Jerusalem Announces West Bank Settlement Construction, Angering Left And Right
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JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Israeli government advanced plans for the construction of more than 1,000 housing units in the West Bank on Wednesday, drawing condemnations from both the political left and the settlement movement itself.
Construction on 382 of the 1,400 units will be able to begin immediately, while the others will require several more approvals before breaking ground. A number of the units are slated to be built in isolated settlements, Haaretz reported.
Settlement expansion is “like sticking a finger in the eye of any possible peace process,” said Tamar Zandberg, chairwoman of the left-wing Meretz party. “The government doesn’t care about Israeli interests, only about the interests of settlers.”
The Yesha Council, which represents the settlement movement, complained that the Netanyahu administration was limiting settlement expansion.
“This is the smallest number of units that the committee has advanced in the last year-and-a-half,” the council said in a statement reported by The Jerusalem Post.
The Knesset’s Land of Israel Caucus also protested the decision, saying that “the government decided to authorize fledgling communities, it must implement the decision more energetically and actively promote the regulation of these communities, and not go the opposite way.”
The Israeli army’s Civil Administration was expected to legalize two West Bank outposts on Wednesday but ultimately refrained.
The Israeli right initially greeted President Donald Trump’s 2016 electoral victory as the end of Obama-era curbs on settlement construction. However, it soon became apparent that limits still existed.
Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at fisher@forward.com, or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher
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