Premier Mohammad Shtayyeh today denounced Israel’s approval of the construction of 2,500 new settler units in the colonial settlements across the West Bank.
“Every settler unit constitutes a plan to annex our land,” stressed Shtayyeh during the cabinet weekly session in Ramallah, and urged the international community to reject the construction of the new units as it did reject Israel’s annexation plan.
Israeli media reported revealed that the Planning Council of the so-called Israeli Civil Administration, will approve next Sunday the construction of 2,500 housing units in colonial settlements in the occupied West Bank in addition to endorsing plans for building 2,000 other housing units.
Some of the building plans will include legalization of buildings that were already built without permits and hinder the possibility of expanding Palestinian towns.
Meanwhile, Shtayyeh criticized what he termed as joint US-Israeli pressure in favor of the re-election of US President Donald Trump, expressing his confidence that the pressure in support of Trump’s election campaign would “evaporate” and calling on “some Arab brethren to learn from history.”
He pointed out that “we are still living in harsh circumstances, including the financial siege and pressures which are disrupting our work”, while expressing his confidence on the Palestinian people’s ability to survive the siege and achieve national unity.
He tackled the government’s intense procedures to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic, including the deployment of further hundreds of medical staff and procuring more intensive care beds and respirators, as a potential new wave of the pandemic is expected to spread in winter.
He noted that the government has provided a 45 million shekels in a loan to al-Makassed Hospital in Jerusalem following the cessation of US funding.
