(REUTERS): Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered to expand Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, an early test for the administration of President-elect Joe Biden who has been a fierce critic of projects built on land that the Palestinians claim for a future state.
The announcement comes as Mr. Netanyahu courts right-wing votes in an upcoming election, and rushes to offer inducements before close ally President Trump leaves office.
“We’re here to stay. We’re continuing to build the land of Israel,” Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday. Moving ahead with the projects could help shore up support for Netanyahu from settlers and their backers in a March 23 election.
According to the announcement by Netanyahu’s office, about 800 homes would be built in the settlements of Beit El and Givat Zeev, north of Jerusalem, and in Tal Menashe, Rehelim, Shavei Shomron, Barkan and Karnei Shomron in the northern West Bank.
An announcement by Netanyahu’s office said about 800 homes would be built in the settlements of Beit El and Givat Zeev, north of Jerusalem, and in Tal Menashe, Rehelim, Shavei Shomron, Barkan and Karnei Shomron in the northern West Bank. It gave no starting date for construction.
“It is an attempt to race against time and benefit from the last days of the current U.S. administration,” Wasel Abu Youssef, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, told an international news agency.
The Donald Trump administration has effectively backed Israel’s right to build West Bank settlements by abandoning a long-held U.S. position that they break international law.
Gayil Talshir, a political scientist at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, said Netanyahu wants the settlement move “to be set in stone before the Biden administration comes into office.
Palestinians seek to establish a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital, all land captured by Israel in a 1967 war. Most countries view Israeli settlements as violating international law.
