New Israeli Minister of Housing Uri Ariel on Sunday said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s incoming Cabinet would keep expanding Jewish settlements to the same extent as his previous government.
The remarks came two days ahead of a visit by US President Barack Obama, who has urged Israel to halt settlement on land that Palestinians seek for a state. They suggested that Netanyahu’s new Cabinet could prove to be as hawkish as his outgoing coalition.
Ariel, a Jewish settler and member of the pro-settler Jewish Home Party, said in a television interview that “building will continue in accordance with what the government’s policy has been thus far” in occupied territory.
Using the biblical names for the territory Israel captured in the Six-Day War in 1967, Ariel told Israel’s Channel 10 that the government “will build in Judea and Samaria more or less as it has done previously. I see no reason to change it.”
Ariel added that Israel planned the bulk of housing construction for more sparsely populated areas within its sovereign borders in the Negev Desert to the south and the Galilee region in its north.
He said construction in the West Bank was “not the main story” for his housing plans.
Most world powers see the settlements as illegal under international law. Some Israelis claim historical and biblical ties to the West Bank and East Jerusalem, home to about 500,000 settlers, and dispute that building in these areas is illegal.
Peace talks for a two-state solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have been frozen since 2010 in a dispute over settlement building.
Netanyahu has accelerated settlement plans anew after Palestinians won recognition for statehood in the UN General Assembly in November last year, a move Israel opposed as a unilateral step that undermined peace efforts.
In December last year and January this year, Israel announced plans to build more than 11,000 new houses in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, almost double the 6,800 built under Netanyahu’s previous administration since March 2009, figures by settlement watchdog Peace Now showed.
Netanyahu has built a new government since the Jan. 22 election that is based on centrists elected on the strength of popular protests against the steep cost of living and right-wing parties championing the concerns of Jewish settlers.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number