The United States has rebuked Israel for the Jewish nation’s plans to accelerate building of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank in the face of mounting global concern.
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The Israeli Civil Administration Council on Wednesday approved plans to build 500 new illegal settlement units in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem.
Wednesday’s decision prompted a swift condemnation from the White House.
“We are particularly troubled by the policy of retroactively approving unauthorized settlement units and outposts that are themselves illegal under Israeli law”, US State Department spokesman John Kirby said at a news briefing.
The committee has also declared legal the 179 existing houses in Beit Arye, built in the 1980s.
“It is hard to read in these actions a genuine intention to work towards a viable two-state solution”, he said.
However, the Israeli government claims that Jews have lived in the occupied territories for thousands of years, and that the presence of settlers does not undermine the peace process.
“It is not enough for the U.S. to issue warnings about settlement expansion in the Palestinian territories”, Abu Rudeinah said on Thursday.
“So far this year, Israel has promoted plans for over 2,500 units, including over 700 units retroactively approved in the West Bank”. “Since the Quartet report came out, we have seen a very significant acceleration of Israeli settlement activity that runs directly counter to the conclusions of the report. The Palestinian demand that a future Palestinian state be ethnically cleansed of Jews is outrageous and the United Nations must condemn it instead of adopting it”.
Ghassan Daghlas, a PA official in charge of monitoring settlements, clarified to The Jerusalem Post that the United States could take a variety of steps to make Israel freeze settlement activity.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting at his office in Jerusalem, 30 August 2016.
The worldwide community, including the USA and European Union, considers settlement building illegal according to global law.
France has also been working on its own peace initiative and hopes to convene an global conference before the end of the year.
The Palestinians strongly support the French initiative, but Israel has rejected it, calling instead for direct negotiations.
An Israeli Jewish man bought a Palestinian girl a new bicycle after border guards took and broke hers.
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An Israeli soldier was shot and wounded while guarding Jewish worshippers at a flashpoint West Bank prayer site on Thursday, the Israeli military said.
