![Image of settlement construction work in West Bank on 2 April 2017 [Wisam Hashlamoun/Apaimages]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/2017_4_2-settlement-in-west-bank020417_WIH_00-2.jpg?fit=920%2C613&ssl=1)
Israel intends to build dozens of new housing units in a settlement built on occupied Palestinian land near the city of Ramallah in the centre of the West Bank.
#LandGrab
Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported today that the Binyamin Regional Council is soliciting bids to construct 209 housing units in the Jewish settlement of Kokhav Ya’akov.
The settlement is not considered part of what Israel terms the “major settlement blocs”.
Council chairman, Avi Roeh, said the construction plans were approved in the 1980s. Roeh told Haaretz:
It’s a project with an approved urban plan of 1,200 units, of which 750 have been built
The settlement project may expand further to include the construction of 2,099 settlement units.
In December 2016, the UN Security Council overwhelmingly endorsed resolution 2334, which considered the Israeli settlements built on lands Israel seized in the 1967 including East Jerusalem as “illegal” and called for its immediate and complete cessation.