“Israel” Plans Thousands of New Settlement Units

By Staff, Agencies

The “Israeli” entity has announced a plan for thousands of new illegal settlement units in the occupied West Bank as Washington voiced readiness to back de facto “Israeli” annexations there.

United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo plans to visit the “Israeli” entity next week, a source said, a sign that he is weighing in on a territorial issue that has been a centerpiece of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition-building efforts.

Netanyahu wants to ally with political rival Benny Gantz and start cabinet discussions on July 1 about declaring "Israeli" sovereignty over settlements and the strategically key Jordan Valley in the West Bank.

The unity government deal has been contested in the “Israeli” entity’s top court.

Fresh construction for the settlement of Efrat was approved on land that could accommodate around 7,000 units, the entity’s War Minister Naftali Bennett's office said on Wednesday.

"The building momentum in the country must not be stopped, even for a second," tweeted Bennett, in Netanyahu's current caretaker government.

The settlements are deemed illegal by most world powers and condemned by the Palestinians, who see all the West Bank, which the entity captured in a 1967 war, as part of their future state.

The US has offered to recognize so-called “Israeli” sovereignty in the West Bank as part of a proposal US President Donald Trump unveiled in February, which also envisages talks on founding a Palestinian state in up to 70 percent of the territory.

Pompeo planned to visit the entity for one day next week and meet Netanyahu, a conservative, as well as the centrist Gantz, a person briefed on the trip said, without elaborating on the agenda.

The US Department of State had no immediate comment.

The Palestinians say the plan is biased against them, and have boycotted Washington's mediation efforts since it recognized al-Quds [Jerusalem] as the entity’s so-called capital in late 2017.

"The Trump Administration's Annexation plan endorses everything that the illegal ‘Israeli’ colonial-settlement enterprise is about: A racist narrative, violations of international law and the perpetuation of the denial of Palestinian rights," Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said.