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By: INN & TJVNews.com
As part of his routine visits to areas throughout Gush Etzion, Gush Etzion Regional Council Mayor, and Yesha Council Chairman, Shlomo Ne’eman, on Tuesday stopped at the illegal PA town under construction in a strategic area, within a nature reserve, between Gush Etzion and the Judean Desert, as was reported by Israel National News. Ne’eman discovered that construction at the site has progressed rapidly.
Ne’eman witnessed firsthand the trucks and other heavy equipment with PA license plates paving an access road to the new community.
According to Ne’eman, his visit proves how the PA is determined to quickly establish a new town in full view, INN reported. The site is located not far from the Herodion National Park.
The Gush Etzion Regional Council recently launched a campaign titled: “Nothing is out of scope, as the PA builds,” whose goal is to immediately stop the illegal PA building within the eastern Gush nature reserve.
According to the INN report, during his visit on Tuesday, Ne’eman said: “The enemy’s heavy machinery continues to work full force. The tractors and trucks are their tanks – they are using them to conquer our land. Last Shabbat they paved another road. This is a nature reserve and we will keep it that way.”
Ne’eman added: “The sounds of construction here are the sounds of destruction, they are destroying the desert, and creating a barrier between Gush Etzion and the Dead Sea. We see that the work to build a new city continues in full swing – one direction a house is being built and on the other side a mansion is already up, with Herodion in the background. If we sit idly by, this area will be transformed into a new Arab city. We will not allow this to happen. We will fight against it with all our might and we will stop this immediately, the INN report said.
According to distinguished writer and Efrat resident, Larry Domnitch, “The building surge on Efrat’s northern entrance is not an aberration, but part of a plan. It is a microcosm of the illegal construction which threatens Israel’s sovereignty over the region. Efrat is not alone in this predicament. It is the entire region which is in danger of illegal Arab construction which is pervasive in Judea and Samaria.”
In a special report that he authored on illegal Arab construction in the region, Domnitch added that, “These homes have been constructed in violation of the Oslo Accords of 1993 between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The Oslo Accords is an international agreement designating this area of the territory of Judea as part of area “C”, where the Israeli government has jurisdiction.”
Domnitch writes that according to Naomi Kahn, the director of the international division of Regavim, a movement dedicated to protecting Israel’s lands and preventing illegal seizure of state land, the construction of schools are part of the process of illegal Arab building. “First you build a school. Then you build a town.” This is the process around Efrat as in so many other areas.
“Schools are built in Area C as a means of establishing permanence, drawing new residents to the area, who in turn build additional illegal (residential) structures in the vicinity. Schools are built to create facts on the ground. After schools are constructed, roads and homes are then built, “ Domnitch added.
