Construction began yesterday on a village that will serve as the regional center for a group of settlements south of Jerusalem that were captured in the Six-Day War after 19 years of Arab occupation. Ground-breaking ceremonies were held on a leveled hilltop where the village serving the so-called Etzion bloc will be built. The settlements of Kfar Etzion and Rosh Tsurim, captured by the Jordanian Arab Legion in 1948, have already been revived. A third settlement is planned in the near future.
The regional center is a joint project of the Jewish Agency’s settlement department and the Ministry of Housing. It will contain an elementary school, a building to house the Har Etzion Yeshiva. various workshops, a music center and immigrants’ hostels.
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