Since the January 21 inauguration of US President Donald Trump, Israel has approved the construction of 8000 new homes for Jewish Israeli settlers in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel in 1967. This represents a significant rise in the rate of illegal settlement building.
There has also been a rise in the rate of demolitions of Palestinian homes and land confiscations, both in the territories occupied in 1967 and in those that have been within the Israeli state since 1948.
The surge in settlement building reflects hopes by the right-wing Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the new US government will be more enthusiastic than its predecessors in its support.
While all Israel exists on occupied Palestinian territory, international law — as interpreted by the United Nations and other international bodies — makes a distinction between the 78% of Palestine occupied in 1948, recognised as “Israel proper”, and that occupied in 1967, officially the “Occupied Palestinian Territories” (OPT). Settlement building in the latter is illegal under international law.
Three quarters of the Palestinian population was ethnically cleansed from “Israel proper” when it was occupied in 1948. The population of OPT remains predominantly Palestinians and includes the descendants of the refugees from 1948.
Read the full article by Tony Iltis at The Green Left Weekly.