Israel’s Lands Administration has invited tenders for the construction of 400 new housing units in the illegal settlement of Ramat Shlomo, in occupied Jerusalem.The number of construction bids in the West Bank and Jerusalem has witnessed a dramatic increase, in the last year, and the new decision highlights the danger of building illegal settlement units beyond the Green Line, Al Ray reports:
Earlier this week, the Israeli Ministry of Housing and Construction announced tenders for the construction of 1,500 housing units in the West Bank region.
Bids were approved for the construction of 223 new apartments in Efrat settlement, 484 in Beitar Illit, 38 in Jaf Benjamin, 76 in Ariel, 78 in Alfe Menashe, and 155 in Givat Zeev.
After this was announced, the Israeli government officially declared plans for building another 1,800 new units.
Furthermore, according to Al Ray, Israel continues to expand previous settlements in addition to settling new West Bank areas, despite the Oslo Accords, which specify in article 31 that neither side of the occupation will take any step which would change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, pending the outcome of the permanent status negotiations.
However, settlement expansion has continued unabated under the Israeli regime, in direct contravention of international law and general consensus of almost every other nation.
