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Tel Aviv to Announce Plans For Thousands of New Settlement Units in West Bank

By Connor Freeman | Libertarian Institute | June 12, 2023

Israel has informed the White House that it intends to announce the planning and building of thousands of new settlement units in the occupied West Bank later this month, according to US and Israeli officials speaking to Axios. One of the sources told the outlet, at a minimum, the plan includes 4,000 new housing units being built in existing West Bank settlements.

The Joe Biden administration is ostensibly opposed to these moves as the settlements are seen as undermining prospects for a two-state solution in Palestine. However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition includes extremist settlers dead set on substantial colonial expansion, eyeing annexation of the West Bank, and this has not diminished US support.

According to the report, the White House wants Tel Aviv to either cancel its plans or at least tone down the announcement to draw as little attention as possible. This seems unlikely even though the US provides almost $4 billion per year to Israel in military aid.

Jewish only colonies, or settlements, which continue to be built inside these territories – militarily occupied for almost sixty years – are illegal per international law. This is a view shared by most of the world community, including in Middle Eastern capital cities like Riyadh where Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently urged Gulf Cooperation Council foreign ministers to normalize with the Israeli apartheid state.

The Israeli government is also facing criticism from its supporters for temporarily shelving a meeting to discuss a plan for settlement expansion in the West Bank’s E1 area. Located between Jerusalem and the Maale Adumim settlement, the area is highly sensitive. If a Jewish-only settlement is built there it would remove any remaining territorial contiguity between the northern and southern West Bank. Thus, these additional “facts on the ground” would make a future Palestinian state even more unviable.

On Monday, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the extremist leader of the Religious Zionism party, vowed “we will have big news for the settlements in the West Bank imminently.” Smotrich holds sweeping powers over the West Bank including the approval of new settlements and the demolition of Palestinian homes.

2022 was one of the deadliest years for Palestinians in the West Bank since 2005, according to the UN. Since taking power last December, the current regime in Israel has waged a brutal bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip which murdered 33 people, while Israeli forces and settlers have killed at least 119 Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem so far this year.

Muhammad Tamimi, a two-year old Palestinian boy from the Nabi Saleh village in the West Bank, succumbed to his wounds last Monday after he was shot in the head by the Israeli army.

June 12, 2023 - Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | , , , ,

2 Comments »

  1. Noted; well reported. Slow-motion genocide in the making. Goddam the effing Zionists and their enablers (primarily the US, sucking up to the Zionist enterprise that victimizes the Palestinians excruciatingly, with impunity).

    “The Israeli government is also facing criticism from its supporters for temporarily shelving a meeting to discuss a plan for settlement expansion in the West Bank’s E1 area. Located between Jerusalem and the Maale Adumim settlement, the area is highly sensitive. If a Jewish-only settlement is built there it would remove any remaining territorial contiguity between the northern and southern West Bank.” I remember that, in the 2004-6 time window, a mentor and friend — he had visited the OPT many times — told me and others of “Maale Adumim” that had just become part of the Zionist playbook as an opportunistic/exploitable “wedge.” He advised that, If MA were allowed to entrench, expand and fulfill the Zionists’ wet dreams in that sector/area, a dagger would have been thrust into the Palestinians’ heart with fatal consequences. I filed his angst away, and his angst became mine. Now, though I don’t know in any detail what Zio schemes and metastasizing have been in play since those 20 years ago, it seems sure that the dagger is about to be thrust, twisted sadistically for maximum effect, and Zio-celebrated as a “game over” fact on the [unholy] ground….

    Like

    Comment by roberthstiver | June 13, 2023 | Reply

  2. Gawd’s Chosen Psychopaths are still perpetuating their evil dirty tricks! When will the Western World notice?

    Liked by 1 person

    Comment by papasha408 | June 13, 2023 | Reply


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