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Disgruntled Jewish Home Forum Demands Action on Building Freeze

November 25, 2014

The Jewish Home members forum in Judea and Samaria met Monday, where frustrated members of the key coalition member called on the party to follow through on its stated pledges to Jewish construction in the region and stop the ongoing building freeze.

Jewish Home has proven itself unable to stop the covert freeze bringing Jewish building to a halt amid a severe housing crisis, despite the fact that Housing Minister Uri Ariel is of the Jewish Home party. Ariel has made numerous repeated condemnations of the freeze, but despite his position, he and Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett have apparently been unable to do anything about it.

In the forum meeting, disgruntled members of the party and branch heads in the region decided to press the party’s representatives in the Knesset to stop just talking about the freeze and to start demanding answers on the de facto freeze that has been in place for many long months.

Yesha Council head Avi Roeh at the start of the meeting explained how the work of the high planning council meetings in the IDF’s Civil Administration that manages the region has been blocked for a year, meaning no new building projects have been advanced in Judea and Samaria.

Likewise, he noted that no new construction tenders have been released in eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria over the course of that period, despite several recent and very public announcements advancing old plans in Jerusalem that have yet to be realized and do not alleviate the building crisis.

“On the ground they see building, but all the tractors working now are on the basis of planning from several years ago,” warned forum chairman Yesha Council Deputy Director Yigal Dilmoni, speaking about how many Judea and Samaria residents are unaware of the severity of the issue.

“What hasn’t been planned and advanced for a year will bring a situation whereby in another year, there won’t be building in Judea and Samaria at all,” Dilmoni added.

Several of those present at the meeting expressed their frustration that the Jewish Home party, of which they are members, continues to sit in the current government which freezes future building in Judea and Samaria, which is reportedly over 90% unpopulated.

The forum wrote a letter to Bennett, as well as MKs and ministers of the party, calling on them to stop the freeze.

“The freeze today means a serious dry period in the coming years, and what that means is that in the future even if there will be a nationalist leader who wants to realize building in Judea and Samaria, there won’t be building plans ready to act on,” they wrote.

“As representatives of the settlements in the Jewish Home party…we feel a moral and ethical responsibility to act on this important issue,” continued the letter. “We call on you our representatives in the Knesset to act and do everything required so as to stop this difficult freeze in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to renew the planning processes and publications of building tenders.”

At the end of the letter, the forum wrote, “We ask for your response in a letter to this request so that we can publish it to residents.”

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