The Civil Administration has announced the deposit of a plan for the construction of 234 housing units in the Kiryat Arba settlement. The plan (510/6/2) proposes to rezone an industrial area for residential use. Although part of the Kiryat Arba settlement, in reality, it constitutes a separate neighborhood, distant from the main settlement and adjacent to the city of Hebron, and near the Palestinian village of Beit Einun. The new settlement is planned on land declared state land in 1982 and approved as an industrial zone in 1988, predating the Oslo Accords and the First Intifada.
Peace Now: “A new settlement in Hebron, based on a plan over 45 years old, is yet another move by the Netanyahu-Smotrich messianic government aimed at destroying any possibility of a political solution to perpetuate the occupation and suffocating the city of Hebron with more and more settlements surrounding it. This government, devoid of public support, is responsible for leading us to the worst political, economic, and social situation since the creation of the state. Regressing Israelis and Palestinians back half a century is the last thing both sides need.”
The plan to build north of Kiryat Arba was approved for deposit in February 2023. The residential plan was based on a plan to establish an industrial area called Mevaser, on an area of approximately 70 dunams, which was declared as state land in 1982. In the new plan, it is proposed to change the designation from an industrial area to a residential. The plan is located approximately 800 meters north of the fence of the Kiryat Arba settlement, within a Palestinian residential area, with no territorial connection to Kiryat Arba other than a road. Currently, there are four caravans in the settlement, set up by settlers in 2018. Access to the settlement is via Beit Einun, along a road used by Palestinians, lined with Palestinian residential homes.