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http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/344515.html

The price of the settlements


The Haaretz report on the price of the settlements,
which appears today in the holiday magazine, shows
that the unusual civilian expenditures in the
settlements is at least NIS 2.5 billion a year.
The total unusual expenditure since 1967 has
reached at least NIS 45 billion. The two main
components of these expenditures are some NIS 10
billion for roads and NIS 11 billion for housing.




  The cost of this unusual
civilian spending - the average
amount of extra money spent on
settlers compared to an
ordinary Israeli citizen - is
more than NIS 10,000 per
individual and more than NIS
40,000 per family. The security
costs in the territories during
the intifada years are already
estimated at NIS 4 billion but

it is impossible to determine how much would be
saved by a withdrawal. Lengthening the
separation fence because of the settlements
will cost NIS 3 billion.

No government body or agency has ever issued a
report or published a study on this matter. Nor
have the decision makers ever given thought to
the entire picture. The deliberate vagueness is
founded on budgets with names that conceal the
purpose of the funding, rolling benefits for
settlements into benefits for towns in the
Galilee and Negev, so it is difficult to
determine how much money is actually flowing
beyond the Green Line, or how money moves
through indirect channels, such as the World
Zionist Organization, and others.

This cover-up contravenes the principle of
transparency in proper government. It prevents
informed decision making. It denies Israeli
voters the ability to decide where they want to
invest their money as taxpayers. It is meant to
make sure the money keeps flowing through
hidden pipelines.

During the last three months, Haaretz reporters
have tried to expose the information revealed
today. In some cases, they encountered refusals
to deliver the information, in the spirit that
guides large segments of the regime, where the
prevailing view is that the information is
their property. In other cases, even ministry
officials had trouble uncovering information
because it had been so efficiently
camouflaged.

The financial price, of course, is only one
aspect of what Israel pays for the settlements.
The Haaretz report provides a factual basis to
the public debate about the settlements that
can make that debate meaningful. The arguments
about the budget should be based on facts and
figures. Those who want to interpret
differently the numbers presented by the
newspaper will only contribute to the debate,
and thus enrich it.

The settlers' argument that they should be
compared to the residents of borderline
communities and not residents of the center of
the country also contributes to the debate.
Those who accept that argument will henceforth
know how much it costs them - and it costs very
much, indeed. Those who believe that, as
opposed to the settlements of the Negev and
Galilee, the investment in the settlements
across the Green Line is not only throwing good
money away, but a political mistake that pours
fuel on the fire of the intifada and terrorism,
and is a direct investment in worsening the
recession and unemployment, will also know more
today.