Israel approves 770 new E. Jerusalem settlement units

By Anees Barghouti

JERUSALEM (AA) - The Israeli authorities Wednesday night approved plans to build 770 new Jewish-only settlement units in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, the Israeli press reported Thursday.

According to Hebrew-language daily Haaretz, Israel’s Jerusalem planning committee approved construction of 770 new housing units in East Jerusalem’s Gilo settlement bloc.

Gilo lies beyond the Green Line, which demarcates the border between Israel and the West Bank according to the terms of a 1949 armistice agreement.

"Several additional steps, however, must still be taken by the authorities before the construction process can begin," the paper reported.

According to Haaretz, the settlement-expansion plan was first presented in 2012 but did not receive formal approval until Wednesday.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the Jewish state in a move never recognized by the international community.

Palestinians have long accused Israel of waging an aggressive campaign to "Judaize" Jerusalem (Al-Quds in Arabic) with the aim of effacing its historical Arab and Islamic identity and driving out its Palestinian inhabitants.

-Legitimizing settlements

In a related development, the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) on Wednesday night approved the first reading of a controversial bill that would legitimize Jewish-only settlements built illegally on occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank.

Known as the "Regulation Bill", the first reading of the draft legislation was passed -- two days after a preliminary reading -- with 58 MKs voting in favor and 51 voting against.

It now must pass two more rounds of voting in the Knesset before it becomes law.

If passed, the legislation would allow the seizure of vast swathes of Palestinian land and retroactively legalize some 4,000 Jewish-only settlement units in the occupied West Bank.

According to international law, all Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal.

Nevertheless, roughly 550,000 Israelis now live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967.

The Palestinian leadership in Ramallah wants these areas -- along with the Gaza Strip -- for a future state of Palestine.