One day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was defending the settlement freeze, a promise to not approve any new housing construction permits in the West Bank, Israel is approving new housing construction permits in the West Bank.

The new approvals, in direct contravention of their own unilateral settlement freeze, came following a meeting between Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and the outraged mayors of several settlements.

Settlers have been sabotaging the inspectors attempting to enforce the freeze and have declared that Netanyahu is a traitor for the 10 month stall in certain types of new construction.

Now it seems that even the virtually meaningless limitations already in place have been “softened,” returning settlement construction to essentially the status quo. It seems not to have stopped the protests, however.

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