Plan Approved for 2500 New Settler Homes in West Bank

Israel’s PM reportedly delayed approval given the opposition of Barack Obama, who infuriated Israel by allowing a United Nations resolution against settlements to pass.

Israel has been revoking Palestinians’ residency , demolishing their homes , and building illegal settlements for Israeli Jews to live on by threat of violence .

Earlier Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was lifting restrictions as approval was given for hundreds of new homes. “I’m going to come out here and tell you the facts as I know them and if we make a mistake, we’ll do our best to correct it”.

A member of the PLO Executive Committee, Wasel Abu Yousif, told the Jerusalem Post that “it is clear that the Israeli government is presuming that it can act in this manner with the arrival of the Trump administration”. We no longer have our hands tied…

On Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault reiterated his country’s stance of pursuing a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians, with East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state.

The US refusal to veto the resolution marked the lowest ebb of deteriorating relations between the Obama administration and the Israeli government.

For almost half a century, American presidents of both parties have joined the rest of the global community in condemning Israeli settlements on Palestinian lands and labelling them one of the main obstacles to peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Any decision to break with the status quo is likely to prompt protests from USA allies in the Middle East such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt. Washington relies on those countries for help in fighting the Islamic State militant group, which the new US president has said is a priority.

On Monday, a deal to evacuate a hardline Jewish outpost that has become a symbol of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank was in jeopardy ahead of a February 8 deadline to remove it. They, along with much of the worldwide community, view the settlements as illegal. They have neither their own state nor Israeli citizenship, and as a result their ability to move freely within the occupied territories – particularly the West Bank and east Jerusalem – is limited.

He was quoted as saying his “vision” is to place all settlements under Israeli sovereignty. “I mean, the fact is, I would like to see it moved, and I would like to see it in Jerusalem”.

The housing projects, on land the Palestinians seek as part of a future state, had been taken off the Jerusalem municipality’s agenda in December at the last minute at the request of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in order to avoid further censure from the administration of Barack Obama. Negotiations broke down in 2014.