Regional Development Minister Silvan Shalom on Sunday criticized the government for failing to include sites in Judea and Samaria in its list of sites to be refurbished in the national heritage program announced recently by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. "Any plot that does not include the Machpelah Cave is a lame plan, not a heritage protection plan," Shalom stated before the government's meeting in Tel-Hai Sunday morning. The government was set to discuss the plan at Sunday's meeting.

Before the meeting, Netanyahu said that Israel's survival was "not only due to the IDF and the strength of our army and technological prowess, yet also in the heritage we supply to our children as an inheritance.