France and UK Condemn Israeli Plans to Build over 1,100 Units in 20 West Bank Settlements

Rasa - France and Britain condemned the Israeli authorities' decision to allow more than 1,100 housing units to be built in 20 different West Bank settlements with some on private Palestinian lands.

News ID: 435761

Date: 12 January 2018 - 15:38

RNA - The ministry said in a statement that the country condemns allowing “the construction of more than 1,100 homes in 20 different settlements in the West Bank, and particularly that of seven structures in Nativ Haavot (a West Bank settler outpost) partly on private Palestinian land against the decision of the High Court of Justice, which had ordered its evacuation by March 2018,” WAFA reported.

“The UK strongly condemns the advancement by the Israeli authorities of plans and tenders for settlement units across the West Bank,” said a statement by Alistair Burt, the Foreign Office minister for the Middle East, the Anadolu reported.

“We call on Israel to reconsider these proposals,” said Burt.

“Settlements are illegal under international law and undermine the physical viability of the two-state solution,” he added.

Israeli authorities on Thursday approved the construction of hundreds of new housing units for Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank, according to Israeli media reports.

"The plans that were approved involve construction of more than 200 homes in Oranit and more than 50 in Petzael in the Jordan Valley," Israeli daily Haaretz reported.

According to Haaretz, additional housing units were approved in the Ariel and Alfei Menashe settlements, both of which are located in Northern West Bank.

Haaretz added that the Israeli authorities had also approved plans for "hundreds" of additional housing units in the West Bank settlements of Kfar Adumim and Givat Zeev.

Earlier this week, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman vowed to approve the construction of some 2,500 new settlement units across the occupied West Bank.

Some half a million Israelis currently live on more than 100 Jewish-only settlements built since Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967.

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