Most of those who received support have sold their homes in their villages and have purchased lands in Muslim-majority settlements.
"According to Israeli law, Tekoa, and the vast majority of settlements in the West Bank, are authorized settlements, therefore entirely legal and consistent with national law".
"The vast majority of settlements have been approved," Mr. Gallegos said.
Israeli leaders from both the left and the right have made it clear that as part of an ultimate agreement, Israel will part with a majority of settlements.
A majority of settlements so far have been at the lower end of the $200,000 to $1.2 million range suggested in the media, he added.
A public opinion poll published last Friday in Yediot Ahronot, the mass-circulation daily newspaper, showed 78percentt of Israelis in favor of dismantling the vast majority of settlements in the framework of a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
As Israel demonstrated by its unilateral disengagement from Gaza and its repeated peace initiatives that involved significant withdrawals from the West Bank, including the majority of settlements as offered at Camp David in July 2000, Israel has no desire to empire-build or rule over the Palestinians.
The majority of settlements lacked basic services such as clean drinking water and health care facilities (Zeender and McCallin 2002).
Nothing less than the dismantlement of the majority of settlements, bypass roads and checkpoints, will allow for the creation of a territorially viable Palestinian state.
Improved highways and travel by automobile soon saw the demise of a great majority of settlements along the prairie which were lively communities in the first half of the 20th century.
The majority of settlements are surrounded by agricultural areas and are 3 to 5 km from the forest (Jezek and Fenner, 1988).
