State doubles budget for new settlement after shortfall — report

Housing Ministry offers to will bankroll Amichai to tune of NIS 120 million, and lift responsibility from Binyamin Regional Council

By Jacob Magid

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2 August 2017, 11:25 pm Edit

Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief

Construction workers begin work on the new settlement, Amichai, meant to resettle the evacuees of Amona, June 20, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The government reportedly doubled the budget of a new settlement for evacuees of the illegal Amona outpost during a Wednesday meeting of cabinet ministers and settler leaders.

Last week, construction for the new Amichai settlement was halted after just over a month due to lack of funds.

According to a Channel 2 news report Wednesday, Housing Minister Yoav Galant announced that the budget for Amichai would be increased from NIS 60 million ($18 million) to NIS 120 million ($36 million).

The announcement came during a meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office, according to the report.

Galant also agreed to have his ministry take direct responsibility for the settlement’s construction instead of the Binyamin Regional Council, which had previously been spearheading the project.

Housing Minister Yoav Galant speaks at a signing ceremony for an agreement to build thousands of new apartments in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Ramat Beit Shemesh, outside Jerusalem, April 03, 2017. (Hadas Parush/FLASH90)

There was no immediate response from representatives of Amona evacuees.

The Binyamin Regional Council had been bankrolling the building of what will be the first new settlement in a quarter century under the assumption that it would be compensated by the state.

However, council representatives said the government had not contributed, forcing them to stall the project for the 42 families evacuated in February after the Supreme Court ruled that their outpost had been built on private Palestinian land.

Speaking with The Times of Israel last week, Binyamin Regional Council chairman Avi Roeh said the halt “had nothing to do with lack of willingness from the government.”