Israel to build 1,000 houses for Palestinians in the West …

Israel will approve the construction of new homes for Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, but will also issue construction permits to Palestinians. A spokesman for the Israeli Defense Ministry said Wednesday. There are 2,000 houses in Israeli settlements and 1,000 houses for Palestinians.

This is the first approval for a building permit under the new Israeli Prime Minister Naphtali Bennett. She is expected next week.

‘Under American Pressure’

The country appears to be trying to facilitate international criticism of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories. Israel says it is under US pressure to make concessions to the Palestinians.

Under the UN, the West Bank became Arab territory in 1947, but part of the West Bank has been occupied by Israel since 1967. Israeli settlements there are considered illegal by the Palestinians and most countries.

Exceptional

According to the Israeli human rights organization Peace Now and the US Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Palestinians are allowed to live in Israeli-occupied territory only in exceptional circumstances. The Palestinians have not yet responded to the news.

The West Bank today is divided into three zones: Zone C controlled by the Israelis only, Zone B controlled by Israel and the Palestinians, and Zone C owned by the Palestinians only. Zone C covers 60 percent of the entire region. Of the more than 4,400 Palestinian permit applications, only 98 were approved by Israel between 2009 and 2018, according to Peace Now statistics.

The Palestinians want to establish an independent state with the Gaza Strip. They want East Jerusalem as their capital, but it has been occupied since 1967.

Fidgety

Meanwhile, things remain unresolved on the occupied West Bank. For example, are in beta city Al-Jazeera Daily demonstrations against Israeli settlements.

Last week, the Palestinian Authority reported that the Israeli army had shot dead another protester there. Others were injured. One week ago, about 270 Palestinians were wounded in the funeral of a 12-year-old boy who had been killed the day before by the Israeli army. The boy was in his father’s car at the time of the incident. According to the Israeli military, the father unexpectedly turned his car around, they called him to stop, and a soldier suddenly opened fire. Said the frustrated father Times of Israel Do not expect justice.

There are 2.9 million Palestinians and 391,000 migrants in the West Bank.