Haggai Tam, secretary of the community of Neria in Binyamin, responded on Wednesday to Peace Now’s report regarding housing projects in Judea and Samaria.
The report claimed that the rate of residential building in Judea and Samaria is double that of the rest of Israel since the government building freeze in Yesha ended last October.
Concerned that a continuing building boom will make it less likely that any Israeli government can surrender Judea and Samaria to the Palestinian Authority, Peace Now leader Yariv Oppenheimer complained that a housing shortage exists in the rest of Israel while building continues in Judea and Samaria.
The report, which was based on aerial photographs taken of various communities in Judea and Samaria, also claimed that a construction project in Neria is illegal, an accusation which Tam rejected.
“In Neria everything is done legally,” he told Arutz Sheva. “The urban building scheme is valid, there are approvals from the Defense Minister and full funding from the Housing Ministry.
“This is not some illegal outpost that has turned into single family homes,” Tam added. “We’ve been accompanied by all the relevant parties for years and the building permits have been there for years.”
He explained that the project consists of 130 housing units and that it began to be built only this past year.
“There are communities whose master plans include hundreds and thousands of housing units, but they are built in stages, moving slowly,” he said. “Everything here works under the law, and therefore no petitions can be submitted to the High Court.”
Tam expressed hopes that the new homes would turn Neria into the most dominant community in the Talmonim bloc in of which it is a part.
“There are 220 homes in Neria today and this neighborhood with its 130 housing units is a considerable momentum,” he said. “Some homes are already completed and we are now working on tenders for infrastructure and development. There is much interest in buying the houses and we welcome this.”