Israel approves settler building plans in Palestinian West Bank city

HEBRON, West Bank, June 17 - Israel on Wednesday approved the expansion of a Jewish school for settlers living in the centre of the Palestinian city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, in a construction push that Palestinians say violates a decades-old agreement.

Israel's finance minister announced the plans a day after saying he had scrapped a deal that gave the Palestinian municipality control over certain planning and construction around Hebron's historic core, home to a flashpoint holy shrine.

The enclave around the Cave of the Patriarchs — revered by Muslims, Jews and Christians — is home to more than 1,000 Jewish settlers who live among tens of thousands of Palestinians under complete Israeli security control.

Under the 1997 Hebron Agreement, Israeli troops remain deployed in the area but construction has generally required approval from the Palestinian municipality, including around the shrine.

The religious heritage of the city has made it a focal point for Israeli settlers, who are determined to expand the Jewish presence. Bezalel Smotrich, Israel's far-right finance minister, said construction of a 1,000-square-metre building for a Jewish school in Hebron's historic core had been approved.

"We are continuing to build the Land of Israel in practice and to implement practical sovereignty in the settlements," Smotrich, who has said he wants to bury the idea of Palestinian statehood, said in a statement.

PALESTINIAN ACTIVIST SAYS ISRAEL AIMS TO FORCE THEM OUT OF HEBRON

U.N. bodies and most countries consider Israel's settlements in territory Israel captured in a 1967 war to be illegal under international law. Palestinians view the settlements as a primary obstacle to peace, depriving them of land they want for a future state.

Israel rejects this, viewing the territory as disputed and saying a Jewish presence has existed there for thousands of years.

Smotrich's building announcement comes after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet approved steps earlier this year to make it easier for settlers to buy land in the West Bank and give Israeli authorities more enforcement powers in the territory.

Palestinian officials said the security cabinet steps amounted to de facto annexation of West Bank land by handing powers long held by the military to Israel's civilian government.

Issa Amro, a Palestinian activist who lives in Hebron, said he feared Israel's dismantling of parts of the Hebron Agreement would leave Palestinian residents of the city without basic services.

He said that move was aimed at making life miserable for Palestinians and forcing them to leave.

"It means ethnic cleansing of Palestinian families from their homes, and more displacement," he said, describing Israel's actions as stealing Palestinian dreams to have a state "and to live without violence, without fear, with peace".

Jewish residents of Hebron welcomed Smotrich's announcement, saying it would remove what they described as the "burden" of a Palestinian municipality that had tempered their expansion.

"The excitement is great and the understanding that from here we're expanding and growing," said Eyal Gelman, head of Israel's council for settlers in Hebron.

"And with God's help, Hebron of 50 years from now — much more Zionist, national, Jewish, expanding, built all across the areas of the city of patriarchs, Hebron."

SMOTRICH SAYS NEW BUILDING PLANS CREATE 'FACTS ON THE GROUND'

Hebron, dotted with Jewish settlements, is a microcosm of the occupied West Bank, where the Palestinians have limited self-rule over islands of territory surrounded by areas of Israeli control.

The Israeli military-controlled area of Hebron includes settlements and the Cave of the Patriarchs, believed to be the burial place of biblical figures Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their wives.

Muslims call the shrine the Sanctuary of Abraham, where the Ibrahimi Mosque stands. In 1994, a settler killed 29 Muslims in prayer at the site. For much of the year, its prayer area is divided into separate halls for Jews and Muslims.

Smotrich said the planning approvals for the Jewish school building as well as new homes in Jewish settlements would "create facts on the ground" to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state.

"This is a national move that strengthens our hold on the land," said Smotrich, who since taking office has led the expansion of Israeli settlements across the West Bank. REUTERS