Israel approves 6,000 Jewish settler homes

TEL AVIV - Israeli ministers have given rare approval to 700 Palestinian homes in the part of the occupied West Bank under its control while also approving 6,000 homes for Jewish settlers, an Israeli official said Wednesday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the approval by Israel's security cabinet on Tuesday ahead of an expected visit by US President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner.

It was not immediately clear if all of the homes will be new construction or if some already exist and are receiving retroactive approval.

Israel captured the West Bank, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. Palestinians see these areas as being part of their future state. Most of the international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law and an impediment to a two-state solution to the conflict.

The UN has repeatedly upheld the view that Jewish settlements are a violation of the Fourth Geneva convention.

The construction approvals are for the part of the West Bank known as Area C, which is under Israeli security and civilian control and where its illegal settlements are located.

The administrative division of Palestinian areas was set out in the Oslo II accords in 1995, in order to carry out practical administrative functions until the achievement of a final status accord between Israel and Palestine.

However, since then successive Israeli governments have pushed a settlement program that functionally prevents the establishment of a cohesive Palestinian state. Area C accounts for more than 60 percent of the West Bank, the Palestinian territory that would form part of the future Palestinian state under the so-called two-state solution.

Peace Now, an Israeli organization opposed to West Bank settlements, said in a statement that the approval of 700 housing units for Palestinians "is a mockery" because it "will not provide real answers to Palestinians who already live in Area C, and certainly will not help the entire West Bank to be developed as a Palestinian area."

Walid Assaf, the Palestinian Authority official who monitors Israeli settlements, said the approvals were "vague and incomprehensible."

He said the approval of 700 Palestinian homes was partly a cover up "for the construction of 6,000 settlement units to complete the outer envelope of Jerusalem, isolating it from the Palestinian territories."

Deal of the century

Israel rarely grants approvals for Palestinian construction in Area C but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has approved the construction of tens of thousands of settler homes.

Touring new construction in the West Bank settlement of Efrat, south of Jerusalem, Netanyahu said Wednesday that "not a single settlement or a single settler will ever be uprooted."

Transportation Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a religious nationalist in Netanyahu's right-wing government, wrote on Facebook that he backed the construction of Palestinian housing in Area C because "it prevents the establishment of a terrorist Arab state in the heart of the land" and asserts Israeli sovereignty over Area C.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, responded to the Israeli decision by saying the Palestinians have the right to build on all territory occupied in 1967 "without needing a permit from anyone."

"We will not give any legitimacy to the construction of any settlement," he added.

The Foreign Ministry in Ramallah called the announcement "evidence of the dark colonial mentality of the rulers in Israel who ignore all United Nations resolutions, international law and signed agreements".

The plan for 700 Palestinian homes, though relatively small and far outweighed by the new settlement units, appears calibrated to allow Netanyahu to argue he is making efforts in favour of Kushner's long-awaited peace plan.

The White House unveiled economic aspects of the plan at a conference in Bahrain in June, but it was boycotted by the Palestinian government.

The Kushner plan has been dubbed the "deal of the century" by Palestinians in mockery of Donald Trump's bombastic rhetoric. Trump, who has previously said on the campaign trail that he is the "best deal maker", told his supporters that a peace deal between Palestine and Israel would be the "ultimate deal" to make.

But his as-yet-unannounced peace plan has already been rejected out of hand by the Palestinian Authority who have cut off all contact with the Trump administration, saying its policies are unfairly biased toward Israel.

They point to moves by the Trump administration to recognise the occupied city of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and to cut all US funding to Palestinians, including to the key UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA.

Trump officials have echoed the view of Israeli officials that the descendants of Palestinian refugees, who were ethnically cleansed from their land by European Jewish settlers during the creation of the Israeli state, should abandon their demand to return to their former homes.

Israeli officials would rather these refugees were absorbed by Arab states, arguing that an influx of millions of Palestinian refugees would spell an end to the "Jewish State". The issue of Palestinian refugees in Arab states, however, carries its own political baggage, and the Palestinian "right of return" is seen by many Arabs as a pillar of the Palestinian national cause.

'Up until the point'

The Trump administration's Mideast team is also spearheaded by people with close ties to Israel's settler movement. Jared Kushner's family foundation has financed illegal Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian territory, while Trump's ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, recently told the New York Times that Israel has the "right" to annex some of the West Bank.

Both critics and supporters of the settlements say the White House's friendly attitude has encouraged a jump in settlement activity. A planned Jewish settlement has even been dubbed "Trump Heights" in reference to the US president's decision to recognise Israel sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is considered by the international community to be occupied Syrian territory.

Following a previous announcenment on new settler houses in April, the European Union reiterated that all settlement activity was illegal under international law. It eroded the viability of a two-state solution and the prospects for a lasting peace, the EU said.

Kushner is returning to the Middle East this week to promote the administration's call for a $50 billion economic support plan for the Palestinians, which would accompany the Mideast peace plan that the administration has yet to release. Details on the visit were not yet made available.

Kushner has said his plan will not mention a two-state solution because "it means one thing to the Israelis, it means one thing to the Palestinians."

Friedman said the United States was in favour of Palestinian "autonomy," but he signalled Washington was not ready for now to support full statehood - similar to Netanyahu's position.

"The issue we have is agreeing in advance to a state because the word state conjures up with it so many potential issues that we think it does a disservice for us to use that phrase," he said.

"We believe that autonomy should be extended up until the point where it interferes with Israeli security, and it's a very complicated needle to thread."

He echoed an Israeli right-wing talking point that the Palestinian Authority may currently be too weak to prevent militant groups from overrunning it, resulting in a "failed state" that threatens Israel and neighbouring Jordan.

Israel says that Palestinian intransigence, violence and incitement are the main impediments to peace.