Israel Announces New Settlement Expansion
“Minister says 1,500 new homes in West Bank and East Jerusalem are “Zionist response” to Palestinian unity government.”
Israel has announced plans to build 1,500 new settlement homes in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem in response to the formation of a Palestinian unity government.
The announcement on Wednesday came two days after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas swore in a technocratic government, which is supported by Hamas, a move bitterly opposed by the Israeli government.
The majority of the homes will be in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, with 400 in East Jerusalem, the online edition of the the Haaretz newspaper reported.
“I congratulate the decision to give a proper Zionist response to the establishment of the Palestinian terror cabinet,” the paper quoted Israeli Housing Minister Uri Ariel as saying.
“The right and duty of the state of Israel to build across the country to lower the housing prices is unquestionable,” said the minister, who is a member of the far-right Jewish Home Party, which opposes a Palestinian state.
The announcement came amid anger in Israel at the US and the European Union for agreeing to work with the new Palestinian government, which merges the administration of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has urged the world to reject the Palestinian unity government, saying Hamas is a “terrorist” group bent on the destruction of his country.
The US Secretary of State John Kerry said the move would not contradict Washington’s policy of not dealing with Hamas as members of the government have no direct ties to the movement.
The new Palestinian unity government is aimed at ending years of dispute between the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and the Fatah-controlled administration in the West Bank.
One of the new government’s main objectives is organising elections in Gaza and the West Bank by the end of the year.
The Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah has called for international pressure on Israel to allow Palestinians in the occupied East Jerusalem vote in the elections.
Hamdallah told visiting foreign dignitaries that “the new government will not be able to guarantee a free and democratic elections without East Jerusalem,” the AFP news agency reported.
Israel has come under international criticism, including from the US, over its illegal construction policy in the occupied territories, which it seized in the 1967 war.
(AL JAZEERA)