Israel to build 46,000 settlement units in West Bank

By AbdelRaouf Arnaout
JERUSALEM (AA) – Israel is planning to build 46,000 settlement homes in the occupied West Bank, an Israeli minister said on Tuesday.
"I instructed the ministry's planning teams to prepare plans to expand communities in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank]. We currently have plans to build 46,000 housing units," Minister of Construction and Housing Yifat Shasha Biton said in statements.
"This number will increase three times after the implementation of the deal of the century," she said.
On Monday, Israeli and American crews began working on delineating the West Bank maps to define the areas that Israel would annex as part of U.S. President Donald Trump's deal of the century.
The so-called peace plan unilaterally annuls previous UN resolutions on the Palestinian issue and has drawn criticism for giving Israel almost everything it has sought while giving Palestinian demands short shrift.
In addition to recognizing the contested city of Jerusalem as Israel's "undivided capital," Trump's "peace plan" ticks off a series of check-list items long-sought by Israel right-wingers, including U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty over illegal settlement communities constructed in the occupied West Bank and the annexation of the Jordan Valley, which runs along the entirety of the territory's eastern flank.

International law views the West Bank and East Jerusalem as occupied territories and considers all Israeli settlement-building activity illegal.
The plan was rejected by Palestine as well as bodies including the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and Arab League.

*Bassel Ibrahim contributed to this report from Ankara