The head of the Civil Administration, Brig. Gen. Achvat Ben Hur, met this week with leaders of the Yesha Council (Judea and Samaria) for the third time since taking office.
During the meeting, Ben Hur spoke with the leaders of Judea and Samaria communities, and told Arutz Sheva that it is of great importance to maintain contact with the leaders and the Jewish population in Judea and Samaria.
The head of the Civil Administration, the Israeli governing body in Judea and Samaria, testified that both the Civil Administration and the heads of the municipalities in Judea and Samaria see eye to eye on common goals: "We have an interest, and this is our job - to improve the quality of life of Israelis and Palestinians. We see eye to eye on this goal because the understanding is that quality of life and economy create stability and security for the residents, and this is our supreme interest."
"You want to constantly improve the quality of life and infrastructure, and in this area we are doing very great joint work, on roads and water, electricity and environmental quality, with a lot of developments and industrial areas," said Ben Hur.
Ben Hur also referred to complaints by Judea and Samaria residents about the Civil Administration, according to which the administration's personnel operate slowly and sometimes turn a blind eye to illegal Arab construction. "The Civil Administration in 2017 has very significant constraints on resources to cope with the variety of needs that must be provided to our customers - Israelis and Palestinians.”
"There is a significant gap and we are working on an orderly plan to reduce the gap that has been widening since the Oslo Accords," said the head of the administration.
"We are working according to guidelines and according to the directive of the political echelon, and there are things that people complain about that are really connected to the directive itself. Today, the political echelon in a very clear manner guides the Civil Administration with regard to priorities in doing things ... dealing with infrastructure issues such as survey land and blue lines, many of the tasks that we are doing in order to enable the development of settlements are preferred by the political echelon. People who don’t understand accuse the clerk."
Ahead of the Jewish new year, Ben Hur said that the biggest challenge for the Civil Administration is to preserve security stability in the region. “We are integrating into the IDF’s efforts on this matter with a corresponding administrative effort,” he said. “I think that, the more powerful the administrative effort is with respect to the two populations in creating more returns from initiatives, economy, quality of life and employment, the more we will bring stability and distance potential extremism, so that we will have a better year in Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley.”