Israel on Wednesday approved plans for hundreds of new housing units for Jewish settlers in the West Bank, Israeli media reported, prompting a swift condemnation from the White House.
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An additional 50 housing units were approved in the West Bank settlements of Beit Aryeh and Givat Ze’ev, the paper reported.
According to Haaretz, 178 units built without permits in the 1980s received retroactive approval, while 284 were for new complexes.
According to the committee’s decision, the new plans include 234 housing units in the settlement of Elkana, south of Nablus city, which will served the elderly.
Israeli forces detained at least 10 Palestinians, including a journalist, in Wednesday night raids across the occupied West Bank, Israeli and Palestinian sources said.
He added, “We are particularly troubled by a policy of retroactively approving illegal outposts and unauthorized settlements”.
The envoy also stressed that Israel ignored a report issued in July by the Middle East peace “Quartet” (Russia, US, UN, and EU) which called on Israel to “cease the policy of settlement construction and expansion”.
Washington has always been concerned that Israel’s building on occupied Palestinian land is undermining hopes for a Middle East peace deal, but Wednesday’s warning was unusually strongly worded.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting at his office in Jerusalem, 30 August 2016. The UN has stated that settlement construction violates several UN Security Council resolutions.
“Jews have been in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria for thousands of years, and their presence there is not an obstacle to peace”, the statement said, referring to the biblical names for the West Bank. A report issued in July by the Middle East peace “Quartet” – the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russian Federation – called on Israel to “cease the policy of settlement construction and expansion”.
Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem after the 1967 Mideast war.
“Government should not be in the business of punishing supporters of BDS, whether corporations, universities, organizations or individuals, by denying them contracts”, said Nasser Barghouti from the U.S. Campaign to End The Israeli Occupation.
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US -negotiated peace talks collapsed over two years ago, in part over the issue of settlements.
