On February 2, the Israeli government announced the promotion of 6,000 housing units in the Jewish settlements of Judea and Samaria, but according to Peace Now, the actual number of units was 7,157, if one includes five Jewish outposts that have been regulated.
On Friday, the Civil Administration in the liberated territories announced the deposit of a plan to build 234 housing units in Kiryat Arba, Hebron. The plan proposes to change the zoning of the designated area from industrial to residential.
According to Peace Now, although the plan is part of the Kiryat Arba settlement, in practice it is a separate neighborhood, distant from the settlement and located adjacent to the city of Hebron and near the Arab village of Beit Einun. The new settlement is planned in an area that was declared state land in 1982 and approved as an industrial zone in 1988, before the Oslo Accords.
Currently, there are four caravans that Jewish settlers positioned on the site in 2018. The area is about half a mile from Kiryat Arba and is connected to the Jewish neighborhood via a road that runs through Beit Einun.
Peace Now complained that “the new settlement in Hebron, based on a plan from more than 45 years ago, is another landgrab of the Netanyahu-Smotrich government whose aim is to destroy any possibility of a political settlement, and suffocate the city of Hebron with the settlements around it, returning the Israelis and Palestinians half a century back.”
Couldn’t put it better myself.
Peace Now announced late last week that 2024 is a record year in its scope of declarations of state lands in Judea and Samaria, making them available to Jewish settlement without court interference. With the recent recognition of lands in the Jordan Valley and other lands near the Herodion archaeological site as state lands, 2,711 acres have been approved so far this year.
The Regavim movement announced last Friday: “Congratulations from the bottom of our hearts on the important data, but we should remember that this is only a first step. A dangerous invasion is carried out every day in a significant percentage of the country’s lands, as part of the Palestinian Authority’s regulated and financed plan to stifle Jewish settlement. Unequivocal enforcement is required by law against our enemy who, in this act of takeover, is planning the next massacre. Only this way will we ensure our existence here.”
Tomato tomato?
