With his own interpretation of the term “Green Line” and a willingness to make unusual concessions to the Arabs, Eran Rolls, chairman of the Israel Building Center, presents a clear position on construction in Judea and Samaria, which he considers the optimal and inevitable solution to the housing crisis in Israel. What about politics? Politics should not get in the way of business and economics.
Eran Rolls, the chairman of the Israel Building Center, was recently a guest in Gush Etzion, where he spoke with Shlomo Ne'eman, mayor of the Gush Etzion regional council and head of Yesha Council, and Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar, the founding leaders of the Sovereignty Movement, about how massive construction in Judea and Samaria can provide a solution to the housing crisis in the whole country.
“It was a momentous encounter,” Rolls tells Sovereignty, “It was a great privilege to meet two icons such as Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar.” He himself grew up ideologically in the Kiryat Haim chapter of Hashomer Hatza’ir, but feels connected heart and soul to the values of settling and building Israel. "I remain committed to the social values upon which I was raised, but in matters of settlement, I am at the extreme end of the commitment to settling the land of Israel, which was a supreme value in Hashomer Hatza’ir.”
Rolls is aware of the imaginary fence that the alumni of his youth movement have erected along the Green Line, as if to say that the values of settlement apply up to the fence but not beyond. He refuses to accept this. “They draw a separation at the Green Line. I choose to continue this value going forward. When people say that I have to concede to the Arabs, I am willing to concede in the debate about who invented the Arab salad or falafel, but not about the Land of Israel. For me, the Green Line is no more than a seam in a green Maccabi Haifa soccer shirt, my home team.” And, he adds, he is not alone. "I know many people who were raised on the settlement values of Hashomer Hatza’ir, and consider settling all parts of the country a goal and a challenge."
They need to understand this in Tel Aviv too: The future is in Judea and Samaria
As one of the leaders of the “transparent kippot” revolution that connects Judaism and secularism, Rolls emphasizes his pride at the link between the two. “We don’t apologize for that link. I live in Ramot Hashavim, where the percentage of Meretz voters is very high. Everyone there knows where I stand and I don’t apologize for it and am not ashamed."
During the tour, Rolls spoke with Dudu Saada, the CEO of the BeSheva group, Gush Etzion Mayor and Yesha Council head Shlomo Ne’eman and the leaders of the Sovereignty Movement at length about the potential in terms of land hiding just a few minutes' drive away from the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area. As he sees it, there are considerable and obvious advantages to building in Judea and Samaria. “There is no question about it. The more pressure we remove from the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area and the more alternatives we create, the more the prices will drop. Judea and Samaria are the future,” he says. He underscores, however, that in Judea and Samaria, people will have to “give up on the idea of a single-family home with a yard and transition to high-rises. Processes of evacuation-reconstruction have to be carried out, replacing single-family homes with high-rises. At the same time, we have to do what we can to change public opinion so that in Tel Aviv too they will understand the many advantages of building in Judea and Samaria.”
Eran Roll’s vision glosses over the political hurdles. He repeatedly rejects any attempt on our part to ask him if political resistance won’t put a spoke in the wheels of the idea he is seeking to promote. “I tell them ‘Do business,’ and they accept it. It won’t happen overnight, but in stages. Some companies may hesitate and they will be left behind at the end of the line, but eventually, they’ll all join in because of the economic advantages. Now we have to find the first Israeli construction companies who will decide to build in Judea and Samaria. Ultimately, investors who support Meretz will also come because when you talk business, no one cares about politics.”
“If you can invest say 1.1 million in an apartment that a short distance away would be worth three million shekels and get a return, there’s no reason they wouldn’t want to do it. There might be 10-15 percent of the country that would refuse for political reasons, but all the rest will certainly listen, understand and accept it,” he says. As the CEO of the Building Center in Israel, he considers himself part of the revolution: “My contribution as the head of an objective body is to tell the public, the companies and investors that the time has come to invest in Judea and Samaria. We are currently short 150,000 apartments and if I say this and others say this, the opposition will disappear. Like one drop of water after another can wear down a stone, we too will continually repeat this this idea like drops of water and break down the resistance.”