A special team has been planning the settlement’s expansion in recent months.
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When presented with a permanent status agreement based on previous Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, almost 60 percent of both Israeli Jews and Palestinians are against it, according to the joint poll by leading Israeli and Palestinian think tanks.
A multinational force would be set up in the Palestinian state, and Israel would maintain two early warning stations in the West Bank for 15 years.
The Palestinians swiftly condemned the move, saying they would seek worldwide pressure to halt the plan from going forward.
Palestinians seek to create a diplomatically recognized independent state on the territories of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, according to the frontiers that were in existence before the 1967 Six-Day War with Israel. The global community did not recognize the annexation of East Jerusalem by Israel in 1967.
Hebron has been a focal point of violence in the West Bank. About 1,000 Jewish settlers live in heavily fortified enclaves in the city, surrounded by some 200,000 Palestinians.
When asked to chose among four potential mediators, an Arab forum – of Saudi Arabia Egypt and Jordan – was the most popular among both Israeli Jews and Palestinians, with 26 percent and 22 percent support respectively.
After two decades of failed peace efforts, and almost a year of low-level violence, mistrust is strong.
Israeli security forces arrested two Palestinians for weapons trafficking, uncovered weapon factories and recovered firearms in the largest operation against weapon trafficking this year, the Israeli army said.
There is little trust between Israelis and Palestinians, the poll revealed. The poll found that 65 percent of Israelis fear Palestinians. Most recently, it has been used by the Israeli military. As noted by Peace Now, using military land for a settlement would violate both a 1979 Israeli Supreme Court decision and global law.
Jewish residents of Hebron say the land is private property that belonged to Jews before the establishment of the state in 1948, according to Haaretz. However, he said there are no building plans yet.
Although any construction is likely years away, the plan threatened to upset the already-tense climate in Hebron. “The Israeli government continues to find new ways to accommodate the extreme settlers in the city of Hebron, where the occupation is the most apparent and most severe”. “What is happening is a cooperation and collusion between the government and the settlers”. Those arrests came one day after Israeli officials issued 38 new “administrative detention” orders against Palestinian detainees, including a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
It vowed to turn to the Israeli Supreme Court, United Nations and worldwide courts to stop the plan. “We stress the need for immediate action to prevent the implementation of this new settlement plan”, it said. The most recent round of US -mediated talks broke down more than two years ago.
The majority of Palestinians and Israelis both blamed the collapse of talks on the other side, the survey found.
At the same time, 59% of Israelis back the two-state solution as a resolution to the conflict, based on the poll, which was cited by Jpost.
“This has far-reaching implications because if you feel you are part of the minority, you will be less outspoken and proactive and confident”, Tamar Hermann, the academic director of the Israel Democracy Institute’s Guttman Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research, told JTA.
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“It showed there is still some basis for optimism with the right leadership”, she said.
