Right-wing lawmakers lambaste PM for dropping pair of controversial settlement projects

There were two plans among the nearly two dozen on the docket for approval by the Civil Administration Wednesday that right-wing lawmakers say were removed at the last minute following a directive from the Prime Minister’s Office.

The heads of the Knesset’s Land of Israel Lobby, Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home) and Yoav Kisch (Likud), slam the decision and called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “to act with greater rigor to promote settlement, rather than doing the opposite.”

The controversial projects would have seen the legalization of two outposts.

The first is near the small ultra-Orthodox settlement of Ma’ale Amos which counts among its neighborhoods Ibei Hanahal, a cluster of some 100 homes that were built without permits. Before it was removed from Wednesday’s agenda, the Defense Ministry body had been slated to approve for deposit a plan which would have seen the outpost legalized by demolishing the homes in Ibei Hanachal and having them rebuilt again with the proper permits.

A second outpost that had been slated for legalization before being dropped at the last minute is adjacent to the settlement of Kfar Adumim. The central West Bank town is planning on building an educational center that will include dormitories.