Right-wing MKs: Include settlement building in housing plan

In the Tekoa settlement, a number of residents pitch tents to protest the high cost of housing in their community.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
Jordan valley settlement 311 (photo credit: REUTERS)
Jordan valley settlement 311
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Right-wing politicians and attorneys called on the government Tuesday to include West Bank settlements in its housing plan.
“We call on the prime minister to remove the political barriers preventing construction in Judea and Samaria, and to allow for an immediate housing solution for the thousands [of people who live] in areas of broad national consensus in Judea and Samaria and in [east] Jerusalem,” said members of the Knesset’s Land of Israel lobby group in a statement it released to the media.
Nachi Eyal, who heads the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel, sent a letter to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu with the same request.
The 10-month moratorium on new construction in Judea and Samaria that ended in September 2010, he said, only served to aggravate the housing shortage in the rest of the country.
If the government really wants to lower housing prices, it should authorize new construction in the settlements, he said.
Separately, in the Tekoa settlement located just outside of Jerusalem, a number of residents pitched some tents to protest the high cost of housing in their community.