IDF officers: Qalqilya plan a 'security tool'
Senior IDF officers explain to Ynet that the plan to add over 5,000 housing units to the Palestinian city of Qalqilya is a security tool meant to achieve quiet; part of Lieberman's 'carrots and sticks' plan.
The plan calls for an additional 5,100 housing units that Israel approved for Palestinians to build in the city, which is located in Area C of the West Bank, adjacent to Highway 6 in the Sharon region.
"We aren't doing anyone a favor," said the officers, who emphasized that the expansion plan for Qalqiliya was formulated by the Central Command as a security tool in order to achieve quiet and to halt the wave of terror that began a year ago.
"This isn't a con, but rather an initiative by Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman as part of his 'sticks and carrots' plan, the principles of which were already part of the operational concept, according to which we operated since the beginning of the wave of terror in October 2015.
"According to this approach, we will take security measures against areas and villages from which terror emanates, such as demolitions, arrests, and weapons searches. On the other hand, quiet places will receive benefits, such as more work permits," said the officers.
The officers stressed that this will "create hope and provide the majority of the Palestinian population the option not to engage in terror. Qalqilya has been the quietest city in the West Bank for the last two years, with the least amount of hostile terror activity."
However, the construction plan has been approved in Area C, meaning, territory that is subject to full Israeli control. Security officials recently explained that these lands are in any case private Palestinian land, on the other side of Highway 6, so regardless of any situation, there will be no future Israeli construction on these areas.
Security officials also noted that there are other similar plans for building projects on behalf of Palestinians in the West Bank, such as soccer fields and industrial complexes.
The "Qalqiliya Plan" sparked a storm among cabinet ministers a few weeks ago, when it emerged that it was approved by a cabinet meeting in October, in which several Likud ministers were not present.
Despite the approval, demands of right-wing ministers from the prime minister were accepted and a second hearing is scheduled for Wednesday. It is unclear whether it will include a repeat vote.
