The Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) decided on Tuesday to issue building permits for 31 settlement units in the center of al-Khalil city next week.
The Peace Now movement reported that the IOA move to issue building permits for settlement units happened at an unexpected and doubtful timing considering the upcoming November 3 elections in the United States of America.
Peace Now explained that issuing building permits means that the Israeli government wants to endorse a fait accompli that cannot be revoked.
In October 2017 IOA approved the issuance of a permit to build new settlement units in the center of al-Khalil. This area was previously the headquarters of al-Khalil municipality and a central station that was closed by the Israeli occupation army for alleged security reasons.
In October 2018 the occupation government decided to allocate 21.6 million shekels for funding these settlement units.
Al-Khalil municipality and Peace Now lodged objections to the building permit but the Israeli Supreme Council for Planning rejected them.
Peace Now considered the approval of building permits in the center of al-Khalil as an extraordinary step. This is because it is a new settlement outpost in the heart of al-Khalil for the first time since 2002 and it indicates a major change in the Israeli legal interpretation of what is permitted and prohibited in the occupied lands.
Al-Khalil is the second city after Jerusalem in the settlement priorities of the Israeli occupation authorities because of its historical and religious significance.
The city suffers from the presence of more than fifty settlement outposts in which about thirty thousand Jewish settlers live and they are working to strengthen their grip on it.
