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According to the Israeli interior minister, the country's authorities will approve 4000 settler units.
On Friday, Ayelet Shaked, the Israeli Interior Minister, announced on his Twitter account that a planning committee will be gathering to approve 4000 settler units next week, describing construction in the West Bank as a “basic, required and obvious thing.”
On Thursday, the Civilian Administration, a military body, would meet to advance 1 452 units as another 2 536 units will be approved by Benny Gantz, defense minister, according to Israel’s Haaretz newspaper report.
The Israeli settlements are a fortified complex housing only Jewish people, built on Palestinian land, representing a violation of international law. In the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, about 600 000 and 750 000 Israeli settlers live in at least 250 illegal settlements.
Should settlement units be approved, it would represent the most significant advancement of settlement plans since US President Joe Biden took office, as Washington is against the settlement growth because it considers it would further erode the possibility of an eventual two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The 4,000 Jewish-only settlement units announced today will be built in illegal settlements across the West Bank. Israel also plans to 'legalize' two outposts - which until now even Israel considered illegal (all settlements violate 4th Geneva Convention). https://t.co/HFFQfsIT4u
— Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (@CJPME) May 6, 2022
The local media has quoted Friday to Thomas Nides, U.S. ambassador to Israel, commenting on the fact that The White House has repeatedly said to Israel it strongly rejects plans for settlement expansion activity.
On the other hand, a Palestinian activist and founder of the Youth Against Settlements NGO, Issa Amro, has said that the approval of new settler homes would play a part in “more Israeli settler violence towards Palestinians in the West Bank” and more “restrictions and apartheid polices” to be imposed on the Palestinians.
Amro said that the settlement plans "is an indicator that Israel is violating international law with impunity and without accountability, and it shows that the international community is using double standards with Israel."
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