Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has approved the construction of 300 new housing units in the West Bank settlement of Beit El, media reports said.
"After consultations in the prime minister's office, the immediate construction of 300 homes in Beit El has been authorised," Netanyahu's office said in a statement on Wednesday, according to Agence France Presse. Netanyahu also authorized planning for another 504 homes in occupied East Jerusalem.
Netanyahu's approval for 300 new homes coincided with protests against demolition of two residential buildings illegally built in the occupied West Bank. Israel's High Court of Justice ruled that the two apartment blocks had been constructed on Palestinian land, according to Ynetnews.
Israel's pro-settler party leader and education minister Naftali Bennett welcomed the announcement. "The court's role is to judge; the government's role is to build. We will build up the land of Israel, but in a legal and appropriate way," he said in a statement.
The Palestinian Authority condemned the decision, warning that Israel's approval of new homes in Beit El will sabotage efforts to resume peace process.
"The decision represents a message that Israel is not interested in peace or any efforts to create a climate that paves the way for peace," said Nabil Abu Rudaineh, a spokesman for the President Mahmoud Abbas, The Jerusalem Post reported.
The decision immediately invited criticism from the U.S., United Nations and European Union.
"The United States continues to view settlements as illegitimate and we strongly oppose steps to advance construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem," State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said, according to DW.
"Settlement expansion threatens the two-state solution and calls into question Israel's commitment to a negotiated resolution to the conflict," Toner said in a statement.
