June 19 (UPI) — Israel’s nationalist-religious coalition government on Sunday announced plans to expedite settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, sparking concerns in Washington, which has repeatedly voiced opposition to such destabilizing actions.
On Sunday, Israel announced that it was advancing plans to build 4,560 new housing units throughout the Israel-occupied territory and its government passed a resolution that will expedite construction.
Israel and the United States under the administration of President Joe Biden have butted heads over the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s push to establish more settlements in the occupied West Bank, and late Sunday, the U.S. State Department said it was “deeply troubled” by the latest advancements.
“As has been longstanding policy, the United States opposes such unilateral actions that make a two-state solution more difficult to achieve and are an obstacle to peace,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
The statement was issued after Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister, announced plans to construction 4,560 new housing units throughout the West Bank.
The government on Sunday also passed a resolution at a morning cabinet meeting to give Smotrich control over approval of planning construction in West Bank settlements, which expedites and removes barriers from advancing those projects.
“As we promised, today we are advancing the construction of thousands more new units in Yosh,” Smotrich said in a statement. “We will continue to develop the settlement and strengthen the Israeli hold on the territory.”
The moves come as the Netanyahu government has already this year announced plans to construction thousands of new settlement homes in the West Bank, which attracted statements of strong opposition from the United States.
Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territory and the establishment of settlements are widely viewed as illegal under international law, and has attracted the repeated criticism and condemnation of the United Nations.
The Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said in a statement that it condemns the developments “in the strongest terms.”
“The ministry warns of the risks resulting from this decision, which is another step towards applying Israeli law to the West Bank and completing its annexation,” it said.
“The ministry calls for real international and American action and pressure on the Israeli government to discourage it from taking this decision, and to take the necessary practical steps to force the Israeli government to stop its illegal unilateral measures that undermine the opportunity to apply the principal of the two-state solution.”