Israeli parliamentary committee has named four West Bank settlements considered “the most threatened” and “in immediate need of defense measures.”
According to a report by Ynetnews, a meeting held by the Israeli Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Subcommittee named Elon Moreh, Otniel, Karmei Tzur, and Neguhot as the settlements most in need of additional funding for protection.
The Israeli newspaper described the four colonies as being “at the centre of the past year’s wave of terrorism attacks.”
Ministers approve millions in aid for West Bank settlement https://t.co/iHqlEPpYTy
— The Times of Israel (@TimesofIsrael) July 10, 2016
Israeli settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal under international law, and have been described by human rights groups as at the heart of an inherently discriminatory system.
The Knesset meeting was attended by a number of senior Israeli military and security officials.
Home Front Command Settlement Security Branch Head, Lieutenant Colonel Or Ohayon, told the committee that, “Over the past year, the Security Ministry allotted us NIS 9 million to invest in technological measures, which is enough to cover (the needs of) three settlements.”
She added: “In 2016, we managed to increase this budget by 25 percent, which is good, but still not enough.”
(MEMO, PC)
