Zionist regime announces settler home construction plans

Israel has announced plans to build 1,400 new illegal settlement units in the occupied West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem).

The announcement, which came on Friday, has angered the Palestinians. The new homes are planned in Ramat Shlomo, an enclave in East al-Quds, and in various West Bank settlements.

Israel’s Housing Ministry said 800 new houses will be built in the West Bank and 600 in East al-Quds.

A spokesman for the Palestinian government, Ihab Bseiso, condemned the announcement.

“This is a violation for all the agreements that have been already signed before…,” the spokesman said.

On Thursday, thousands of young Israeli hardliners marched to demand the government build new settler homes in E1, a highly sensitive strip of West Bank land near al-Quds. Palestinians from the area staged a counter demonstration.

Earlier in the month, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton expressed “deep concern” over Israel’s decision to build 558 settler units in East al-Quds.

“I am deeply concerned at the announcement by the Jerusalem municipal authorities of their approval of building permits for 558 new units in East Jerusalem, in Har Homa, Neve Yaakov and Pisgat Zeev,” Ashton said in a statement.

Israel occupied the Palestinian territories of East al-Quds, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank during the Six-Day War of 1967. Israel conducted a withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, but Israeli forces have been carrying out regular deadly forays into the sliver ever since the pullout.

The United Nations regards the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories were captured in the war and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on occupied lands.