Some 6200 housing units will be built In the administered territories within the next year, the Ministerial Settlement Committee decided yesterday. The decision is subject to budgetary approval by the Treasury which is expected in a meeting between Finance Minister Yigal Hurwitz, Agriculture Minister Ariel Sharon and Construction and Housing Minister David Levy.
Only Raanan Weitz, co-chairman of the Jewish Agency Settlement Department, and Justice Minister Shmuel Tamir voted against the plan. Weitz argued that very little preparatory work was done regarding the financial aspects.
About IL 1.6 billion has been allocated in the current fiscal year to settlements beyond the “Green Line,” The Treasury has instructed the Jewish Agency and other settlement bodies to commit themselves for a similar figure to be used in construction of housing.
Most of the new building — about 1000 housing units — will be in the Judaea and Samaria regions and the Jordan Valley. About 300 – 500 apartments will be built in each of the following settlements: Kiryat Arba, Maale Adumim, Karnei Shomron and Ariel. About 850 housing units will be built on the Golan Heights, 500 of them in the regional town of Katzrin.
Sharon, who is also chairman of the Ministerial Settlement Committee, said that the Housing Ministry was fully prepared to handle the task of building in the settlements, “as fast as possible.”
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