Facing ever-growing pressure from the Israeli High Court, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today agreed to allow Palestinians to build some 600 homes in an Arab neighborhood of East Jerusalem, setting off a flurry of outraged condemnation from members of the far-right coalition government.
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Israel’s Jerusalem Post newspaper reported Monday that settler leaders from Maale Adumim were not satisfied with the planned new homes, calling for the territory to be completely annexed by Israel in advance of mass settlement construction.
Despite repeated calls by the worldwide community Israel is continuing its settlement policy, which is illegal under global law.
After two deadly attacks by Palestinians against Israeli civilians in the occupied West Bank in two days, Israel announced sweeping measures Friday to limit the movement of Palestinian residents and punish their government.
Earlier on Sunday, the UN’s special coordinator for Middle East peace cautioned that a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is slipping away.
Two Israelis were killed in Palestinian attacks in Hebron this week, including a 13-year-old girl who was fatally stabbed in the Kiryat Arba settlement.
The long-awaited report said Israel should stop building settlements, denying Palestinian development and designating land for exclusive Israeli use that Palestinians seek for a future state.
“The horrifying murder of a young girl in her bed underscores the bloodlust and inhumanity of the incitement-driven terrorists that we are facing”, Netanyahu said in a prepared statement last week.
Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said it would send the message that every attack would only strengthen Israeli settlements.
In course of the raids Sunday, six Palestinians, including the sister of the attacker, were arrested by Israeli forces. “It is the occupation itself”, he said.
The overnight demolitions took place in Qalandia refugee camp, between Jerusalem and Ramallah, with four Palestinians wounded in ensuing clashes, an AFP reporter said.
“A good example, just 24 hours after the release of the Quartet report [July 1], the governorate of Hebron with its population of around 700,000 people is under total military siege”.
A wave of violence since October has killed at least 214 Palestinians, 34 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese.
The body that oversees Israeli policy in the West Bank and Gaza, COGAT, made the decision to ban him from Israel.
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Peace talks collapsed in April 2014 and Israeli-Palestinian violence has surged in recent months.
