Welfare Minister (Yesh Atid) Meir Cohen is calling for the dismantling of “isolated yishuvim”, stating this should be done now, immediately, without waiting for negotiations with the PA (Palestinian Authority).
Cohen feels that maintaining these communities is too expensive and removing them will save badly needed funds, which may be allocated elsewhere. He adds that in some of these communities, “we have lost control of the residents and we must remove the communities to restore them to a normative lifestyle.”
MK (Bayit Yehudi) Orit Struk, a resident of Hebron, responded. “We have spent hundreds of billions on left-wing adventures. I am saddened to hear the minister’s words. It is time that we not only look at yishuvim with a fiscal eye, but with a security outlook too in addition to understanding the moral principle involved in the settlements.”
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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One Response
First, what “left wing” projects costing “hundreds of billions” is he talking about?? All he is saying is that there are some isolated settlements in the West Bank that make no sense economically and strategically and almost everyone acknowledges cannot be sustained in the long term once a peace settlement is negotiated. Its better to evacuate them now rather than waiting for a Gush Katif type of forced evacuation at some point in the future.