‘Israel’ Begins Work on 1st Settlement in 25 Years

Local Editor

Zionist Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced the beginning of building work on the first new ‘Israeli' settlement in the occupied West Bank in 25 years, a day before a visit by Donald Trump's son-in-law and envoy, Jared Kushner to the occupied territories.

The new settlement, known as Amichai, is being built for about 300 hardline residents of the illegal West Bank ‘Israeli' outpost of Amona who were evicted by police in February after a court ruled their houses were on privately owned Palestinian land.

Announcing the beginning of ground-breaking work at the new settlement, Netanyahu wrote on his Twitter feed: "Work began today on-site, as I promised, to establish the new settlement," with a photograph of a mechanical digger working at the site north of Ramallah.

The construction work comes despite a request by Trump at a meeting between the two men in Washington this year to "hold back on settlements for a little bit".

Netanyahu said: "After decades, I have the privilege to be the prime minister who is building a new community in Judea and Samaria [the ‘Israeli' name for the occupied Palestinian territories]."

Amichai will be the first entirely new state-approved settlement constructed in the Palestinian territories since the ‘Israeli'-Palestinian Oslo accords were signed in 1993, although illegal outposts have been constructed in that period and other settlements have expanded.

For his part, Nabil Abu Rdainah, spokesman for the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, called the ground-breaking "a grave escalation and an attempt to foil efforts by the American administration to revive negotiations, especially [before] the arrival of the US envoys".

‘Israeli' settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international and humanitarian law.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team