The approval process for construction in Yehudah and Shomron has been significantly eased for the first time in decades following a resolution passed by the Israeli Cabinet on Sunday morning.

The resolution significantly shortens the approval process and bureaucracy involved in obtaining approval for planning and construction permits in Yehudah and Shomron, which until now required about four to five approval procedures, at all stages of construction, signed by the prime minister and defense minister, before being submitted to the Supreme Planning Council for Yehudah and Shomron.

The new resolution precludes the need for extensive political approval for building plans and allows plans to proceed following only initial approval granted by Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich as part of his authority as Minister in the Defense Ministry.

The expedited approval procedure is expected to bring the construction situation beyond the Green Line closer to the situation in the rest of Israel, and may even lead to lower housing prices due to the expected jump in the construction of new housing units.

The move comes before the scheduled approval next week of 4,560 new housing units in Yehudah and Shomron, including hundreds of units in Beitar Illit and Givat Ze’ev. The new units are in addition to the almost 10,000 units approved at previous meetings of the Supreme Planning Council for Yehudah and Shomron since Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu launched his new government in December 2022.

According to an Axios report last week, the Israeli government already informed the Biden administration, which has repeatedly expressed its strident disapproval of any “settlement” expansion, of its plan to announce the approval of thousands of new units in Yehudah and Shomron at the end of June.

Since the new resolution was passed on Sunday morning, Jordan already excoriated the Israeli government for the decision as “an impediment to the two-state solution.”

In addition, the Palestinian Authority announced that it is boycotting a planned meeting of the Joint Economic Committee with Israel on Monday in the wake of Israel’s decision to “accelerate the stages of settlement growth in the West Bank, and to authorize its Finance Minister Smotrich to ratify it.”

The meeting would have been the first time the committee convened since 2009.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)