RAMALLAH (PIC)– A Palestinian research center concerned with Israeli studies says that construction of settlement units in the West Bank has increased by 176% during the first quarter of this year compared to the same quarter last year.
Palestinian Center for Israel Studies based in the city of Ramallah in the West Bank reveals that the occupation has started to build 10300 new housing units.
It says that these official data recently published by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics prove that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not frozen construction in settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as alleged by some Hebrew media.
The center adds in a report that the Israeli Peace Now organization said in documentary reports that there are 166 settlements and more than 100 illegal outposts on the mountains of areas stretching from the north to the south of the West Bank.
It points out that the Israeli occupation governments have been always legitimizing these outposts constructed without building permits.
Peace Now reports show that the occupation government is making it easier for Israelis to find houses in settlements than inside the Green Line where house prices is very high.
Average price of a home in the settlements is about 45 thousand dollars only compared to 200 thousand dollars inside the 1948-occupied territories.
The Israeli NGO also notes that there is a general decrease in housing construction inside the Green Line by 3.4 per cent while construction of new homes in West Bank settlements has recorded an increase of 176.4 per cent in the first quarter of this year compared to the same quarter last year.
Israeli construction works have also registered an increase in the Jerusalem area by 48 per cent.
