A specialized report in the Israeli settlement affairs unveiled a plan by Occupied Jerusalem’s municipality to start building 17 settlement units in Ras al-Amud neighborhood to the southeast of occupied Jerusalem with the beginning of the New Year.
The report issued on Saturday by the National Office for Defending Land and Resisting Settlement revealed that these units constitute the first phase of the construction of Ma’alot David outpost and its 104 settlement units added to Ma’ale Zeitim outpost which includes 116 settlement units planted at the heart of Ras al-Amud.
It pointed out that this step comes in favor of the settlement societies and to promote the Israeli occupation authorities’ (IOA) settlement expansion toward the neighborhood.
The National Office warned of a project aiming to annex Ma’ale Adumim the largest Israeli settlement in the West Bank to Jerusalem under an Israeli scheme to thwart any possibility to establish an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. The Office noted that implementing this racist project will cut the West Bank apart and negatively affect the villages and towns surrounding the holy city.
A number of officials in the Israeli municipality declared the municipality’s intention to bring out dozens of settlement schemes that remained locked in inside drawers during the presidential term of the US president Barack Obama after the Republican candidate Donald Trump won the American elections. Trump is famed for his support for Israel and the settlements and he has previously announced his intention to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem.
Last Wednesday the Israeli municipality decided to postpone its approval for the construction of thousands of settlement units near Jerusalem until Trump takes office.
On Thursday the US House of Representatives adopted with majority a draft resolution that denounces the UN Security Council resolution No. 2334 which was issued last month condemning the Israeli settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territories and considers it an obstacle to the peace process.
The UN Security Council adopted on 23rd December 2016 a resolution condemning the Israeli settlement activities which was tabled by four countries (New Zealand Malaysia Senegal Venezuela) after Egypt withdrew it.
14 countries (out of the 15 members of the Security Council) voted in favor of the resolution while the US abstained rather than vetoing the resolution.
The countries that filed the draft resolution considered the Israeli settlements illegal as they threaten the two-state solution and the peace process.
The Palestinian Authority welcomed the resolution and considered it “a slap to Israel” while the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the resolution and described it as “shameful and disgraceful”.
