Photo by Aryeh Zimetin the Photo Gallery of Israel (#800) of Arutz Sheva (Israel National News)
Detailed survey shows rental prices in the most popular settlements are up to 400 percent higher than prices in the least popular
Renting homes in the settlements in the Shomron and Judea is booming business today. Not only are housing rentals prices skyrocketing but no doubt the price of the homes themselves. Unfortunately, for the normal Jewish families, they are not able to expand their own homes due to the settlement freeze. Affordable homes for new Jewish families and now many from the Lost Tribes of the House of Israel that are seeking to find homes to live in Israel are finding both of their hopes dashed, due to the continuous appeasement of the Palestinian Organization’s drive to create a wedge between America and her long term ally, the Nation of Israel.
According to recent news published by Haaretz News, in the article titled, “How much does it cost to rent in an ideological West Bank settlement?”, we find the shocking news that home rental prices are up 400 percent in popular settlement over least popular settlements, according to a report prepared by the Justice Ministry assessor as part of the 10-month freeze on settlement construction announced last November, 2009. The Netanyahu government was preparing a compensation formula for Jewish residence owners who had to continue paying rent because their home construction for their permanent residence was frozen. As Haaretz reported:
Haaretz News – “The average rental price in the settlements is NIS 22 per square meter, or NIS 3,300 a month for a 150-square-meter house (1,350 SF), the survey found. The highest prices are in West Bank towns and cities (NIS 29 per square meter on average ). Among the regional councils, Binyamin has the highest average price (NIS 26.1 ), followed by Gush Etzion (NIS 26 ), while the Jordan Valley has the lowest (NIS 13 ).
But these averages conceal very large gaps. In Hermesh and Mevo Dotan, two isolated settlements in the northern West Bank, for instance, rent is only NIS 10 per square meter. In Avnei Hefetz, near the Green Line, the price rises to NIS 20. But in Karnei Shomron, a northern West Bank settlement that is even farther from the Green Line than Hermesh and Mevo Dotan, the price is NIS 30 - proof that a settlement's quality of life can be more important than location. Nevertheless, the highest prices in the northern West Bank are in settlements that are right on the Trans-Samaria Highway, and thus offer easy access to the center of the country: Barkan and Etz Efraim (NIS 32 ) and Shaarei Tikva (NIS 35 ).
West Bank City of Ariel – Photo by Cal Cohen in Haaretz News
Among the major cities, the cheapest is the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox ) town of Immanuel at only NIS 13, due mainly to its problematic image. Two other Haredi cities, Betar Ilit and Modi'in Ilit, command much higher prices (NIS 28 and NIS 25, respectively). In Kiryat Arba, near Hebron, the price is NIS 22 per square meter, while in Ariel, in the northern West Bank, it is NIS 30.
Suburban settlements near the Green Line, like Givat Ze'ev, Ma'aleh Adumim, Efrat, Elkana, Oranit and Alfei Menashe, command the highest prices: All are NIS 35 per square meter. Highest of all is Kfar Oranim, which is right on the Green Line, at NIS 40. Yet in Matityahu and Hashmonaim, which are both right next door, rents are only NIS 30 and NIS 35, respectively - again showing that location is not everything.
Rents are lower in the so-called "ideological" settlements, which are usually farther from the Green Line: NIS 28 in Ofra, NIS 22 in Eli and NIS 17 in Ma'aleh Levona. In the most radical of the "ideological" settlements - northern West Bank settlements like Yitzhar, Kfar Tapuah and Har Bracha - the average rent is NIS 20, though in nearby Elon Moreh, it falls to NIS 15.
In the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, the average price is high, but it varies widely among individual settlements - from NIS 37 in Alon Shvut, nearer the Green Line, to just NIS 12 in more distant Ma'aleh Amos. In the Hebron Hills region, rents are toward the low end, ranging from NIS 12 to NIS 19. And in the Jordan valley, they are even lower, with most settlements commanding rents of only NIS 10 per square meter.”
As the Finance Ministry finalized the “rules for compensation” for the freeze in early May, claims that a building owner who already had a permit to build and was unable to complete their construction due to the building freeze, would be compensated by the Israeli government equal to 175 percent of the rent they are paying. Those families who violated the freeze would not be able to redeem any compensation for the days they were found in violation of the government regulations. The formula for compensation, according to reports, was a complex formula in compensating building contractors. The ones that lost the most were the local governments for the settlements who would receive no compensation.
Not recognized by the Jewish people, the Israeli government, and even most of the Jewish Rabbanim, this formula will also take a radical change, for the prophets have spoken that the region of Samaria, called Shomron, is the tribal land for the Lost Tribes of the House of Ephraim. Rather than give the land away, the Jewish government should be spending every resource of their government to develop this land and prepare it for the soon to arrive, tens, hundreds of thousands or even millions of fleeing Israelites who for 25 centuries have been exiled from their homeland but are new ready for redemption as the catastrophe and calamities that the Eternal One is preparing to cast down upon this Planet Earth, as He not only redeems His Lost children, as He promised in order to “honor His Holy Name”, but will also begin the restoration of this planet as it returns back to an Eden restored.
Obadiah 15-21 - “For the day of the Lord upon all the nations is near; as you have done, it shall be done to you; your reprisal shall return upon your own head. For as you drank on my holy mountain, so shall all the nations drink continually; yes, they shall drink, and swallow, and they shall be as though they had never been.
“But on Mount Zion there shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; the house of Jacob (Judah) shall possess their possession. The house of Jacob (Judah) shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame; but the house of Esau (Saudi) shall be stubble; they shall kindle them and devour them, and no survivor shall remain of the house of Esau,’ for the Lord has spoken.
“The South shall possess the mountains of Esau, and the lowland shall possess Philistia (Palestinian’s Gaza). They shall possess the fields of Ephraim and the fields of Samaria. Benjamin shall possess Gilead. And the captives of this house of the children of Israel shall possess the land of the Canaanites as far a Zaraphath (Sidon). The captives of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad shall possess the cities of the South. Then saviors shall come to Mount Zion (Jerusalem) to judge the mountains of Esau (Islam’s Kingdom of Saud), and the kingdoms shall be the Lord’s”
By Chaim Levinson – “How much does it cost to rent in an ideological West Bank settlement?” – Haaretz News - May 21, 2010