New settlement construction rises in Palestinian West Bank: NGO
Xinhua, February 24, 2015 Adjust font size:
New Jewish settlement construction in the Palestinian West Bank rose by 40 percent in 2014 compared with a year earlier, an Israeli NGO said Monday, amid prolonged deadlock in the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
According to figures published in the annual report of Peace Now, a settlement watchdog, the construction of 3,100 new homes began last year in the West Bank and east Jerusalem settlements.
In addition, 165 public buildings (including kindergartens, schools, and synagogues) and 92 industrial and agricultural structures were built, the report said.
Much of the new construction occurred in isolated settlements, which are the most disputed areas in terms of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
"68 percent of the construction starts (2,115 housing units) occurred east of the outline proposed by the Geneva Initiative, on an area intended, according to the Initiative, for a Palestinian state," the report said.
Israel occupied the West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, and has controlled it ever since.
The settlements are illegal under international law. Several rounds of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians reached a deadlock over the Israeli construction in the settlements. Endit