JERUSALEM: Israel has approved hundreds of new settler homes in the occupied West Bank, an official said Monday, in a move likely to further raise tensions following a series of Palestinian attacks.
The approval comes days after a key international report warned that Israel’s settlement expansion and confiscation of Palestinian land were eroding the possibility of a two-state peace settlement. The report from the diplomatic Quartet — the US, EU, UN and Russia — also called on Palestinians to halt attacks and incitement to violence.
Under the new approval granted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, planning for 560 new Jewish homes in the large Maale Adumim settlement east of Jerusalem will be allowed to move forward. The Maale Adumim mayor was informed of the decision on Sunday night, a spokesman for his office told AFP. The settlement founded in 1975 already has a population of more than 37,000.
Netanyahu also gave approval for the planning of 240 new homes in settlement neighborhoods of annexed east Jerusalem, as well as for 600 units for Palestinians in the city’s Beit Safafa district, media reported.
The offices of Netanyahu and Lieberman refused to comment on the reported approvals, which follow calls inside Israel for a harsh response to the latest spate of Palestinian attacks.
Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, condemned the new settlement approvals as well as the lockdown on the Hebron region. “The reason for the continuation and the diminishing and declining prospects for the two-state solution is not incitement. It is the occupation itself,” Erekat told journalists in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
“A good example, just 24 hours after the release of the Quartet report (on Friday), the governorate of Hebron with its population of around 700,000 people is under total military siege.”
Source : Arabnews
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