Ramallah: The Israeli Housing and Construction Ministry has decided to go ahead with its previously shelved plan to expand the West Bank colony of Efrat beyond the separation barrier.
The Israeli ministry initially allocated $215,000 (Dh790,000) for the expansion of Efrat in the West Bank last October despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu having reversed the decision to build on the site.
The Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Monday that the ministry led by the ultra orthodox and right wing minister Uri Ariel had allocated the necessary budget for the expansion of Efrat in the West Bank last October despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu having reversed the decision to build on the site.
Once the plans for Efrat are put in the place, the Israeli colony will reach the houses of the Palestinians in Bethlehem.
The Israeli daily said that the plan to expand Efrat was one of the key demands of the Israeli colonists in the West Bank and that the colonists’ organisations have been putting massive pressure on the Israeli government to take over and seize surrounding Palestinian owned lands to expand the colony.
Areas east of Bethlehem have been targeted by colonists in the past decade to achieve their goal of expanding the colony.
In 2009, Israel announced the seizure of 1,700 dunams of land in the area and declared it state property to pave the way for the expansion of the colony. A road leading to the seized lands was also created on Palestinian owned lands.
The owners of the seized lands have already approached the Israeli Higher Court of Justice which has not done anything about the case so far and has not passed a verdict in it despite the fact that the expansion work is about to commence at any moment.
In 2011, the then Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak granted the colonists a permit to set up a farm on the seized land, and in November 2013, Uri Ariel issued instructions to build 850 colony houses to expand the colony of Efrat as part of the major plan to build 20,000 colony houses over the West Bank.
Only then did Israeli Prime Minister intervene to freeze the plan following massive international pressure, but Israel now believes it is time to table and action the plan and expand the colony.
