WEST BANK (Dispatches) – The Zionist regime’s radical cabinet on Sunday tabled plans to approve thousands of building permits in the occupied West Bank.
The plans for approval of 4,560 housing units in various areas of the West Bank were included on the agenda of the regime’s supreme planning council that meets next week, although only 1,332 are up for final approval, with the remainder still going through the preliminary clearance process.
“We will continue to develop the settlement of and strengthen the Israeli hold on the territory,” said finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also holds a portfolio at the war ministry that gives him a leading role in the West Bank administration.
Most countries deem the settlements, built on land occupied by the Zionist regime in the 1967 Middle East war, as illegal. Their presence is one of the fundamental issues in the Zionist-Palestinian conflict.
Palestinians seek to establish an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Al-Quds as their capital. Peace talks have been frozen since 2014.
Since entering office in January, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition has approved the promotion of more than 7,000 new housing units, most deep in the West Bank.
It also amended a law to clear the way for settlers to return to four settlements that had previously been evacuated.
In response to Sunday’s decision, the Palestinian Authority - which exercises self-rule in parts of the West Bank - said it would boycott a meeting of the Joint Economic Committee with the occupying regime scheduled for Monday.
“We decided to boycott the meeting of the Joint Economic Committee between the two parties, which was scheduled to be held tomorrow,” Hussein al-Sheikh, Secretary of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)’s Executive Committee, said in a statement on Sunday.
Al-Sheikh said the Palestinian Authority will “study a number of other measures and decisions for implementation related to the relationship with Israel.”
The Gaza-based Palestinian resistance movement Hamas condemned the move, saying it “will not give (the occupying regime) legitimacy over our land. Our people will resist it by all means”.
In a statement, Hamas warned that the Zionist regime’s decision will lead to further escalation in the region.
Estimates indicate that about 700,000 settlers are living in 164 settlements and 116 outposts in the occupied West Bank.