Israel plans to spend NIS 20 million to put a halt to illegal building by Palestinians and settlers in Area C of the West Bank.
But the primary drive is to thwart what the Israeli Right believes is an intentional plan by the Palestinian Authority to take over Area C by building illegally.
“In cooperation with Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu, we are mobilizing in full force for the battle against the hostile takeover of Area C,” Community Affairs Minister Tzachi Hanegbi said Thursday. “The regional and local councils in Judea and Samaria will receive a dedicated budget to assemble effective and determined systems to thwart the Palestinian Authority’s stated plan to establish facts on the ground, in violation of the law and the agreements it signed with Israel.”
Among other items the money will be spent for are vehicle and drone patrols to collect information on illegal land activities in Area C, according to a joint press release from the offices of Hanegbi and the prime minister.
Right-wing NGO Regavim has long argued that the PA is working to create facts on the ground in Area C to ensure that the area can not become part of sovereign Israel. In particular it has complained against the lack of enforcement against illegal Palestinian building.
In the absence of any negotiations toward a peace deal, Israelis and Palestinians have focused their efforts on the retention of Area C. Many on the Right hold that all of that territory should become part of sovereign Israel, while the Palestinians say all the territory should be within the borders of their future state.
Much of the international community, including the United Nations and the European Union, concur, unless the PA and Israel agree to a different set of borders within the context of a two-state solution.
The Palestinians, the UN and the EU have argued that the Palestinians have little choice but to build illegally, given that permits for Palestinian construction in Area C are rarely granted. The UN and the EU have provided financial support to the Palestinians for such building.
Left-wing group B’Tselem said in response: “2020 saw a sharp spike in the number of Palestinian homes and infrastructure demolished by Israel – in spite of an unprecedented health and financial crisis. In light of this, it is not surprising that the Israeli government allocates even more funds to further harass some of the most vulnerable communities living under its military control, as part of its ongoing attempts to drive them off and take over their land.”
Separately right-wing politicians and settler leaders continued to press Netanyahu to authorize 70 settler outposts built illegally over the last three decades. The Right has argued that these communities were not illegal, but rather fledgling communities for which the authorization process was never completed.
They erected a protest tent outside Netanyahu’s office this week, demanding that the government declare its intent to legalize these communities.