The Knesset Finance Committee recently approved an additional 20 million shekels ($5.2 million) to fund security in Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem, bringing the total spent in 2014 to more than 100 million shekels. According to Finance Ministry calculations, the cost of protecting each Jewish resident in these Palestinian neighborhoods is approximately 30,000 shekels a year.

The Housing and Construction Ministry said the additional funds are a one-time increase meant to purchase more cameras and other advanced technology, thanks to which funding can be reduced in the coming years.

The Housing Ministry has been funding security for settlers in East Jerusalem since the 1990s, through private security firms whose personnel protect compounds usually purchased by right-wing associations in the heart of densely populated Palestinian areas.

The number of Jews living in these areas is estimated at less than 3,000.

A government panel, headed by Maj. Gen. (res.) Ori Orr, determined in 2005 that responsibility for security of Jewish settlers should be transferred to the police. A cabinet decision to that effect was passed but never implemented. Three years ago, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel petitioned the High Court of Justice against the use of private security firms in Palestinian neighborhoods, but the court recommended ACRI withdraw the petition, suggesting it would not be accepted.

Funding for the security of Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem has risen continuously over the years, from 7 million shekels in 1991 to double that in 1995. The figure had risen to 51 million shekels by 2010.

Speaking during the finance committee meeting, Housing Ministry director general Shlomo Ben-Eliyahu said the addition to the budget would not be permanent, because the installation of additional cameras would enable funding to be reduced next year to 65 million shekels.

The Housing Ministry currently employs 370 security guards in East Jerusalem, protecting Jewish settlers in the Old City’s Muslim Quarter as well as in the neighborhoods of Abu Tor, Silwan, Ras al-Amud, A-Tur, Sheikh Jarrah and the Beit Orot Yeshiva on the Mount of Olives.

Since the round of violence that began about five months ago, Jewish residents in these areas have seen an increase in incidents of stone-throwing, incendiary devices and firecrackers, as well as gunfire. Some residents come to their homes not in their own cars but in a convoy of reinforced vehicles.

Following treasury officials’ response to a query by MK Issawi Freij (Meretz) that the cost of security per settler was 30,000 shekels a year, Freij said, “There is no other population in the State of Israel that enjoys private security paid for by the state. Now it emerges how expensive this security is, and how much money Israeli citizens are paying to allow the extreme right to carry out dangerous provocations in East Jerusalem. As high as the cost is, it is still low compared to the additional cost of those settlements.”