Zionist Regime Approves 1st Settler Units Since Arab Deals
WEST BANK (Dispatches) – The Zionist regime approved 2,166 new illegal settler unites across the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, official figures sent to AFP news agency showed, ending an eight-month lull in settlement expansion.
The approvals came less than a month after the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed agreements to normalize relations with the Zionist regime, which in return pledged to freeze its plans to annex swathes of the West Bank.
Under international law, settlements are considered illegal. Palestinian officials and much of the international community view them as the main obstacle to ending the conflict between the two sides.
NGO Peace Now says the settlement uptick signals the occupying regime’s rejection of Palestinian statehood and deals a blow to hopes of a wider solution.
It said about 2,000 more homes were expected to be approved on Thursday.
"[Zionist prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is moving ahead at full steam toward solidifying the de facto annexation of the West Bank,” it said in a statement ahead of Wednesday’s decisions.
But a controversial plan Netanyahu unveiled in January gave U.S. blessing to the regime’s annexation of large chunks of the West Bank, including the settlements.
The two Arab regimes were only the third and fourth in the Arab world to normalize relations with the Zionist regime, following Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed he sees others following.
The Palestinians condemned the accords and quit the rotating presidency of the Arab League in protest at its failure to take a stand against them.
The treacherous agreements broke with years of Arab League policy on the Zionist-Palestinian conflict which made its resolution a precondition for normalizing ties with the regime.
The approvals came less than a month after the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed agreements to normalize relations with the Zionist regime, which in return pledged to freeze its plans to annex swathes of the West Bank.
Under international law, settlements are considered illegal. Palestinian officials and much of the international community view them as the main obstacle to ending the conflict between the two sides.
NGO Peace Now says the settlement uptick signals the occupying regime’s rejection of Palestinian statehood and deals a blow to hopes of a wider solution.
It said about 2,000 more homes were expected to be approved on Thursday.
"[Zionist prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is moving ahead at full steam toward solidifying the de facto annexation of the West Bank,” it said in a statement ahead of Wednesday’s decisions.
But a controversial plan Netanyahu unveiled in January gave U.S. blessing to the regime’s annexation of large chunks of the West Bank, including the settlements.
The two Arab regimes were only the third and fourth in the Arab world to normalize relations with the Zionist regime, following Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed he sees others following.
The Palestinians condemned the accords and quit the rotating presidency of the Arab League in protest at its failure to take a stand against them.
The treacherous agreements broke with years of Arab League policy on the Zionist-Palestinian conflict which made its resolution a precondition for normalizing ties with the regime.