A recent published report by what is so-called “Israeli Ministry of Housing and Construction” preceded the generous financial support allocated by the “ Israeli Ministry” to fortify the Israeli national Settlement Enterprise in the oPt.

On January 22, 2015, the Israeli daily newspaper “Haaretz” highlighted the report published by the Housing Ministry which revealed on an enormous fund granted for the illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem (184 million NIS/ $46.7 million) during the past four years ,which constitute 1/3 of the fund granted to subsidizing the housing sector in all over Israel.

Moreover , and according to the aforementioned report, 8,800 housing units were built, of which 2,400 unit built in the illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Furthermore, and over the past four years , 28 % of the constructed housing units in Israel were built in the illegal settlements according to what is known by the Israeli government “National Priority Map”.

For the National Priority Map, it as an Israeli plan adopted by Netanyahu Governorate and formally approved on the Israeli government session in January 29, 2012 entitled , which includes series of benefits and financial allocations to be granted to the targeted areas. According to the map of national priority areas adopted by the Israeli government, 70 illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank out of 557 communities targeted in the project, will benefit from the cabinet's decision where the allocations would include the fields of Industry and agriculture, housing incentives, discount of lands price and more. See Map 1:

Map 1: National Priority Map as approved by the Israeli Government

 

 “The Antiquities Authority is conducting here outstanding digs from the perspective of its findings. The findings here prove beyond a doubt that Hebron is a Jewish city already from the days of our forefather Abraham……… Uri Ariel, January 13, 2015, Arutz 7 addressing about the excavations took place in Tal Al-Rumeida Palestinian neighbourhood-Hebron carried out by the Israeli Antiquities Authority IAA and the University of Ariel  . 

There here will be just one state between the Jordan River and the sea, and that is the State of Israel……………We won’t accept delays and restrictions on building (in settlements), not in Jerusalem and not in Judea and Samaria”.
Uri Ariel addressing at “Jerusalem Day” May, 27, 2014.

The right and obligation of the state of Israel to build across the country in order to reduce the price of housing is not in question, and I believe that these tenders were just the beginning”……..  I congratulate the decision to give a proper Zionist response to the establishment of the Palestinian terror cabinet”. Uri Ariel stating about the approval of 1460 housing units in the West Bank and East Jerusalem settlements as a response of forming the Palestinian unity government June, 5, 2014.

It turns out that there are parts of Jerusalem that Israel is not sovereign over and does not control – and it's happening right here in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel".  Uri Ariel during a tour of Jerusalemite Arab neighborhood of Shu’fat. December 30, 2014.

The status quo could not continue at the Al-Aqsa Mosque…… the construction of a third Jewish temple at the site is the primary demand of the Torah “as it is at the forefront of Jewish salvation”. Uri Ariel Middle east monitor November 8, 2014.

Uri Ariel….. the Right Man , Right Time, Right Place!

He is the Israeli Minister of Housing and Construction since March 18 , 2013.  Living in the Jerusalem settlement of Kfar Adumim and a member of Bennett’s Jewish Home Party (ultra-nationalist). Ariel is the founder of several illegal settlements, the first mayor of the settlement of Beit El, and a former 10-year head of the Council of Jewish Settlements. He is a consistent advocate of accelerated settlement building and annexing the entire West Bank.

During his ongoing term as the Minister of Housing & Construction in the current right wing extremist government , Uri used to  harnessing as much as possible of his ministry resources and fortunes, and still, with the aim of subsidizing of the illegal settlement project motivated by his colonial and ideological desires.

It is worth pointed that during his Term, Ariel customized 32 % of the ministry budget for housing construction for the interest of the illegal settlements, where the  percentage of settlements that received budgets, out of the total number of settlements on the “national priority map”  areas, is particularly high: 44 of 67 of the settlements that appear on the map — 65%t — received development budgets. By comparison, only 119 communities of the 580 inside Israel that appear on the map — only 20 % — received such budgets.

Although and according to the published report on the website of the Israeli Ministry of Housing a ministry spokesperson commented that “the inclusive statistics of the neighborhoods that are in development in the rural communities, where the sale of the housing units has not ended yet, are as follows: 9,205 housing units are being developed in the Galilee, of which 5,353 were put on the market; 6,413 housing units are being developed in the Negev, of which 3,558 were put on the market; and in West Bank, 1,778 housing units are being developed, of which 517 have been put on sale. That makes 17,396 housing units, of which 1,778 are in West bank settlements — 10 % percent of the total number of housing units that are being developed in rural construction… and 5.48 % of the total number put on the market.

Throughout the years of the Israeli Occupation of the Palestinian lands, Israel moved with its colonial and expansionist plans in all parts of the West Bank with the aim of keeping the occupied territory within its hand for political, geographical ideological and religious purposes.

Again , Uri Ariel, and on January 7, 2015, following the terrorist attack in Paris/France, Uri Ariel as well as the Israeli PM Netanyahu started the preparations and procedures for  the Jewish people to have a home land in Israel claiming that: French Jews planning to immigrate to Israel "undoubtedly sympathize with the Zionist settlement enterprise”! Uri Ariel January 10, 2015.

Less than a week 24 Jewish immigrants arrived from France and their homes in the illegal settlements in the West Bank according to the desire of the housing minister Uri Ariel who proposed that they are looking forward to support the Zionism project by living in the illegal settlements.

The debate of the Israeli colonial plan in the Palestinian Territory goes beyond a land struggle between two dispute parties, where the existence of the Israeli settlement in the West Bank and the occupied eastern part of the city of Jerusalem, constitutes a substantial threat to peace efforts with its legal and geographical consequences. In fact, 45 years passed since Israel occupied the Palestinian lands, and it seems that a mysterious purposes underlying behind the last occupation in recent history. To read more about the ideological dimension of the Israeli settlement project in the oPt, refer to the previously written case study:

More than a Geopolitical Dilemma…Will Israel Withdraw from the Biblical Heartland of Judea & Samaria. May 2013

 

 

 

 

Prepared by:
The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem