Avi Roeh
Avi RoehHezki Baruch

The Yesha Council protested against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's decision to set up a 'Judea and Samaria team' with the Trump administration to coordinate construction in Judea and Samaria. Israel is an independent country and can decide, like any other, where to build, they said.

"A team which will discuss construction in Judea and Samaria with foreign parties is not acceptable to us," the Yesha Council said in a statement. "After eight years of a freeze on planning and construction in Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley, we must resume continuous and accelerated construction in the settlements without any foreign interference."

The council stressed "the people of Israel's right to build in the land of Israel. We must build in Judea and Samaria just as we must build throughout our country. We are pleased with the good relations the Prime Minister has formed with the US, but we are responsible for our future and our destiny."

"During the first term of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, there were approximately 3,500 housing starts a year. In recent years, the average [number of housing starts] was approximately 1,600 [per year]. Less than half. Our demand is to end Obama's policy and to fill the construction gap which has formed in recent years," they added.

The Prime Minister announced the formation of the joint team at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting Sunday morning.

"We agreed to create joint teams to upgrade relations between Israel and the US in all of the main areas: Security, intelligence, cyber, technology, economics, and many others. We also agreed to create a team in an area that we have not previously agreed on: I mean, of course, on settlement in Judea and Samaria. We will also discuss this," Netanyahu said.