Ignoring international condemnation, Zionists press ahead with settlement activities

From the very beginning of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, successive Israeli governments resorted to constructing settlement blocks to absorb the thousands of incoming Jewish settlers.

Another sinister objective behind the Israeli expansionist policy was to change the demographic and geographic status of the Palestinian territories.

Despite the wide-scale international condemnation and the landmark UN Security Council which calls on Israel to immediately halt its expansionist settlement policy, Israel plans to construct thousands more illegal settler units on occupied Palestinian territories in flagrant defiance of the UN Security Council resolution, which decried the Tel Aviv regime’s policy of settlement expansion and demanding the halt of such activities.

Israeli officials say the terrorist regime will press ahead with its plans to build thousands more illegal settler units in the occupied territories in blatant disregard of a recent anti-settlement resolution at the UN Security Council.

The so-called Jerusalem al-Quds Local Planning and Building Committee is poised to approve some 5,600 housing units in East Jerusalem. The move comes as a response to the UNSC resolution, as the 2,600 housing units are to be built in the illegal Gilo settlement in southwestern East Jerusalem  2,600 others in Givat HaMatos, and 400 units in the Ramat Shlomo settlement.

Deputy mayor of  occupied Jerusalem also wrote that he “did not care” about the United Nations or any other entity telling them what to do in the city.

Israeli Prime Minister terrorist Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel “would not abide by the terms” of the anti-Israel resolution, and has even summoned the ambassadors of the UN Security Council member states in protest at the move. Israeli Education Minister extremist Naftali Bennett has called for the development of Maale Adumim settlement, located just seven kilometers east of Jerusalem, as well as the entire Area C of the West Bank, which is the largest division in the occupied territory as it comprises 60 percent of the land and is under full Israeli military control.

The Security Council resolution 2334, passed with unanimous approval from 14 council members with the United States abstaining from voting, demanded Israel to “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.

It states that the building of settlements by Israel has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law.

Infuriated at Washington’s abstention, Israel’s envoy lashed out at the Obama administration and expressed hope that both Trump and the incoming UN secretary general, António Guterres, would establish closer ties with Tel Aviv.

 Danny Danon, Israel’s envoy at the UN said that he has no doubt that the new US administration and the incoming UN secretary-general will usher in a new era in terms of the UN’s relationship with Israel.  Trump now had to choose between “international legitimacy” or siding with “settlers and extremists.”

More than half a million Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The continued expansion of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine has created a major obstacle to the efforts to establish peace in the Middle East and showed the racist, belligerent and anti-peace nature.

The UN vote proves that the world rejects the settlements, as they are illegal, in our occupied lands.

Israeli forces have demolished eleven more Palestinian structures in the occupied West Bank as the Tel Aviv regime goes ahead with its land expropriation and illegal settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Israeli bulldozers escorted by military forces demolished the residential structures in the village of Khan al-Ahmar.

The dwellers were not allowed to evacuate personal belongings and furniture.

Israeli forces also imposed a siege on the area during the demolitions, which left 87 Palestinians, most of them women and children, without a roof over their head.

A recent report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) showed that Israeli authorities have demolished or seized 1,089 Palestinian-owned structures since the start of last year up until December 28.

The demolitions have left some 1,593 Palestinians homeless and affected the lives of another 7,101, according to the report released on December 29, 2016.

The UN body further announced that the vast majority of Palestinian structures were destroyed or seized because the Israeli policies made it virtually impossible for the Palestinians to obtain building permits.

Israel’s demolition of Palestinian homes and its continued expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories have dimmed hopes of any peace in the region.

The United Nations says Israel’s demolition campaign against Palestinian homes and structures across the West Bank and East Jerusalem  reached the most unprecedented level in the past seven years.

K.Q.