New settler ad campaign: "Netanyahu is trampling on the settlements."
By TOVAH LAZAROFFRamat Shlomo construction 311(photo credit: Associated Press)
Settlers have launched an advertisement campaign against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in which they accuse him of destroying the settlements just as he prepares to meet US President Barack Obama in Washington next week.Ads placed in the Israeli media Friday will state, "Netanyahu is trampling on the settlements."They will also state "Netanyahu is the first prime minister who has completely frozen construction in Judea and Samaria."The Binyamin and Samaria Citizens' Committee launched the initiative in hopes of preventing Netanyahu from extending the 10-moratorium on new settlement construction beyond its September 26th expiration date.It has sponsored ads set to run in Friday's media attacking him for stopping new construction in east Jerusalem, even though that section of the capital is not included in the freeze.Netanyahu's has insisted that he has not stopped nor does he plan to stop construction in east Jerusalem. Still the settlers have accused him of doing so and state as much in their ad.In a statement released to the press Tuesday night the Citizens' Committee said that their ad campaign marks the first time since Netanyahu took office in March 2009, that they directed their attacks against him.In the past, they have focused their attacks primarily on Defense Minister Ehud Barak who heads the Labor Party and who was charged with enforcing the moratorium.The Committee said it feared that in Washington, Netanyahu would cave to US pressure to extend the moratorium or, as a compromise move, suggest that construction resume only a small portion of West Bank land.Settlers promised to fiercely attack and pursue Netanyahu should he agree to either of these options while in Washington.
Under the terms of the moratorium, work has continued on some 3,000 new apartment units in Judea and Samaria. But data released at the end of last month from the Central Bureau of Statistics for the first quarter of 2010, showed that for the first time in the history of the settlement movement there were no new housing construction during a three-month period of time.
