Israeli authorities approved today the construction of 980 new settlement units in Efrat settlement, illegally built on Palestinian lands to the south of Bethlehem, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA.
Hasan Brijiyeh, a local anti-settlement and anti-wall activist, told WAFA that according to Israeli sources, the co-called Israeli Ministry of Construction and Housing announced its approval to construct hundreds of new settlement units in the illegal Israeli settlement of Efrat.
Israeli authorities approve 980 new settlements in the town of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank
https://t.co/eMNxxMotTG— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) September 14, 2020
Brijiyeh said that this new expansion in Efrat settlement means that the annexation plan will be implemented calmly and slowly, pointing out that vast areas of agricultural land will be seized as part of this new settlement plan.
Between 500,000 and 600,000 Israelis live in Jewish-only settlements across occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank in violation of international law.
(Palestine Chronicle, WAFA, Social Media)
There is no Occupied West Bank, there is only Occupied Palestine. With the UN Mandate never tested in a court of law and Israel’s borders never legally established, the fact remains that all of it is Occupied Palestine with the possible exception of the UN Mandated borders for a colonial State called Israel, in Palestine.
On the plus side, when the now inevitable One-State Solution is established, courtesy of Israel’s refusal to allow two States, some Israeli colonists will leave and all of this housing will be invaluable as homes for diaspora Palestinians, who number millions and who will return home.