BOIM TO AMBASSADOR: NO SETTLEMENT CONSTRUCTION IN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 TEL AVIV 003597 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR NEA FOR FRONT OFFICE; NEA/IPA FOR GOLDBERGER/SHAMPAINE/ROSENSTOCK/PECCIA; NSC FOR ABRAMS/SINGH/PASCUAL E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/20/2017 TAGS: PGOV PREL IS KPAL KWBG SUBJECT: BOIM TO AMBASSADOR: NO SETTLEMENT CONSTRUCTION IN ATAROT Classified By: Ambassador Richard H. Jones for reasons 1.4 (b),(d) ¶1. (C) Summary: On December 21, the Ambassador met with Housing Minister Boim to discuss recent press reports saying that the Ministry of Construction and Housing (MOCH) planned to commence construction on new settlement housing in East Jerusalem. Minister Boim disavowed claims that a new Israeli neighborhood would be built in Atarot and confirmed to the Ambassador that no plans to build in this area had been commissioned or drawn-up. Acknowledging the sensitivities of building in East Jerusalem, Boim mentioned the need to reevaluate the Safdie Plan as a means to alleviate Jerusalem's increasing need for affordable housing. Boim apologized to the Ambassador for not providing him with advanced notice regarding the publication of the Har Homa tenders for 307 new housing units, admitting that he was fairly new to his position and not aware of MOCH's prior agreement to notify the Embassy in advance. Boim assured the Ambassador that this arrangement would be honored in the case of future tenders. End summary. -------------- No Building in Atarot -------------- ¶2. (C) Minister Boim started the meeting by assuring the Ambassador that no new Israeli neighborhood would be built in the Atarot area of Jerusalem. He disavowed the recent Ha'aretz article saying that he had endorsed a plan to build a neighborhood slated to contain more than 10,000 apartments in this area. He noted the importance of clarifying this issue at a time when Israel and the Palestinians were looking to advance the peace negotiations. -------------- Har Homa -------------- ¶3. (C) Boim characterized the recent announcement to build 307 housing units in the Har Homa settlement as not new, noting that these planned units are part of the neighborhood's master plan approved more than a decade ago. MOCH Director General Chaim Fialkoff, who also attended the meeting, explained that the master plan of Har Homa entails building a total of 6,500 housing units. Two detailed plans to build 5,000 units have already been approved. The majority of these 5,000 units are either already built or under construction. Saying that the recently-announced tender is part of these two approved plans and therefore nothing new, Boim expressed his surprise to hear Secretary Rice's statements saying that these tenders posed an obstacle to the peace process. In response to the Ambassador's question on whether the USG should expect additional upcoming tenders on Har Homa, Fialkoff answered that to fulfill Har Homa's master plan, about 1,000 units still needed to go through the planning process. This process, Fialkoff asserted, would take several more years before it reached the tendering stage. (Note: The 1,000 additional housing units that Fialkoff is referring to comprise Har Homa C. End note.) Boim apologized to the Ambassador for not providing him with advanced notice regarding the publication of these tenders, admitting that he was fairly new to his position and not aware of his ministry's agreement to do so. Boim assured the Ambassador that the Embassy would be notified in advance in the case of future tenders. ¶4. (C) Showing the Ambassador a plan of Har Homa's development, Boim said that the 307 housing units that would be built are contiguous with the approximately 4,700 other units in Har Homa that are either built or under construction. (Comment: Recent commercial imagery reviewed after the meeting shows that the plots where the 307 housing units are slated to be built are near a row of apartment buildings still under construction. The overall area where these units are to be built is outside Har Homa's current built-up area and on the outskirts of a large clearing. -------------- Jerusalem's Housing Crunch -------------- ¶5. (C) Acknowledging the sensitivity of building in East Jerusalem, Boim mentioned the need to reevaluate the Safdie Plan, which called for the construction of some 20,000 new housing units in the hills within Israel west of Jerusalem, as a means to alleviate Jerusalem's growing need for affordable housing. Boim explained that as the MOCH is TEL AVIV 00003597 002 OF 002 responsible for filling the housing needs of Jerusalem, the MOCH's procedures entail finding potential unused areas within the municipal boundaries where housing could be built. The majority of empty land is located in East Jerusalem. Boim stressed the need to alleviate Jerusalem's housing shortage, in light of the rising cost of properties. Moreover, the growing glut of vacation properties in Jerusalem does not contribute to enhancing the urban fabric of the city. Affordable housing must be created for those who want to live in the city, namely the orthodox community, which is flocking to the outskirts of Jerusalem. ¶6. (C) Boim said that the MOCH is looking for ways to find a solution to Jerusalem's housing shortage and hopes that he can revive the Safdie Plan, which called for massive building on the western outskirts of Jerusalem and was rejected in February due largely to opposition by environmentalists. He noted that although Safdie, a world renowned architect and urban planner, proposed building in Mevasseret Tsiyon and Givat Mesuya - less environmentally sensitive sites southwest of Jerusalem -- environmental groups still opposed the plan. Boim plans to re-examine the arguments for and against the plan and sees this as the best available option to addressing Jerusalem's future needs. He expressed the hope that the environmentalists who previously opposed the plan and are generally to the left politically, would be willing to compromise their environmental principles to allow the westward expansion of Jerusalem, and thereby remove the need to expand the city to the east and complicate the political negotiations. (Note: In February, the Israeli National Planning and Building Board rejected the Safdie Plan. More than 16,000 planning objections were submitted by environmentalists, academics, urban planners, and citizens who believed westward expansion would mean an ecological, environmental, and economic death-blow to Jerusalem. End note.) ********************************************* ******************** Visit Embassy Tel Aviv's Classified Website: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/telaviv You can also access this site through the State Department's Classified SIPRNET website. ********************************************* ******************** JONES