Twenty million shekels have been budgeted to support the needs of the West Bank outposts, Religious Services Minister Matan Kahana reported during a special Knesset session on Tuesday.
Separately, "there is an orderly procedure for the approval of [housing] units,” Kahana said.
He spoke in response to complaints by right-wing parliamentarians from the opposition.
They warned that Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had quietly frozen plans for homes in West Bank settlements. They also railed against the absence of a plan to authorize some 70 West Bank outposts.
“A procedure of support was decided upon by which NIS 20 million would be distributed to councils in Judea and Samaria, Kahana said. He is a member of Bennett’s Yamina Party and spoke on behalf of the government about the funds that would go for security and humanitarian needs of the fledgling communities.
He noted that the government was sworn into office only in May and had been working resolutely since then on a resolution to this important issue.
The thousands of Israelis who live in these communities feel like second-class citizens even though they work, pay taxes and serve in the IDF, said Kahana.
Kahana scoffed at the idea that Bennett’s government was preventing the authorization of the outposts.
The previous government “refrained from legalizing these communities even during the time of the Trump administration,” Kahana said.
“We are here to find solutions,” he said. If anything, Bennett’s government is “thawing the freeze of the previous government,” he added.
Kahana spoke of the publication of housing plans for deposits, although the Higher Planning Council for Judea and Samaria has not met to advance substantive plans in the settlements since January of this year.
Initially, it had been set to meet in August to push forward plans for 2,223 new settlement homes, but that meeting was canceled and a date for a new one has not been set.
A council meeting to approve 800 homes for Palestinians in Area C of the West Bank was similarly canceled.
MK Orit Struck (Religious Zionist Party) took particular issue with the approval of Palestinians homes noting that there was a “war” going on for the control of Area C between Israelis and the Palestinians, of which the main tool of control was housing.
Such approvals of Palestinians homes would only ensure that one day the area would be controlled by a radical Palestinian group akin to the Islamic regimes that now control Iran and Afghanistan, she warned.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz “is making our land into Afghanistan and you’re letting him,” she said.
“Creating Iran or Afghanistan in the heart of our land cannot be allowed to happen for political reasons,” said Struck.
Bennett promised to help the outposts that she called “young settlements” but nothing happened, Struck said.
“Now what? You threw them to the wolves? I am here for 20,000 people who don’t know how they will make it through the winter because you abandoned them,” Struck said.