Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Israel Announces New Settler Homes, Risking Biden's Anger
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 4 years ago on
January 11, 2021

Share

JERUSALEM — Israel on Monday advanced plans to build 800 new settler homes in the occupied West Bank, a move that could strain ties with the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced the move, saying it would include 100 homes in a settlement where an Israeli woman was killed last month in an attack allegedly carried out by a Palestinian assailant.

The announcement will burnish Netanyahu’s right-wing credentials in a tough campaign ahead of March elections, but it could anger Biden, who is opposed to settlement expansion and has clashed with Israel over it in the past.

Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem in the 1967 war, territories the Palestinians want for their future state. Nearly 500,000 Israelis live in settlements scattered across the West Bank. The Palestinians view settlements as a violation of international law and an obstacle to peace, a position with wide international support.

The Palestinian Authority’s Foreign Ministry condemned the latest announcement, accusing Israel of “racing against time” to build settlements before President Donald Trump leaves office.

Trump’s administration provided unprecedented support to Israel, including by abandoning a decades-old U.S. policy of opposing settlements. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last year became the first top U.S. diplomat to visit a West Bank settlement.

Biden has pledged a more even-handed approach in which he will restore aid to the Palestinians that was cut off by Trump and work to revive peace negotiations. The two sides have not held substantive peace talks in more than a decade.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid, who hopes to unseat Netanyahu in March, called the settlement announcement an “irresponsible step” that would spark a “battle” with the new U.S. administration.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a statement at the Israeli Knesset, or Parliament, in Jerusalem, Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2020. Netanyahu said, “We did not want elections, but we will win.” (Yonatan Sindel/Pool Photo via AP)

The Greatest Threat to Netanyahu in the Coming Vote Comes From the Right

“The Biden administration has not yet taken office and the government is already leading us into an unnecessary confrontation,” he tweeted. “The national interest must also be maintained during elections.”

The greatest threat to Netanyahu in the coming vote comes from the right, where Gideon Saar, a former ally and staunch supporter of settlements, has broken away and vowed to end his long rule. Polls show Netanyahu’s Likud winning the most votes but falling short of a majority coalition in Israel’s 120-seat Knesset, or parliament.

The announcement said 100 homes would be built in Tel Manashe, a West Bank settlement where Esther Horgan, a 53-year-old mother of six, was killed last month while jogging in a nearby forest. Israel says it has detained a Palestinian suspect in the attack.

It was not immediately clear how soon the homes would be built, as such construction usually requires approval from several government bodies and a tendering process.

The announcement came as neighboring Egypt hosted the foreign ministers of Jordan, Germany and France to discuss ways of reviving talks aimed at a two-state solution, which is still widely seen as the only way of resolving the decades-old conflict.

Monday’s announcement of Israel’s settlement plans “does not create the environment conducive to the resumption of negotiations that are the only path to a two-state solution,” Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said.

In their joint statement, the ministers called for Israel to “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities, including in east Jerusalem.”

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

What to Know About Pam Bondi, Trump’s New Pick for Attorney General

DON'T MISS

North Korean Leader Says Past Diplomacy Only Confirmed US Hostility

DON'T MISS

Democrats Strike Deal to Get More Biden Judges Confirmed Before Congress Adjourns

DON'T MISS

Newsom Gaslights on Potential Gas Price Hikes in Fresno Visit

DON'T MISS

Automakers to Trump: Please Require Us to Sell Electric Vehicles

DON'T MISS

President Biden Welcomes 2024 NBA Champion Boston Celtics to White House

DON'T MISS

Ohtani Makes History With 3rd MVP, Judge Claims 2nd AL Honor

DON'T MISS

Trump Chooses Pam Bondi for Attorney General Pick After Gaetz Withdraws

DON'T MISS

Average Rate on a 30-Year Mortgage in the US Rises to Highest Level Since July

DON'T MISS

Cutting in Line? American Airlines’ New Boarding Tech Might Stop You at Now Over 100 Airports

UP NEXT

Putin Says Russia Has Tested a New Intermediate Range Missile in a Strike on Ukraine

UP NEXT

What Will Happen to CNBC and MSNBC When They No Longer Have a Corporate Connection to NBC News?

UP NEXT

Pope to Make Late Italian Teenager Carlo Acutis the First Millennial Saint on April 27

UP NEXT

US Vetoes UN Ceasefire Resolution in Gaza Conflict

UP NEXT

Bomb Cyclone Kills 1 and Knocks Out Power to Over Half a Million Homes Across the Northwest US

UP NEXT

Israeli Officials Demand the Right to Strike Hezbollah Under Any Cease-Fire Deal for Lebanon

UP NEXT

Spain Will Legalize Hundreds of Thousands of Undocumented Migrants in the Next 3 Years

UP NEXT

TSMC Walks a Geopolitical Tightrope

UP NEXT

Volunteers Came Back to Nonprofits in 2023, After the Pandemic Tanked Participation

UP NEXT

New Study: Proposed Trump Tariffs Could Cost US Consumers $78 Billion a Year

Newsom Gaslights on Potential Gas Price Hikes in Fresno Visit

9 hours ago

Automakers to Trump: Please Require Us to Sell Electric Vehicles

9 hours ago

President Biden Welcomes 2024 NBA Champion Boston Celtics to White House

9 hours ago

Ohtani Makes History With 3rd MVP, Judge Claims 2nd AL Honor

10 hours ago

Trump Chooses Pam Bondi for Attorney General Pick After Gaetz Withdraws

10 hours ago

Average Rate on a 30-Year Mortgage in the US Rises to Highest Level Since July

10 hours ago

Cutting in Line? American Airlines’ New Boarding Tech Might Stop You at Now Over 100 Airports

11 hours ago

MLB Will Test Robot Umpires at 13 Spring Training Ballparks Hosting 19 Teams

11 hours ago

Death Toll in Gaza From Israel-Hamas War Passes 44,000, Palestinian Officials Say

11 hours ago

Jussie Smollett’s Conviction in 2019 Attack on Himself Is Overturned

11 hours ago

What to Know About Pam Bondi, Trump’s New Pick for Attorney General

NEW YORK — Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general, was chosen Thursday by Donald Trump to serve as U.S. attorney general hours after...

7 hours ago

7 hours ago

What to Know About Pam Bondi, Trump’s New Pick for Attorney General

8 hours ago

North Korean Leader Says Past Diplomacy Only Confirmed US Hostility

8 hours ago

Democrats Strike Deal to Get More Biden Judges Confirmed Before Congress Adjourns

9 hours ago

Newsom Gaslights on Potential Gas Price Hikes in Fresno Visit

President Joe Biden with Mary Barra, the chief executive of General Motors, at the Detroit Auto Show, Sept. 14, 2022. President-elect Donald Trump has promised to erase the Biden administration’s tailpipe rules designed to get carmakers to produce electric vehicles, but most U.S. automakers want to keep them. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)
9 hours ago

Automakers to Trump: Please Require Us to Sell Electric Vehicles

9 hours ago

President Biden Welcomes 2024 NBA Champion Boston Celtics to White House

10 hours ago

Ohtani Makes History With 3rd MVP, Judge Claims 2nd AL Honor

Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally at First Horizon Coliseum, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024, in Greensboro, NC. (AP/Alex Brandon)
10 hours ago

Trump Chooses Pam Bondi for Attorney General Pick After Gaetz Withdraws

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend