Israel Plans Settlement Expansion İn West Bank

The Israel Land Authority has launched a campaign to promote the construction of new 219 settlement units in the occupied West Bank, according to Israeli media.





The plan covers 46 dunams to build 290 housing units, commercial and green areas in Mevasseret Zion settlement in Jerusalem, Haaretz newspaper reported on Wednesday.





When the settlement was first expanded two decades ago, 20 homes were built beyond the Green Line, the daily said, referring to the territories occupied by Israel during the 1967 Middle East war.





Now, Haaretz said, the Israel Land Authority is promoting for another expansion plan, 40% of which will be built on land belonging to Palestinians from Beit Surik village in the West Bank.





The settlement of Mevasseret Zion was built on the ruins of the Palestinian village of Qaluniya, which was destroyed by Jewish militias in 1948 to make way for the creation of the state of Israel.





Israel occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980 claiming it as the Jewish state's "undivided and eternal capital" -- a move never recognized by the international community.





International law views the West Bank and East Jerusalem as "occupied territories" and considers all Jewish settlement construction there as illegal. -