Construction for Arab Residents in Palestine at the expense of the Jews

• 14,000 housing providing accommodation for 50,000 Arab residents were approved for marketing for the city of Qalqiliya
• The government approved about 2,000 housing units for Jews a week ago in the entirety of Judea and Samaria
• This is a long-term outline, the implementation of which could take up to 35 years

Qalqiliya (Palestine), June 16, 2017: 14,000 housing providing accommodation for 50,000 Arab residents in Palestine were approved for marketing in Area C, which is under full Israeli responsibility, for the city of Qalqiliya. The size of the city, located in Area A, would be doubled by the move at the expense of land in Area C which was meant for Israeli development. The plan would work well in bringing the city and nearby Jewish communities far closer together.

At the same time, the government approved about 2,000 housing units for Jews a week ago in the entirety of Judea and Samaria. Judea and Samaria have a Jewish population of approximately 450,000 people.

It should be mentioned that this is a long-term outline, the implementation of which could take up to 35 years. The wait for an approval has already been about ten years.

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The move was slammed by Yossi Dagan, the head of the Samaria Regional Council, who also called it a scandal.

According to him, "at the time of the calculation of every housing unit with us, and when only 66 housing units have been approved by the Samaria Regional Council, the political echelon decides to grant the city of terror Qalqiliya the ultimate reward for terror: doubling the area and doubling the population. In the morning, we can say that we are doing everything for the settlement and in the evening [we act] to stop construction in the settlements and to promote Arab construction. We cannot allow the government to continue with this illusion."

It is believed by the Regavim movement, which is the legal representative of the nearby town of Tzofim that the planned expansion of the city will result in bringing it very close to the territory of the town.

According to Regavim's statement, the proposed plan will be severely detrimental for the settlement of Tzofim, which the Palestinian city will effectively encircle. They also added that the Palestinian proposal is nothing but a planning disaster. It allows for low construction on a huge area and unreasonably wastes land resources instead of approving the maximum urban construction height based on the existing plan.

The heads of the Knesset Land of Israel lobby, MKs MKs Yoav Kish and Bezalel Smotrich, responded to that saying, "This is unreasonable and intolerable behavior that is taking place under the table and we will demand clarification [on the matter]."

The heads of the lobby also said that the construction and allocation of extensive land to Palestinians in Area C, on the one hand, and the limited number of Israelis on the other, crosses the red line that can be afforded by a national government.

According to reports in Israel National News, the response statement from the Prime Minister's clarified, "This is a plan that was brought in by the defence minister last year and approved by the cabinet, and since then, more than 10,000 housing units have been approved for Jewish settlement, and therefore the claim [that the move was taken at the expense of Jewish residents] is incorrect and even absurd."

– prepared by Durba Mandal of NewsGram. Twitter: @dubumerang