Feeling Protected by Trump, Israel Announces Largest Settlement Plan in Recent Years

posted on: Jan 25, 2017

Lieberman said the majority of the new homes will be built in existing settlement blocs [Reuters]BY: Nisreen Eadeh/Staff Writer

Just days after President Trump took office, Israel announced on Tuesday the construction of 2,500 new settlements in the occupied West Bank. Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed on the construction plans “in response to housing needs.”

Palestinian officials have condemned and rejected the plans, which come exactly one month after the United Nations Security Council voted in favor of a resolution calling for a halt on Israel’s illegal settlement program. In a statement, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said the decision “will disable any attempt to restore security and stability.” He also called it “a provocation and disregard for the Arab world and the international community.”

The plan comes a week after Israel destroyed 11 Palestinian homes in the Israeli city of Qalansawe for allegedly being “illegally built” without proper permits. But Palestinians living in Israel are not granted permits for building new homes or even renovating the ones they have, forcing them to build without permits. In these cases, Israel takes no issue with using the term “illegal” in reference to housing projects, but ignores the international community when it refers to the “Jewish nation-state.”

In reaction to the new settlement plans, Hanan Ashrawi of the Palestinian Liberation Organization said that Israel “is exploiting the inauguration the new American administration to escalate its violations and the prevention of any existence of a Palestinian state.”

The settlements also come shortly after the announcement of 566 new housing units outside of East Jerusalem that were previously delayed by President Obama. Israel feels emboldened by President Trump, who does not object to the settlement program, as opposed to his predecessor.

Lieberman said the units would be built, for the most part, in existing settlement communities. However, approximately 100 units will be built in Beit El, a settlement outside of Ramallah, which has received donations from President Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner in the past. The new plan is one of the largest settlement expansions in recent years, indicating just how safe Israel feels under the protection of President Trump.

When asked about the new settlement units at Tuesdays White House press briefing, Trump’s press secretary Sean Spicer said “Israel continues to be a huge ally of the United States… (Trump) wants to grow closer with Israel to make sure that it gets the full respect that it deserves in the Middle East.”

Now that Trump is in office, Netanyahu has been under pressure from his right-wing government to further annex the West Bank. Jerusalem’s deputy mayor, Meir Turgeman, told AFP news agency “The rules of the game have changed with Donald Trump’s arrival as president… We no longer have our hands tied as in the time of Barack Obama. Now we can finally build.”