Last night, along with the leaders of the Council of Settlements of Judea and Samaria, gathered in the village of Vered-Jericho in the vicinity of the ancient city of Jericho, raised a glass in honor of Rosh Hashanah.
From my point of view, it is quite clear that the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria, including those located in the Jericho area and the Dead Sea, are a real bastion of the defense of the State of Israel. This is how the government, the state, and society should relate to the settlement movement. And in the era of missiles and cyber attacks, ultimately, everything is decided by those who occupy this territory, who directly reside in the territory. Since the times of "Homa u-Migdal" (Wall and Tower), little has changed. Let me remind you of the tactics of the construction of settlements used by Jewish residents of Mandate Palestine in the 1930s: the territory was enclosed by a wall, and in the center a tower was erected, from which all the neighborhoods could be seen. The most important thing was to finish the construction in one night - from sunset to sunrise, so that the British authorities, by then existing law, could not destroy the structure.
We work tirelessly, we have to fight real battles literally for every step - from mine clearance in the Dead Sea area and the Jordan Valley to the construction of a wall that will protect the inhabitants of Beit El from the stone-throwers from neighboring Ramallah, from installing lighting on roads and in the villages of the southern part of the Hebron Highlands and before approving the construction of an additional 300 housing units in Beit-Ele - you will not enumerate everything. I am glad that we are still able to do a lot - from the granting of municipal powers to the Jewish settlement in Hebron and to the construction of construction in Judea and Samaria on a scale similar to that which has not been the last 17 years. Only in the last few months we issued a permit to start construction according to the plans approved by us of 3,500 housing units, another 7,500 housing units are at various stages of planning.
But more importantly, by November we will complete the development of a comprehensive security plan for all Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria. This program includes many aspects. This is the new operational plan for the work of the Central District, and new bypass roads, and protected buses and much more.