Israel plans largest illegal settlement
Thu, 03 Apr 2008 06:48:36
Israel is planning to construct around 2000 new houses in its
settlements in the West Bank during 2008, the largest since the
1990s.
The Israeli daily newspaper Yediot Aharonot said Wednesday that the
regime will construct 1908 new units in major settlements block in
the West Bank.
This newly announced settlement expansion is the largest since the
wave of Israeli settlement activity in the 1990s when Israel
constructed 5000 housing units per year in the West Bank
settlements.
The report of the construction was announced only two days after the
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that expansion of Jewish
settlements in the West Bank was 'not consistent' with Israel's
obligations under the international road map peace plan.
Palestinians, the international community, and a large number of
Israelis, believe the Israeli settlements in the West Bank are
clearly illegal, and all should be uprooted as part of a peace deal
with the Palestinians.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Abu Al-Ghit
criticized the Israeli settlement activity on Wednesday. He told
reporters at a press conference that the settlement activity in the
West Bank and the occupied city of al-Quds is damaging to the peace
process.
The Egyptian official welcomed the recent UN decision of considering
the Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank and al-Quds as a
violation of international law.
Also on Wednesday, an Israeli wrecking crew knocked down home of a
Palestinian in an Arab neighborhood of al-Quds for the second time,
part of a decades-old policy to limit Palestinian population growth
in the city.
The demolition Wednesday was one of more than 300 in Arab
neighborhoods of the city since 2004.
Israeli authorities claim lack of building permits which is
virtually impossible to obtain, as the reason for the demolitions.
MHE/RA
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