Settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are taking advantage of the current political vacuum to rush new settlement projects to completion.
The settlers established two new West Bank settlements this week: Rehan 5, in the northern Samaria region, and Ramat Gidron, near Jerusalem. They are the last of eight settlements approved by the now defunct Likud-Labor unity government when it was formed in 1988.
Dugit, in the northern Gaza Strip, already has a population but no buildings. Several settlers are camping in a tent on the site. Five mobile homes are expected soon.
Dugit was approved in principle in 1982, but final approval was granted only last week by the Likud caretaker government. Labor resigned from the nation unity coalition on March 13, and the government fell two days later.
With only Likud in charge until a new government is formed, settlement advocates are rushing to consolidate what they can. Likud is generally sympathetic to the settlers, since it opposes returning the territory as part of a peace settlement with the Arabs.
The accelerated settlement drive is credited to Michael Dekel, who was just appointed assistant to acting Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, in his capacity as acting defense minister.
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