Occupied Jerusalem: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has authorised construction of hundreds of new homes in Jewish colonies in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, an Israeli official confirmed Tuesday.
The government has presented the move as a response to a series of deadly Palestinian attacks against Jewish colonists. The Palestinians have long viewed colony construction as the biggest obstacle to the stalled peace process.
The official said construction would include 560 new homes in Maale Adumim, just outside occupied Jerusalem, as well as nearly 200 in the city itself. The plan also called for over 600 new homes in a Palestinian neighborhood of occupied east Jerusalem.
Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem in the 1967 war. Most of the world opposes colony construction in these areas, where the Palestinians hope to establish an independent state.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the Israeli plans raise “legitimate questions” about the country’s long-term intentions. Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi said Israel is “bent on destroying the viability, integrity and territorial contiguity of a future Palestinian state.”
US State Department spokesman John Kirby criticised the steps announced by the Israeli government. He said they are “fundamentally undermining the prospects for a two-state solution” and are “counterproductive to the cause of peace in general.”
Palestinians have carried out dozens of attacks since September, killing 34 Israelis and two visiting Americans. Some 200 Palestinians were killed during the same period, most said by Israel to be attackers.
The Israeli military said a Palestinian attempted to stab an occupation soldier in the West Bank on Tuesday before troops opened fire, wounding the attacker. No soldiers were wounded.
Israeli NGO Peace Now has said that the number of West Bank colonies Israel plans to build more than tripled in the first quarter of 2016 compared to the same period last year.
Between January and March, projects for 674 housing units passed at least one of the steps in the planning approval process, up from 194 in the first quarter of 2015, it said.
The colonies are considered illegal under international law and are seen as major stumbling blocks to peace efforts since they are built on land the Palestinians see as part of their future state.
The US and the European Union, among others, have strongly criticised Israeli colony construction.
Palestine Liberation Organisation secretary-general Saeb Erekat said in a statement that “the continued Israeli colonisation of Palestine is a war crime under international law”.
Some 2.8 million Palestinians live in West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem in near constant tension with more than 500,000 Israeli colonists.
