the inner cabinet, which decided on the freeze, never agreed to such a change.
Barak and Begin are members of the ministerial committee in charge of implementing the freeze, along with cabinet secretary Zvi Hauser and the coordinator of government operations in the Palestinian territory, Maj. Gen. Eitan Dangot. The amendment to the order was to have been issued two weeks ago.
Barak said yesterday that he would continue to enforce the government's decision to halt construction in the West Bank, despite receiving multiple death threats, apparently from settlers, over the temporary freeze.
'I suggest we all avoid generalizations,' Barak told a Tel Aviv University audience, in his first public response to the threats. He assumed that this does not represent the people in West Bank, or any other marginalized group. “When a government makes a decision, that decision must be implemented. Citizens can vote against a government, or demonstrate, but the authority of a government over its citizens is the cornerstone of democracy.'
'I am a messenger of every citizen of this state, and everyone knows that I wouldn't step on a fly if I don't have to, and I am not afraid of anyone,' he said. Barak was accompanied by an unusually large contingent of bodyguards during the address.
A source involved in the work of the committee told Haaretz yesterday that because of the dispute between Barak and Begin, the matter will apparently be decided by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israeli Culture and Sports Minister Limor Livnat (Likud), who yesterday visited the protest tent of the heads of the Yesha Council of settlements in Jerusalem told the settler leaders that there was 'no point' in fighting the freeze.
As the prime minister pledged, within 10 months the government will continue to build even more in West Bank, she said.
Also yesterday, at the settlement of Hashmonaim near Modi'in, police dispersed dozens of teens who threw eggs at inspectors monitoring of implementation of the freeze.
