Likud Communications Minister David (Dudi) Amsalem has underlined for his ministry’s Universal Deployment Commission that Judea and Samaria are to be included in any expansion of services to the “periphery.”
The issue arose Monday when the commission published its recommendation to expand the services of HOT cable TV, internet and mobile phone to some 220 localities that were not yet connected to its network, omitting Judea and Samaria in the process.
Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan immediately sent a letter to Amsalem, demanding that the Jewish communities of the region be included with the other recommended localities.
Following the minister’s instruction to include Judea and Samaria with the other localities to be serviced, Dagan thanked Amsalem in a statement, noting that one “couldn’t help seeing the discrimination screaming to the Heavens when Judea and Samaria residents were again left out in the first phase, in contrast to the 220 localities that were already to receive services in the near future.
“The 10 percent of Israelis living in Judea and Samaria are also entitled to benefit from the elimination of the monopoly, reduction of prices, improvement in quality and the reliable subterranean form of communication,” Dagan said.
“The excuse that it is distant doesn’t hold water – it’s clear to all that the communities in Judea and Samaria are closer to the center of the country than are the residents of the southern Negev and mid-Arava.”
Dagan underlined that it is important for the ministry to make it clear “the entire state of Israel is one: Tel Aviv and the Negev, Ra’anana and Samaria, are all one.”