Israel condemned for new settlement decision

A spokesman for the Palestinian president has condemned Israel’s decision to approve 800 new housing units in settlements in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem. Nabil Abu Rudaineh said that the Israeli government shouldn’t seek to score points against the US at the Palestinians’ expense. This was a reference to Israeli anger at the agreement reached in Geneva between the P5+1 countries and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear programme, described by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “historic mistake”.

Abu Rudaineh was responding to Israel’s Civil Administration approval of 800 new housing units across the occupied territories, including extensive construction in the Givat Salit settlement-colony in the north of the Jordan Valley. “Such a decision shows Israel, yet again, putting obstacles in the way of the peace process,” he told the WAFA News Agency.