Palestine condemns Israel’s plan to build 5,400 new settlement units

The Palestine Authority (PA) condemned on Friday Israeli plans to build 5,400 new settlement units in the occupied Palestinian West Bank, a statement revealed.

The statement, which was issued by the PA’s Foreign Ministry, stated: “Expanding Jewish settlements is part of Israel’s unilateral moves to implement the US deal of the century and its plan to annex large parts of the West Bank.”

It added: “This disproves the Israeli claim that it has frozen settlement to enable its normalisation with Arab states, and reflects the systematic American and Israeli violations of international law and United Nations resolutions.”

This came after an Israeli radio station reported on Thursday evening that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had instructed the approval of the construction of 5,400 units in the West Bank’s settlements.

Israel’s refusal to stop expanding settlements, along with other issues, was the primary cause of the collapse of the last round of peace talks in 2014.

Washington: ‘Normalisation serves Israel better than annexation’