Wed 14 October 2020:
Israel has approved 2,166 new settler homes across the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, official figures sent to AFP news agency showed, ending an eight-month lull in settlement expansion.
The approvals came less than a month after the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed agreements to normalise relations with Israel, which in return pledged to freeze its plans to annex swathes of the West Bank.
Nongovernmental organization (NGO) Peace Now says the settlement uptick signals Israel’s rejection of Palestinian statehood and deals a blow to hopes of a wider Israeli-Arab peace. “(Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu is moving ahead at full steam toward solidifying the de facto annexation of the West Bank,” it said in a statement ahead of Wednesday’s decisions.
Netanyahu has come under significant pressure from settlers, one of his Likud party’s key constituencies, since signing the normalization deal. As part of the deal, Netanyahu agreed to suspend plans to annex parts of the West Bank, outraging settlers.
U.S. President Donald Trump sees the Gulf accords as part of his broader initiative for Middle East peace. But a controversial plan he unveiled in January gave U.S. blessing to Israeli annexation of large chunks of the West Bank, including the settlements and communities considered illegal under international law.
The two Gulf countries were only the third and fourth Arab states to normalize relations with Israel, following Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994 and Netanyahu has said he sees others following.
Trump sees the Gulf accords as part of his broader initiative for Middle East peace.
On Tuesday, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said a Trump victory will be disastrous for his people – and the world at large.
However, Ibrahim said the reality on the ground – with or without an official declaration of annexation – still amounts to continuous Israeli theft of Palestinian land.
Israel captured the West Bank during the 1967 Mideast war. Since then, more than 700,000 Israelis have moved into settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
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