Building plan for West Bank enclave settlement delayed - politician

Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan said that among the plans slated to be dealt with in that Council meeting is 400 housing units for the Har Bracha settlement.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
Tel Hebron (photo credit: COURTESY OF PRESERVING THE ETERNAL)
Tel Hebron
(photo credit: COURTESY OF PRESERVING THE ETERNAL)
The delay in the quarterly meeting of the Higher Planning Council for Judea and Samaria sparked fears on Tuesday night of a planning freeze in the 15 West Bank enclave settlements set out under US President Donald Trump’s plan.
The Higher Planning Council is scheduled to meet four times a year. It last met in February, but no meeting was held in the second quarter, and no date has been set for such a meeting.
Among the plans slated to be dealt with in that council meeting is a plan for 400 housing units for the Har Bracha settlement, Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan said.
The hilltop community above the Palestinian city of Nablus, otherwise known as the biblical city of Shechem, is home to some 2,700 people. Last week, Dagan held a cornerstone-laying ceremony for a new neighborhood in Har Bracha, which he hopes will one day be transformed into a hilltop city.
The absence of the meeting and the failure to advance the plan “raises the fear” about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s commitment to apply sovereignty to the West Bank settlements, but also points to his intention to freeze settlement building, Dagan said.
No date had yet been set for the meeting, the Civil Administration confirmed to The Jerusalem Post, adding that no agenda had been finalized.
Separately on Tuesday, Settlements Affairs Minister Tzipi Hotovely visited the South Hebron Hills region of the West Bank, which would be heavily impacted by Trump’s sovereignty map, published in January.
Under that map, settlers who live in the South Hebron Hills would have to travel to Jerusalem via Beersheba.
Hotovely also visited Otniel, which is an enclave settlement. She spoke of the importance of ensuring Jewish development and preventing the Palestinians from taking over the area.
She visited South Hebron Hill Regional Council head Yochai Damri. They both support Israeli application of sovereignty to the settlements but are opposed to the Trump peace plan, which they fear will lead to the creation of a Palestinian state. They also fear the details hide a potential settlement freeze and that it could lead to the destruction of the 15 enclave settlements.


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