Middle East Monitor / December 27, 2020
Israel intends to approve thousands of settlement units in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem before the inauguration of US President-elect Joe Biden in January, reports Anadolu Agency, quoting local media outlets.
The Israeli KAN channel said the Israeli High Council of Planning and Building – an Israeli official body that supervises settlement construction – will convene in the coming two weeks to approve the construction of thousands of settlement units in the occupied territory.
The channel said the plans are already ready but require approval from the council, adding that Israeli authorities aim to approve the construction before Biden’s arrival to the White House in late January.
The Israeli Peace Now group said settlement activity has doubled in the occupied Palestinian territories in the past four years during the term of outgoing President Donald Trump.
International law views both the West Bank and East Jerusalem as occupied territories and considers all Jewish settlement-building activities there illegal.
Earlier this month, the Palestinian Authority condemned the “continuous and increasing aggression” of Israeli Jewish settlers on Palestinians and their properties in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, Wafa has reported. The PA Foreign Ministry described the settlers’ attacks as “part of a campaign supported and run by the occupation state and its institutions, aiming to Judaise Area C.”
This campaign, explained the ministry, is to clear the occupied Palestinian territories of their indigenous inhabitants and replace them with Jewish settlers.
International procrastination over preventing such attacks, the indifference of international organisations and the double-standards applied reflect the “apathy” of the international community towards Israeli crimes, insisted the PA.
