By Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar

With courage and resolution, in light of the expected attacks from the left, Ministers Uri Ariel and Bezalel Smotrich thwarted the approval of the National Outline Plan TAMA 1, since it, like its predecessors, does not include Judea and Samaria.

National Outline Plan TAMA 1 is supposed to define how Israeli infrastructures should be developed in the coming decades. The practical ramifications of designing the TAMA without Judea and Samaria sets the ’67 borders for future building and planning for the State of Israel. This is a practical statement which would mean, Heaven forbid, that Judea and Samaria are not part of the State of Israel but the basis for a future Arab state and therefore, there would be no point in investing in Israeli infrastructures in these areas.

A glance at all of the outline plans that have been designed until today for the State of Israel, whether under a right-wing or left-wing government, shows the map of the ’67 borders as the practical borders of the State of Israel. Ministers Smotrich and Ariel saw and understood the significance of this and for the first time, took action preventing the advancement of the plan toward approval as long as these were its borders.

At the Sovereignty Movement we identified this failure as long as three years ago and set out in an initiative to issue a TAMA 100 outline plan for designing the infrastructures for the State of Israel which, for the first time, would include Judea and Samaria as an integral part of the plan.

To design the plan, on the fiftieth year of the return of the People of Israel to Judea and Samaria, we embarked on the plan looking toward the future, the centennial year of the State of Israel. Even now, there are almost a half million residents living in Judea and Samaria. This number is expected to rise significantly and even now, there is a plan to double the number to a million and beyond. There is no political, civil or humane logic in leaving those citizens of Israel, both current and future, outside of the plans for the State of Israel’s infrastructures.

Until this point, roads have been paved, public institutions have been built and infrastructures have been set up in Judea and Samaria not according to comprehensive and coordinated planning but as a result of the energetic work of regional and local council heads. They used pressure and demonstrations as leverage to achieve things necessary for the residents. They deserve a lot of praise for this, but since the infrastructures are not part of a long-term TAMA, the roads are narrow and need upgrading, there are power outages, the water pipes match standards of the middle of the previous century and there are other hardships that have been part of daily life for the residents of Judea and Samaria for many years.

This is why we have chosen not to make do with just identifying the problem, but also to begin taking steps toward a solution. We have recruited a number of leading professionals for the task, who are experts in planning and we embarked on the TAMA 100 initiative. Under the leadership of architect and urban planner Yoram Ginsburg, we have collected figures such as Avraham Shvut, one of the veterans and designers of the settlement enterprise, Brig. Gen. (res.) Amir Avivi and others who have designed the plan, the preliminary outlines of which were published recently, but they are continuing to be designed in accordance with the many details required by such a comprehensive plan.

The plan includes considerations of security, geography, environment, population density, roads, railways and more, with Jerusalem as the metropolitan center of the State of Israel.

It is good that ministers Uri Ariel and Bezalel Smotrich froze the TAMA 1 plan, since it is no longer relevant. The time has come to think in terms of the Land of Israel. The U.S. backs Israel’s desires, if she should desire it. An outline plan that does not include Judea and Samaria would do colossal and historic damage. The time has come to think and to plan for sovereignty.

Meet the Tama 100 Outline Plan- History in the making http://www.ribonut.co.il/BlogPostID.aspx?BlogPostId=295&lang=2