JERUSALEM: Israel’s nationalist-religious government on Sunday unveiled plans to approve thousands of building permits in the occupied West Bank despite US pressure to halt settlement expansion, which Washington sees as an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians.
Plans to approve 4,560 housing units in various areas of the West Bank have been put on the agenda of Israel’s Supreme Planning Council, which meets next week. However, only 1,332 are awaiting final approval, with the rest still going through the preliminary approval process.
“We will continue to settle and strengthen Israeli influence in the territories,” said Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also holds the defense portfolio, giving him a leading role in the administration of the West Bank.
Most countries consider settlements built on land captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war to be illegal. Their presence is one of the fundamental problems of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Palestinians seek the creation of an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital. Peace talks brokered by the United States have been suspended since 2014.
Israel’s Occupation of West Bank
Since taking office in January, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition has approved support for more than 7,000 new housing units, most deep in the West Bank.
She also changed the law that cleared the way for settlers to return to the four settlements that had previously been evacuated.
In response to Sunday’s Israeli decision, the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-government in parts of the West Bank, said it would boycott a meeting of the Joint Economic Committee with Israel scheduled for Monday.
The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007 after the withdrawal of Israeli soldiers and settlers, condemned the move, saying it “will not give (Israel) legitimacy over our land. Our people will resist it by all means.”
Jewish settler groups welcomed the announcement.
“The people decided to continue building in Judea and Samaria and in the Jordan Valley, and that’s how it should be,” said Shlomo Ne’eman, mayor of the Gush Etzion Regional Council and chairman of the Yesha Council, citing Israeli biblical texts. names for the West Bank.
