Senior government officials are planning to build another part of the Judea and Samaria security fence in the area of Mout Hebron, Israel Hayom reported this morning (Monday). The extension of the security fence would add dozens of kilometers to the barrier which helped end the Second Intifada.
While the government has given its approval to the move, no budget has yet been allocated for the project. In addition, the leaders of the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria are concerned that the efforts to complete the security fence would cause substantial damage to the environment and cut them off from the rest of Israel. Several months ago, Israel Hayom reported that the completed fence would cut off Gush Etzion from Jerusalem and the Beit Shemesh area and the center of the country.
"Instead of properly strengthening the line of settlements in eastern Mount Hebron and enforcing the law on the many construction violations in the area, and thus controlling the access roads to the Judean Desert, the Israeli government chose to build a fence that will be lamented for generations," said Ari Odes, a candidate for the leadership of the Mount Hebron Council.
"This will cause enormous destruction of the nature and hiking areas of the desert streams and damage to the Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria. It is clear to all of us that within a few years, the smugglers and infiltrators will find a way to bypass the barrier and create many holes in it, as they have done in other areas. I call on the Israeli government to rethink this and not promote the construction of the fence,'' he added.
The residents of both the Gush Etzion area and the Mount Hebron area are angry that the security establishment continues to promote the construction of the security fence in areas that are considered calmer than the areas where the fence was built in the mid-2000s.