Israeli Authorities Announce Plans to Build 1,200 Housing Units in West Bank's Beit El

JAKARTA - The Israeli Minister of Defense, Israel Katz, announced his intention to build 1,200 housing units for the benefit of the Beit El settlement, located in Palestinian territory, specifically at the northern entrance to the city of Al-Bireh, West Bank.

In response, the head of the Commission Against the Wall and Settlements Mu'ayyad Sha'ban considered this escalation a clear message, the occupation government is continuing efforts to impose a new demographic and geographical reality in the heart of the West Bank, especially around Ramallah.

He stressed that the announcement of the construction of this housing unit was a dangerous escalation in the Israeli settlement project, launching WAFA (23/12).

"Further, this step cannot be separated from a systematic policy aimed at breaking the geographical continuity of Palestine, strangling the vital political and administrative center, and turning settlements from a temporary tool into a permanent reality imposed by force," he explained.

He stressed that the expansion of Beit El, which was built on occupied Palestinian land, was a flagrant violation of international law and UN resolutions, which consider all settlement activities illegal.

This expansion reaffirms, the occupying power treats any political process only as a cover for further expansion and gradual annexation.

Sha'ban noted that almost every week the Israeli Planning Council holds a meeting to approve new expansion plans for settlements in the West Bank.

According to him, it shows a deliberate attempt to intensify settlement construction and a policy of racing against time to impose facts on the ground.

"The silence of the international community regarding these plans is no less dangerous than the plans themselves, because it provides political protection to continue to undermine the two-state solution and destroy any possibility of a just and legal peace," he added.