Tel-Chai Nation: Bennett, as defense minister, approves new Jewish neighborhood in Hebron

This is amazing. In his new role as defense minister, Naftali Bennett's taken a positive step for enabling Jews to live in more of Hebron again:

Defense Minister Naftali Bennett on Sunday ordered the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories and the Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria to notify the Hevron municipality of the planning a new Jewish neighborhood in the historic Jewish marketplace.

In accordance with the Minister's directive, the Civil Administration will send a letter on the matter to the Hevron municipality.

The decision is expected to end years of legal and political battles over the fate of the marketplace, which has sat abandoned for decades even after Jews began to return to Hevron following the 1967 Six-Day War.

The new neighborhood will create a territorial continuum from the Cave of the Patriarchs to the Avraham Avinu neighborhood and double the number of Jewish residents in the city.

This is certainly a step in the right direction. Ayelet Shaked followed up with this:

New Right chairman MK Ayelet Shaked praised Defense Minister Naftali Bennett's decision on Sunday to approve Jewish construction in Hebron and spoke about efforts to prevent a third election campaign. [...]

Regarding Defense Minister Naftali Bennett's decision to approve Jewish construction in Hebron, Shaked said. "I spent two years of my life as justice minister, together with Liberman as defense minister. We presented a professional legal opinion, the Attorney General approved it and Naftali Bennett made a courageous decision and sent a letter to the Hevron municipality, informing them that the protected housing has expired."

"Attorney General Mandelblit is an expert on international law and this was the joint work of the Defense and Justice Ministries. In light of the strong legal opinions of the Defense and Justice Ministries. I believe the matter will pass in court. We carried out very serious legal work. There is no reason for the Supreme Court to invalidate it. The Supreme Court today is more diverse and conservative and it's indisputable that this is private Jewish land."

Shaked explained that Jewish construction in Hebron's wholesale market complex is the closing of a circle. "The land of those killed during the Hevron massacre in 1929 has been in the hands of the mayor of Hevron, a murderer, until now." [The mayor of Hevron, Tayseer Abu Shneineh, is one of four Palestinian terrorists who was convicted for killing six Jews in a Hevron alley in 1980, including 2 US citizens and one Canadian. He was sentenced to life in prison but released in a subsequent prisoner exchange.]

"Now Bennett took this land from the hands of a terrorist and will establish a Jewish neighborhood there," Shaked concluded.