ISRAEL ANNOUNCES NEW ILLEGAL SETTLER HOMES IN OCCUPIED WEST BANK

ISRAEL ANNOUNCES NEW ILLEGAL SETTLER HOMES IN OCCUPIED WEST BANK

Context

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister has ordered the construction of approximately 800 homes for illegal Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank.

Details

• It is a landlocked territory near the Mediterranean coast of Western Asia, bordered by Jordan and the Dead Sea to the east and by Israel to the south, west and north.
• Under Israeli occupation since 1967, the area is split into 167 Palestinian "islands" under partial Palestinian National Authority civil rule, and 230 Israeli settlements into which Israeli law is "pipelined".
• The "West Bank" name was given to the territory after it was captured by Jordan in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War because it sits on the west side of the Jordan River.
• Jordan subsequently annexed the territory in 1950 and held it until 1967 when it was occupied by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War.
• The Oslo Accords, signed between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel, created administrative districts with varying levels of Palestinian autonomy within each area.
• Area C, in which Israel maintained complete civil and security control, accounts for over 60% of the territory of the West Bank.