Israel has approved the construction of four new Jewish settlements in the Negev desert days after four people were killed in a stabbing and car-ramming operation in Beersheba.
According to the plan which was approved by the Israeli cabinet on Sunday the settlements will consist of four Jewish communities — one kibbutz (a cooperative community) and three communal villages.
The resolution gives the World Zionist Organization’s settlement division the power to recruit residents to move to the new settlements.
The plan was first announced by interior minister Ayelet Shaked and construction and housing minister Zeev Elkin last Wednesday one day after the deadly incident in Beersheba.
In the announcement the Israeli ministers called their plan “a significant step in strengthening settlement in the Negev with an emphasis on the eastern Negev which is a region of national strategic importance.”
