Residents of the embattled West Bank Palestinian hamlet of Umm al-Khair hope to present their arguments for a zoning masterplan for their dwelling to the Higher Planning Committee of Israel’s Civil Administration in the settlement of Beit El on Tuesday.

The committee is scheduled to deliberate on proposals for a masterplan for one section of the village, located in the southern West Bank, which were submitted several years ago.

Residents of Umm al-Khair and their representatives are not optimistic that the plan will be approved, since the Civil Administration, a department of the Defense Ministry, is largely controlled by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is hostile to Palestinian rights in the West Bank and has called for Israel to annex nearly all of it.

According to the Peace Now organization, no masterplans for Palestinian population centers in Area C of the West Bank, where Umm al-Khair is located and which Israel fully controls, have been approved by the High Planning Committee in recent years.

According to residents of Umm al-Khair, their efforts are being further complicated by the Civil Administration, which informed them on Monday evening that the landowners themselves will not be allowed into the hearing due to “security considerations.”

The residents have strongly objected to this restriction, noting that they, like all participants in........

© The Times of Israel