US State Department Accuses Israel of Stealing Palestinian Land Through Housing Construction

The Palestinians want an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, areas Israel captured in the 1967 Six-Day War.

According to Channel 2 television, the Hebron-Kiryat Arba plan – spearheaded by hawkish Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel of the Jewish Home party – includes NIS 2 million ($515,000) for a heritage trail and new signage around the Tomb of the Patriarchs, a flashpoint holy site revered by both Jews and Muslims.

Just hours after Israel’s announcement, US State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said Washington was “deeply concerned” by the plans, saying “The United States continues to view settlements as illegitimate and we strongly oppose steps to advance construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem”.

The expansion plans come two days following the release of the Middle East Quartet’s report, which flagrantly accommodates Israel’s demands and violations, equates a vulnerable people under a brutal military occupation with a ruthless occupier and falls below the minimum requirements for peace, said Ashrawi.

The report’s findings and recommendations are supposed to serve as the basis for reviving the Israeli-Palestinian peace process that has been comatose since a USA initiative collapsed in April 2014.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorized the plans yesterday.

“What is preventing peace is the ongoing incitement against the existence of Israel within any borders, and it is time for the nations of the world to recognize that truth”, he said.

Almost 600 new units will be built inside the Maale Adumim settlements, a suburb near Jerusalem that Israel claims as indisputable territory, with another 200 homes to be built inside Jerusalem itself.

“Settlement expansion threatens the two-state solution and calls into question Israel’s commitment to a negotiated resolution to the conflict”, Toner added.

The measure is likely to inflame tension between Israelis and Palestinians in the contested area.

There has been growing alarm that ongoing violence and the construction of Jewish settlements on land earmarked to be part of a future Palestinian state are killing off prospects for a deal.