The Supreme Planning Committee of the Civil Administration on Tuesday approved construction of 984 housing units in existing Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.
But the approval is deceptive: Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman’s proposal to build “hundreds” of new housing units in the Jewish community of Adam following a deadly terror attack there in July isn’t included in this approval.
(Liberman also told reporters in May that he would seek approval to build some 3,900 new homes in more than 30 Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.)
Some 384 of those housing projects who got the green light for construction had already received final approval from the Israeli government. Of those, the burgeoning population in the Jerusalem suburb of Ma’ale Adumim will see only 44 new housing units; 56 new units were approved in Barkat, just eight in Avnei Hefetz, 168 in Nofim and 108 in Tzofim.
The communities of Beit El, Otniel and Kiryat Netafim are slated to receive the remainder of the housing units, which are only at the deposit stage of planning and still must go through final approval.
In other words, the “approval for construction of nearly a thousand housing units” is really a trickle, and even that isn’t likely to get done anytime soon.
“This is an insufficient amount, and is the smallest number of housing units approved in the last year and a half,” noted the Yesha Council, which serves as an umbrella of all the municipal councils of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.
“The previous committees issued building permits ranging in numbers from 2,000 to 3,000 — also a relatively limited amount, compared to the total number of permits throughout the country, which is in the tens of thousands,” the Council wrote in its statement.
“We’re calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to remove the restrictions and order a large-scale construction project throughout Judea and Samaria; this is something that must be done — today.”
The far-left ‘Peace Now’ organization accused the government of ‘nurturing a welfare state located beyond the green line,” and warned the approval “gives a boost to annexation plans … and undermines the chances for peace.”