Arab League accuses Israel of ‘contempt’ on settlements

CAIRO: The Arab League on Wednesday condemned Israel’s announcement of new settlements as a sign of contempt for the international community and an obstacle to peace.
Germany also on Wednesday voiced doubts on whether Israel remains committed to reaching a two-state solution after it announced an acceleration of settlements in Palestinian territory.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has approved 2,500 new settler homes in the occupied West Bank, officials said Tuesday, marking a major expansion following the election of US President Donald Trump.
“In its scale and political impact it goes beyond anything we have seen in recent months,” German Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer told a regular media briefing.
The move drew widespread international criticism. The settlements are seen as illegal under international law and major stumbling blocks to peace as they are built on land the Palestinians want for their own state.
Tuesday’s announcement “confirms the Israeli government’s approach, which is full of contempt and defiance for the will of the international (community),” the head of the Cairo-based Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said in a statement.
The statement accused Israel of “causing all efforts to implement the two-state solution to fail.”
It suggested Netanyahu’s government was feeling “strengthened” by “recent international developments.”
Trump has signaled strong support for Israel, and Israeli right-wing politicians have sought to take advantage, with hard-liners calling for an end to the idea of a Palestinian state.

PLO official ‘shocked’ by US silence
A senior Palestinian official said on Wednesday he was “shocked” by the White House’s silence on Israeli settlement expansion and called on US President Donald Trump’s administration to clarify its policy.
“We used to hear condemnations, we used to hear American positions saying ‘(Israel) should stop settlement activities, it’s an obstacle to peace,’” Palestine Liberation Organization Secretary General Saeb Erekat told AFP.
“Not commenting, does that mean that President Trump is encouraging... settlement activities? We need an answer from the American administration,” he said.
Since Trump’s inauguration last week, Israel has approved some 3,000 settler homes in the occupied West Bank and in annexed east Jerusalem, signalling a sharp change of pace from such projects during the Barack Obama years.
In a telling break with the previous administration, the Trump White House did not condemn Israel’s latest settlement announcements.
Erekat said he was “shocked” that the White House did not comment on the settlement announcements.
Settlements are viewed by much of the world as illegal and major stumbling blocks to peace efforts as they are built on land the Palestinians see as part of their future state.
Speaking in the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, on Wednesday, Netanyahu said the latest spate of building decisions are just the start of a new wave made possible by the changing of the guard in Washington.
“We have seen eight not easy years,” he said in response to lawmakers’ questions, recalling that on his first visit with Obama in Washington he was told bluntly to halt all settlement expansion.
“Not a brick,” he said, switching from Hebrew to English.
“We have left that era,” he said. “There has been one round (of new construction) and there will be more rounds.”
Following Israel’s approval on Tuesday of plans for 2,500 settler homes in the West Bank, the UN expressed “grave concern” and the EU said the move would “further seriously undermine” prospects for a two-state solution.