The far-right Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu has on Monday approved the construction of more than 5,000 new housing units in settlements in the West Bank, territory that Israel has occupied since the end of the Six-Day War in 1967 and which most of the international community believes belong to the Palestinians.
The decision follows a spate of violence in the West Bank between Israeli settlers and Palestinians, and growing US criticism of Israel’s settlement policies, which see settlement expansion as an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians. According to a US national security spokesman, this decision hinders “the possibility of a two-state solution and further damages the trust between the two sides”.
Since his re-election last year, Netanyahu’s government of nationalist and ultra-Orthodox parties has promised to expand settlements in the West Bank. According to Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement group, they have been built 13,000 new homes within the territory, about triple those built last year.