OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (The Palestine Foundation Pakistan)
The Israeli occupation government has approved the construction of 1,300 new settler units in the illegal settlement bloc of Gush Etzion in the southeast of Occupied Jerusalem.
According to Israel’s Channel 14, the government’s planning and building committee approved the plan earlier this week.
According to Israel’s Channel 14, the units will be built in the neighborhood of “Russian Compound” to the south of Alon Shvut settlement.
The settlement expansion plan include schools, public buildings, parks, and a large commercial zone expected to serve surrounding settlements, making it the largest settlement expansion plan in the area in recent years.
The decision comes less than a week after US President Donald Trump criticized Israeli settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.
“Don’t worry about the West Bank. Israel’s not going to do anything with the West Bank,” Trump told reporters at the White House on October 24.
His remarks came a day after the Israeli Knesset gave preliminary approval to two draft laws to annex the occupied West Bank and the Ma’ale Adumim settlement bloc, a move that would isolate east Jerusalem from its Palestinian surrounding and divide the West Bank into two.
