Gov't OKs hundreds of housing units after Itamar attack
By JPOST.COM STAFF
LAST UPDATED: 03/13/2011 09:12
Ministers approve new apartments in W. Bank blocs; Danny Dayan: Pity that parents, children need to be murdered for building to take place.
Israeli flag over settlements (illustrative). Photo: Laszlo Balogh / Reuters
The
ministerial team for settlements approved hundreds of new apartments in
the settlements of Ma'ale Adumim, Ariel, Kiryat Sefer and in Gush Etzion
in a special meeting on Saturday.
The move comes in the wake of a
terrorist attack on Friday in which five members of one family were
stabbed to death in the West Bank settlement of Itamar.
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Among the
participants in the specially called meeting were Prime Minister
Binyamin Netnayahu, Vice Premier Moshe Ya’alon, Defense Minister Ehud
Barak and Homeland Security Minister Matan Vilna'i. Sources in the Prime
Minister's Office told Israel Radio that the plan deals with measured
building inside existing settlement blocs.
Chairman
of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria Danny Dayan
on Sunday criticized the government's decision to approve the
building permits, saying that it shouldn't have only after the Fogel family was murdered.
"The
government's decision is a small move in the right direction, given
that construction in Yehuda and Shomron stands at a negative index of
thousands of housing units," he said.
Dayan added, "The
government should approve additional construction and of course, should
finally approve the master plan for Itamar and the building of a new neighborhood in the name of those murdered."
"This unfortunately is only the first time since the formation of
the second Netanyahu government that new housing has been approved and
it's a pity that parents and their children needed to be murdered for it
to do so."