THE ISRAELI government has adopted a new map of national priorities that includes dozens of West Bank settlements in the list of communities to receive special state funding.
The controversial new map includes 91 of the 121 West Bank settlements. Some 120,000 West Bank settlers will be eligible for government funding to boost employment, infrastructure and educational projects.
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to include settlements, including isolated communities expected to be evacuated by Israel under a peace agreement with the Palestinians, despite the 10-month construction freeze declared last month for West Bank settlements.
Mr Netanyahu told ministers the new map was an attempt to draw the periphery closer and to close the gaps that exist between the different areas of the country.
Ministers from the Labor Party voted against the move, arguing that priority for state aid should be restricted to peripheral communities in the northern Galilee and southern Negev.
Party leader and defence minister Ehud Barak noted that “some settlements were a constant source of extremism, damaging the fabric of life in Judea and Samaria [West Bank]”, citing as an example Friday’s arson attack on a Palestinian village mosque.
“Such settlers should not get the prize of being included in the national priority map,” Mr Barak said.
Due to the Labor Party opposition, and objections to the map raised by other ministers, the prime minister decided to set up a special ministerial committee to examine the list of communities designated to receive special state funding.
That panel will report on its findings within 30 days.
The leader of the left-wing Meretz Party, Haim Oron, said the new map was “proof that the government was not interested in peace with the Palestinians”.
Meretz submitted a motion of no-confidence in the government over the new map.