Israel minister calls for more settlement approvals

JERUSALEM: Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has summoned a meeting of top Israeli planning officials for next week to expand Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, his office said Thursday.

A brief statement said he had convened a session of the Supreme Planning Council for Monday “to approve new programs for the planning and sale of housing units in all parts of the (West Bank).”

It did not give details.

The Hebrew-language statement said the move was “part of the policy of Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman to strengthen settlement in Judea and Samaria,” the Hebrew biblical term for the West Bank.

Israel occupied the territory in the Six-Day War of 1967. Today more than 600,000 Jewish settlers live there and in annexed east Jerusalem among 2.9 million Palestinians, with frequent outbreaks of violence between the sides.

The settlements are deemed illegal under international law and widely seen as a main obstacle to peace.

The central committee of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party on Sunday passed a resolution urging its MPs to work for annexation of the West Bank settlements.

Taking such a measure could effectively end prospects for a two-state solution to the IsraeliPalestinian conflict as there would be little area left for a Palestinian state.

But a significant number of members of Netanyahu’s rightwing coalition say that is precisely what they are seeking and openly oppose a Palestinian state.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday harshly condemned the Likud vote and criticized the US for its silence.

“We hope that this vote serves as a reminder for the international community that the Israeli government, with the full support of the US administration, is not interested in a just and lasting peace,” he said.