Israeli anti-settlement NGO “Peace Now” denounced the creation of a new Jewish settlement in West Bankwhich was announced earlier by the Gus Etzion Regional Council, in the southern part of the Palestinian territory near Bethlehem.
Yaron Rosenthal, chairman of the Gus Etzion Regional Council, a cluster of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, announced this morning the creation of a “new site” near the city of Bethlehem.
“Tonight, we established a new location in Sdemah, near Bethlehem. For two thousand years, the Jews prayed to return to Bethlehem and today we succeeded,” Rosenthal said in a video released by his office.
A spokesman for the regional council confirmed to AFP that three mobile homes have been set up on the site and will be occupied by families as early as this weekend.
“Creating facts on the ground using public funds and undermining Israel’s peace prospects and a two-state solution at the same time knows no bounds,” the NGO “Peace Now” responded in a statement.
In the area of Gus Etzion, there have been several incidents in recent days, such as a Palestinian attack on Tuesday with one dead and three injured, and violent incidents by extremist settlers in a Palestinian village.
These violent incidents occurred after the authorities destroyed an illegal outpost in the same area, according to Israeli law.
Apart from East Jerusalem, which is occupied and annexed by Israel, more than 500,000 Israelis today live in the West Bank in settlements that the UN considers illegal under international law, among about three million Palestinians.