In direct violation of international law, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak approved permits on Sunday and Monday to build 455 new settler homes in the occupied West Bank.

The new housing, which was ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, will be built in six settlements. The settlements in question include Har Gilo (on the outskirts of Bethlehem), Modi'in Illit (built on the land of the village of Bil’in) and Ariel (deep in the West Bank south of Nablus).

Israel says it intends to keep each of these settlements in any eventual peace agreement with the Palestinians.

They permits are first ones issued since Netanyahu took office in March. Later this week, Netanyahu is expected to announce a partial reduction in the construction of illegal Israeli settlements.

The proposed reduction will fall short of US, Palestinian and international demands for a total freeze on settlement expansion as a step toward renewed peace negotiations. Continued construction means that Israel will continue to be in breach of international prohibitions on the acquisition of land through conquest.

Netanyahu’s planned reductions will also allow work to continue on 2,500 settler housing units that are already in progress. The plan also does not freeze or reduce construction in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian capital.

Israel seized the West Bank in 1967 and has since expropriated Palestinian land across the territory to build settlements that now house nearly 500,000 Jewish-Israelis.

Erekat: Israel defying international will

Chief Palestinian Negotiator Saeb Erekat, said the new construction represents a direct challenge to US and international efforts to restart negotiations.

“Israel’s decision to approve the construction of over 450 new settlement units nullifies any affect that a settlement freeze, when and if announced, will have. It further undermines faith in the peace process, and the belief that Israel is a credible partner for peace,” Erekat said.

“Israel has introduced another loophole, one that exemplifies the enormous disconnect between rhetoric and reality that Israel has perfected in its dealings with Palestinians, the international community and the peace process,” he added.

“Should the Israeli government eventually decide to announce its version of a “settlement freeze,” what Palestinians will continue to see is the ongoing construction of Israeli settlements on their land, and the disappearance of their future state,” the negotiator warned.

“The construction of over 450 new settlement units is designed to further consolidate Israel’s colonization of the occupied Palestinian territory. For ordinary Palestinians, that means continued forced displacement and the loss of their land, more movement restrictions and greater economic stagnation, the severance of occupied East Jerusalem, the economic and political heart of Palestine, from the rest of the West Bank, and the daily violence, humiliation and injustice of life under occupation. This is not a step towards peace. It is a step back from peace,” Erekat concluded.

Source: Maan News Agency