Ramallah: Colony construction has escalated in the two years since Uri Ariel became housing and construction minister in Israel,
Under him, almost a third of the Israeli government’s budget for subsidising housing units has been transferred to the Palestinian territories.
In addition, the Israeli news source Haaretz alleged 28 per cent of the housing units subsidised by Ariel’s departments’ rural affairs administration over the past four years were built in the colonies.
On the Israeli government’s map of national priority areas, colonies comprise only 10 per cent of the communities targeted.
The subsidies given for particular housing are meant to assist housing construction in national priority areas. Their purpose is “to encourage positive immigration to the communities and to strengthen their economic resilience.”
An example of the level of growth in subsidy allocations is that in 2011 (when a different planning map was in use) no housing units in Palestinian territories were given the subsidy. 617 housing units inside the Green Line were subsidised.
In 2012, the number of subsidised housing units in the territories was 353, compared with 1,233 inside Israel’s borders.
In 2013, the figure rose to 1,604 subsidised housing units in the territories and 513 in 2014.
During those two years, the number of subsidised units in Israel was 2,462 in 2013 and 1,916 in 2014.
