The chairman of the Jordan Valley Regional Council has charged the government with intentionally allowing Arabs from Shechem and Hevron to build illegal homes in the area.
“The Civil Lands Administration is setting a precedent, and it is not coincidental that at the same time, the government is destroying [Jewish] outposts," said council chairman David Elkhyani.
Several hours after he accused authorities of permitting the Palestinian Authority to build a false image of Arab growth in the Jordan Valley, Israel Police tore down two new outposts near Kiryat Arba-Hevron. The sites are not included in the list of more than two dozen communities that Defense Minister Ehud Barak said will be destroyed in the coming weeks.
Backed by soldiers and bulldozers, police raided two sites at 3 a.m. and torn down two temporary buildings that housed six youth at Mitzpeh Avichai. They also wrecked a tent at the site of the destroyed home of Kiryat Arba-Hevron activist Noam Federman.
No incidents were reported, but nationalist activists said they would rebuild Mitzpeh Avichai within several hours. They noted that residents at the demolished Shvut Ami outposts rebuilt temporary structures on Tuesday one day after police destroyed buildings and confiscated holy religious items, beds and blankets.
“We will not surrender to policies of concessions,” activists told the Hebrew-language Arutz Sheva.
Government May Legalize Arab Outposts
Jordan Valley Regional Council chairman Elkhyani said the Arabs moving into the area have criminal backgrounds and are being encouraged by the PA to build alongside Highway 90, which connects the Dead Sea area with Beit Shean and the Kinneret.
He revealed that Civil Lands Administration officials recently visited the illegal buildings and plan to present plans to authorize them. Elkhyani added that Defense Minister Ehud Barak has refused to meet with him to discuss the issue but that several Likud Knesset Members support his opposition..
PA moves to show a population growth in the area are aimed at ensuring that the Jordan Valley remains in a new PA state that it intends to establish on all of land in Judea, Samaria and Gaza -- including several modern neighborhoods in the capital and the Old City of Jerusalem.