Magron evacuees protest
Photo: Nimrod Glickman
Settlers enraged by PM decision to halt settlement planning talks
Heads of settlement committees accuse PM, ministers of 'messing us around', vow to 'fight to the end' following Netanyahu's announcement of decision to halt discussions this week by West Bank Civil Administration's planning committee after request by President Trump; ‘Gov’t is good at declarations, but it only pretends to build.’
Proponents of Israeli construction in the West Bank have voiced outrage against what they have described as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s foot dragging on plans for new settlement housing units, following a decision
announced Sunday to postpone a meeting scheduled for this week of the West Bank Civil Administration's planning committee.
Ministers of the Security Cabinet were told Sunday evening by Netanyahu that he had decided to postpone the meeting following a request made by US President Donald Trump.
Justifying his decision to hold off on the meeting by a week or two, the prime minister told the ministers present he had no intention of humiliating the pro-Israel Trump administration by making decisions relating to settlements, particularly in light of the upcoming visit to the Middle East by Trump’s special advisor Jason Greenblatt.
According to the settler heads, the meeting was supposed to take place this week and finalize the planning stages for a construction program throughout the West Bank.
In addition, 300 building units were supposed to be constructed in Beit El. Head of the Beit El council Shai Alon, confused by the sudden U-turn, claims he was promised the units would go on the housing market this month.
Magron evacuees protest (Photo: Nimrod Glickman)
“I am trying to understand the reason for this postponement,” he said. “We are fighting until the end here. The resident of Beit El will get what was promised to them.”
The group behind the campaign for the approval of building in the West Bank consists of people from the settlement of Magron which was evacuated five years ago from the Binyamin region.
In return for their evacuation, residents were promised they would receive alternative housing units but the plan never came to fruition.
Magron residents say that in the upcoming meeting with the planning committee Netanyahu delayed, no approval was supposed to be given for the building of new housing units in an alternative plot of land for Magron.
“We were shocked to hear news that the establishment of the permanent Magron community will not be solved in the coming meeting. It is simply shocking,” one official vented.
The prime minister promised two weeks ago that the establishment of a community for Magron evacuees would be approved in a month.
PM Netanyahu and President Trump (Photo: AP)
Another official bemoaned the fact that the residents had been beguiled by government assurances.
“Government ministers also promised publicly that they would do everything to make it happen now, and here we are, realizing that nothing can be done with all the promises made on paper. The truth is that the prime minister and the ministers are messing us around.”
Tzvi Gila, one of the evacuees also said that the latest backtracking served as a further awakening to the government’s inconsistencies on the settlement enterprise.
“Again we have realized that the government is good at making declarations about construction but the truth is it only pretends to build,” he said.
Magron evacuees intend in the coming days to intensify the pressure by, among other things, protesting on Wednesday near a governmental main event which will be attended by Netanyahu to mark the liberation of the territories known as Judea and Samaria (West Bank), the Jordan Valley, the Golan Heights.
