Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday pledged to build thousands of new housing units in the illegal settlement of Ma’ale Adumim one of the West Bank’s biggest Jewish settlements and threatened to annex it to Israel.
During a visit to Ma’ale Adumim Netanyahu said that he was announcing a period of “enhanced development.”
“We will build thousands of housing units here” he said. “We will add the industrial zone needed and the expansion needed to allow for the advanced development of this place.”
His remarks have drawn an angry condemnation from the Palestinians and created a new test for the Trump administration which has been trying for months to restart peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis.
Ma’ale Adumim was founded in 1975 on vast tracts of annexed Palestinian land in east Jerusalem near the towns of Eizariya and Abu Dis. It is one of the most dangerous settlements in the West Bank as it is posing a geographic threat to the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state.
