The Supreme Planning Council of the Civil Administration in the liberated territories will discuss next week several construction plans in Judea and Samaria, including thousands of housing units which are currently in various stages of planning, Makor Rishon reported Friday. Some of the programs will be advanced and others approved outright for construction. This process was scheduled to take place last month, but was postponed because of President Donald Trump’s visit to Israel.
Such discussions take place every few months, but it appears that the coming debate is likely to touch on many programs. A minor drama took place behind the scenes on Thursday, according to Makor Rishon, when a special team sent by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched a comprehensive discussion of all the programs in question, in order to examine which specific plans would be discussed. Representatives of the local municipalities of Judea and Samaria were then updated regarding the fate of the plans under their jurisdiction.
A source inside the Yesha Council told Makor Rishon that the need for new, approved housing plans has mounted as a result of years of settlements construction freeze. “We are building today based on plans that were approved under prime ministers Shamir and Rabin,” the source said.
Yossi Dagan head of the Samaria Council, told Makor Rishon that, in his view, the eight years of excuses under President Obama are over. “Now, in the new era we are in, the excuses are over and we expressly expect compensation and correction for all the years in which the settlement enterprise was hung up to dry,” Dagan insisted.
Dagan also objected to the creation of settlement clusters through the zoning of building permits, threatening that such a move would threaten the stability of the current government. “I believe and trust in the Prime Minister, and I couldn’t imagine that he would retreat from his commitment to the stabilizing of the settlements.”
Head of the Hebron Mount Council Yochai Damari estimated that under the Obama Administration the construction of some 40,000 homes had been curtailed – this while there has been a demographic rise of about 5% among the Jews of Judea and Samaria. Noting that the Netanyahu government had already approved Arab construction on State owned land, it’s time to “unleash all the plans that were frozen during the Obama dry eight years.”