Government Signs Umbrella Agreement with the ...

Yesterday, the government signed an umbrella agreement with the Samaria Regional Council, committing NIS 8.5 billion to infrastructure for about 12,000 new housing units. This will enable rapid construction in existing and planned settlements in the northern West Bank. The agreement also makes it harder for future governments to reverse this decision because stopping construction would require additional legal challenges.

On June 14, 2026, the government signed an umbrella agreement with the Karnei Shomron Local Council, committing NIS 2 billion for 6,000 housing units. In September 2025, a similar agreement with the Ma’ale Adumim municipality guaranteed NIS 3 billion for about 7,000 housing units, with roughly half planned for the new settlement in E1.

Peace Now: “This is a fire sale of the State of Israel. Not only is the government thumbing its nose at millions of Israelis and plundering their money for the benefit of a narrow settler sector — it is digging, with its own hands, the diplomatic and security pit in which the State of Israel may end up buried. From the government’s perspective, it is a double win: unbridled construction in the settlements, along with shackling the next government to commitments that will make it difficult to roll back this terrible government’s reckless policy.”

What is an umbrella agreement?

An umbrella agreement is signed between the government, including the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Housing, and the Israel Land Authority, and a local authority. The government commits to investing in infrastructure, while the local authority agrees to accelerated timelines for issuing building permits and advancing construction. This arrangement is intended to facilitate the rapid development of large-scale projects.

Financing infrastructure such as roads, sewage, public institutions, and parks is a major challenge in large development projects. In Israel, the government typically funds infrastructure through the Ministry of Housing and local authorities. When contractors win tenders and sell apartments, they repay the development costs to the state. Ultimately, homebuyers reimburse the government’s investment.

Umbrella agreements offer several advantages: they secure budgets in advance, provide planning and financial certainty for contractors and local authorities, centralize authority to reduce bureaucracy, and support organized development of public institutions, parks, and infrastructure to meet expected population growth.

Umbrella agreements in the settlements

As far as Peace Now knows, until last year, only one umbrella agreement had been signed in the settlements: in October 2018 with Ma’ale Adumim municipality. The state committed NIS 338 million for infrastructure to support thousands of housing units. The agreement was signed shortly after tenders were published for about 700 housing units in Ma’ale Adumim, and those were indeed built in the following years. However, the remaining housing units expected under the agreement never materialized.

In the past year, as noted, the government has signed umbrella agreements with three West Bank authorities—Samaria, Karnei Shomron, and Ma’ale Adumim—for a total of NIS 13.5 billion. There are reports that discussions and preparations for additional agreements are underway in the settlements of Giv’at Ze’ev and Ariel.