Israel approves first West Bank settlement construction since normalization deals
Israel’s West Bank Civil Administration gave its final approval for more than 1,300 housing units in the West Bank and more are expected to follow.
For the first time since inking normalization deals with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain last month, Israel has announced plans to build new settlement units in the West Bank.
Israel’s West Bank Civil Administration, which approves settlement planning and construction, issued its final approval for 1,313 new housing units and advanced plans for an additional 853 on Wednesday. The body’s planning committee is expected to approve roughly 2,000 more units when it reconvenes on Thursday.
Some 450,000 Jewish settlers and three million Palestinians currently live in the West Bank. The settlements, built on territory captured in the 1967 war, are widely viewed as a violation of international law and a threat to a possible two-state solution.
Under the recent US-brokered normalization deals, Israel agreed to suspend plans to formally annex large portions of the West Bank in exchange for cooperation on a range of issues with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Since signing the so-called Abraham Accords, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been under growing pressure from settler leaders to make good on his campaign promise of more settlement construction.
