Israel set to approve 4,000 settler items in occupied West Bank | Occupied West Bank Information

If accepted, it will be the biggest development of illegal settlement plans since US President Joe Biden took workplace.

Israel is set to advance plans for the development of 4,000 unlawful settler houses in the occupied West Bank, the interior minister has said.

Interior minister Ayelet Shaked, a staunch supporter of settlements, wrote in a Tweet on Friday that a planning committee would convene next week to approve 4,000 houses, calling construction within the West Bank a “primary, required and obvious thing”.

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported that the Civil Administration, a army body, would meet Thursday to advance 1,452 units, and that another 2,536 models would be permitted by defence minister Benny Gantz.

Israeli settlements are fortified, Jewish-only housing complexes constructed on Palestinian land in violation of worldwide law. Between 600,000 and 750,000 Israeli settlers reside in a minimum of 250 unlawful settlements in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem.

If accepted, it might be the most important advancement of settlement plans since US President Joe Biden took workplace. The White House is opposed to settlement growth because it further erodes the potential for an eventual two-state resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian battle.

US ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides was quoted by local media on Friday as saying the Biden administration has repeatedly made it clear to Israel during the previous week that it strongly opposes any further settlement growth exercise.

The transfer comes ahead of a planned visit by Biden to Israel, slated for June.

Issa Amro, a Palestinian activist and founding father of the Youth Against Settlements NGO, instructed Al Jazeera that the approval of 4,000 new settler properties would imply “more Israeli settler violence in the direction of Palestinians within the West Bank” and extra “restrictions and apartheid polices” to be imposed on the Palestinians.

“It's an indicator that Israel is violating worldwide law with impunity and with out accountability, and it exhibits that the worldwide community is using double requirements with Israel,” Amro said.

He added the move also makes Palestinians feel “more upset and hopeless” towards the Biden administration.

Israel accredited the construction of 3,000 settler properties in October regardless of another US rebuke. Authorities have, nevertheless, paused some particularly controversial projects within the wake of sturdy US opposition.

Israeli settlement expansion in the West Financial institution and East Jerusalem has continued below every Israeli government since Israel captured the territories within the 1967 Center East battle.

Nevertheless, construction accelerated in the previous few years under former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with a big boom during Trump’s US administration, which Palestinians accused of having a robust pro-Israel bias.

Settler attacks against Palestinians and their property are a daily occurrence within the West Financial institution, house to just about three million Palestinians.

The Palestinian leadership wants the West Bank as part of a future state and views the illegal settlements as a significant obstacle to any potential deal.

Earlier this year, Amnesty Worldwide and Human Rights Watch mentioned Israel is committing the crime of apartheid against Palestinians within the occupied Palestinian territories (OPT).

Since its institution in 1948, Israel has pursued a coverage of creating and maintaining a “Jewish demographic majority”, Amnesty stated. Israel also exercises full management over land and resources to profit Jewish Israelis, together with those in illegal settlements.

Further reporting by Farah Najjar.