A majority taking part in a forum of Likud party ministers on Sunday opposed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's declaration that he will transfer 500 dunams (125 acres) of land from Israeli to Palestinian Authority (PA) control for access to the PA city of Rawabi, currently under construction in Samaria. Decisive in their opposition were ministers Gilad Ardan, Moshe Cachlon, Yuli Edelstein, Yisrael Katz, Limor Livnat, Silvan Shalom and Moshe Ya'alon.
Spokesman Avishai Mizrachi of the Samarian Jewish community of Ateret, a few kilometers away from Rawabi, welcomed the ministers' objection to the transfer, noting that putting the land in PA control would cut the Binyamin region in two, cutting workers off from their places of employment and students from their schools. He said it would isolate a number of Jewish communities in the heart of Arab territory.