Where is israel building settlements

In addition to the settlement projects, the government also plans to authorize 1, housing units for Palestinians in the West Bank. But the Palestinians and rights groups say that's only a tiny fraction of the need. More than 2. The Palestinians say decades of settlement expansion have made it nearly impossible to establish a viable state alongside Israel, which is still seen internationally as the only realistic way to resolve the decades-old conflict. Most of the international community views the settlements as illegal.

The European Union called on Israel to halt settlement construction and not to proceed with the announced tenders. Israel considers the West Bank to be the biblical and historical heartland of the Jewish people.

They had a plan to build nearly 3, new settler units in the West Bank, according to AP. The United States administration has raised "concern" over the plan of Israeli authorities. The US authorities have urged the Israeli authorities to restrain the settlement plan. Price urged Israelis and the Palestinians to "refrain from unilateral steps that exacerbate tension and undercut efforts to advance a negotiated two-state solution" to the conflict, according to AP. These regions were captured by Israel in the Mideast war.

The Palestinians have stated that the plan of building settlements that would house nearly , settlers as a "hindrance to peace".

The second wave of settlement construction began with the occupation of the Park Hotel in Hebron , a city with a long, rich Jewish history dating back to biblical times that had only been interrupted by a massacre of Jewish residents by Arabs in During Passover , Rabbi Moshe Levinger and his wife, Miriam, rented a hotel for 10 days in the center of Hebron and invited 30 families to stay with them.

In , the government relocated them to Kiryat Arba , a former military base on edge of the city. Just after the election , 1, Jews were living in 38 settlements. In recent years, many of these Jews have come from more religious communities because of housing shortages in places such as Bnei Brak and Jerusalem.

According to Professor Sara Hirschhorn, Americans comprise about 15 percent of the settlement population. Americans have founded several settlements, including Efrat and Tekoa. Originally, Americans who settled in the West Bank were liberal Jews who thought they were trailblazing pioneers like the Jews who came to Palestine in the early 20th century.

Later, Americans moving to the area were predominantly Orthodox Jews. One of those immigrants, Baruch Goldstein, a doctor originally from Brooklyn who moved to Kiryat Arba , murdered 29 Muslim worshippers in the Tomb of the Patriarchs on February When Arab-Israeli peace talks began in late , more than 80 percent of the West Bank contained no settlements or only sparsely populated ones.

Hebron represents one of the most difficult areas for Israel to consider evacuating in a peace agreement. Today, approximately Jews live in the city and another 8, live in Kiryat Arba. The city was the first parcel of land purchased by the Jewish people in their Promised Land, has great religious significance, and is a place where Jews lived for centuries before the massacre of and finally resettled in The problem, politically, is that it is located too far from the Green Line to annex without making the establishment of a possible Palestinian state much more problematic.

On that date, the Israeli Security Cabinet gave their unanimous approval to begin the construction of a new settlement near Shiloh. The decision was decades in the making, finally prompted by an Israeli Supreme Court decision that forced the government to evacuate the settlement of Amona, which was illegally built on private Palestinian land.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised the Jewish residents a new town would be built for them. Under the agreement acres of land near Eli was declared state-land, and 2, new housing units were approved for construction in the new settlement area.

Construction on the new settlement, to be called Amichai, began on July 12, Critics suggest these figures imply territorial compromise with the Palestinians is impossible. This may now be true as the number and distribution of the Jewish population is such that it will be difficult, if not impossible, to remove the number of settlers in the area genuinely envisioned prior to the Trump plan for a Palestinian.

The overall area in dispute is very small. According to one organization critical of settlements, the built-up areas constitute only 1. That is less than 40 square miles. Even if you add the unbuilt areas falling within the municipal boundaries of the settlements, the total area is only square miles. Outposts are settlements typically constructed by a handful of people without government authorization.

In , President George W. Bush asked Israel to remove illegal outposts as part of the road map for peace. According to the statistics from the committee, there are currently 6, settlers in the Jordan Valley. The bulk of the funds will come from a development subsidy, which applies to government decisions regarding settlements deemed a national priority.

This is the largest number of housing units Israel has promoted for Palestinians in over a decade. This certainly includes settlement activity, as well as retroactive legalization of settlement outposts.