Netanyahu coalition pushes to fast-track new Jewish towns in Arab, Bedouin areas

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara

Simi Spolter reports in Haaretz on,25 March 2026:

The government approved on Tuesday a decision dryly worded as “the establishment of a team to examine the process for making decisions regarding new towns.” But behind these words lies the desire to significantly shorten procedures and waive professional opinions on the path to establishing Jewish population centers in the Negev and Galilee regions as part of an initiative by Settlement and National Missions Minister Orit Strock.

According to the text of the decision, formulated in the Prime Minister’s Office, the team will be headed by Acting Director General of the Prime Minister’s Office Drorit Steinmetz and is expected to recommend a work plan that will bring the issue to a government decision within three months.

The decision states that the Finance Minister and Housing Minister support the proposal, even though the Housing Ministry only recently learned of the initiative and was not involved in its formulation.

The decision mentions the procedure published by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara about two years ago regarding the establishment of new population centers, according to which a government decision to establish a new center “must be based on professional staff work in cooperation with all relevant professional bodies and include consideration of overall planning policy, possible alternatives, and a variety of aspects involved in establishing towns, including budgetary, infrastructure, environmental, employment, and social aspects.”

According to Baharav-Miara’s procedure, the government must also allow the National Planning and Building Council to examine the plan and acquire a formal economic opinion from the Finance Ministry. Following this, the government is required to vote again on whether or not to move forward. This obligation for professional consultation often makes it difficult for the government to establish towns that lack economic or planning justifications.

For instance, an opinion recently submitted by the Finance Ministry presented strong opposition to the establishment of “Route 25 towns,” which have been promoted for years with the aim of curbing Bedouin settlement in the eastern Negev. According to the Finance Ministry’s opinion, the plan lacks budgetary feasibility and is expected to cause strategic damage to the surrounding cities – Be’er Sheva, Dimona, Yeruham, and Arad – precisely when the state is investing billions in strengthening them.

The Finance Ministry’s opinion highlighted a significant gap between the existing supply and the need for new towns, finding no economic justification on the demand side. It was estimated that the additional cost of establishing the towns amounts to approximately 800 million shekels, without a budgetary source, and that some development costs were not included in the original calculation, including public institutions, infrastructure upgrades, and costs related to the evacuation and regulation of Bedouin communities within the planning area.

In accordance with the existing procedure, an opinion like the one presented by the Finance Ministry could have posed legal difficulties for the establishment and funding of the five settlements. Now, the government wants to significantly simplify the procedure so that it can establish new towns without being required to address “minor details” like professional opinions, or the need to present economic or planning justification.

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