Israel reveals plans for nearly 600 settlement homes in east Jerusalem | World news

[NewsFeed]

Israel has announced plans to build almost 600 new settlement homes in occupied east Jerusalem, just two days after Donald Trump’s inauguration as US president, with officials stating the “rules of the game have changed”.

The announcement by the Jerusalem municipality came as Israeli officials appeared emboldened by the new Trump administration, which has made clear its policies will be far more pro-Israel and settlements than Barack Obama’s.

Senior Palestinian officials immediately condemned the plans. They fear a Trump presidency could signal the death knell for their hopes of their own state as well as the end of the Oslo peace process.

The announcement came as Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he would hold his first conversation with Trump as president by telephone on Sunday.

“Many matters face us: the Israeli-Palestinian issue, the situation in Syria, the Iranian threat,” he said at the start of his weekly cabinet meeting.

Before the phone call, Netanyahu reportedly told his ministers that he would tell Trump he was willing to give Palestinians a “state minus” – suggesting a level of autonomy short of statehood.

The plans announced on Sunday had been on hold during the final months of the Obama administration, which had condemned each new announcement of settlement planning or construction as an obstacle to peace and the two-state solution.

A UN security council resolution demanding a halt to all Israeli settlements in the occupied territories passed in December after the Obama administration refused to veto it.

There are 430,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank and 200,000 Israelis in east Jerusalem, which Palestinians see as the capital of their future state, in settlements long regarded by the international community as illegal.

Making clear that the approval of plans was linked to the arrival of the new administration in Washington, Jerusalem’s mayor, Nir Barkat, said: “We’ve been through eight tough years with Obama pressuring to freeze construction.

“Although the Jerusalem municipality has not frozen plans, many times we did not get government approval because of American pressure. I hope that era is over and we now we can build and develop Jerusalem for the welfare of its residents, Jews and Arabs alike.”

Meir Turgeman, the city’s deputy mayor and chair of the planning and building committee, told Israel Radio that the permits had been held up until the end of the Obama administration.

“The rules of the game have changed with Donald Trump’s arrival as president,” he said. “We no longer have our hands tied as in the time of Barack Obama. Now we can finally build.”

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, condemned the plans and called on the UN to take action, particularly in light of the recent resolution. “It is time to stop dealing with Israel as a state above the law,” he said.

US administrations have traditionally condemned all Israeli settlement plans as c

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read full article at source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...east-jerusalem