Israel Advances Plans for New Settler Homes in Al-Quds

The Trump administration has broken with decades of bipartisan US practice by not opposing Jewish settlement activity in the occupied east Jerusalem al-Quds and West Bank.

President-elect Joe Biden has said his administration will restore US opposition to the settlements which are considered illegal under international law and that many governments view as an obstacle to peace.

The latest move saw the Israel Land Authority issue construction tenders in Givat Hamatos, a currently uninhabited area of east Jerusalem next to the mainly Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa, AFP reported.

In February, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the approval of 3,000 homes in the area.

He said 2,000 would be allocated for Jews, and 1,000 for Arab residents of Beit Safafa.

Last week, the Land Authority issued tenders for the construction of more than 1,200 mostly residential units in Givat Hamatos.

Nabil Abu Rudeina, a spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, said the Givat Hamatos tenders amounted to an attempt by Israel "to kill the internationally-supported two-state solution".

The east Jerusalem tenders follow the approval of 96 new east Jerusalem settler homes in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood last week.

Settlement construction approvals in Ramat Shlomo in 2010 caused a major rift between Netanyahu and former president Barack Obama and then vice president Biden.

Israel occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem al-Quds, the Gaza Strip and part of the Golan Heights during the Six-Day War, which was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967 by Israel on the one side and Egypt, Jordan and Syria on the other. 

In November 1967, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 242, under which Israel is required to withdraw from all territories seized in the war.