by Hillel Fendel
"It is not true that there is no Jewish construction in Yesha," Yaakov (Ketzaleh) Katz told Arutz Sheva today. "There most definitely is, even if less than in other years. But in general, Yesha growth should not be credited to Prime Minister Netanyahu; it's not because of him, but despite him."
Ketzaleh explained the situation of Jewish construction in the settlement enterprise of Yesha (Judea and Samaria): "Over the past 10-11 years since Netanyahu returned to office, construction here has been initiated mostly by the mayors, the heads of local councils, and individuals – but not at government initiative. We should give Netanyahu credit for standing by his word when he said that building Yesha is not his priority. He has in fact built less in Yesha, percentage-wise, than any other Prime Minister since these areas have been in our hands."
"By way of comparison, when I was senior advisor to Housing Minister Ariel Sharon from 1990-92, we built 65,000 units in Yesha in just two years! This is three times more than what Netanyahu did in 11 years!! The reason is that for him, it's simply not a priority. If we hadn't had idealistic people living in Yesha throughout these years, especially people like Zeev Chever (Zambish) – the head of Yesha's construction organization, known as Amanah – and others such as Shomron Regional Council head Yossi Dagan, we wouldn't have even the small amount of construction that we have."
Ketzaleh was speaking on the backdrop of this week's release of the annual construction report by the Central Bureau of Statistics. The report paints a gloomy picture of Yesha construction. In the 12 months ending this past September, only 1.9% (!) of the country's building starts took place in Yesha. That is, out of 49,810 housing starts, only 946 were in Judea and Samaria – even though the population in Yesha numbers over 5% of the total population of the State of Israel!
At the same time, population growth in Yesha this year was 3.4% - less than in other years, but still higher than the growth rate throughout Israel.
Indicative of the drop in Yesha building starts in recent years is the fact that "completed construction" is rising in Yesha. More than twice as many units were completed than were started. Out of nearly 50,000 completed housing units from October '19 until September '20, 4.6% of them were in Yesha – a total of 2,298.
Ketzaleh said that though "it's a shame" regarding Netanyahu's passive role in Yesha growth, "in truth, at the end of the day, we have now nearly 500,000 Jews throughout Judea and Samaria – compared to under 300,000 when I became a Knesset Member in 2009. There are also another 350,000 Jews in the areas of liberated Jerusalem. But this beautiful growth -which could have been much higher by now – came only by constantly pushing Netanyahu and forcing him. It had nothing to do with his love or ambition to build Yesha. Just like with sovereignty in Yesha: he promised it and praised the idea over and over, but the minute he had an excuse to drop it, he did. Tomorrow, if any pressure whatsoever is exerted upon him, he'll immediately freeze construction in Yesha again."
Ketzaleh noted that when Netanyahu first took office, "one of the first things he did – which no other Prime Minister did before him – was to announce that no construction of any type could take place in Yesha without his personal approval. He gave himself veto power over Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria! And many times he in fact issued a veto, the reason being that he continually thought about the possibility that he would [sign an agreement with the PLO and have to] deport and evacuate all the Jews of Yesha. He figured that the 300,000 that were here then, or 400,000, was a number that he could live with in terms of having to eject from their homes."
"But thank G-d, Am Yisrael keeps on getting stronger and stronger, and when history is written, it will record that Binyamin Netanyahu built less in Yesha than anyone else who had the opportunity."
Asked to summarize the situation, Ketzaleh said: "Much of the construction in Yesha is being done on a grass-roots level - and even those projects that are government-approved take place only as a result of great pressure and large protest demonstrations. For instance, Netanyahu promised to build 300 units here in Bet El five years ago – but actually gave the go-ahead only after Mayor Shai Alon, and Arutz-7, pushed and pressured him to do so. The same is true for the E-1 area between Jerusalem and Maaleh Adumim. He never did anything of his own good will. But today, with new elections on the horizon, he brags about how much he built in Yesha. Let's not be fooled."