Settlement leader Yossi Dagan appeals to former PM to block Defense Ministry plans.
Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional CouncilIsrael National News
Yossi Dagan, the head of the Samaria Regional Council, has appealed to Alternate Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to veto the authorization of six construction plans for Arab housing that were approved by the Defense Ministry as a “gesture” to US President Joe Biden during his visit to Palestinian Authority areas last week.
The plans include the authorization of around one thousand illegally built units in areas where they are liable to choke off the expansion of Jewish communities, according to Settlement leaders.
Dagan is now appealing to Naftali Bennett, a former head of the Yesha Council and once considered a staunch right-winger, to block the plans.
“This government is about to legalize illegal and criminal construction which has significant implications on a national policy level,” Dagan said. “As if it wasn’t enough that the government fails to enforce the law on illegal construction in PA-controlled areas, it is now adding to its culpability with these latest plans.”
Dagan then detailed some of the plans under debate: “In Samaria, for example, the government plans to authorize the illegal construction that enables the expansion of the village of Hares to the other side of Highway 5, which links Ramat Hasharon to Petah Tikva and Ariel. This is a strategic route that is being abandoned into the hands of terrorists of the Palestinian Authority, thereby endangering the lives of Israeli citizens.”
Dagan accused the government of attempting to create facts on the ground by enabling the PA to gain control over areas that are currently under full Israeli control, including swathes of land between Jerusalem and Gush Etzion, choking off the expansion of Jewish communities and impeding territorial continuity between the capital and other key areas.
“I am demanding of the Alternate Prime Minister Naftali Bennett that he bring about an immediate cessation of this land-grab and the establishment of facts on the ground that will lead to the establishment of a terror-state under our very noses,” Dagan added. “What Ehud Barak failed to do with international agreement, this government is doing under cover of darkness. But there is a limit to diplomatic gestures, and that limit is reached at the point where Israeli interests are harmed.”
Related articles:
- Will illegal Arab construction in Jerusalem now stop?
- Will illegal Arab villages be evacuated? ‘They’re trespassers’
- Security forces demolish two outposts
- Bennett drops building code enforcement from Bedouin reform plan
Several days ago, the Defense Ministry announced that it was granting authorization to six construction plans for the Palestinian Authority, effectively legalizing illegal construction in Area C, including around a thousand housing units that have been erected in areas under Israeli control within the Civil Administration. However, a final date for the meeting of the planning committee at which the decision is likely to be implemented has yet to be set.
The village of Batir situated between the south Jerusalem suburb of Gilo and the Gush Eztion bloc just south of the capital is slated to have 260 illegally built homes authorized and another 3,600 dunams added to its limits, equivalent to an area the size of the Israeli town of Ariel. If the plans are implemented, they will gradually block off Gush Etzion from Jerusalem and are also likely to pose a security threat to those traveling along Route 60 (the Tunnels road), the Walaja road, and the road leading to the town of Tzur Hadassa.
Another plan refers to the area east of Gush Etzion and seeks to authorize the expansion of the village of Kisan by 615 dunams, potentially restricting access to eastern Gush Etzion and turning the Jewish communities there into isolated enclaves within a PA-controlled area. Another plan refers to the village of Fukikis, blocking off access to the town of Negohot in the Hebron Hills.
Does Bennett have any power now?