Israel approves new West Bank settlements ahead of US transition of power

AN Israeli watchdog group said that the government approved nearly 2,600 new housing units in east Jerusalem and the West Bank settlements before President-elect Joe Biden took office.

Israeli authorities made a major last-minute push this week to advance settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, which the Palestinians seek as part of a future independent state, in the twilight hours of the Trump administration.

The anti-settlement monitoring group Peace Now said the majority of the new government tenders, published on Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s last full day in office, were deep inside the West Bank.

Earlier this week, the Israeli government advanced plans for nearly 800 homes in West Bank settlements. Israel accelerated settlement construction under Mr Trump, whose administration, in 2018, said it did not consider settlements illegal under international law.

According to Peace Now, Israel approved or advanced construction of more than 12,000 settlement homes in 2020, the highest number in a single year since it started recording in 2012.

Mr Biden is expected to adopt the traditional US stance of opposing settlement constructions, setting the stage for tension with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Our out-of-touch government leadership continues to press on with its mad scramble to promote as much settlement activity as possible until the last minutes before the change of the administration in Washington,” said Peace Now.

Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war. Since then it has built dozens of settlements in the West Bank, considered illegal under international law by most countries.

The Palestinians claim all of the West Bank as part of a future independent state. They say Israel’s growing settler population, approaching 500,000 people, is an impediment to peace.