Israel gives go-ahead to building hundreds of settlement homes
● Approval comes as nationalists welcome Trump presidency
has approved the construction of hundreds of homes in occupied East Jerusalem, while a hard-line Cabinet minister pushed the government to annex a major West Bank settlement.
The moves also came as emboldened Israeli nationalists welcomed the presidency of Donald Trump.
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is looking forward to a new era of close relations with the US under Mr Trump. The two were scheduled to talk on the phone yesterday.
At his weekly Cabinet meeting, Mr Netanyahu thanked Mr Trump for his friendship and his inauguration speech pledge to battle radical Islamic militants.
He said they would discuss the Israeli-palestinian contine,” flict, the situation in Syria and the Iranian threat, among other issues.
More hawkish elements in his coalition, however, are already calling for concrete action given Trump’s perceived acquiescence to Israeli settlement building.
Education minister Naftali Bennett, leader of the pro-settler Jewish Home Party, was pressing the government to back legislation that would annex Maaleh Adumim, a sprawling West Bank settlement just east of Jerusalem. He also urged Mr Netanyahu to abandon his stated position in favour of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Mr Netanyahu, a longtime supporter of the settlements, has nonetheless been cautious about expanding them in the face of strong opposition from the US and other Western allies.
With Mr Trump signalling a much softer line toward the settlements, Israeli hard-liners say there is no longer any reason to show restraint.
“For the first time in 50 years, the prime minister can decide – either sovereignty or Palesisrael Bennett wrote on Twitter.
An official in the Jewish Home Party said Mr Netanyahu was urging Mr Bennett to put his proposal on hold.
Mr Netanyahu said that he had been asked by Trump administration officials not to take any major action without proper coordination, the official said.
The official said Jewish Home officials were sceptical of Mr Netanyahu’s claims and would continue to push the government to approve the annexation measure. Mr Netanyahu’s office declined to comment.
Such a move would cause a major clash with the Palestinians and the rest of the international community, which consider settlements to be illegal. The Palestinians seek all of the West Bank and east Jerusalem – areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war for a future independent state.
Annexing Maaleh Adumim would be seen as undermining negotiations. It is also in a strategic location in the mid- dle of the West Bank that could impede the establishment of a future Palestinian state.
In the meantime, the Jerusalem municipal housing committee granted building permits for 566 new homes in east Jerusalem. The permits had been put on hold for the final months of the Obama administration.
Building is planned in the neighbourhoods of Ramot, Pisgat Zeev and Ramat Shlomo.
“We’ve been through eight tough years with Obama pressuring to freeze construction,” said Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat. “I hope that era is over and we now we can build and develop Jerusalem for the welfare of its residents, Jews and Arabs alike.”
Deputy mayor Meir Turjeman, who heads the committee, said an additional 11,000 homes were planned in east Jerusalem. He said he hoped to get the plans approved by the end of the year and begin construction in the next two to three years. Israel clashed frequently with Obama over construction in areas it conquered in the 1967 Mideast war.