Israel allocates $18 million to settlers as evacuation compensation

0 Comment(s)Print E-mail Xinhua, January 5, 2015
Adjust font size:

Israel has allocated 70 million shekels (18 million U.S. dollars) to evacuate a border police post, in order to build 300 more housing units in the West Bank settlement of Beit-El, Israeli Television reported on Sunday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon decided to funnel the funds as compensation for settlers in Beit El, after several structures were dismantled in the settlement following a Supreme Court order in 2012.

According to the report, the decision was stalled due to the objection of former Finance Minister Yair Lapid from the center Yesh Atid party.

Netanyahu fired Lapid in early December for allegedly undermining his authority on several issues and Israel decided to go ahead with the move. The report said the money has been transferred in the past week.

In the summer of 2012, the Yesh Din non-governmental organizations advocating Palestinian human rights in the West Bank territories Israel occupied since 1967 following that year's Mideast War, petitioned the Supreme Court to evacuate five structures built illegally on private Palestinian land.

The Ha'aretz daily reported in November that Netanyahu, in order to appease the Beit El residents who are right-wing voters, made a deal with them through a mediator, current Interior Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud).

According to the agreement, the government would transfer funds to sustain the construction in the Beit El settlement, including temporary residence to the evacuated settlers.

It also included a clause to evacuate a border guard post in Beit El and build 300 housing units in its place, as lands in the settlement grow scarce. The daily reported that Housing Minister Uri Ariel, from the settlers-backed Jewish Home nationalist party, was the one who pushed for the deal.

The Palestinians seek to establish a Palestinian state in the territories of the West Bank, east Jerusalem (which Israel annexed in 1967) and the Gaza Strip. They attack Israeli construction in the West Bank as illegal, with ongoing construction making it more difficult to establish a territorial continuity for a future state.

According to a report published in April by the Peace Now Non-Governmental Organization monitoring the development of the settlements, Israel issued tenders for a record number of 4,868 houses in the West Bank and east Jerusalem between July 2013 and April 2014, the nine months when Israel and the Palestinian Authority conducted peace negotiations.

Follow China.org.cn on Twitter and Facebook to join the conversation.
Print E-mail Bookmark and Share

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)

No comments.

Add your comments...

  • User Name Required
  • Your Comment
  • Enter the words you see:   
    Racist, abusive and off-topic comments may be removed by the moderator.
Send your storiesGet more from China.org.cnMobileRSSNewsletter