New Plan for Safe Roads in Judea and Samaria

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/429945

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-902148

Judea and Samaria: Plan to pave safe access roads takes off

Government expected to approve over 1b NIS to pave security and access roads to dozens of new towns in Judea and Samaria

The Israeli government is expected to approve a NIS 1.075 billion budget plan to build transportation and security infrastructure for dozens of new communities in Judea and Samaria.

The initiative is being led by Finance Minister and Minister in the Defense Ministry Bezalel Smotrich, following approximately two months of planning by a professional team in the Settlement Administration.

The funding is designated for the construction of access roads and security routes to communities approved by the Security Cabinet during the war. Among these communities are four northern Samaria towns evacuated under the 2005 Disengagement Plan - Homesh, Sa-Nur, Ganim, and Kadim - as well as a number of additional new communities slated to be established in the coming years.

Government officials said the decision is intended to address the immediate need for secure access and security roads for the new communities, noting that such projects cannot be financed through the standard infrastructure costs associated with land development. To that end, the Transportation Ministry, in cooperation with the Settlement Administration in the Defense Ministry and the Finance Ministry, formulated a detailed multi-year plan.

Under the proposal, the budget will be spread over three years and allocated to the Transportation and Defense ministries. The plan includes designing and paving new access roads, upgrading existing roads, and completing connecting road segments between communities where needed. Security components will also be incorporated as an integral part of the infrastructure planning for communities throughout Judea and Samaria.

The proposal further stipulates that if the government approves additional communities in Judea and Samaria in the future, or normalizes existing communities, these will automatically be incorporated into the multi-year infrastructure plan and receive funding under the program.

Smotrich welcomed the initiative, saying: "The historic decision we approved will enable the establishment of dozens of communities at strategic locations in Judea and Samaria. We are leading a settlement and security revolution, with more than 100 communities and 160 farms strengthening the security of the State of Israel and putting an end to the dangerous idea of establishing a terrorist state in the very heart of the State of Israel."

"Faced with plans by an [MK Gadi] Eisenkot[-led] government to evacuate the new communities we have established, the multi-year program we are advancing will ensure the planning and construction of new access roads, the upgrading of existing routes, and connections between communities, alongside the integration of critical security components. We are working with determination alongside all government ministries to remove obstacles and obtain the necessary approvals to guarantee safe and orderly access for the new communities."

The government said the initiative forms part of its broader policy of expanding Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, with the infrastructure investment intended to facilitate the population of the new communities and integrate them into the regional transportation network while addressing the area's security needs.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/429945

Israel to approve West Bank settlement road budget worth over NIS 1 billion

The plan will include the construction of new roads and improvements to existing ones, the ministry stated, adding that any new settlements approved in the future will be included in the plan.

The Israeli government is set to approve a budget worth over NIS 1 billion for road construction to and between West Bank settlements, according to a statement released by the Finance Ministry.

The budget, led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, will primarily involve new settlements already approved for construction by Israel's cabinet, including four that were previously evacuated.

The plan's pending approval is in response to a need for safe and secure access to the settlements, the statement read.

According to the ministry, the budget, planned in conjunction with the Settlement Administration, will be split between the Defense Ministry and the Transportation Ministry.

Smotrich noted that the plan also involves establishing "critical security components," saying he is working to "ensure safe and regulated movement in the new settlements."

"The historic decision we approved will allow the establishment of dozens of settlements at strategic points in Judea and Samaria," said Smotrich. "We are leading a settlement-security revolution, with over 100 settlements and 160 farms that fortify the security of the State of Israel and will kill the terrible idea of ​​establishing a terrorist state in the heart of the State of Israel."

The plan will span three years and include the construction of new roads, improvements to existing ones, and security components, the ministry stated, adding that any new settlements approved in the future will be included in the plan.

West Bank hotel budget

The road budget's approval on Sunday will follow the July 5 approval of NIS 27 million allocated to the development and construction of hotels in the West Bank aimed at tourism promotion.

The hotel budget, financed through the Tourism Ministry, will be distributed through 2030 and include grants supporting hotel establishment, conversion, and expansion.

“For the first time, we will lead a comprehensive initiative combining planning, infrastructure development, the creation of land reserves for hotels, and a dedicated track to encourage hotel construction,” said Tourism Minister Haim Katz, noting that the budget will “enable the realization of the enormous tourism potential in Judea and Samaria.”

"We will remove barriers in the sector, create certainty for investors, and lay the groundwork that will increase the supply of accommodation rooms, attract tourists, and strengthen the local economy,” added Katz.

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-902148

Afrophobia in South Africa

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15969305/South-Africa-torn-apart-Afrophobia-SUE-REID.html

South Africa was once hailed as a 'Rainbow Nation' - now it's being torn apart by 'Afrophobia' as black South Africans turn against illegal migrants from other African countries who they fear will take their jobs

A five-year-old boy sits forlornly on scrub ground next to a petrol station near the South African town of Polokwane as he starts his journey to a country he does not know.

He is dwarfed by a large pink suitcase, carried by his uncle Steve Hove, which his mother, Angela, had packed for him before saying goodbye.

The child is called Brightman and he is stateless. When he was born at a clinic nearby, Angela, a Zimbabwean, did not register him with the authorities.

Instead, she carried him home secretly, making little Brightman one of millions of illegal migrants living undercover in South Africa: a diaspora now fleeing for their lives as civil unrest sweeps the Rainbow Nation over uncontrolled borders and mass immigration.

In horrific scenes never witnessed in the post-apartheid era, black foreigners are being chased from their homes, beaten up and having their lives threatened.

Neighbour has turned on neighbour in a wave of xenophobia against the 'illegals', who are blamed for fuelling an unemployment crisis in a country where one in three adults is out of work.

'The uprising against my family began in January. It got worse in my township, where I lived for seven years, when the locals stole my possessions and began screaming at me to go,' said Brightman's uncle Steve, a 22-year-old construction worker, as he waited with his nephew for a lift to the Zimbabwean border, marked by the Limpopo River, a two-hour drive away.

'The South Africans don't like black foreigners any more,' he added with a sad smile.

Brightman, five, is one of the stateless illegal immigrants living under cover in South Africa with his Zimbabwean father Steve Hove,22

A group of undocumented Malawian migrants gather in front of Malawi's consulate to prepare for their return home last month following a resurgence of xenophobic attacks and anti-migrant protests in Johannesburg

'I will never return to South Africa.'

Some migrants, like Steve, are making their own way back home.

Thousands of others are being transported there in a mass evacuation. This week alone, some 23,000 people, mostly Zimbabweans and Malawians, were carried by bus from major cities to an emergency government repatriation camp on farmland near the Zimbabwean border prior to their deportation.

The ugly uprisings rocking this country were sparked last month when the March And March movement – a new pressure group demanding stricter border control and the mass deportation of foreign workers – issued an ultimatum demanding that all undocumented migrants leave South Africa by the end of last month.

More than 120 demonstrations took place that day, with protesters sweeping through cities chanting 'Mabahambe!' ('They must go!'), provoking panic among the country's millions of migrants hailing from across the continent, including Nigeria, Ghana, Mozambique, Malawi and, notably, Zimbabwe.

Protesters looted foreigners' homes and businesses, resulting in 600 arrests.

Young South African men waving sticks and mallets threw stones at the windows of shops and private homes rumoured to be harbouring illegals in the country's biggest city, Johannesburg.

'South Africans have been replaced by foreigners, increasing unemployment,' said March And March founder Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, a rabble-rousing ex-radio presenter who has pledged to hold demonstrations across the country every Thursday until every illegal has been thrown out. 

Protestors during an anti-immigrant march in Alexandra, near Johannesburg, on Thursday

'We want mass deportations. During the next six months, the government must get rid of all the people who have not left already,' she added. True to her word, there were more protests this week.

It will not be an easy task: an estimated five million undocumented migrants live in South Africa, 12 per cent of the adult population.

Politicians stand accused of having failed over decades to shut porous borders, particularly with neighbouring poverty-stricken Zimbabwe, from where thousands arrive each year, successfully getting work while South Africans are jobless.

The March And March offensive has infuriated South Africa's Left-wingers, who have the same passion for open borders as their European counterparts.

Leader of the fledgling but influential political party Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) is the controversial Marxist firebrand Julius Malema – famous for regularly calling on his followers to 'kill the [white South African] Boer'.

He has slammed the March And March protesters, saying: 'You say Zimbabweans take your jobs. You march, close shops, beat up other Africans. I will never push out of school an African child who looks like me.

'I will never refuse a pregnant woman of African descent to give birth in the clinics of South Africa.'

Only this week, Malema condemned 'Afrophobia', the hatred felt by South Africans towards other Africans. 

Protestors take part in a 'March and March (until we win)' rally in Mtwalume, south of Durban, on Thursday

His call is for a borderless continent allowing the free movement of all Africans, plus a controversial plan for a pan-African parliament, currency and army.

Distressing though the deportations are, there are signs that South Africans are getting jobs again as the Biblical-scale exodus escalates.

Businesses, shops, farms, mining companies and homeowners are being forced to hire them as the number of cash-in-hand black market workers falls. Employers also face government raids and stiff fines if they are caught paying, or hiding, foreign workers.

Sinisterly, people are being encouraged to report their neighbours if they believe they are breaking the rules.

An anonymous tip-off phone line to police is asking for information on the 'exact details' of the location of foreigners, ostensibly to 'avoid vigilantism' breaking out and South Africans 'taking matters into their own hands'.

In a deprived township called Mapetla East on the outskirts of Johannesburg, I visited the Sorty Tuck Shop, which for the past four years has been run and staffed by illegal workers from impoverished Mozambique.

It was taken over by South African 26-year-old Themba Mokhobo on Wednesday after his family struck a deal with the 'foreigners' before they were driven out.

Themba Mokhobo ouitside the Sorty Tuck Shop, which he now runs after 'foreigners', illegal workers from Mozambique, were driven out

One of his first customers was Lesego, 22. Wearing a colourful headscarf, and buying beans, she said: 'We are pleased a South African is running our local shop again.'

For days, migrants waiting to be picked up by bus for the emergency deportation camp on the Zimbabwean border have been gathering in dreadfully unsanitary conditions at impromptu meeting points in cities, including one on the grass outside the tall white walls of Johannesburg's Malawian Embassy.

When I visited the embassy on Monday, I met mothers and their young children sleeping on the ground in the winter cold. It was a pitiful sight.

Standing among the mayhem was Lizzie Banda, a young Malawian with a baby daughter, Effort, peeping out from a blanket.

Lizzie had worked in Johannesburg for seven years as a cleaner for a middle-class Zulu family living in a smart suburb before they showed her the door last Sunday.

Now Lizzie was heading back to Blantyre, her home city in Malawi.

'Effort has no birth papers. Like me, she is an illegal. I am frightened for what will happen to us next. We are not wanted here any more.'

Hundreds gathered in Soweto, Johannesburg province last month to call on the South African government to deport undocumented migrants

Cecilia Phirr, who ran a company in Johannesburg importing clothes for her fellow Malawian women living in South Africa, was also leaving.

She was with her son, Prosper, five, who was born in the Coronation Hospital, Johannesburg, but like her has no official documents.

Cecilia said her once-welcoming adopted nation had turned hostile: 'We only want to go home safely. This country has become dangerous for foreign Africans.'

Both these mothers managed to get on a crowded bus for the four-hour drive to the border camp late on Monday.

There, when I visited, I saw them among police and immigration officials struggling to cope as thousands waited in queues stretching into the distance to register their names at desks in giant tents – a procedure to stop them re-entering South Africa for five years.

Each person registering was given an A4 document allowing them to board a bus out of the country, which read: 'You have undertaken to leave the Republic of South Africa voluntarily... failure of which will mean you are arrested and detained pending your deportation.'

Here too, among this throng of desperate humanity, was Lorraine Ngubeh, 18, and her sibling, Lawrence, 16. The two have spent all their young lives in South Africa, having never even visited their ancestral country of Zimbabwe.

The idea of South Africa as the 'Rainbow Nation' was popularised by former President Nelson Mandela

Lorraine, who had a five-month-old baby girl, Tshegototso, tied on her back, has passed her school exams with honours and would be an asset to any country.

'We feel South African,' she told me.

'Our schoolfriends were South African. We don't know any other country. We think our life in Zimbabwe will be very hard but we have been chased away by threats because we are foreigners. It is not safe for us to stay.'

Although most of the foreigners are leaving voluntarily, and many out of fear, not all are going to the processing camp near the border. Instead, they are fleeing by paying cash to people-smuggling gangs who guide them over the border, either on rafts over the crocodile-infested Limpopo or by road.

It was by this unorthodox method that Steve and his young nephew Brightman reached Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city, 24 hours after I had met them at the Polokwane petrol station.

They had paid a people-smuggler 600 rand (£27) in cash. In WhatsApp messages, I later asked about the tiny boy's wellbeing.

Steve told me they had arrived safely, that the boy's mother Angela, who had stayed behind to continue earning, was relieved. He adorned his message with a picture of the Zimbabwean flag.

At the official border post bristling with officials, the two had simply walked across carrying the pink suitcase.

'We give thanks to God,' he said. 'We are home. Will you visit us in Bulawayo one day, please?'

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15969305/South-Africa-torn-apart-Afrophobia-SUE-REID.html

Israeli Earthquake Aid to Venezuela

https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-901836

Israel agrees to extend earthquake aid in Venezuela after rare call between president, FM Sa'ar

Interim President Delcy Rodriguez requested an extension on Israeli aid in Venezuela ahead of the scheduled July 12 departure date as Israeli experts design a post-earthquake reconstruction plan.

Israel's Foreign Ministry and aid delegation to Venezuela meets with interim president Delcy Rodriguez in Caracas, Venezuela

The Israeli aid delegation’s earthquake relief work in Venezuela will continue for an additional two weeks after interim president Delcy Rodriguez met with Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar to request the extension, the Foreign Ministry and the IDF announced on Wednesday. 

The decision was approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

With a small delegation of only 30 people, Israeli presence in Venezuela has been focused on designing a national reconstruction plan, which Rodriguez hopes to begin implementing.

As part of the plan, the IDF began mapping and categorizing approximately 1,300 buildings on Monday, classifying them as either to be demolished or potentially salvageable despite damage.

Additionally, IDF Brig.-Gen. Elad Edri said that the IDF engineers have provided guidance to Venezuela on handling debris from damaged buildings.

'Out of the box thinking' as earthquake death toll rises

The multi-year plan is a major accomplishment of the Israeli delegation, and Venezuela approved it within days, rather than the weeks or months it would normally take to develop.

Edri said the severity of the disaster warranted rapid, out-of-the-box thinking.

Following the June 24 earthquake, the IDF delegation flew out of Israel on June 30 and landed in Venezuela on July 1 after multiple complex stopovers, Edri said.

He explained that, given the current chaos, other delegations who wanted to assist with the disaster have needed four to five days of travel and waiting to reach disaster-stricken sites.

Even the IDF could not fly directly into Caracas; they flew into Valencia instead and then traveled domestically to Caracas.

On Sunday, the Venezuelan Information Ministry announced that the death toll had risen to 3,342.

The new tally also puts the number of injured at 16,470, while the number of homeless has risen to 17,345. Nearly 200 buildings are confirmed to have collapsed, according to state officials.

Some of the homeless are living in official shelters and others in tent encampments. An unofficial but widely used tally of the missing stands at around 41,000.

https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-901836

https://www.timesofisrael.com/pm-hails-israeli-aid-team-for-rebuilding-relations-with-venezuela-after-17-years-of-severed-ties/

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday hailed the Israeli delegation providing aid following the major earthquake in Venezuela, saying it was not only helping the country recover from last month’s devastating earthquakes, but also “rebuilding relations” with Caracas nearly two decades after it severed ties with Israel.

“You are rebuilding ruins, and you are also rebuilding relations. You are showing the people of Venezuela, as well as the Venezuelan government, the true face of the State of Israel,” Netanyahu said in a video message to the delegation’s head and chief of staff of the Home Front Command, Elad Edri, and Israel’s ambassador-designate to Mexico, Yoed Magen, who is leading the civilian component of the delegation.

The delegation has been operating in several earthquake-hit areas for the past 10 days at the request of the Venezuelan government, assessing and classifying damaged buildings and assisting with reconstruction efforts following the earthquakes that according to the latest tally killed at least 3,889.

Nearly 17,000 people were also injured in the 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes on June 24, while almost 18,000 more lost their homes.

Following talks with Venezuela’s infrastructure minister, the Israeli team prepared a national reconstruction plan that was approved by Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, according to Israel.

“What you are doing now is coming to a country that severed relations nearly 20 years ago, and you are proving how beneficial it is to have ties with Israel,” Netanyahu said.

IDF Home Front Command engineering experts are seen in Venezuela

Venezuela broke off diplomatic ties with Israel over the 2008-2009 war in Gaza, and under then-leader Hugo Chavez, it was one of the world’s most vocal critics of Israel during the war in Gaza that was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, terror invasion.

However, Israel has expressed hope for better ties with Caracas since the US captured Venezuela’s then-president Nicolas Maduro in January and supported Rodriguez taking power.

“We are very proud to represent the country here… We are operating here day and night together with the local government and the Venezuelan government’s Infrastructure Ministry. We have also connected here with the Jewish community,” Edri said in the video, adding that “both official representatives and the Venezuelan people have been very warm toward the delegation.”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/pm-hails-israeli-aid-team-for-rebuilding-relations-with-venezuela-after-17-years-of-severed-ties/

The 'angel' in uniform: the Israeli officer giving Venezuelan earthquake survivors hope

Home Front Command officer Avi Cohen is helping earthquake-hit Venezuelans determine whether they can return home, reassuring residents that damaged buildings are safe while warning that similar destruction could occur in Israel

In the Home Front Command aid delegation operating in the earthquake-hit area of Venezuela, one reserve officer has stood out as an angel of hope for many residents. He is Avi Cohen (39), a structural engineer from Giv'at Shmuel who has served for years in the search and rescue unit as a senior academic professional officer, the rank equivalent to a lieutenant.

These days, Cohen is the person telling families whose homes were damaged by the quake whether their buildings are safe to live in or whether, unfortunately, the structures are dangerous and must be demolished.

“People say, ‘Thank God,’ ‘Thank you for coming.’ Some of them have been sleeping in tents until now because they were afraid to return home,” he said.

Cohen, who was born in Mexico and immigrated to Israel 15 years ago, speaks Spanish as his mother tongue, which has proved to be a significant advantage during the mission. In civilian life, he is a construction engineer specializing in the design of earthquake-resistant buildings, including schools and hospitals. During his mandatory military service, he served as a protection engineer in the Home Front Command’s research and development unit.

“I’m a reservist,” he told ynet. “When I received the call-up, I immediately said ‘yes,’ and only afterward went to ask my wife. This is a great opportunity both to help and to learn how an event like this is managed in reality.”

According to Cohen, the scale of the destruction is difficult to comprehend.

“Every morning we drive from Caracas to the affected areas, and along the way we see destroyed homes on both sides of the road or buildings that are about to collapse. We are only in one city and the destruction is enormous. We also talk among ourselves and understand that if a powerful earthquake hits Israel, we could see scenes like this there too. We are here also to learn and prepare.”

The Israeli delegation is not treating buildings that have already collapsed, but rather those that were damaged and whose safety remains unclear.

“We are called to buildings with damage. The teams enter, assess the condition of the structure, look for signs of potential future collapse and work according to the Home Front Command’s methodology. At the end, we determine whether the building is safe or whether it must be evacuated.”

Cohen said the most moving moments are when they can reassure residents.

“People are afraid to return home. We explain to them that there are cracks, but the structure is intact and there is no danger. It is a great feeling of satisfaction.”

On the other hand, there are also difficult moments.

“Sometimes we have to stand in front of a family and tell them: ‘You cannot continue living here.’ It is news that breaks their hearts.”

Cohen said he was pleasantly surprised by the quality of local construction.

“There is a different construction method here than in Israel. There are many concrete block walls, but in many cases the structure itself remains intact. We were impressed that there are more safe buildings than we expected.”

In recent days, the delegation inspected eight massive residential buildings, each about 15 stories high, housing between 600 and 1,200 families.

“We found that all eight buildings were sound. That same day, we were able to tell thousands of people that they could return home. These are moments you do not forget.”

He said the delegation members have received an especially warm welcome.

“From the moment we landed, we were welcomed with open arms. Everywhere people tell us: ‘You’re from Israel? Thank you for coming.’ They greatly appreciate the fact that people traveled from far away to help them. We hear only positive things. We have good security, but the feeling is that people here are simply happy that we are with them.”

https://www.ynetnews.com/article/ry0ap0pqzx