The Israeli government has recently marked a milestone, having approved the highest-ever number of homes to be constructed in Judea and Samaria.

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According to data obtained by Israel Hayom, since coming to power a mere half a year ago, the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has approved the building of 13,000 settlement homes, almost double the previous record set during the Trump era. 

Moreover, earlier this week, the government announced its decision to cut red tape to make it easier to obtain permits to build Jewish settlements. 

The main driving force behind the initiative is Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also serves as a minister in the Defense Ministry and as such, plays an important role in overseeing civilian life in Judea and Samaria via the latter ministry's Civil Administration.

"These are crazy numbers," a source familiar with the matter said with regard to the construction plans, adding that Smotrich did a lot of work behind the scenes. 

On Sunday Smotrich said, "The construction boom in Judea and Samaria and all parts of our country continues. As we promised, today we are advancing the construction of thousands more new units.

"Judea and Samaria residents cease to be second-class citizens and the natural development in settlements is reflected in construction and expansion," he said.

Opposition leaders Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz criticized the move, saying Israel was "already in a crisis with the US," which opposes settlement construction.

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Visitors to the Cave of Elijah in Haifa were shocked to discover this week the desecration of holy items at the site, which is currently under construction. Photos received by the Israel Hayom real estate supplement shows sacred objects scattered around the cave and rolls of toilet paper stacked on top of Torah scrolls. Some scrolls were also found strewn around on the floor, with Elijah's chair used as scaffolding. 

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Amir Harel, who took the photos, said the moment he saw the desecration he burst into tears.

"The place is revered by millions of Jews. My grandmother used to bring me here when I was a child … I turned to the guard, but he told me the workers disregard the sanctity of the place and the Jewish objects, and reported it, but to no avail."

Harel added that generations made great sacrifices to be able to come to Israel and "have the privilege to visit the Cave of Elijah and read from the Torah scroll that is now on the floor."

Earlier this week, the Haifa municipality announced the site would reopen to visitors in the spring. 

Last week, during a tour of the site that included Rabbi of the Western Wall Shmuel Rabinovitch and benefactor Alberto Kochav, Mayor Einat Klish Rotem presented the progress of the renovation works. 

She said, among other things, that "We succeeded in increasing the budget for the restoration and accessibility work in the cave. The site will be able to hold three times more visitors."

Construction of the Cave of Elijah began two years ago. The 15 million shekel project will see the establishment of a visitors center, souvenir shop, event hall, and cafeteria. The site will also be made fully accessible for people with disabilities. 

The photos were forwarded to the Haifa municipality, which said the incident was "indeed shocking," but the construction was not their "responsibility."

The Israel Hayom real estate supplement reached out to the Religious Services Ministry for comment. 

"The issue will be addressed urgently," it said in response. 

According to Jewish tradition, the cave is where prophet Elijah took shelter during a journey into the wilderness.

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Defense Minister Benny Gantz and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke on the phone Tuesday about Israel's plan to build thousands of new homes in Judea and Samaria, according to a recent report. 

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Blinken told Gantz that Washington strongly opposed the move and would have to respond to it. A few hours later, the Biden administration condemned Israel for the construction plans. 

In turn, the defense minister told Blinken that not only are the current building plans on a much smaller scale than what was approved by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he was in office, but they also include the construction of 1,300 new Palestinian homes. 

Gantz further stressed that in an effort to strengthen the Palestinian Authority Israel will allow more transfer of goods to and from the area and will let Palestinian high-tech professionals work in Israel. 

Despite the strong US rebuke, a planning forum of Israel's liaison office with the Palestinians gave preliminary approval for the plans on Wednesday.

The conversation between Gantz and Blinken comes against the backdrop Housing Minister Ze'ev Elkin's planned campaign to market almost 1,000 housing units in Judea and Samaria, according to the Israel Land Authority. 

The civil administration's higher planning and zoning committee was supposed to meet last August to discuss the construction of 2,000 units, but the meeting was canceled due to a labor dispute. 

Israel Hayom reported at the time that the plans meant to be discussed at that time were scrapped due to pressure from Washington, leading to protests by heads of councils in Judea and Samaria. 

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At the direction of Housing and Construction Minister Ze'ev Elkin and contrary to calls from Washington, the Israel Land Authority issued a tender on Sunday to market some 1,000 housing units in Judea and Samaria.

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Among the tenders that are being marketed are 346 housing units in Beit El, 42 housing units in Elkana and another 50 housing units at a reduced price. In Beitar Illit, 252 housing units will be built.

On Wednesday, October 27, the construction of 3,144 housing units in Judea and Samaria will be approved. The Supreme Planning Council of the Civil Administration will also approve, among other things, the outline plan of Mitzpe Dani in the area of ​​Ma'ale Mikhmas in the Benjamin region.

At the same time, the construction of more than a thousand housing units for Palestinians in Area C will be approved, but the construction plan for Khirbet Beit Zakariyyah in Gush Etzion will not be approved.

This is the first time in the current government's tenure that construction plans have been greenlighted in Judea and Samaria. The Supreme Planning Council was supposed to convene several months ago and approve a little more than 2,000 housing units, but a strike by Civil Administration employees prevented the convention.

On Friday, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said the US was "concerned" about the housing plans. He called on Israel and the Palestinians to "refrain from unilateral steps that exacerbate tension and undercut efforts to advance a negotiated two-state solution" to the conflict.

The head of the Beit El Regional Council, Shai Alon, said Sunday: "This is a day of celebration for Beit El… Together with expansive commercial areas that will be built, we will soon be able to see in Beit El pictures we haven't seen before on our way to making it a city and the capital of the [Binyamin region]. With the release of the plan to build 346 additional housing units in Beit El, we are bringing to fruition the '1,000 housing unit plan in Beit El' that we promised."

Alon added: "I would like to thank Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Housing and Construction Minister Ze'ev Elkin, Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, [and] our friends in the opposition who helped get this plan validated…"

Meanwhile, not everyone in the right-wing and pro-settlement camp celebrated the plan and its announcement, criticizing it for also including housing units for Palestinians.

MK Itamar Ben-Gvir, the chairman of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, decried the plan on Twitter, saying:" Bennett, wake up, you are once again bowing to the demands of the Muslim Brotherhood and giving land to the Palestinians where they will raise the Palestinian flag. This will be a disaster for generations. You've sold everything to [Ra'am chairman MK Mansour] Abbas!"

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According to a Yesha Council statement following the meeting, council Chairman David Alhayani told Shaked: "I trust you and really hope this will be a good government for the settlement movement. I wish you and all your ministry staff success." He said councilmembers "see you as a very good address in the government for all the issues related to our local authorities and residents. I hope that the subject of construction permits will be quickly resolved for the future of the region."

According to the Yesha Council statement, issues relating to the development and promotion of Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria, and the Jordan Valley were discussed in the meeting.

The news follows a Samaria Regional Council announcement an agreement had been reached on the eviction of an outpost in the West Bank.

The Evyatar outpost was illegally erected in April following the murder of Yehuda Guetta in a terrorist attack at the Tapuach Junction in Samaria. It has since grown at a dizzying pace and nearly 50 families now live there.

According to the compromise reached with the Defense Ministry the residents will leave their homes as early as this week, but around 30 settlers would be allowed back in several weeks.

The statement said that the residents of Evyatar overwhelmingly approved the agreement reached with Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked.

The Civil Administration's planning committee most recently convened on Jan. 17, in a meeting that saw the approval of 792 housing units in various stages of planning.

Following a construction freeze under the administration of US President Barack Obama, former US President Donald Trump reached an agreement with former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu according to which the planning committee would hold quarterly meetings. Settlers had been waiting with bated breath to learn when the next meeting would be held. When no date was initially announced, they accused Gantz of acting in coordination with US President Biden to prevent the committee from convening, thereby freezing settlement construction.

In late June, the government approved a series of new construction projects in Judea and Samaria – its first move on the matter since being sworn in.

The Civil Administration approved plans for 31 building projects in the communities of Elkana, Mishor Adumim, Karnei Shomron, Kfar Adumim, and Yitzhar.

The projects include a school for children with special needs in Elkana, a shopping mall in Mishor Adumim and religious buildings in Karnei Shomron and Kfar Adumim. Additionally, the construction of new homes was approved in Yitzhar, as well as zoning changes in existing West Bank settlements, Israeli media reported.

Yesha Council members, however, demanded the urgent approval of housing units they said residents of Judea and Samaria were in dire need of.

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Jews are almost five times less likely to begin construction in east Jerusalem than in the capital's west, a report commissioned by Israel Hayom ahead of Jerusalem Day and conducted by the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research reveals.

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According to data, construction on 1,310 residential buildings began by Jews in east Jerusalem within the last three years, compared to 5,016 in west Jerusalem.

In 2018, 797 Jewish building starts were recorded in eastern Jerusalem, compared to 1,430 in the west. In 2019, 335 building starts were recorded in the city's east compared to 2,031 in its west. Last year saw 178 projects break ground compared to 1,555, respectively.

The report offers two possible explanations for the striking contrast. First, despite the government denying it, political pressure exerted by Europe and the United States limits Jewish construction in east Jerusalem. Second, there is a relatively small amount of land available for construction in that part of the capital to begin with, which is also partially the result of the political restrictions. 

The annual demand for residential units for Jews in all of Jerusalem is 5,000, of which only 2,100 are supplied, leaving many Jerusalemites no option but to move elsewhere. 

Yair Assaf-Shapira, head of Data Analysis and Services at the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research, is of the opinion that Jerusalemites moving to the suburbs of the capital is not necessarily a bad thing. 

"Jerusalemites who move to Gush Etzion, Mevasseret [Zion], Maale Adumim and Beit Shemesh stay connected to the city. In many respects, Jerusalem is still the center of their lives," he said. 

The demographic issue can be set aside, not only because these cities are close to the capital, but also because of the high birth rate among Jewish women, 4.4 children, compared to 3.1 for Arab women, Shapiro explained.

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According to Gabi Harow, a resident of the settlement of Nokdim in Gush Etzion, there have been massive changes in the landscape since he moved to the community with his family in 2012.

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"The amount of illegal Arab building and the takeover of the land have grown tremendously," he told Jewish News Syndicate.  "You see structures going up all the time in our area and in the nature reserves between our community and the Judean Desert."

Harow said that Nokdim has been "slowly, slowly" losing its 150 acres of agricultural space.

"For residents, losing land, left and right, is a scary thought," he added. "It seems that the Israeli government has no problem intervening when it comes to illegal Jewish building, but doesn't prevent illegal Arab building."

Nokdim, along with the rest of the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) are located in Area C which – under the Oslo Accords – is under full Israeli military and administrative control. Area C makes up roughly 60% of the area.

According to the latest West Bank Jewish Population Stats report, released last month, more than 475,000 Jewish residents live in Judea and Samaria, not including those in eastern Jerusalem.

Nadia Matar, co-founder with Yehudit Katzover of Israel's Sovereignty Movement, describes the phenomenon as a "war going on over our land," which "has been taking place for more than a decade."

Matar said the battle began 12 years ago with the introduction of the "Fayyad Plan."

Put forth in 2009 by then-Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, the plan was to create a de facto Palestinian state, not through negotiations with Israel, but by establishing facts on the ground – such as houses, farms and schools – in strategic areas throughout Area C.

Last week, following the recent discovery of four new illegal Arab structures built on state land belonging to Nokdim, several hundred Gush Etzion residents – with the support of the Sovereignty Movement and approximately 10 additional nationalist organizations, politicians and other public figures – held a protest near the community, calling on the government to take action.

In response, the spokesperson for the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, responsible for implementing policy in Area C, told JNS in an e-mail that COGAT, the Israeli governing body that operates in the West Bank, "is aware of the incident [of the four structures]," adding, "enforcement will be carried out in accordance with the authorities and procedures, and will be subject to priorities and operational considerations."

Peace Now director of Development and External Relations Brian Reeves told JNS that though he is not familiar with the details of the Nokdim case, "As to the larger claim that Palestinians are attempting, en masse, to take over Area C, it's kind of like how Christians in America fret about a 'war on Christmas' – the majority in power whining about failing to dominate as much as they would like and turning themselves into the victims."

Reeves added that though Arabs have, indeed, built thousands of structures in Area C, including on Israeli state land.

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"What they [right-wing organizations] don't tell you is that since 1967, most (99.76%) of state land that Israel has allocated in the West Bank has gone to Israeli interests, while only 0.24% has gone to Palestinians. So, there's virtually no chance that if you, as a Palestinian, live in Area C, that you'll ever get land allocated to you."

The problem, he concluded, "is [Israeli] policy – deliberate policy at this point – not a marginalized people who have little choice but to build illegally."

Matar disputes this claim.

"It's the Jews who aren't getting any permits to build," she insisted. However, she said, "We do agree that Israel should take complete responsibility and decide where Jews should build and where Arabs should build, but only under the sovereignty of the State of Israel."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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The government approved tenders for nearly 2,600 new residential units in Judea and Samaria and east Jerusalem, a left-wing NGO Peace Now said Wednesday.

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According to Peace Now, the tenders provide for the construction of 2,112 housing units in the Judea and Samaria and 460 in east Jerusalem.

"Our out-of-touch government leadership continues to press on with its mad scramble to promote as much settlement activity as possible until the last minutes before the change of the administration in Washington," said Peace Now.

The report comes after Israel approved 780 new settler homes in Judea and Samaria on Sunday.

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The decisions announced by the US State Department reflect an effort to increase pressure on Iran by putting wider swaths of its economy under sanctions, while leaving a door open to diplomacy by allowing work to proceed at Iranian nuclear facilities that makes it harder for Iran to develop a nuclear bomb.

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US President Donald Trump's administration last year pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal in which Iran agreed to limit its nuclear program in return for the lifting of sanctions that crippled its economy.

The administration has since restored and tightened US sanctions to try to force Iran to negotiate a broader deal that would also limit its ballistic missile program and regional activities.

The State Department said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had determined Iran's construction sector was controlled directly or indirectly by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which Washington regards as a foreign terrorist organization.

As a result, the sale of raw and semi-finished metals, graphite, coal, and software for integrating industrial purposes will be sanctionable if the materials are to be used in Iran's construction sector, the department said in a fact sheet.

In a second determination, Pompeo identified four "strategic materials" as being used in connection with nuclear, military, or ballistic missile programs, making trade in them subject to sanctions.

The fact sheet identified the materials as: "stainless steel 304L tubes; MN40 manganese brazing foil; MN70 manganese brazing foil; and stainless steel CrNi60WTi ESR + VAR (chromium, nickel, 60 percent tungsten, titanium, electro-slag remelting, vacuum arc remelting)."

In a separate statement, State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said the determinations gave Washington the ability "to prevent Iran from acquiring strategic materials for the IRGC, its construction sector, and its proliferation programs."

Reuters reported on Wednesday that the United States planned to allow Russian, Chinese and European companies to continue work at Iranian nuclear facilities to make it harder for Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.

The Trump administration would let the work go forward by issuing waivers to sanctions that bar non-US firms from dealing with the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI).

A source familiar with the matter said on Thursday that the State Department had indeed renewed the waivers for 90 days.

The work to continue includes redesigning Iran's heavy water Arak research reactor to render it unable to make bomb-grade plutonium under normal operation and modification of centrifuges at Iran's Fordow fuel enrichment plant, the source said.

The waivers also cover support for Iran's existing nuclear reactor at Bushehr, the provision of enriched uranium for the Tehran Research Reactor and the transfer of spent and scrap nuclear fuel out of Iran, the source added.

Chinese state-owned China National Nuclear Corp has done non-proliferation work at Arak, and Russia's Rosatom has done it at Fordow as well as provided uranium fuel to Iran.

Responding to Reuters' story that the waivers were to be renewed, a China National Nuclear Corp spokesman said by email that it was "starting to cooperate with the Iranian side under guidance from Beijing on seeking a positive solution to the Iran nuclear problem." It did not give further details.

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The lawmakers sent their appeal to Netanyahu ahead of his first scheduled visit to Hebron since 1998.

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The market area of Hebron is owned by Jews, but after the Jewish quarter of the city was wiped out in 1929, Arabs took it over. For the past 25 years, the area has stood empty after it was shut down following Baruch Goldstein's 1994 massacre of 29 Muslim worshippers at the Cave of the Patriarchs.

Nine months ago, Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit decided that the land belonged to Jews. Following that decision, head of the Hebron Jewish community Avraham Ben-Yosef called to build a renewed Jewish neighborhood there. Now 17 Likud ministers and MKs are backing Ben-Yosef's initiative.

Maj. Gen. (res.) Uzi Dayan has spent the last few days collecting signatures in favor of a Jewish neighborhood to be built in the Hebron market.

The Prime Minister's Office said the request was under review.

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