- The Higher Planning Committee approved today and yesterday construction plans for 2,191 housing units in the settlements. Another plan for 68 new housing units in Givat Ze'ev was discussed but no decision has yet been made.
- 87% of the units approved can be found in the isolated settlements that Israel will likely need to evacuate within the framework of a two-state agreement: 1,908 units east of the proposed route of the Geneva Initiative; 283 units west of it.
- 1,159 housing units have been approved for validation (the final major hurdle before it is possible to issue building permits) and 1,032 housing units approved for deposit (the first stage of the planning process after which the deposit of the plan is published).
- Two plans are designed to regulate illegal outposts, giving them legal status - Ibei Hanahal and Gvaot.
- One plan establishes a new settlement adjacent to the Mitzpeh Danny outpost in the form of an educational institution with boarding schools and residential units.
- Three plans for new settlements in the form of new industrial zones.
- In 2018 in total, the amount of units in plans advanced came to 5,618 units, of which 83% (4,672) are in the isolated settlements east of the Geneva Initiative line.
The full list of settlement plans advanced can be found here.
Peace Now: In 2018, the government advanced thousands of housing units,
including most which can be found in isolated settlements deep inside the West Bank that Israel will eventually
have to evacuate. Those who build these places have no intention of achieving peace and a two-state solution. The
latest announcement, which as an aside was cynically passed on Christmas while most Western governments are on
holiday, shows that Netanyahu is willing to sacrifice Israeli interests in favor of an election gift to the
settlers in an attempt to attract a few more votes from his right-wing flank.
Significant Plans
Regulating the outpost of Ibei Hanahal (Plan No. 413/4/1) for the construction of 98 housing units
in the outpost of Ibei Hanahal was approved. The outpost was established in 1999 without permission or building
permits in a remote area southeast of Bethlehem. The plan defines the settlement as a "neighborhood" of the Ma'ale
Amos settlement, enabling the government to avoid having to formally declare the establishment of a new
settlement.
As part of a group of non-Israeli academics assembled by Tel Aviv University, I visited
the Temple Mount in July 2017. On the next day, two Israeli border police officers were shot there in a
terror attack. I had the opportunity to make a condolence visit to Hurfeish, the Druze village in the
Galilee from which the two policemen (who were cousins) hailed. In the intimate setting of the room in which
female relatives were mourning, I told an aunt of the slain men that I was coming to work for the American
sister organization of Shalom Achshav and wanted to help in any way I could.
