The latest case occurred in Umm al-Hiran, which was completely demolished to build the newly founded Orthodox Jewish city of Dror. A portion of the lots were awarded at ridiculous prices to members of the Garin Torani religious Zionist group. Peace Now Warning: Under the Netanyahu-Smotrich-Ben Gvir government, new settlement housing will be approved every week.
Jerusalem () – The Israeli government is “selling” at ridiculous prices part of the land that historically belonged to the Bedouins of the Negev desert – after having razed some villages to the ground – and handing them over to settlers from the West Bank. According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretzamong the main beneficiaries are members of Garin Torani, a religious Zionist group from the settlement (academy) of Eli, north of Ramallah, to whom the authorities award coveted lots at prices comparable to those of a used car. A few hundred square meters can be purchased for a sum in shekels equivalent to between $3,500 and $19,000, and without the need for bidding, while at market price you would pay at least $83,000 for a similar lot. However, this purchasing opportunity is denied to displaced Bedouins, who are not recognized as “local residents” and are instead forcibly relocated to a Bedouin village in the area. Only in exceptional cases are they allowed to acquire small plots, much smaller than the original properties, but at market value.
Before the creation of Israel in 1948, approximately 92,000 Bedouins lived in the Negev Desert, but only 11,000 remained within Israel’s borders after the Arab-Israeli war of 1948. Many live in unrecognized villages, lacking planning and of basic services such as running water, sewage and electricity. Very few of them have access to air-raid or missile shelters (the only victim of the Iranian attack in early April last year was a Bedouin girl) and most refuse to be resettled and, for that reason, face great difficulties in society. Israeli. Currently there are about 300,000, half of whom live in cities and the other half in villages not recognized by Israel.
Israel recently resumed construction of new buildings in the newly founded Orthodox Jewish city of Dror, which stands on the ashes of the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran, which had never been recognized in urban planning and was demolished in November. A month later, on December 29, two tenders carried out by the ILA (Israel Land Authority) for the construction of the future village, near Meitar and Hura, were closed.
Several businessmen have been awarded concessions for the construction of 620 housing units, for a total price of 40 million shekels (just under 11 million dollars), and development costs of 108 million shekels (29.5 million of dollars). The tender for 36 single-family homes was subsequently closed, with a price per plot of land of 303,000 shekels (about $82,000) for a single-family home. Added to this are the construction costs and the entrepreneur’s benefits, based on prices that are considered reasonable.
However, in 2023 and 2024 there were three no-bid awards by the Israel Land Authority to purchase lots for private construction in that same future community, at completely different prices. Priority was given to “local” buyers, defined as follows: members of the Rabbinical Academy of Eli in the West Bank, who founded a garin torani, or residents of the Tamar Regional Council. In this way, without bidding, the members of the Eli Academy received 115 of the 345 lots of up to 740 m2 at a ridiculous (or symbolic) price, between 13,000 and 70,000 shekels, expelling the Bedouins who had settled in the area. in the ’50s of the last century, and that, in 2015, they had also obtained through a court ruling the right to live in the zone and be evacuated only in exchange for an agreed upon replacement plot of land.
All of this occurs as the Higher Planning Council (HPC) met today for the sixth consecutive week to give the green light to the construction of new housing units in Jewish settlements in the West Bank – 448 in today’s session alone. Under the current government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (and the far-right duo of allies Smotrich-Ben Gvir), settlement construction has reached unprecedented levels. In 2023, the Council approved 12,349 housing units, an all-time high. This was followed by 9,884 approved units in 2024. According to Peace Now activists, the shift to weekly planning meetings involves both a “normalization of the process” and an “intensification of settlement construction.”
If today’s are approved, in six weeks there will be 2,377 housing units. At this rate, 2025 could set new records, with projections exceeding 1,500 units per month. “The weekly meetings – explains the NGO in a note – indicate an attempt to normalize settlement planning with the aim of maximizing approvals of housing units, minimizing public and international criticism” according to a logic of annexation that constitutes a “ political and security crisis
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