Go-ahead for settler homes
Israel approves hundreds of housing units in the West Bank
Israel is moving forward with more than 2300 housing units for settlers in the West Bank, a watchdog group says, drawing condemnation from the Palestinians and the international community.
The group, Peace Now, said that a planning committee granted approval to the settlement houses this week. About 800 of those were given the final go-ahead, meaning construction could start within days while the others were still in the
planning pipeline and require further approvals.
The committee also authorised three small outposts that were initially built without government approval, according to Peace Now’s Hagit Ofran. She said approvals such as this latest one could make partitioning the West Bank under a future peace deal with the Palestinians practically impossible.
The Palestinians seek the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip — territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war — for their hoped-for state. Most of the international community considers Israel’s West Bank settlements illegal and an obstacle to creating a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel considers the territories “disputed”, and says the fate of the settlements should be determined through negotiations, which have been moribund for years.
US President Donald Trump, whose Mideast team has deep ties to the settlements, has shown tolerance towards Israel’s expansion of settler housing the West Bank. He has promised to present a peace plan for the conflict but faces deep scepticism from the Palestinians because of policies they see as favourable to Israel.
The new approval elicited condemnation from the United Nations’ Mideast envoy Nikolay Mladenov, who said Israel’s settlement building “must cease immediately and completely”.
Palestinian government spokesman Ibrahim Milhim said Israel’s Government was “stepping up settlement building to terminate any chance to have a political solution in the future”. Cogat, the defence body responsible for civil affairs in the West Bank, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.