In the News May 14

74th Anniversary of Al-Nakba – The Catastrophe

Israel’s Approval of Nearly 4,500 Homes in Illegal Settlements Deserves Condemnation

The Israeli Higher Planning Council for Judea and Samaria (the Israeli name for the West Bank) on May 12 gave its final approval for building 2,536 new settlement units, and allowed plans for an additional 1,452 settlement units to proceed.

The council last met in October 2021, to advance plans for 3,130 settler homes.

In the West Bank city of Ramallah, Bassam al-Salhe, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, urged Palestinians to “step up their struggle in the face of these settlement projects.” He also called on the international community “to take deterrent action against Israel to compel it to stop settlement and its aggression against our Palestinian people.”

Middle East Monitor informs that the plan to construct 4,000 more homes is the biggest advancement of settlement projects since the Biden administration took office.

Israeli settlements are fortified, Israeli-only housing complexes built on Palestinian land in violation of international law. Between 600,000 and 750,000 Israeli settlers live in at least 250 illegal settlements in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem.

(news agencies)

TML Daily, posted May 14, 2022.