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| Israel approves additional 3,000 settlement homes in West Bank | Israel approves additional 3,000 settlement homes in West Bank |
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| Israel has announced plans to build 3,000 new homes in West Bank settlements, pressing forward with a construction binge that began after the inauguration of Donald Trump as US president. | Israel has announced plans to build 3,000 new homes in West Bank settlements, pressing forward with a construction binge that began after the inauguration of Donald Trump as US president. |
| The announcement comes as Israel prepares to uproot an illegal settlement outpost in the West Bank. It appears to be aimed at calming settler anger over the impending court-ordered evacuation of the Amona outpost, which was built two decades ago on private Palestinian land. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline coalition is dominated by settlers and their allies. | |
| In a late-night statement on Tuesday, Israel’s defense ministry said the latest construction was approved by the defense minister, Avigdor Lieberman, and prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. It comes days after the government approved an additional 2,500 homes in the West Bank and hundreds more in East Jerusalem. | In a late-night statement on Tuesday, Israel’s defense ministry said the latest construction was approved by the defense minister, Avigdor Lieberman, and prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. It comes days after the government approved an additional 2,500 homes in the West Bank and hundreds more in East Jerusalem. |
| The Palestinians claim both areas, occupied by Israel in the 1967 war, as parts of a future state. | The Palestinians claim both areas, occupied by Israel in the 1967 war, as parts of a future state. |
| The international community considers settlements illegal. But Trump has signaled that he will abandon the policies of his predecessors and be far friendlier toward settlements. He has appointed a prominent US supporter of the settlements to be his ambassador to Israel, and a delegation of settler leaders was invited to his inauguration. | |
| This has emboldened Netanyahu, who repeatedly clashed with President Barack Obama over settlements, to announce a series of construction plans over the past week and a half. The Trump White House has remained silent, a dramatic departure from the vocal condemnations issued by Obama. | |
| “We are in a new period in which life in Judea and Samaria [the term Israel uses to refer to the West Bank] is back on track,” Lieberman said in a statement. | |
| Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with Trump at the White House on 15 February, and the two men are expected to seek understandings on Israeli construction plans for the West Bank. | |
| The announcement followed a military order, dated Monday, for residents of Amona to evacuate the area within 48 hours. Israeli media said residents could be removed as early as Wednesday morning. | |
| Israel’s supreme court ruled in 2014 that Amona was built on private Palestinian land and must be demolished. It has set 8 February as the final date for it to be destroyed. | |
| Amona is the largest of about 100 unauthorized outposts erected in the West Bank without permission but generally tolerated by the Israeli government. | |
| The outpost, built in the 1990s, stretches out over a rugged, grassy hilltop and looks out across the valley on to Palestinian villages. | |
| The Ynet news site said Israeli forces had cordoned off the outpost, but hundreds of youths managed to infiltrate to resist the impending evacuation. | |
| In 2006, Israeli police demolished nine homes at Amona, setting off clashes pitting settlers and their supporters against police and soldiers. Several dozen trailers have remained and the outpost has become a symbol for the settlement movement. | |
| Its fate has threatened to rupture Netanyahu’s narrow coalition, which is dominated by ultranationalists who support settlements. | |
| Netanyahu has struggled to find a balance between appeasing his settler constituents and respecting Israel’s supreme court, which has drawn the ire of hardliners by ruling against the settlers. |