Government Channels Another NIS 1 Billion into Settlement Road Expansion

Ministers Smotrich and Regev announced this morning that the government has decided to allocate an additional 1,075,000,000 NIS for roads to the settlements, “as a designated budgetary addition from the Ministry of Finance,” for the years 2026 to 2028. It should be noted that the Netanyahu–Smotrich government is already investing NIS 7 billion in settlement roads, accounting for about 30% of Israel’s intercity road budget (roads intended for only about 3% of the population).

Road development is the key to the development of the settlements. Past experience shows that when a bypass road is opened, the number of settlers in the settlements along it increases rapidly.

Peace Now: The government is using its final months in office to plunder the public coffers and pour funds into the sector closest to its heart. These are roads that lead to the destruction of the State of Israel. Today, after October 7, it is clear to everyone what the cost is of continuing the conflict, and of continuing to invest all security resources in protecting the settlements. The Netanyahu government is condemning us to many more years of bloodshed while simultaneously impoverishing the State of Israel.

In recent years, the government has been investing enormous sums in developing roads intended to enable the establishment of new settlements and the construction and expansion of existing ones. As early as June 2024, Minister Smotrich announced at an internal conference of the Religious Zionism party— recorded and exposed by Peace Now—that he had allocated 7 billion NIS for settlement roads over the next five years.

This is a huge amount of about 1.4 billion NIS per year. For comparison, the intercity road budget for the entire State of Israel over the past four years has been about 4.5 billion NIS per year (according to budget execution data for intercity roads). In other words, about 30% of Israel’s intercity road budget is allocated to settlements where only about 3% of the Israeli population lives.

The government is now seeking to add another 1.075 billion NIS for paving additional roads and expanding existing ones.

Roads under construction / close to the start of work:

* Expenditure data until 2024 are the sum of the expenses in the Ministry of Transportation’s relevant budget lines as appears in the Ministry of Finance’s budget execution files. There may be additional costs.

Roads in preparation and planning stages: