Eight hundred housing units will be built in and around mainly Arab East Jerusalem, with another 600 reportedly to be built for Palestinians in an Arab neighbourhood of the city, a decision that has drawn criticism from the Israeli right.
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Upon the announcement that the court’s decision would be carried out, the Israeli Minister for Jerusalem, Ze’ev Elkin, stated, “Anyone who is concerned about the Jewish majority in Israel’s capital can not push a building plan just for Arabs [in Givat HaMatos]…You can not just approve construction for Arabs in Givat HaMatos without also approving at the same time building for Jews in the same planned neighborhood”.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity on Tuesday as he isn’t authorized to discuss the matter with reporters.
The day before, a Palestinian teen stabbed a 13-year-old Israeli-American girl to death as she slept in her bedroom in a West Bank settlement. Israeli forces have killed at least 199 Palestinians, more than half of which Israel said were attackers.
Israel’s Ha’aretz newspaper quoted a government official as saying that the approval for the construction in the Jewish settlements was made to “sweeten the pill” of the construction for Palestinians in Jerusalem and “in retaliation” for two Palestinian attacks that killed two settlers in the West Bank last week.
“There is no justification for violence, and the recent deadly attacks on Israelis must be condemned in the strongest possible terms”, the group said in a statement.
Israel on Friday announced a lockdown in Hebron and a reduction in monthly tax payments to the Palestinian Authority after the attacks. The first reason for the failure of the peace negotiations is the settlements that ruin the two-state solution.
All Israeli settlements constructed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are considered illegal under worldwide law, as they involve the direct transfer of Israel’s civilian population into areas seized by military force.
“We were hoping that the Palestinian leadership would issue a pacifying and restrained statement, but unfortunately it does the opposite”, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said in a statement.
The Israeli military says the troops were in the Qalandiya refugee camp early on Monday, demolishing the homes of the families of two Palestinians who stabbed and killed two Israelis near Jerusalem’s Old City in December. “It is the occupation itself”, Erekat told journalists in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
IS influence in the West Bank has been limited.
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Some 200 Palestinians were killed during the same period, most said by Israel to be attackers.
