Israel approves transfer of £13m for new settlement

Israel’s Cabinet approved the transfer of additional funds to complete infrastructure work on a new settlement to house the evacuated residents of the Amona illegal outpost.

The Cabinet at its weekly meeting Sunday approved a resolution to transfer nearly £13 million ($17 million) to the Interior Ministry to pay for the work on the new Amichai settlement, located near the existing communities of Shiloh and Eli, north of Ramallah. Amichai means “my nation lives.”

Amona’s former residents are currently living in a field school in the Ofra settlement, where they have been since the evacuation from homes built on privately owned Palestinian land in February.

Israel has not established a completely new settlement since the early 1990s, though existing settlements have expanded and once illegal outposts have been retroactively recognised.