In what is being called the largest settlement drive in the past 25 years, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has ordered government ministries to begin work on the expeditious construction of 30 new communities, primarily in the Galilee and Negev areas. A small number of communities are also planned near Jerusalem and in the Gilboa-Beit She'an area.
Aides to the Prime Minister explain that the new communities and access roads are part of his plan to develop and encourage increased settlement in the Galilee and Negev regions. There are fears, however, that while this would bring badly needed Jewish residents to those areas, the primary objective may be to begin the groundwork for alternative housing for Yesha (Judea, Samaria, and Gaza) residents who may find themselves uprooted from their homes and communities as a result of the Road Map process. Alternatively, housing funds could be diverted from Yesha to these new projects.
On Thursday, Infrastructures Minister Yosef Paritzky of the anti-religious and largely left-wing Shinui party said that Israel's true national priorities lie in the Galilee and not in Yesha, and that funding should be transferred from the latter to the former. The Yesha Council called upon Shinui leader Justice Minister Tommy Lapid to stop his party's "campaign of incitement and hatred" against the residents of Yesha. "The people of Yesha have been hit harder than any other sector by the economic decrees," stated the Council, "because the government is investing billions into the partition wall and not even one shekel into protection for the Yesha communities."
Aides to the Prime Minister explain that the new communities and access roads are part of his plan to develop and encourage increased settlement in the Galilee and Negev regions. There are fears, however, that while this would bring badly needed Jewish residents to those areas, the primary objective may be to begin the groundwork for alternative housing for Yesha (Judea, Samaria, and Gaza) residents who may find themselves uprooted from their homes and communities as a result of the Road Map process. Alternatively, housing funds could be diverted from Yesha to these new projects.
On Thursday, Infrastructures Minister Yosef Paritzky of the anti-religious and largely left-wing Shinui party said that Israel's true national priorities lie in the Galilee and not in Yesha, and that funding should be transferred from the latter to the former. The Yesha Council called upon Shinui leader Justice Minister Tommy Lapid to stop his party's "campaign of incitement and hatred" against the residents of Yesha. "The people of Yesha have been hit harder than any other sector by the economic decrees," stated the Council, "because the government is investing billions into the partition wall and not even one shekel into protection for the Yesha communities."