Israel’s Netanyahu orders hundreds of new settler homes in West Bank, days before Trump to leave office

The Israeli prime minister is facing re-election on March 23, but has a strong right-wing challenge in the form of pro-settler candidate Gideon Saar

Netanyahu is widely expected to make a series of plays for right-wing votes, including by bolstering his pro-settlement credentials, before the vote

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Workers take a break on a construction site for an Israeli settlement in Jerusalem. Photo: AP

Published: 9:24pm, 11 Jan 2021Updated: 9:25pm, 11 Jan 2021

Israel’s prime minister on Monday directed authorities to approve construction of 800 new homes for Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank days before President Donald Trump’s pro-Israel administration leaves office.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has directed that plans be advanced for the construction of about 800 units in Judea and Samaria,” a statement from his office said, using biblical terms for the West Bank.

President-elect Joe Biden, who will be sworn in next week, has indicated that his administration will restore US policy opposing settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian Territories.

Trump’s administration gave unprecedented US support to settler groups, highlighted by a declaration from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in 2019 that Washington no longer viewed settlements as being in violation of international law.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who became the country’s first top diplomat to visit a settlement in the West Bank in November. Photo: Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images/TNS

Pompeo in November also became the first top US diplomat to visit a settlement in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since the 1967 Six-Day War.

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