Kahlon refutes ministers’ claim cabinet never vetted Qalqilya plan

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon insisted on Tuesday that the cabinet had debated and voted on a plan to expand the Palestinian city of Qalqilya in the West Bank, rejecting claims from ministers that they had never okayed the proposal.

“The subject was voted on in the cabinet, and whoever says that he doesn’t remember is lying,” Kahlon said at a political security conference in Herzliya.

The plan, presented by Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, would reportedly see as many as 14,000 new apartments built on 2,500 dunams (617 acres) in Israeli-controlled Area C surrounding the city. The specifics were first reported by Channel 2 last week.

Surrounded on three sides by Israel’s security barrier, Qalqilya lies opposite the country’s central region only a few kilometers from Kfar Saba, north of Tel Aviv. The trans-Israel highway, Route 6, passes next to the city.

The proposal was reportedly approved by the security cabinet last year but the TV report caused an uproar among some government ministers who alleged they had no recollection of okaying the proposal. A rift also emerged between Liberman and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who, following the report, initially suggested his defense minister had failed to present the cabinet with the full details.

A statement this week by the Prime Minister’s Office said Netanyahu “didn’t remember he had been presented with the fact that it would include 14,000 new apartments.”

Reports of Netanyahu’s dissatisfaction with the plan surfaced after several right-wing ministers denounced the scheme and claimed it had not been reviewed properly by the cabinet.

Ministers Gilad Erdan and Yisrael Katz denied on Sunday that the cabinet had ever voted on the plan.

“I don’t understand who gave the Civil Administration the authority to approve such a large-scale building plan,” Erdan told Army Radio.

“The Qalqilya plan was never presented. I never approved it or even voted for it,” Katz tweeted.

Kahlon said Tuesday that the 14,000 homes would in any case need final approval: “The number of housing units depends on the planning process, and in any case it must return for approval.”

Kahlon’s defense of the events came a day after Liberman too insisted that government ministers were fully apprised of the plan, and slammed politicians for verbal attacks on defense officials over the heated issue

Speaking in the Knesset at the weekly meeting of the Yisrael Beytenu faction that he leads, Liberman asserted Monday that a document was distributed to the ministers by a planning committee saying that while 14,000 housing units should be built in the Qalqilya, under Israeli building restrictions a maximum of just 6,187 units could realistically be constructed there.

Uproar over the plan from other ministers was tailor-made for “primaries” and “Likud party campaigners,” Liberman accused, a reference to the rightist flank of Likud’s activist base and Central Committee members.

Liberman also said he is not opposed to raising the issue again in the security cabinet. “As far as I’m concerned, let them have discussions morning and night,” he added.

“Qalqilya was one of the quiet cities during the last terror wave,” Liberman said. “This was part of the carrot and stick approach [to the Palestinians] that, incidentally, was publicized to the media.”