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Citing 'Zionist vision of settlement', Israeli minister launches Negev and Galilee housing plan

January 19, 2018 at 12:23 pm

Israeli Education Minister Yoav Gallant, pictured on 18 July 2017 [Hanay/Wikipedia]

Israel’s Housing Minister has hailed plans for 40,000 new homes in the Negev and Galilee as “a significant step towards realizing the Zionist vision of settlement”, reported Arutz Sheva.

Minister Yoav Galant was speaking Thursday at a ceremony to mark the launch of the new “strategic plan”, where he also described construction by Palestinian citizens as a significant threat.

“We must not lose our hold on the south”, he declared, adding that he is “shocked by the amount of illegal Bedouin construction [in the Negev] in recent years”.

Bedouin Palestinian citizens face systematic discrimination in land and planning policy, including ongoing attempts to forcibly displace thousands from ‘unrecognised villages’.

“In certain parts of the central Galilee, the situation is similar”, the minister stated.“We must restore the momentum of Jewish settlement to the Negev and the Galilee”.

Read: Israel bans sale of construction material to Palestinians in Negev

Galant told attendees that he attached “great importance to cooperation with the youth and youth of the settlement movements, who in practice are implementing the vision of Zionist settlement in our generation”.

#LandGrab

“Such cooperation will lead to tremendous development and renewed settlement momentum in the Negev and the Galilee, and to the realization of the shared vision – the settlement and development of the country in all its areas”.

The minister added that “in addition to building houses, we in the Construction and Housing Ministry see as a mission the construction of the Zionist youth spirit that builds and settles the land”.