JERUSALEM, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz admitted Monday that the Israeli government has doubled in recent years its money for the Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
Steinitz, who was interviewed by a local radio station, said the budget increment was downplayed in order not to cause a stir within the international community.
"We've doubled the budgets to the Judea and Samaria (biblical names of the West Bank area) settlements. We did in low profile because we didn't want international factors to stand in our way," Steinitz said.
"We're funding three concert halls in Ariel, Ma'ale Adumim and Kiryat Arba. We assisted the Jewish settlement in Hebron and gave more funds to the Ariel College," he added.
According to several July reports, the Israeli government spent 275 million U.S. dollars on the West Bank settlements in 2011, a 38-percent rise from the spending in 2010.
In the West Bank, where around 311,000 Jewish settlers live, investment per resident stands at 3,269 NIS (over 800 U.S. dollars) , which is 2.1 times the average investment per citizen in central Israel.
Left-wing NGO Peace Now, which monitors the expansion of the West Bank settlements, said Israel could save up to 400 million dollars a year if it were to match the level of government expenditure on services like education and social services.
"We discover what we knew all along that most of our taxes go to finance these settlements that the world denounces, at a time of economic hardships," Hagit Ofran from Peace Now told Xinhua.
"At the same time, the government wants to cut nearly 7 billion U.S. dollars of our ministries spending, damaging among others education and social services, that the law-abiding citizens of Israel deserve to get fully," she added.
She said the settlements are at the core of Israel's financial difficulties and blamed Israeli governments for showering the settlements with money.
"Israeli citizens have to pay an expensive price because of the settlements -- both taxes rise, and it is halting the peace negotiations which are non-existent," she added.
"The expansion of the settlements is ruining the two-state solution, which a majority of Israelis support," she concluded.
Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians came to a halt in 2010 after Israel continued to expand the Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
Earlier on Monday, the Ha'aretz daily reported that Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak authorized the construction of 500 new apartments in a West Bank settlement called Itamar, near Nablus, adding to the growing list of new houses in Israeli settlements.
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