The Israeli far–right led by Benjamin Netanyahu has acted to greenlight the building of more than one thousand homes in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, according to a report by a monitoring organization on Friday, even though the occupation had promised to suspend settlement building as part of its attempts to quell the current perilous upsurge of violence in the region.
The Israel Land Authority put out tenders this week for constructing 940 housing units in the West Bank settlements of Efrat and Beitar Ilit, and also 89 housing units in the Gilo settlement, which is located beyond the 1967 demarcation line in Jerusalem. Efrat, the large settlement, is deeply situated in the West Bank, close to Bethlehem.
On Friday, Peace Now, an anti–settlement Israeli organization, made the construction bids public.
The group harshly criticized the Israeli government, calling the settlement plan dangerous and unnecessary. They claimed that the government was disregarding the hope of a political deal, as well as their ties with the US and other friendly countries.
In spite of widespread disapproval and criticism from the UN Security Council and its allies, such as the United States, the Israeli government gave the green light to the construction of over 7,000 new housing units in Jewish settlements in the West Bank, including four unauthorized outposts, last month.
The Palestinian people and the international community alike deem settlement building to be unlawful or invalid. More than 700,000 Israelis are now living in occupied Palestinian lands in the West Bank.
At least 86 Palestinians have been fatally shot by Israeli occupation forces across the West Bank since the start of 2023, making it the most lethal start to the year in over two decades.
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