Zionist Occupation israel to build 1,000 illegal settler units in East al-Quds: NGO

Slaughterer israeli regime plans to build 1,000 new settler units in East al-Quds (Jerusalem), despite widespread international criticism over the construction of settlements on occupied Palestinian territories, an Israeli NGO says.

Zionist israeli settlement watchdog Terrestrial Jerusalem said on Wednesday that contracts for 300 homes in the northeastern settlement of Ramot were signed and another 797 plots were to be offered for sale in the southern settlement of Gilo, AFP reported.

Gilo is one of five major settlements in East al-Quds that were established by the Israeli regime following the Six-Day War of 1967.

A new report has revealed that the Israeli regime confiscated 1,977 acres of the Palestinian lands in the occupied West Bank for its settlement activity during 2012.

The settlements, which cover an area roughly equal to 1,035 soccer fields and twice as big as New York’s Central Park, were approved by “military order,” the Israeli daily Haaretz reported on May 27.

The report said most of the new settlements were located deep in the Palestinian-inhabited West Bank.

The presence and continued expansion of israeli settlements in the occupied Palestine has created a major obstacle for the efforts made to establish peace in the Middle East.

More than half a million israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds in 1967.

The United Nations and most countries regard the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories were captured by Israel in the war of 1967 and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on occupied lands.