Israel announces a settlement critics say will sever the West Bank in two
By Ohad Zwigenberg and Melanie Lidman, Associated Press
Maale Adumim, West Bank (AP) – The far -right minister of Israel announced on Thursday the approval of the controversial construction of new colonies in the West Bank, Palestinians and defense groups for Palestinians and Palestinian Defense Groups in two parts.
The Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, boasted that construction, which should receive final approval later this month, could thwart Palestinian state plans. It has come that many countries, including Australia, Great Britain, France and Canada, will recognize a Palestinian state in September.
The construction of an extent of land east of Jerusalem named E1 has been studying for more than two decades, and is particularly controversial because it is one of the last geographic links between the main cities of the western Walm of Ramallah and Bethlehem.
The two cities are 14 miles from air. But once an Israeli colony is over, the Palestinians would have to move between the cities to travel several kilometers from their path and go through several checkpoints.
“This reality finally buries the idea of a Palestinian state, because there is nothing to recognize and no one to recognize,” said Smotrich during a ceremony on Thursday. “Anyone in the world today trying to recognize a Palestinian state-will receive a response from us on the ground,” he said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not publicly comment on the plan on Thursday, but he presented it in the past.
The development in E1 was frozen for so long in large part due to the American pressure during the previous administrations. Smotrich congratulated President Donald Trump and the American ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Thursday as “real friends of Israel that we have never had before”.
The E1 plan should receive final approval on August 20, capping 20 years of bureaucratic disputes. The planning committee of August 6 rejected all the petitions to stop the construction filed by groups for defense of rights and activists. Although certain bureaucratic steps remain, if the process moves quickly, the infrastructure work could start in the coming months and the construction of houses could start in about a year.
Approval is a “colonial, expansionist and racist decision,” said Ahmed Al Deek, the political advisor to the Palestinian Minister of Foreign Minister on Thursday.
“It is the framework of the plans of the extremist Israeli government to undermine any possibility of establishing a Palestinian state on the ground, to fragment the West Bank and to separate its southern part of the center and from the north,” said Al Deek.
Rights defense groups also quickly sentenced the plan. Peace now called him “deadly for the future of Israel and for any chance of obtaining a peaceful solution to two states” which “guarantees many years of bloodshed”.
The announcement comes as the Palestinian authority and the Arab countries condemned the declaration of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday in an interview that he was “very” attached to the vision of a great Israel. He did not develop, but the supporters of the idea believe that Israel should control not only occupied West Bank but certain parts of the Arab countries.
The plans of Israel to extend the colonies are part of an increasingly difficult reality for the Palestinians in occupied West Bank, because the attention of the world is concentrated on Gaza. There was a marked increase in settlers against the Palestinians, expulsions from Palestinian cities and control points that suffocate freedom of movement. There have also been several Palestinian attacks against the Israelis during the war.
More than 700,000 Israelis now live in occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, the territories captured by Israel in 1967 and sought by the Palestinians for a future state. The international community considers massively the construction of Israeli colonies in these areas such as obstacles and obstacles to peace.
The Israeli government is dominated by religious and ultra -nationalist politicians with close ties to the colonial movement. The Minister of Finance Smotrich, previously the head of the Brands settlers, obtained the authority at the level of the cabinet on the settlement policies and promised to double the population of settlers in the West Bank.
Israel has captured the West Bank, Jerusalem-Est and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East War. The Palestinians claimed the three territories for a future independent state.
Israel annexed East Jerusalem and claims it as part of its capital, which is not internationally recognized. He indicates that the West Bank is disputed territory whose fate should be determined by negotiations, while Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.
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