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Settlement bid proves Israel’s disrespect for int’l will: AL

Wednesday, 25 January 2017 2:29 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 25 January 2017 4:42 PM ]

Laborers work at the construction site of new structures in the illegal Israeli settlement of Ariel near the West Bank city of Nablus on January 25, 2017. (Photos by AFP)

The Arab League (AL) has condemned Israel’s fresh settlement construction plans in the occupied Palestinian lands, accusing the Tel Aviv regime of adopting a policy in complete disregard of widespread calls to end such illegal activities.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the 22-member regional organization of Arab countries said Israel’s announcement of the construction of 2,500 new settler units in the occupied West Bank confirms the regime’s “approach, which is full of contempt and defiance for the will of the international (community).”

AL Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit accused Tel Aviv of "causing all efforts to implement the [so-called] two-state solution to fail."

The administration of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was feeling "strengthened" by "recent international developments,” he added in implicit reference to the election of pro-Israel Donald Trump as the US president.

On Tuesday, the Israeli ministry of military affairs said that the regime officials had endorsed the construction plans, with most of the structures expected to be built inside the existing settlement blocs in the West Bank.

The announcement sparked widespread condemnation.

Read more:

‘Israel revs up settlement push during Trump presidency’

Israel has approved a total of some 3,000 settler homes in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds since Trump's inauguration last week, reports say.

"Netanyahu is taking advantage of the presidential transition in the United States in order to appease the settlers, a small minority of the Israeli public, and score political points with his right flank," said the Peace Now settlement watchdog group.

Palestinian activists hold national flags during a demonstration against the construction of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank on January 20, 2017, near the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, East Jerusalem al-Quds.

Over 230 illegal settlements have been constructed since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. The illegal structures have hampered attempts to establish peace in the Middle East.

In December 2016, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 2334 that denounced the Israeli settlements as a “flagrant violation of international law.”

Israeli authorities regularly carry out demolitions of Palestinian homes in what is considered as an attempt to uproot Palestinians from their native territories, and expropriate more land for the expansion of illegal settlements.

Israeli forces have demolished over 48,000 Palestinian homes and buildings since the 1967 occupation of the Palestinian lands, according to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.

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