The right-wing government headed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu continues the next revolution that will arouse echoes: the reform of settlements in Judea and Samaria.
Since the formation of the government, and against the background of the attempt to regulate the areas of responsibility between Defense Minister Yoav Galant and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who serves as a minister in the Ministry of Defense, these days are being discussed within its ranks A long series of significant and unprecedented steps to regulate the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria.
The other day, during Galant's meeting with the heads of the Yishuvs in the Yosh, some of the planned steps were revealed (in addition to the issues related to the Yosh and appearing in the coalition agreements: the training of the Avitar settlement, the change in the law of secession that will allow the activity of the yeshiva in Hamesh, the connection of the new settlement to the infrastructure, and more).
Among the moves that the government intends to carry out: an immediate convening of Mata, the supreme planning council of Yosh, to approve thousands of construction plans that were stopped in the past year and a half, during the previous government, and the approval of approximately 18,000 new housing units in the coming months.
The reform in Yosh, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
It will also be decided that the MTA, which met only twice during the time of Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid as prime ministers, and once every three months during the Netanyahu administrations, will now meet once a month. Alongside it will be established a "small MTA committee" for construction approvals other than housing units, such as of kindergartens and industrial buildings, which will meet more frequently - every two to three weeks - to approve plans.
Axis bypasses the Ministry of Defense
This implies that the obvious goal that the ministers of the current government have set for themselves is the addition of hundreds of thousands of new residents in Judea and Samaria in the coming years.
Therefore the following news is also important for the settlement: instead of five signatures of the political level, which are now required in the planning and construction procedures, the number of signatures will be reduced to only two or three.
It is estimated that the move will shorten the procedures for each housing unit, from planning to actual construction, by many months, and will increase the pace of construction in the settlements.
Gallant with the heads of authorities.
At the meeting, some of the planned measures were revealed, photo: no credit
Smotrich, Galant and the coordinator of government operations in the Rasan Aliyan territories.
The intention is to nationalize the civil administration, photo: no credit
Another decision that is taking shape these days is the "nationalization" of the Civil Administration and the introduction of additional government ministries into the arrangement, in which they will be able to face the authorities and the citizens directly without the need for the mediation of the Ministry of Defense and the Commander-in-Chief.
Last night there was already a tripartite meeting between Galant, Minister Smotritz and Netanyahu to arrange the transfer of civil powers to Smotritz's responsibility.
There are those who will see this as a way around the Ministry of Defense and the Army.
In any case, this decision is supposed to "normalize" the lives of Yosh residents and compare them to those of those who live in the rest of the country. In this framework, for example, the enforcement of the Ministry of Environmental Protection will be increased, which will be able to monitor and directly enforce uncontrolled sewage spills, waste fires and illegal landfilling of waste Authorized in the Arab settlements in the region.
Judea and Samaria region, photo: AFP
Hebron.
Millions of Palestinians will be part of the government's official figures, photo: AFP
The Palestinians in numbers
Another proposal that is now being seriously discussed, which was even expressed in the meeting of the heads of the settlements with the Minister of Defense, is to change the official figures of the relevant government ministries, so that instead of half a million residents in the Yash, their number will reach 2.5 million, including the Arab residents.
The logic behind the move is that when you want to plan the construction of a road or other use of infrastructure in the area, the real number of people traveling on the road or using that infrastructure is not only the number of Jewish residents, but also the Arabs.
Others can see such a decision, if accepted, as a mini-annexation, one that counts the Yosh Arabs as the number of residents of the region who receive services from the State of Israel in certain areas.
Dilapidated and old roads in Yosh, photo: no credit
Other decisions that are currently being discussed towards a final decision by the government: completion of projects that were stopped during the previous government, mainly road paving and development of existing roads;
Adding security elements on the roads and around the settlements, such as cameras, fences and other advanced security measures, and increasing the supervision of traffic laws;
and adding personnel for these security purposes in the area.
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