The Palestinian Liberation Organization has warned from the race between the right-wing rule and the far-right opposition to pass laws and services aimed at expanding the settlements' project.
The PLO’s National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements issued a press statement saying that the competition has intensified in Israel over who provides more services for the “settlement, annexation and occupation project” since the formation of the new government last week.
It also warned of the threat of the Knesset passing a law to legalize the so-called “youth settlement,” which includes building 70 wildcat outposts in the West Bank.
The Bureau pointed to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s announcement that he will back settlement construction in all areas of the occupied West Bank, including Area C.
The new government will not change its settlement-related policies, it stressed.
The statement cited an Israeli plan to expand the “Shvut Rachel” settlement, south of Nablus, by adding 534 new settlement units to it.
According to the plan, the new settlement units would be constructed on an extra 376 dunums of Palestinian land.
More than 600,000 Israelis live in settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, alongside more than three million Palestinians.
Palestine’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement condemning the international silence over Israeli occupation and the failure to implement United Nations resolutions on the Palestinian cause.
