News / Palestine

Israel to endorse 2,000 unauthorized settler homes in occupied West Bank

Sunday, 30 June 2019 5:33 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 30 June 2019 5:59 PM ]

This picture taken on June 6, 2019 shows buildings under construction in Gilo settlement in the mainly Palestinian eastern sector of Jerusalem al-Quds with the occupied West Bank land of Beit Jala in the background. (Photo by AFP)

Israeli officials are going to authorize thousands of the settler homes built illegally in the occupied West Bank, as the Tel Aviv regime continues its land expropriation and settlement expansion policies in the occupied Palestinian territories irrespective of the international outcry.

The English-language Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz reported on Sunday that District Court Judge Carmi Mossek has accepted a legal theory produced by the regime, which would pave the way for the legalization of settlement homes built on privately owned Palestinian land.

The report added that the move would provide judicial grounds for the legalization of up to 2,000 homes in the northern sector of the West Bank, including those erected in Alei Zahav settlement.

About 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.

The UN Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.

This picture taken on June 6, 2019 shows buildings under construction in Gilo settlement in the mainly Palestinian eastern sector of Jerusalem al-Quds with the occupied West Bank land of Beit Jala in the background. (Photo by AFP)

Less than a month before US President Donald Trump took office, the United Nations Security Council in December 2016 adopted Resolution 2334, calling on Israel to “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem” al-Quds.

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.

The last round of Israeli-Palestinian talks collapsed in 2014. Among the major sticking points in those negotiations was Israel’s continued settlement expansion on Palestinian territories.

Trump backtracked on Washington’s support for a “two-state solution” in 2017, saying he would support any solution favored by both sides.

“Looking at two-state or one-state, I like the one that both parties like. I’m very happy with the one both parties like. I can live with either one,” the US president said during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington on February 15, 2017.

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