New Settlements

[AlexB]

@mAd_ScIeNtIsT

The land is a mixture of land sold by Palestinians and land that is seized by the Israeli government for “security reasons”.

The houses are cheaper because of location (far from the high-demand cities), risk (of attack by Palestinians and of land boundaries being adjusted in a peace settlement).

However, price doesn’t drive their sales. The settlers who live in the settlements are motivated to live there by religious ideology.

Some settlers farm, others commute. The Israeli government also funds and encourages economic development in major settlements to ensure local jobs for settlers.

Well, actually most of the settlers are not motivated by religious ideology. Only about 30% of all settlers are religious, the rest are secular. The motivation of secular settlers is mainly economical. With the money that can buy a decent house with some land in the territories, they can barely get a doghouse in Tel-Aviv or Jerusalem.