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Israel’s Housing Minister Uri Ariel, of the Jewish Home party, said that Israel has in effect frozen all construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Ariel told Army Radio “l will give you the facts: in Jerusalem, since the beginning of the year, there have been no tenders except for one … and the same goes for Judea and Samaria,” using the Biblical names for the West Bank. When pressed as to whether this was a settlement freeze, Ariel replied “Let’s say that’s not entirely off mark.” Ariel added that he believed the halt to construction was temporary, indicating that it is designed to help a US-backed initiative to re-start peace talks with the Palestinian Authority (PA). Ariel’s comments swiftly follow the claim by his party leader, Economics and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett that the prospects of a two-state solution are at a “dead end”.

Although Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly called for the PA to enter peace talks without pre-conditions, PA President Mahmoud Abbas insists that Israel first meet certain provisos, primarily a freeze on all settlement construction. Indeed, Abbas yesterday repeated this demand during a meeting in Ramallah with New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully.

The Jerusalem Post reports that US Secretary of State John Kerry is likely to visit Israel and the Palestinian areas of the West Bank next week, continuing his concerted effort to bring the two sides back to the negotiating table since taking office in February. Speaking yesterday, head of Israel’s Central Command, Maj. Gen Nitzan Alon, who oversees West Bank military activity, warned of an escalation in violence if Kerry’s initiative fails. He outlined a rise in anti-Israel violence in the West Bank and said “If, in a few weeks, the attempt of the American involvement will go (away) with nothing, I’m afraid that we will see this trend of escalation even strengthening.”