The parliament’s Interior Committee met at the behest of MK Hanna Sweid (Hadash) to discuss press reports that suggested a new government plan to move Jews to the Galilee in order to “offset Arab population growth in the region.”
The first Shibolet houses in the Galilee (Photo: Shibolet website)
Sweid asked the Interior Ministry representative at the Monday meeting, Yael Solomon from the ministry’s Planning Administration, if there was any such plan in the ministry operating under the rubric of “Judaizing the Galilee” or “changing the demographic balance.” Solomon told the committee no such plan existed. In fact, “Interior Ministry planners are working hard on plans for a new Druze village and a new Arab city in the northern region, alongside the new Jewish town of Shiboleth,” she said.
MK Dov Khenin (Hadash) openly questioned the claim. “The government is continuing to fool us all,” he said, insisting there were government plans for Jewish settlement in the Negev and Galilee. The debate included fierce criticism from Hadash MKs over the right-wing government’s planning policies. MK Afo Agbariyah (Hadash) complained that Arab cities and villages were underserved in government programs for industrial zoning and employment services.
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