40% of New West Bank Settlement Building Is Beyond Security Barrier

No Go Zone: European nations are warning companies against investing in the Israeli occupied West Bank or East Jerusalem. Image by getty images

By JTA February 14, 2016

Construction was started on 1,800 new housing units in Jewish settlements in 2015, with some 40 percent outside of the security fence, according to a new report.

Included in the housing starts are 1,547 permanent structures and 253 mobile units, Peace Now said in a report released Sunday. Sixty-three of the buildings were public structures, including synagogues, kindergartens and community centers, and 42 were industrial or agricultural structures.

Fifteen percent of the housing starts, or 265 housing units, were in illegal outposts, according to Peace Now.

In addition, according to the report, 32 housing units were built on private Palestinian land, almost all of them in illegal outposts. A new illegal outpost also was established, Peace Now reported, located south of the Nofei Prat settlement, located near Maale Adumim.

Meanwhile, despite a declared freeze on tenders for new housing construction, tenders for some 1,143 housing units were published in 2015, 560 in the West Bank and 583 in East Jerusalem, according to the report

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