Plans for illegal Israeli settlement units up 250 pct

By Anees Bargouthi

JERUSALEM

Plans to build new illegal settlement units in the occupied West Bank were up by 250 percent in the first quarter of 2016 compared to the same period last year, an Israeli NGO said.

Peace Now said late Wednesday that the Israeli government advanced plans for 674 housing units in settlements across the West Bank so far in 2016 as opposed to 194 units during the same period last year.

Israeli Haaretz Daily newspaper reported on Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon have recently approved more than 200 new housing units in settlements and outposts in the West Bank.

PLO Secretary General Saeb Erekat condemned the announcement, saying it should “serve as a reminder to the international community of its responsibility to put an end to Israel’s crimes.”

“The continued Israeli colonization of Palestine is a war crime under international law,” Erekat said. “Settlement construction entrenches Israel’s colonial occupation and destroys the prospects of two independent states living side by side in peace and security on the 1967 borders.”

International law views the West Bank and East Jerusalem as occupied territories and considers all Jewish settlement building on the land to be illegal.

About 500,000 Jewish settlers currently live on more than 100 Jewish-only settlements built since Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967.

The Palestinians want these areas, along with the Gaza Strip, for a future state of Palestine.

Palestinian negotiators, however, insist that Israeli settlement building on Arab land must stop before a comprehensive peace agreement can be reached.