Monitoring Desk
RAMALLAH: The Israeli government has a plan regarding unprecedented settlement activities in the West Bank, including the building of 18,000 residential units in the coming months, revealed an Israeli newspaper on Wednesday.
The move has been seen as a serious threat to the Palestinians. The Israeli newspaper ‘Israel Today’ described the plan as a “revolution in Israeli politics in the West Bank” and a “mini-annexation.” Under Israel’s One-Million-Settlers plan, thousands of settlements put on hold during the past two-and-a-half years will be given approval.
The project also envisages construction of 18,000 units in the coming months, along with the transfer of hundreds of thousands of settlers to the West Bank, and the registration of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in official Israeli government data.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the new Israeli government is engaged in a frantic race against time to impose new realities on the ground, which will leave talk of a two-state solution “unrealistic and irrational.”
Plan to undermine opportunity for peace
The decision of the Israeli government also undermines any opportunity for the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. It also permanently closed the door on any international and regional efforts to resolve the conflict peacefully.
Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, met settler leaders and told them of a campaign for the demolition of Palestinian homes and facilities in all areas classified as C under plans announced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The newspaper said that the new government will work to legitimize settlement outposts, including Avitar and Homesh, near Nablus, by amending the “separation/withdrawal” law and linking the sites to basic infrastructure.
The newspaper compared the plan to “a coming storm,” adding that it comes as responsibilities are organized between Gallant and Religious Zionism leader Bezalel Smotrich.
Meanwhile, Fatah spokesman Jamal Nazzal condemned the Israeli Knesset’s extension of emergency regulations that impose Israeli laws on settlements in the occupied West Bank, known as the “apartheid” law, for an additional five years.
