Middle East Monitor / November 22, 2022
Israeli occupation authorities have rejected all 116 plans to expand Palestinian villages and towns in Area C of the occupied West Bank, a senior ministry said yesterday.
Speaking to Palestine Voice, Minister of Local Government Majdi al-Saleh said that more than 80 per cent of plans submitted in 2013 were not approved.
EU representatives took part in the preparation of many of the plans, he added, but this did not give any merit to them.
Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation continues to demolition Palestinian homes in the area.
About 400,000 Palestinians live in Area C, which accounts for about 61 per cent of the occupied West Bank and is subject to Israeli security and administrative control, as stipulated by the Oslo Accords.
Israeli rights group B’Tselem reported in February 2019 that Palestinians had submitted 5,475 requests to the Israeli authorities to obtain construction permits between 2000 and mid-2016, but only 226, or about four per cent of the requests were approved.
