New housing projects are seen in the West Bank Israeli settlement of Givat Ze'ev, June 18, 2023
ISRAELI government proposals to build 3,500 new homes for settlers in the occupied West Bank took a step forward today, when far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that the project had received planning permission.
“We continue to build the country!” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, after the scheme received approval from the Higher Planning Council, which authorises West Bank construction. “The enemies try to hurt and weaken us, but we will continue to build.”
The decision concerns 300 new homes in the Kedar settlement and 2,350 in Maale Adumim. It also advances a previously approved plan to build nearly 700 homes in Efrat to its final approval stage.
Bezalel Smotrich’s measures to extend Israeli property law into the West Bank are a continuation of a decades-long project to dispossess Palestinians and preclude statehood, argues HUGH LANNING
Israeli media awash with leaks and rumours of Netanyahu’s plans to seize Gaza. Meanwhile, the unrelenting siege of Gaza continues unabated