The settlement of Ma’ale Michmash was founded in 1981. About 1,300 people now live there, despite the Israeli housing shortage, despite the fact that it is situated in a scenic location, despite the high quality of life and concurrent low cost of living, and despite it being relatively accessible. Still, the settlement has been unable to draw thousands of new families for one simple reason: Ma’ale Michmash is situated east of Ramallah and surrounded by Palestinians. Most Israelis have no interest in living there. The settlement’s website states that its only neighbors are Jewish settlements; the settlement’s Palestinian neighbors receive no mention at all. In fact, the reality is completely different. In the 30 years of its existence, the settlement of Ma’ale Michmash has failed to attract more than a few hundred Israelis.

In an effort to increase the settlement’s population, it was included in the national priorities map released this week, Aug. 4, by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, along with such settlements as Bruchin, Rechelim and Sansana. The Israeli government only declared those latter three settlements legal a year ago. According to figures released by the Judea and Samaria Council, representing the West Bank settlements, Sansana is home to some 46 families, another 100 families live in Bruchin and Rechelim has just 60 families. It would seem that these settlers are considered more valuable than the hundreds of thousands residents of Kiryat Gat, Kiryat Malachi and other towns on the northern or southern periphery, which truly need substantial aid and preferential treatment in order to correct years of neglect.

Israel’s national priority map provides a general outline as to which localities the government will offer benefits and incentives worth millions of shekels, in such fields as education, employment, infrastructure and urban development. Similarly, the government provides enormous tax benefits to residents and entrepreneurs who want to invest in any area defined as a national priority zone. Many localities throughout Israel fight to be included in that list of settlements that receive preferential treatment, so that they can improve their circumstances and the quality of life of their residents, who live some distance from the center of the country.

For years, the criteria used by policymakers to determine which localities would be included in the national priority map were the locality's geographical location, the need to reduce socioeconomic gaps within Israeli society, economic stability, plans for population distribution and the absorption of immigrants. The latter criterion of immigrant absorption was especially important when late Yitzhak Rabin was prime minister (1992-1995), since some 1 million new immigrants from the former Soviet Union arrived in the country at that time, and entire Israeli cities (like Karmiel and Upper Nazareth) doubled their populations within just a few years.