Netanyahu pledges $230m for settlement projects

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday pledged to pay 800 million shekels ($230 million) for infrastructure projects in the illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, Quds Press reported.

Quds Press reported Israeli TV Channel 7 saying that Netanyahu announced his pledge during a meeting with the leaders and heads of illegal settlements.

The settler leaders asked Netanyahu to fund paving new roads to connect the settlements with each other, as well as to fund programmes to improve security measures in the settlements.

Netanyahu and his Chief of Staff Yoav Horowitz told the chairman of the council of West Bank settlements Avi Roeh that the plan would go into effect at the start of the next fiscal year.

Roe said in a letter sent to the settlers: “After a long period of intensive work… the prime minister, along with the settlement enterprise, is leading an appropriate response to the gap of many decades in transportation and infrastructure.”

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“We are pleased to see that the prime minister understands the budgetary discrimination that was created and is working to correct it.”

The settler leaders had set up a protest tent opposite Netanyahu’s office calling for reinforcing settlement security and infrastructure projects.

The international community considers all settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories illegal.