Israel’s Illegal Settlement Approvals in 2020 Highest on Record
The director of the Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem (ARIJ), Jad Isaac, told the Voice of Palestine radio station that Israeli authorities endorsed plans for 10,000 more units in various parts of the West Bank this year, in addition to the legalization of dozens of settlement outposts.
Isaac added that these approvals make 2020 the highest year on record in terms of units in settlement plans.
He highlighted that Israeli officials seek to impose sovereignty on more Palestinian lands, convert occupied West Bank towns and cities into isolated cantons and connect illegal settlements together, all of which represent an apartheid system, Press TV reported.
Speaking at a weekly cabinet meeting in Ramallah on December 28, Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh called on the international community to put a stop to Israel’s settlement plans in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The international community should oblige the occupying Israeli regime to stop its colonial projects in Palestinian lands, and to abide by United Nations Security Council resolution 2334, he added.
Shtayyeh regretted that the upcoming election campaign in Israel will focus on expansion of settlements built in the occupied Palestinian territories, just as in all previous campaigns.
He called on United Nations organizations operating in Palestine to organize teams and protect Palestinians in the West Bank against settler attacks, which he said are being carried out under the eyes of Israeli military forces.
More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.
The UN Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.
