Israel is once again ramping up its settlement program, with the announcement of thousands of new units in disputed areas of the West Bank.
The government has approved the construction of an additional 3,000 settlement homes in the West Bank, according to a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman.
The announcement came late Tuesday in Jerusalem, just a week after 2,500 new settlement homes were approved by the administration.
“We are in a new period where life in Judea and Samaria is returning to normal,” Liberman said on his Facebook page, using the biblical term for the West Bank.
Of the 3,000 new homes, 2,000 are set to be built immediately while the rest are in various stages of planning, Liberman said.
The decision, along with other recent expansion announcements, has drawn criticism from the Palestinian Authority and the EU.
“Israel continues to systematically violate the rights of the Palestinian people and to give a green light and support for settlers to take over more Palestinian land and to terrorize the Palestinian population,” PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said in a statement released before Tuesday’s announcement.
“This immoral situation shouldn’t continue to be tolerated by the International community. It has to end. The commitment of Netanyahu’s government to colonization and segregation and its determination to defy international law and resolutions continues to destroy the prospects of an independent and sovereign State of Palestine.”
The approval comes just before Israel is set to evacuate the illegal Israeli outpost of Amona, built on private Palestinian land.
US support
US President Donald Trump’s marked departure from his predecessor Barack Obama’s Israel policy has buoyed the Netanyahu administration’s desire to settle contentious areas of land.
Last week’s announcement of 2,500 new homes marks one of the largest settlement expansions since 2013, according to the settlement watchdog Peace Now and comes just days after Trump’s inauguration. The new leader also spoke with Netanyahu two days before the announcement.
Israel had also reacted angrily to the US abstention in a UN vote on Israeli settlement activities prior to Trump taking office. Trump later expressed his support for the settlement program.
Settlement expansion demanded
With Trump in office, Netanyahu has been under pressure from his right-wing coalition partners to accelerate settlement construction.
Almost two weeks ago he stalled a legislative push in an attempt by some politicians to annex parts of the West Bank, including Maale Adumim. Located just outside Jerusalem, Maale Adumin is one of the largest settlements.
In his first briefing, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said discussions were in their earliest stages and no decision had yet been made.
The new construction comes two weeks after a peace conference in Paris, which called for Israel and the Palestinians to embrace a two-state solution and find their way back to the negotiating table. The Israeli Prime Minister called the conference “useless.”
