The government is reportedly pushing forward with a plan to funnel some NIS 50 million to Jewish settlements in the divided West Bank city of Hebron and Kiryat Arba.
The move, coming in the wake of two deadly terror attacks in the area last week, will likely raise new hackles in the international community, including the US, which harshly condemned an Israeli plan for some 800 new homes in East Jerusalem and the West Bank on Tuesday.
The Hebron/Kiryat Arba plan, spearheaded by hawkish Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel, includes NIS 2 million for a heritage trail and new signage around the Tomb of the Patriarchs, a flashpoint holy site revered by both Jews and Muslims.
Israeli soldiers patrol the area around the entrance to the Kiryat Arba settlement in the West Bank on June 30, 2016, after a Palestinian teenager stabbed and killed a 13-year-old Israeli girl there. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)
The plan also includes NIS 6 million for new roads and infrastructure in the area, NIS 5 million for a bike trail, and NIS 3 million to refurbish an archaeological park, according to Channel 2.
“From the start of Zionism it has been clear that the Arab terror is beaten through settlement activities alongside security activities, that’s how it is around Gaza, that’s how it is on the northern border, and that’s also how it is the Hebron Hills region,” Ariel says, according to Walla News.
Last week, Netanyahu said he would push through approval for 46 new homes in Kiryat Arba, after a 13-year-old girl was stabbed to death by a Palestinian terrorist in her home.
The area around Hebron has been a hotbed of violence amid a spate of terror attacks.
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