Israel Approves 19 New West Bank Settlements, Escalating State-Backed Violence |
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There’s been a sharp rise of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank under Israel’s current far-right government. Israel’s Cabinet approved a proposal for the construction of 19 new Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank on Sunday. Amnesty International researcher Budour Hassan says the move “entrenches the apartheid system we’re seeing in the West Bank.” Experts warn that the settlements further threaten the possibility of creating a Palestinian state.
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.
Israel’s Cabinet has approved a proposal for the construction of 19 new Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, a move that violates international law and further threatens the possibility of creating a Palestinian state. Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has led Israel’s illegal settlement expansion campaign. There’s been a sharp rise of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank under Israel’s current far-right government, with the latest approval bringing the total number of settlements to at least 210, compared to 141 in 2022, according to the settlement watchdog group Peace Now.
This comes as deadly Israeli raids and settler attacks continue across the West Bank. Palestinian officials reported Saturday Israeli soldiers shot dead a 16-year-old teenager during a raid in Jenin. Israeli forces shot Rayyan Mohammad Abdel Qader Abu Mualla at point-blank range. This is his mother.
IBTIHAL ABU MUALLA: [translated] The Israeli soldier executed my son from point zero. There were snipers who want to kill anyone they see, not only my son, but anyone appears in their face. They could have shot him in the leg. My son didn’t throw anything towards them. The occupation created a fake story that my son threw a stone at them. My son didn’t throw a stone. And there is a video showing what happened. … They took his body. I demand, as a mother of a martyr whose body is being held by the army, and in the name of all the mothers, we need the bodies back. I want to bury my son in dignity.
AMY GOODMAN: Israeli forces reportedly blocked medical emergency workers from reach in Qader Abu Mualla, who bled to death. In a separate Israeli raid, 22-year-old Ahmad Zayoud was killed in Jenin.
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera reports Israeli soldiers Monday carried out massive demolitions in East Jerusalem, destroying a residential building with bulldozers as soldiers fired stun grenades and tear gas at Palestinian residents.
For more, we go to Ramallah, where we’re joined by Budour Hassan, an Amnesty International........