Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett on Sunday approved the planning of a new Jewish neighborhood in the city of Hebron.
The decision comes after years of legal battles between the city’s Jewish and Arab residents over the fate of a marketplace in the city that has been vacant for years, according to Israel National News.
The new neighborhood would create territorial continuity from the Cave of the Patriarchs to the Avraham Avinu neighborhood, doubling the number of Jewish residents in the city, according to the report.
The market buildings, which were owned by Jews prior to the 1929 Hebron Massacre, would be destroyed in order to make way for the new buildings, the report noted.
Separately on Sunday, during the weekly Security Cabinet meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requested approval of a NIS 40 million ($11.5 million) security budget for Judea and Samaria, Israel National News reported.
Netanyahu cited the success of the Israeli security establishment in the region, calling them “very impressive.”
Cooperation between the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and the Israel Defense Forces, he said, “is bearing marvelous results for the State of Israel. Simultaneous with the fight against terrorism, we are strengthening the security components in the communities in Judea and Samaria, of the Israeli citizens there. This is the proposal that will be submitted to the Cabinet today—NIS 40 million for strengthening the security components. We will fight terrorism. They will not uproot us from here. This is our land.”
