Israel approves thousands of West Bank building permits
Israel’s nationalist-religious government has approved the construction of about 5700 additional housing units for Jewish settlers in the West Bank despite overseas pressure to halt settlement expansion that the United States views as an obstacle to peace with Palestinians
Housing construction in Judea and Samaria.
Photo by Sraya Diamant/TPS
The plans for approval of the housing units in various areas of the West Bank were approved by Israel’s Supreme Planning Council.
Final approvals were given to 818 units, including while the others were in various stages of approval.
Jewish settler leadership praised the decision.
“I thank the Israeli government for the continued development of Israeli settlement,” the head of the West Bank Gush Etzion Regional Council and chairman of the Yesha Council Shlomo Ne’man said.
“Especially in these difficult days, this is the most appropriate Zionist answer to all those who seek to destroy us.”
Most countries deem the settlements, built on land captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, as illegal.
Their presence is one of the fundamental issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Palestinians seek to establish an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as their capital.
Israeli settlers cite Jewish historical connections to the land.
Peace talks that had been brokered by the United States have been frozen since 2014.
Since entering office in January, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition has approved the promotion of more than 7000 new housing units, most deep in the West Bank.
“The Israeli government is pushing us at an unprecedented pace towards the full annexation of the West Bank,” the settlement watchdog Peace Now said in a statement.
A surge of violence in the past weeks in the West Bank included rampages by scores of Israeli settlers on Palestinian towns and villages that drew international condemnation and concern from the White House. The settlers’ were responding to deadly Palestinian attacks.
The Israeli military said on Monday that an IDF soldier was suspected “of taking part in a violent confrontation between Israelis and Palestinians” last week in the Palestinian town of Umm Safa.
“The soldier was apprehended and investigated by the Israel police,” the military said.
