Tenders for construction of 5,667 new housing units in Judea and Samaria issue so far in 2025 — 50% higher than the previous record year of 2018.

By World Israel News Staff

This year marked an all-time high in settlement expansion, with a record number of new housing tenders issued.

So far in 2025, the Israeli government and the Israel Land Authority have granted tenders for 5,667 housing units in Israeli towns across Judea and Samaria, nearly 50% more than the number issued in the previous record-setting year.

In 2018, 3,808 housing unit tenders were issued, the most prior to 2025.

The publication of construction tenders is the third of four stages in the bureaucratic approval process for building in Israeli towns in Judea and Samaria, compared to three stages for construction in most parts of Israel.

Initial building plans must first be approved by the Higher Planning Committee before being greenlighted by the Defense Ministry before going to the Israel Land Authority and Housing Ministry for the issuing of tenders.

Once tenders have been published, local settlement councils are able to issue building permits, subject to the oversight of the Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration.

According to a report by the left-wing Peace Now organization, which lobbies against Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria, the 5,667 housing units granted tenders this year will house some 25,000 people once construction is complete.

On Monday, the Israeli military granted retroactive recognition for 13 fledgling communities in Samaria, effectively legalizing their status.

IDF Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, who is charged with overseeing Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria, signed off on the establishment of town boundaries for 13 preexisting communities, some of which were founded more than three decades ago.

The towns include Sa-Nur, an Israeli community in northern Samaria that was evacuated during the 2005 Gaza disengagement plan and resettled by settlement activists.

Three towns in the Jordan Valley were normalized Monday, including Giv’onit, Ir HaTmarim, Gadi — along with four in the Samaria Regional Council and six in the Benjamin Regional Council.

Along with Sa-Nur, the newly recognized communities in Samaria include Havot Yair, Tal Menashe, Maoz Tzvi, Achiya, Harsha, Migron, Nofei Prat, Adi Ad, and Shvut Rachel, which was established in 1991 and is home to more than 150 families.

Bezalel Smotrich, who serves as both finance minister and minister in the Defense Ministry, handling settlement affairs, was actively involved in the effort to secure recognition for the 13 communities.

“This is a major step toward formalizing communities and integrating them as an inseparable part of the State of Israel,” Smotrich said.

“Establishing new jurisdictional boundaries provides stability, allows for planning and development, and strengthens community blocs in the heart of the country.”

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Regional council heads from Judea and Samaria praised their hosts for openness to “thinking outside the box” regarding regional issues.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

In a first, a delegation of settler leaders went for an official visit 10 days ago to a Muslim country and aired their views on a range of regional economic issues as well as political matters.

Dr. Ali Rashid Al Nuami, a senior member of the National Council in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), invited several regional council heads from Judea and Samaria to his official residence on March 12 for an Iftar meal , which is eaten after the daily Ramadan fast.

Mount Hebron Regional Council head Eliram Azoulay praised the government officials, business leaders and influencers the group met who did not automatically back the Palestinian rejectionist view of the Mideast conflict.

“It was amazing to see that there is a courageous leadership that is interested in hearing directly about the communities and settlements in Judea and Samaria,” he said.

“I discovered a leadership that is a partner in the war against Hamas, Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Iran with all their civilian arms in Judea and Samaria as well. A leadership that is not afraid to openly say that we need to fight the Palestinian Authority’s education in evil and hatred of Jews.”

The connections now made, he added, “open up new opportunities for implementing the Abraham Accords in Judea and Samaria.”

In thanking their host for “the respectful hospitality and the open and important dialogue,” Yesha Council Chairman Yisrael Gantz said that the visit “is evidence of regional change and the need for new thinking. A new world order requires new alliances and thinking outside the box.”

“Cooperation between peoples, based on mutual respect and recognition of reality, is the way to strengthen settlement and ensure a strong future for both countries,” he added.

Ynet cited a source who said that the Emiratis wanted to hear the Yesha Council’s views firsthand due to their recognition of the warm ties settler leaders have formed with members of the Trump administration and their influence within the Israeli government.

This influence is mostly due to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the head of the Religious Zionism party who has the authority in the Defense Ministry over land allocation as well as planning and construction for settlements in Judea and Samaria.

Even during the ongoing war with Hamas and concurrent IDF incursions into Palestinian hotbeds of terrorism in Judea and Samaria, he has advanced the recognition of young settlements and authorized tens of thousands of new housing units in the region.

On Saturday night, the Security Cabinet approved Smotrich’s request to recognize 13 communities as independent entities instead of parts of their “parent” settlements.

Last June, the government legalized three young settlements and allotted land near Jerusalem to build the first new settlement in the region in eight years.

In addition, in just the first three months of 2025, the construction in various existing villages of over 10,500 housing units has been advanced at various levels of the approval process, as the Higher Planning Council in charge of housing development in the region began meeting once a week instead of once a quarter or less, which was the custom in previous years.

This already outstrips the 9,880 units approved in all of 2024, a total that had been greeted with joy by the settlement movement after far lower numbers were recorded during the first three years of the Biden Administration, which claimed that Jewish building in Judea and Samaria was “an obstacle to peace.”

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“Our goal is to bring another 20,000 foreign workers to Israel in the next six weeks,” says Housing Ministry official.

By World Israel News Staff

The Director General of the Housing Ministry said that his office plans to bring some 20,000 foreign laborers as a replacement for Gazans and Palestinian Authority Arabs, who will no longer be granted permission to work in Israel.

Speaking at a real estate conference on Tuesday, Yehuda Morgenstern acknowledged that the sudden loss of Palestinian workers had a serious impact on the construction industry in Israel.

But, Morgenstern said, finding an alternative to Palestinian laborers is critical for Israel’s long term security.

“If we want workers here and now, we need the Palestinians,” he said. “If we want workers for the [long-term], we can wait for foreigners from other places.”

Morgenstern said that his office was working to ensure that foreign laborers can come to Israel as quickly as possible.

“When I look from an optimistic and realistic point of view, our goal is to bring another 20,000 foreign workers to Israel in the next six weeks. We are working day and night to make it happen and I think we will meet this requirement.”

In January, Economy Minister Nir Barkat stressed that Israel should stop depending on Palestinian laborers and instead provide job opportunities to workers from countries who maintain friendly relations with Jerusalem.

The government “should not bring in Palestinian workers to work in Israel. We are not the Palestinians’ employment organizers,” Barkat said during a speech in the Knesset.

“I believe that we need to bring workers from peaceful countries – from India, from Sri Lanka, from Europe, from Africa,” he continued.

Barkat emphasized that laborers should come “from countries with whom we have peaceful relations.” He said assurances that workers would “return to their countries” of origin is also “very important.”

He said that a return to the pre-October 7th system, in which laborers from both PA-controlled areas in Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip, is unfathomable.

Referencing the PA’s “pay-for-slay” initiative, which sees the murderers of Israelis receive monthly stipends, Barkat said that “a Palestinian who murders a Jew receives a million dollars while he sits in prison.”

With that in mind, “Israelis should not have to fear the Palestinian who wanders the streets and who was taught from a young age that he should murder Jews and that if he does murder a Jew he will receive a million dollars. This is unthinkable.”

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Nitzana is intended to serve as a center for residences, educational services, supplementary employment, and commerce for the regional settlement community.

By TPS

A new town in the Negev near the borders with Egypt and Gaza – Nitzana was – approved by the District Committee for Planning and Construction in the Southern District.

The plan for the new settlement was initiated by the Israel Lands Authority and will be located south of Highway 211 and north of Nitzana National Park.

Nitzana is intended to serve as a center for residences, educational services, supplementary employment and commerce for the regional settlement community.

The plan includes 1,044 residential units, along with public buildings, tourism facilities, about 200 hotel rooms, 100 units of special housing, education and society, trade and employment, roads, and open public areas.

The project covers a total area of about 1,500 acres and includes the allocation of areas for residence, tourism (about 7 acres), institutions and public buildings (about 15 acres), commerce and employment (4 acres), road infrastructure, as well as open public spaces in accordance with immediate needs and future of the settlement and its surroundings.

Also, ancient Byzantine agricultural structures in the area will be restored, including the preservation of the ‘Path of Peace’ sculpture by the artist Danny Karvan as a desert strip in the heart of the settlement and the establishment of a central park.

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The Jerusalem District Planning Committee approved the next planning stage for 400 new homes in Abu Dis on Monday.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The United States and EU condemned Monday the advancement of approval to build Jewish housing in eastern Jerusalem because it “undermined” the viability of a Palestinian state.

“Our views have been clear and consistent: The expansion of settlements undermines the geographic viability of a two-state solution, exacerbates tensions, and further harms trust between the two parties,” State Department spokesperson Matt Miller told reporters when asked about the Jerusalem District Planning Committee’s decision regarding Abu Dis, an Arab village that was subsumed into the capital after it expanded its boundaries following the Six Day War.

“We strongly oppose the advancement of settlements and urge Israel to refrain from this activity…. We raise it at the highest levels on a consistent basis,” he added.

The planning committee on Monday had some technical concerns regarding the plan to construct 400 homes in the Arab neighborhood, which lies on the seam line between the eastern side of the capital and Judea, but said that once they were taken care of, the project could go through to the next planning stage.

The European Union used stronger language in its rejection of the approval, repeating its oft-stated position that such construction is “illegal according to international law and a major obstacle to achieving a two-state solution.”

“The EU has consistently made it clear that it will not recognize any changes to the pre-1967 lines, including in Jerusalem, other than those agreed upon by the parties,” its statement added

With the backing of renowned, expert jurists, Israel maintains that international law specifically supports Jewish settlement of the entire territory covered by the erstwhile British Mandate, including Jerusalem, as noted in Article 80 of the UN charter.

The proposed enclave, called Kidmat Zion (the Zionist advance), would enlarge the current small pocket of Jewish life in Abu Dis. About a dozen Jewish families live in two apartment buildings to maintain a strategic Jewish presence in the area, with the first families moving there in 2004.

At the time, Daniel Luria, the international spokesman for Ateret Cohanim, said that in 1924 a Jewish cooperative had bought a tract that included the buildings’ location in order to construct a Jewish neighborhood, and that this would be the first move towards finally realizing that goal.

The Jerusalem Municipality had initially approved the construction of 200 homes on the Jewish-owned land in Abu Dis in May 2000.

The Ateret Cohanim yeshiva is one of a number of groups that purchases housing in the Old City and eastern Jerusalem to expand the Jewish hold on the capital. It often buys properties that were bought by Jews early in the last century, but Arabs have squatted there for decades and have to be paid to leave.

Early on in the Oslo Accords period, Abu Dis was touted as a possible site for the capital of “Palestine,” with most of it lying in what was made into Area B of Judea and Samaria, where the Palestinian Authority has civilian but not military control. A largely-completed building slated to be its Parliament is still standing there, unused.

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The Samaria Regional Council proposal sent to the prime minister is meant to both strengthen Israel’s heartland and lower housing prices.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

In a bid to strengthen the biblical heartland while lowering housing prices in the central part of the country, the Samaria Regional Council laid a plan on the prime minister’s desk Wednesday to double the population in the contested region to a million by the year 2050.

The plan, called “A Million for Samaria,” which rhymes in Hebrew (‘Shomron l’Million’), is very detailed, having been researched for over a year by engineers, architects, geographers and other professionals.

Among its housing targets, it envisions quintupling the size of Ariel – the main city in the region with its own university – from some 20,000 residents, to 100,000, and building a similarly large new metropolis near Rosh Ha’ayin, which, like Ariel, would straddle the so-called “Green Line.” Several settlements would be expanded into smaller cities, including those that had been forcibly evacuated in the 2005 Disengagement because they were specifically located in security-sensitive areas.

The plan lays out a transportation system to ease commutes to Israel’s main business centers, including more and better roads, a train network and even an airport. Industrial areas are also proposed, allowing for many residents to work locally instead, as well as a new hospital.

In his accompanying letter, Council head Yossi Dagan wrote that the blueprint would be a hugely positive step both ideologically and practically.

“The Samaria region, located in the heart of the Land of Israel, is of historical and national importance and is the cradle of both the Bible and Israeli culture,” he reminded Netanyahu, who has often described the area in exactly such terms to foreign audiences.

“I call on you, Mr. Prime Minister, to adopt this plan as the work plan of the current government for the future of settlement in Judea and Samaria and throughout the country, and thereby lower housing prices in the center of the country while strengthening the security of the State of Israel by holding onto the mountain ranges – an unparalleled strategic, Zionist and principled act,” he continued.

Dagan emphasized that all construction would take place on state-owned land, millions of dunams of which are currently standing empty. This would ostensibly obviate any legal impediments, as Palestinians and their supporters could not claim that the government was confiscating their property.

The Sovereignty Movement, which came out with its own massive building plan called Eastward Ho! for Judea and Samaria last October, was all for the proposal, while saying it did not go far enough.

Movement co-head Nadia Matar told World Israel News that while they “bless every initiative that brings Jews to our God-given Biblical heartland, we are not satisfied with one million. One million is not enough.”

It also won’t happen, she said, until Israel applies its sovereignty over Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley. “In order for them to be able to stay, and in order for investors to invest, and in order for the State of Israel finally, once and for all, to finish the Six Day War and say this is ours forever, it must be combined with, or even started with, the application of Israeli sovereignty.”

Based on meticulous research, the Eastward Ho! plan shows that by building 25,000 housing units a year in Judea and Samaria, housing costs in the high-demand, central region would be reduced by as much as 35-45%.

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What began as an eight-meter-wide room, is a now warren of rooms, tunnels and stairs, decorated with sea shells, wood, stones, glass and ceramics of all colors.

By Pesach Benson, TPS

An Israeli man who literally carved out a home for himself in seaside cliffs faces eviction after having lived there for 50 years.

“I really love the sea,” Nissim Kahlon told the Tazpit Press Service. “I don’t have money to buy a home.”

Wearing a yellow t-shirt, with a four-cornered fringed religious garment known as tzitzit on top and large gray knit skullcap, he showed TPS around his home.

The home is carved into a seaside cliff on the outskirts of the upscale city of Herzliya. What began as an eight-meter-wide room, is a now warren of rooms, tunnels and stairs, decorated with sea shells, wood, stones, glass and ceramics of all colors. Despite a heat wave, the house is surprisingly cool and airy. The home is connected to electricity and plumbing, and the kitchen sports a gas stove.

Other than conversation, the only sounds were the tinkling of hanging decorations swaying in the breeze and the crashing of the nearby waves.

Kahlon, now 77, was recently served with an eviction notice by Israel’s Environmental Protection Ministry. The ministry says the home was illegally built and threatens the coastline.

In a statement to TPS, the Environmental Protection Ministry called the house, “a significant environmental, and security, hazard, according to professional reviews on behalf of the Herzliya Municipality, which is subordinate to the ministry.”

The statement added, “In the reviews that the Herzliya Municipality have released throughout the years it seems that the building is dangerous, and that the cliff is falling apart. The municipality even informed the ministry that they have alternative accommodational solutions.”

Explosions at an abandoned military facility near Kahlon’s home have further weakened the cliff, the ministry said. Improperly stored gunpowder in an old ammunition factory exploded, leaving a crater in the ground in June. And in 1992, explosives at the facility blew up, killing two people.

Kahlon doesn’t deny that he’s been squatting. He was 29 when he first came to the cliff with a shovel and pick. But Khalon questions why authorities armed with an eviction notice didn’t remove him in 1974.

“Fourteen cars came. Police, Border Patrol, city inspectors,” Kahlon recalled. “I thought, ‘Nissim, this is not your day.’”

They were there for half an hour without evicting Kahlon or demolishing the home. He wasn’t given an explanation.

“‘Thank God they left,’ I said.”

He also stresses that in 1992, the house was connected for electricity and water. The home does not have a telephone or internet connection, and people who want to reach Kahlon instead call a social worker who knows him.

The ministry and the Israel Land Authority reportedly intend to seal the rooms he carved into the cliff.

Kahlon is appealing the eviction order. Family and friends began a crowdfunding campaign to cover his legal expenses.

Asked where he will go if authorities follow through on the eviction, Kahlon shrugs.

“I have no place to go.”

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The 13,000 units ratified by the Supreme Housing Council break the previous record set during the Trump administration.

By Batya Jerenberg World Israel News

The slow wheels of Israeli bureaucracy have turned faster than they ever have before in one area at least since the inauguration of the country’s first fully right-wing government – housing approvals for Judea and Samaria.

Some 13,000 units were approved by the Supreme Planning Council in the last six months, breaking the previous annual record of 10,223 set in the previous Netanyahu administration during the last year in office of then-president Donald Trump.

In contrast to many previous years when the Council did not meet as legally required, once a quarter, thus contributing to the delay in housing and public building starts in the disputed region, it has met twice thus far in the last six months. In February, 7,000 plans were approved at various stages of construction, and on Sunday 4,560 more passed its muster.

In addition, as a direct response to the terror attack in Eli Tuesday in which two Palestinian Hamas members murdered four Israelis, two of them minors, and injured another four, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced that some 1,000 more houses will be built in the Samarian village.

“These are crazy numbers,” a source involved in the region’s building told Israel Hayom Thursday, giving credit mostly to Smotrich, who also serves as a minister in the Defense Ministry. His particular purview, as demanded in coalition negotiations, is the Civil Administration, which that runs the relevant housing planning committee, among other bureaucratic necessities in the Israeli-controlled portions of Judea and Samaria.

The settler movement and its supporters are hopeful that the housing process will continue to accelerate, to help realize Smotrich’s openly-stated desire to fill Judea and Samaria with a million Jewish residents. The trend does seem to be positive, considering Sunday’s Cabinet decision, made as an amendment to a 1996 government decision, to lop off several permission stages in the approval process.

The Israeli Left wasted no time in criticizing the newest round of approvals and the easing of planning requirements.

“We are already in a big crisis with the Americans,” Opposition leader Yair Lapid told Israel Hayom, “and this kind of behavior causes damage at a time when we need them. The Americans are rushing to an agreement with Iran, and if we want to take risks regarding this, then this government is really insane.”

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A Biden administration official said that the U.S. is “deeply troubled” by the prospect of expanding Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

The United Nations released a blistering statement on Monday accusing Israel of violating international law after the Israeli government announced changes that may ease construction and expansion of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply troubled” by news that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich had been granted the authority to approve building in Judea and Samaria.

The lawmaker announced that plans for the construction of 4,000 new homes in the area would be presented to a committee for approval next week.

Referring to settlements as a “flagrant violation of international law,” Guterres said that Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria are “a significant driver of tensions and violence” in the Israeli-Arab conflict.

Jewish building in the area “further entrenches Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory, encroaches on Palestinian land and natural resources, hampers the free movement of the Palestinian population and undermines the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination and sovereignty,” he added.

Notably, Guterres’ statement criticized plans for Israeli building in the “occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.” He appeared to be referring to potential expansions to Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem, which is the capital of Israel.

Guterres’ phrasing suggests that he does not recognize the entirety of the city of Jerusalem as the legitimate capital of the State of Israel.

A press release from the U.S. State Department also published on Monday used phrasing similar to the UN remarks. A Biden administration official said that they were “deeply troubled” by the prospect of the expansion of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

“As has been longstanding policy, the United States opposes such unilateral actions that make a two-state solution more difficult to achieve and are an obstacle to peace,” read the statement.

The State Department added that it urges “Israel to fulfill the commitments it made in Aqaba, Jordan and Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt and return to dialogue aimed at de-escalation.”

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The government passed a controversial resolution Sunday giving planning approval for construction in Judea and Samaria to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, bypassing much of the red tape in the approval process.

The post NO MORE RED TAPE? Israel passes law to easily approve thousands of building permits in Judea and Samaria appeared first on World Israel News.

In parallel, the Civil Administration’s Supreme Planning Council is approving 4,500 new units at its meeting Sunday.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The government is set to approve a move that will drastically shorten the approval time necessary to build new housing in Judea and Samaria, Kan News reported Sunday.

The decision at Sunday’s cabinet meeting will reduce the number of stages in the planning process by two-thirds, from six stages to only two, which is expected to take years off the process. This is because the steps that will be eliminated are the requirements to pass building plans separately through both the defense minister’s and prime minister’s offices at two points in time – the deposit stage and validation stage.

The political echelon has stymied construction often over the years, in response to pressure by outside actors such as the United States and European Union.

In future, the only necessary approval will be that of Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister and special minister in the Defense Ministry who, at his insistence during coalition negotiations, was put in charge of the Civil Administration, which regulates building in the disputed region, among other functions.

Smotrich, who is the head of the Religious Zionist party, has pushed for massive building in Judea and Samaria throughout his political career.

Beit El council head Shai Alon was delighted with the news.

Calling it “a historic and Zionist decision,” he said that it would “create a significant construction boom in the area… and finally bring about a proper solution for young couples and housing seekers in the area after many years.”

“I welcome the decision that will lead to additional construction and a great supply, thereby also lowering housing prices and balancing the market as required,” he added. “Settlement in Judea and Samaria is not the state’s backyard, but rather our Zionist and national spearhead, and this is proven by this significant decision.”

In another sign that housing policy for Judea and Samaria has changed, the Civil Administration’s Supreme Planning Council will be approve on Sunday 4,570 new units throughout the region at its quarterly meeting, according to its published agenda. Some 1,300 units will receive final approval, and the rest will advance to the next stage in the bureaucratic process.

“The construction boom in Judea and Samaria and in all parts of our country continues,” Smotrich said in applauding the meeting. “As we promised, today we are advancing the construction of thousands more new units in Judea and Samaria.

“Judea and Samaria residents are ceasing to be second-class citizens, and the natural development in settlements is being reflected in construction and expansion.”

The approvals come after over 7,000 units were approved in February. In a tweet, reporter Carmel Dangor of Kan noted that “since Smotrich entered the Ministry of Defense, more housing units have been approved than in a whole year until now.”

The announcement of the upcoming housing approvals had been made last week, after Jerusalem notified the White House so that the U.S. administration would not feel blindsided by the move. President Joe Biden has never made a secret of the fact that he haa been against settlement expansion in Judea and Samaria since the beginning of this political career decades ago.

When asked about the report last Monday, U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby repeated that sentiment, saying, “We have long made clear our concerns about additional settlements in the West Bank, that we don’t want to see actions taken that are going to make a two-state solution that much more difficult to achieve.”

In what could be seen as a move to somewhat mollify the Americans, Israel told the White House last week that it would postpone yet again a hearing on building in the E1 zone between Maale Adumim and Jerusalem. This is an area to the east of the capital considered crucial by right-wingers to prevent the contiguity of the Palestinian Authority, which is why the global community has pressured Israel for decades not to build there.

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A man who has been living for close to 50 years in an labyrinthine cave hewn from the cliffside in Herzliya is being threatened with eviction by Israeli authorities.

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The E1 building plan was originally presented nearly three decades ago, in 1994, and received initial approval from the Civil Administration in 2004.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

A planning committee that could approve plans for a new Jewish neighborhood near Jerusalem is scheduled to meet next week, paving the way for building to begin for the long-postponed project – but it’s unclear if the meeting will actually happen.

The Subcommittee for Objections within the Higher Planning Committee of the Civil Administration is currently slated to meet next Monday to hear opposition to the construction of 3,400 new housing units in the E1 area, on the outskirts of a Jerusalem suburb.

Should the plan be approved, the construction would create a new neighborhood in Ma’ale Adumim that would essentially connect the Judean desert city to Jerusalem.

The Palestinian Authority and pro-Palestinian groups are vehemently opposed to the construction, as it would create major geographic challenges for a potential contiguous Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria.

Notably, the E1 building plan was originally presented nearly three decades ago, in 1994, and received initial approval from the Civil Administration in 2004.

Since then, the project has been repeatedly delayed by numerous prime ministers and governments, due to intense pressure from the U.S. and European Union.

While the subcommittee is expected to meet next week, this exact session had already been postponed once in 2023. The meeting was also postponed three times in 2022.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated the Biden administration’s opposition to building in E1 during an AIPAC summit in Washington D.C. on Monday.

“Settlement expansion clearly presents an obstacle to the horizon of hope we seek,” Blinken said, adding that Jewish building in the region “damages prospects for two states.”

During U.S.-brokered security summits earlier in 2023, Israeli officials reportedly pledged to freeze settlement building and expansion for the foreseeable future.

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Plan for 400 housing units for Jewish families receives initial approval, but similar plan approved 20 years ago was indefinitely shelved.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

The Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee approved a plan last week to construct a Jewish enclave in Abu Dis, a town on the outskirts of eastern Jerusalem, according to a Zman Israel report.

Some 400 housing units for Jewish Israelis received initial approval for construction, but the plan must undergo additional reviews and revisions before building begins.

Political considerations, such as pressure from the Biden administration to avoid building in the area, may also prove to be a major factor as to whether the plan comes to fruition.

Because the Palestinians claim eastern Jerusalem as the capital of a potential future state, Jewish construction outside of the western part of the city is often a contentious issue.

Notably, a similar plan for 225 housing units for Jewish families was approved in 2000. Shortly afterwards, the plan was shelved indefinitely, and more than two decades later, no progress has been made regarding the initiative.

However, senior members of the Jerusalem Municipality said they were certain that the ruling right-wing government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would approve Jewish building in eastern Jerusalem and beyond.

Arieh King, deputy mayor of Jerusalem and a member of the Otzma Yehudit party, told Zman Yisrael that the current government had discussed budgeting for a new eastern Jerusalem road due to their “understanding of its strategic importance for the future” of the capital city.

King added that he was confident the government would also approve the “Kidmat Zion neighborhood plan that is planned on the borders of [that road.]”

“Kidmat Zion” is Hebrew for “advancing Zion.’

“This is our big opportunity and we will not give up on it,” another official, speaking anonymously, told Zman Yisrael.

Earlier this year, the Israeli government twice agreed to freeze settlement building, construction, and expansion under pressure from the U.S.

In March, Israel committed to stop “settlement discussions” for up to half a year at a security summit in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh that was also attended by representatives from the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Jordan and the U.S.

The same day, a shooting attack by a Palestinian terrorist took place in Huwara, seriously injuring dual American-Israeli citizen David Stern.

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Yitzhak Goldknopf vowed to enable all citizens, noting especially demobilized soldiers, Torah scholars and young couples, to buy first-time homes.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

New Housing and Construction Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party vowed Sunday to help expand the settlement program in Judea and Samaria as one of the solutions for all sectors suffering from the country-wide housing crisis.

In the official hand-over ceremony from the outgoing minister, Ze’ev Elkin, to the head of UTJ’s Chasidic faction, Goldknopf assured his audience that he has come to serve all citizens equally, and “to promote the settlement of the land.”

“We will help our brothers who live in Judea and Samaria, who are actually keeping the [commandment of] settling the land,” he said, noting that “part of the solution to the housing crisis is found in these areas.”

Last month, at a real estate conference in Eilat attended by some 4,000 people in the field, Sovereignty Movement heads Nadia Matar and Yehudit Katsover presented a map of 101 square kilometers in Judea and Samaria, at the seam line of the center of the country where most people want to live, that are immediately available for construction. Building 25,000 units there per year, their research showed, “would reduce housing costs in the center by 35-45%,” Nadar said at the conference.

Goldknopf mentioned the specific responsibility he feels regarding three groups.

“We have a special duty to discharged soldiers,” he noted. “It is unacceptable that those who dedicate their best years to the safety of the citizens of Israel, will stand like poor people at the door when they want to establish a home, and need donations to cover the rent.”

Torah scholars who study full time, “who make do with little and [just] ask for a roof over their heads,” were also a priority for the ultra-Orthodox politician, as was “all young couples from all sectors – regardless of religion, race or outlook…. We will God willing work to help everyone,” he said.

The neophyte politician, 72, was chosen by the Grand Rabbi of Gur Chasidim before this year’s elections to head the Agudat Yisrael wing of UTJ after being involved most of his career in child development and education in the haredi sector.

He aroused a furor last month when he was quoted as saying that “there is no housing crisis in Israel” at a conference, when prices for apartments shot up a record 19% over last year, in addition to having risen steadily for the last several years.

His full statement at the Muni Expo in Tel Aviv on urban innovation was, “I did not know the Ministry of Housing beforehand, so I don’t know that there’s a crisis in this area. I see that building is taking place in the country. We will double, triple, quadruple, quintuple… we’ll get to everything.”

The incoming minister took the opportunity Sunday to remind people that already at the conference he had mentioned “young people who live in parking lots and storerooms” in many haredi neighborhoods, “and spoke of couples living in underground apartments,” proving that he knew that there was a problem.

“When I said I was coming into the [minister’s] job without pre-formed opinions, I said ‘I’m not familiar with the housing crisis.’ Of course that didn’t mean that ‘there is no crisis,’ but rather that I’m new to the job and so I don’t understand the factors causing the crisis well enough. I am full of hope that with God’s help, hard work and cooperative efforts, by the end of the government’s term we’ll all be able to say that ‘We don’t see a housing crisis,’” Goldknopf said.

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A panel at an economic conference Sunday agreed that prices would drop precipitously if the Eastward Ho! plan is adopted.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Building in Judea and Samaria is the solution for the housing crisis in Israel, according to the Sovereignty Movement and a panel of experts who spoke at the Besheva-Israel National News Economic Conference Sunday.

Nadia Matar, Sovereignty Movement co-head, summarized the plan, Eastward Ho!, in an interview with The Jerusalem Post’s Hadassah Chen after presenting it at the conference.

“The main topic that interests the Israeli people is the fact that they can’t buy an apartment for their children,” she said. The group therefore commissioned a professional study led by economist Dr. Amatzia Samkai, which found that over the last decade, the price of housing went up 100%, due to large demand and not enough supply.

“Our researchers found that we need to build 25,000 units a year in order to lower the prices,” she said. Building that number in Samaria, which lies “30 kilometers from Tel Aviv,” the place where most Israelis want to live “because that is where the work is,” she noted, would reduce the cost of housing in the region by a whopping 35-45%.

There are 100 kilometers of “empty land” in Samaria, Matar said, which equals the land area of greater Tel Aviv.

“That’s why we’re at the conference,” said the long-time Land of Israel activist. “To show the people that the land of Israel is not only ideology, it’s not Messianism. The land of Israel is practicality.

“We are here to live…. We have to buy land, develop it, and the best way to bring sovereignty is by building hundreds of thousands of housing units in Judea and Samaria – and understanding that Judea and Samaria is not a problem, it’s the answer.”

Many politicians from several parties support the plan, she noted.

“We have the signature of over 60 Knesset members who commit in a letter that if and when there will be a right-wing government, they will promote this plan of moving eastward [into Judea and Samaria],” Matar told Chen.

Real estate experts on the panel went even further than Matar regarding both the size of the problem and the benefits of the solution she offered.

Eran Rawls, CEO of the Center for Israel Construction, said, “We are losing our children to other countries. A large Israeli community has sprung up in Cyprus because with a half-hour flight, they can live at a quarter of the cost of the outskirts of Tel Aviv.”

He also noted that the solution found by young families, to rent instead of buy, was also becoming untenable, as “in the past year, rent for an apartment increased by thirty percent,” and in some places, 40%.

Blaming in part government policy, when “65% of the cost of a new apartment goes to the state through the cost of land, VAT, taxes, etc.,” he said that there could be serious ramifications for the future of the country.

“The current reality will cause a decline in the birth rate, families will be smaller. This will have an effect on the ability to educate the children.”

Aharoni Neubauer. CEO of the Gush Etzion Development Company, in turn blamed the Civil Administration for the lack of a housing supply, saying that the government group in charge of Judea and Samaria “does not release lands for continued building and expansion, which leads to a rise in costs.”

Neubauer noted that still, “many industrial centers” have moved to the region, and that a turn to the east helps with other problems that commuters to the congested center contend with, such as hours wasted in traffic jams, and air pollution.

The Sovereignty Movement was born in 2011, when Matar’s partner, Yehudit Katsover, won over the activists of their organization, Women for Israel’s Tomorrow, with the contention that the Right had to have its own positive proposal for the region.

Her thinking, Matar told Chen, was that “We cannot win the battle for Judea and Samaria if we only fight for a hill here and a hill there. It’s very important but it’s like taking out the sea with a spoon…. The Left has a plan, we oppose their plan, the two-state solution … [and] the majority of the Jewish people know it’s suicide, but what do we present?”

Fully applying Israeli law over Judea and Samaria, instead of just saying ‘no’ to the other side, is her answer. Over the years, Matar said, the idea of sovereignty has slowly become the “consensus” of the nationalist camp.

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