Netanyahu, Ya’alon Approved Over 200 New Housing Units in Settlements, Outposts

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon gave their okay to move forward with the construction of hundreds of housing units in West Bank settlements, including a number in isolated outposts.
Last month, the government instructed the Israeli Civil Administration’s top planning board to promote new construction projects. The move follows a period of over a year of low-key settlement construction freeze.
In the Israeli settlement Har Brakha, where many Likud members live, 54 new housing units were approved for construction on an area of six dunams (about two square miles).

In another settlement, Revava, the construction of 17 housing units was approved on land that has already been approved for construction in the past.
In Ganei Modi’in, a settlement designated for ultra-Orthodox residents, an additional 48 housing units were approved for construction on 20 dunams (about 7 square miles).
In Tekoa, an additional 34 housing units were approved as part of a compound that was already approved in the past.
The expansion of Nokdim was approved also approved. In addition, an area of 69 dunams (about 24 square miles) that is currently occupied by mobile homes will be replaced by 70 housing units.
In Givat Ze’ev, 76 new housing units were approved.

These new housing units join the 24 units in Kiryat Arba and 98 housing units in Neriya approved last month. In January the Israeli Civil Administration’s top planning board approved the construction of 153 new housing units in West Bank settlements.
Over the past two years, Israel held off on promoting new construction projects in the West Bank due to Netanyahu’s fear that new construction would lead the United States to hold off on vetoing resolutions against Israel in the United Nations.