Israel to approve new settlement units in Palestinian neighborhood of al-Quds

Rasa - Israeli officials are going to approve a plan to build more than a hundred new settler units in occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds irrespective of international outcry against the Tel Aviv regime’s land expropriation policies in Palestinian territories.

News ID: 432243

Date: 07 September 2017 - 23:43

RNA - Israel’s planning and construction committee in Jerusalem al-Quds is expected to discuss the plan for the construction of 176 settler units in the heart of the predominantly Arab neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber on Sunday, the Palestinian Ma’an news agency reported.

The project, which would become the largest Israeli settlement built inside a Palestinian neighborhood, would be located adjacent to Nof Zion settlement.

The Israeli anti-settlement group, Peace Now, has censured the plan, arguing that the Israeli regime “has opened all the floodgates when it comes to settlement developments within Palestinian neighborhoods.”

It added that the settlement would “constitute a severe blow to Jerusalem” al-Quds and the prospects of the so-called two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Since the inauguration of US President Donald Trump in January, the regime in Tel Aviv has stepped up its construction of settler units on occupied Palestinian land in a blatant violation of international law.

Less than a month before Trump took office, the United Nations Security Council had adopted Resolution 2334, calling on Israel to “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem” al-Quds.

About 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.

Palestinians wants the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.

The last round of Israeli-Palestinian talks collapsed in 2014. Among the major sticking points in those negotiations was Israel’s continued settlement expansion on Palestinian territories.

Trump backtracked on Washington’s support for a “two-state solution” earlier this year, saying he would support any solution favored by both sides.

“Looking at two-state or one-state, I like the one that both parties like. I’m very happy with the one both parties like. I can live with either one,” the US president said during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington on February 15.

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