Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has decided to end the de facto building freeze in Judea and Samaria and intends to approve thousands of new housing units and roads at a cost of millions of shekels, reported Channel 2 Sunday.
The move is seen as a bid to strengthen the alliance with the nationalist wing of the coalition, and follows a meeting between Netanyahu and Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett, who has threatened to destabilize the coalition if the freeze is not ended.
Ze’ev Hever, a veteran leader of the settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria, was also reportedly present at the meeting.
According to the report, Bennett told Netanyahu that it is obvious that neither Tzipi Livni (Hatnua) nor Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) want elections at this time, and that this situation should be exploited for construction in Judea and Samaria.
Since last Wednesday, according to the report, the Prime Minister’s Office has been negotiating with the Yesha Council – an unofficial federation of Judea and Samaria local leadership – to seal the deal. It is to include about 2,000 housing units, mostly inside the so-called “settlement blocs.”
According to Channel 2, 12 new roads will be created, including a road circumventing the Hawara neighborhood south of Shechem, new roads to Emanuel and Eli, and a widening of Highway 60. In addition “students’ villages” are planned, as are new parks and a boardwalk in the Etzion Bloc in memory of murdered yeshiva students Eyal Yifrah, Naftali Frenkel and Gilad Sha’ar.