Among the many clauses in the current government’s coalition agreements is one establishing a quota for a certain number of inspectors to monitor Palestinian incursions into Area C. According to right-wing sources, however, some of the inspectors budgeted for in this quota are being diverted to other missions including incrimination of council heads in Judea and Samaria for funding young settlements.
David Elhayani, head of the Yesha Council, spoke with Israel National News on Sunday, and had sharp words of condemnation for Defense Minster Benny Gantz, who, Elhayani alleged, is running “a government within a government” and is effectively freezing settlement growth. If he continues, Elhayani said, this policy will lead to the disintegration of the government.
“This was not what we intended when we pushed for new regulations to be applied to the Civil Administration,” said Elhayani. “The new rules were meant to apply only to the war over Area C, and someone who greedily tries to subvert them in order to set up an enforcement team directed against local council heads in Judea and Samaria has no place in the State of Israel.
“We are working against this trend in a number of ways,” he added, noting that the trend is “one of seeing those who build in the young settlements as criminals. There is no precedent anywhere in the world for establishing a special taskforce to oversee the work of local authority heads.”
According to the Yesha Council head, the new regulations now being manipulated by Gantz were part of the coalition accords demanded by the New Hope party. “There was also an understanding that the Planning Council would meet every three months to set construction quotas and formulate development plans in Judea and Samaria,” he said. “But nothing happened at the Council meeting in November due to the Civil Administration workers’ strike, so another meeting was scheduled for February – but we still haven’t received a clear answer on when it will convene. What that means in practice is that building is frozen – and that means the downfall of the government,” he stressed.
In his remarks, Elhayani quoted statements made by Interior Minister Shaked, who spoke sharply against the possibility of a freeze, and added that he is confident that she and other right-wing ministers, as well as right-wing members of the Knesset, will not back downs. "There are red lines. The coalition is very diverse, but red lines still exist. I do not believe that Nir Orbach, Yomtob Kalfon, or Sharren Haskel will lend a hand to the freeze.”
In Elhayani’s opinion, Defense Minister Gantz has made a conscious decision not to convene the Planning Council. “If he continues on this path, it will end with the fall of the government,” he predicted. “Gantz has always been portrayed as someone reliable, someone whose word can be trusted, but I am starting to lose my faith in his word.”
