Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unleashed a large-scale construction campaign in the occupied West Bank by announcing a decision to build new Israeli settlements in all over the occupied West Bank. He said, “We are building both inside and outside settlements along their borders.
His statement coincided with the announcement of the "Supreme Planning Committee in the Civil Administration in the army of the occupation that they will establish about two thousand new housing units in a number of settlements and another larger project attributed to the Minister of Housing and Construction to build 67 thousand housing units stretching from the east of Tel Aviv, even the West Bank settlements.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised on Tuesday to continue building settlements in the West Bank and called himself the first prime minister in decades, who will promote building a new Jewish settlement there.
"We will continue to safeguard the settlement enterprise and strengthen it. No one will be uprooted from his home… I am doing all that is necessary in order to preserve the settlement in Judea and Samaria (Israeli name of the West Bank). We can safeguard the settlement enterprise without bringing a catastrophe on it, if we work together. The past has proven that when we worked together we succeeded, and when we split up, the State of Israel was harmed," Netanyahu said at a special event in the parliament commemorating 50 years since the Six-Day War and the renewal of Jewish settlement in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley, as quoted by parliament's press service.
According to Netanyahu, it is an honor to be the first Israeli prime minister in decades building a new settlement in Judea and Samaria.
The Israeli settlement policy is among key stumbling blocks for revival of the peace process between Israel and Palestine, which is seeking diplomatic recognition for its independence on the territories of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, which are partially occupied by Israel, and the Gaza Strip. The Israeli government refuses to recognize Palestine as an independent political and diplomatic entity and continues to build settlements in the occupied areas, despite objections from the United Nations.
In the same context, An Israeli defense ministry building panel on Thursday approved the building of 102 homes in Amichai, which will be first government-sanctioned Israeli settlement in the West Bank for the past 25 years. The settlement will be built between the Shiloh and Eli settlements north of Ramallah and will be used to house the former residents of Amona, an illegal outpost destroyed by Israel.
Amichai is part of a previously approved plan that has been put on hold but that would create about 2,600 residential units in the West Bank. The approval for the new Amichai settlement was announced by Arutz Sheva (Channel 7), the settlers' movement broadcaster. The project has yet to be fully planned.
The residents of the illegal Amona outpost - who will be moving into the new complex in line with commitments made by Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu in February when Among was demolished - have up until now been living in the nearby Ofra and Shiloh settlements in the West Bank. A spokesman for Amona residents quoted by Arutz Sheva said that the community was ''happy about the authorization to begin the work, though for now it is only infrastructure and not the buildings themselves''.
The overall plan for 2,600 residential units that Amichai is part of was approved last week. Local media said that most of them will be in the largest settlements that were previously frozen for various reasons, including US president Donald Trump's recent visit to Israel.