Dep. Education Minister Meir Porush
Dep. Education Minister Meir PorushHezki Baruch

In light of the ongoing debate surrounding the regularization of the status of new communities in Judea and Samaria, and especially due to fears that the incoming Biden administration will be less sympathetic to new “facts on the ground,” the deputy Education Minister, Meir Porush (UTJ) wrote an open letter on Tuesday to Prime Minister Netanyahu, asking him to utilize the remaining window of opportunity to formalize the legal status of these new communities immediately.

“I ask you to personally attend to this matter,” Porush writes, describing the situation of communities that were established years ago, on state-owned lands in Judea and Samaria, where thousands of families live without the basic infrastructure for electricity, water, communications, and other services.

“The ongoing debate to regularize the status of these communities should be addressed,” he writes. “We should not be in a situation where thousands of families have been living for years without access to basic amenities and the very essentials, while the state not only does nothing to help them, but actually stands in the way of improving their lot. The government should take responsibility for these communities that were established on state-owned land, and concern itself with regularizing their status, in order to give those living there a basic standard of living.”

Porush also stresses the security factor in regularizing the status of these communities: “Some of these communities don’t even have a security fence surrounding them, exposing them to real dangers on a daily basis. This lack of security provision stems from their legal status, which is yet another reason to rectify this situation immediately.”

Porush adds that, “We believe in the intrinsic holiness of the Land of Israel, a Land that was granted to the Jewish People from the times of the Patriarchs. In light of the current momentum during the waning days of the Trump administration, which has proved itself during the past four years to be one of the most friendly administrations Israel has had, we should be taking the necessary decisions right now to firmly establish the legal status of these communities, thereby reasserting our ancient belief in the Torah of Israel, the People of Israel, in the Land of Israel.”

Porush concludes with a plea “to utilize this remaining window of opportunity to regularize the status of these communities, enabling thousands of families to live in normal and pleasant conditions, just as any citizen of the country deserves.”